The suggestion Shirou made came from Rudeus's childhood experience.
Back then, Rudeus, for some reason, just like Sylphy now, completely refused to talk to anyone outside and locked himself in the attic all day.
Shirou was very worried about Rudeus at that time, afraid that he would stay withdrawn like that and end up as a useless person who couldn't fit into society at all.
But in reality, Rudeus's later actions proved that Shirou's worries were unnecessary.
Shirou even suspected that even without the sudden fire, Rudeus would have been able to break free from his inner darkness and get out of his troubles on his own.
The reason for this wasn't anything else but Rudeus's own skills and talent.
When Rudeus locked himself in the attic and didn't go out at all, he wasn't completely losing hope or giving up on improving himself. On the contrary, he spent almost all his time practicing magic and even achieved a miracle that shocked Shirou: becoming a Saint-level magician at the young age of five.
When a person is completely absorbed in a skill, their inner world and mental world are rich enough. Even if they are completely isolated from the outside world, it won't cause them to become disconnected from the world and lose hope.
On the contrary, when a person spends all their time on one thing and gives up everything else for it, they can often create miracles that ordinary people can't imagine.
There is factual basis for this.
Most of the famous geniuses in history had lonely experiences because only by giving up some social life could they spend all their time improving their abilities.
And this often doesn't weaken their social skills. On the contrary, their unique perspective and rich knowledge are enough to make ordinary people feel the demeanor of a master when they talk to them.
Of course, Shirou didn't want Sylphy to become a super talented expert in some field.
Becoming a super talented expert often requires enough talent to support it, in addition to hard work.
The reason he wanted Sylphy to learn swordsmanship or magic was just to help her gradually understand the meaning of life while training her abilities, to understand that temporary success or failure doesn't matter. Only by constantly insisting on moving forward and ignoring other people's slander and ridicule can she achieve true strength.
And even if Sylphy can't understand this truth, spending time practicing swordsmanship or magic is definitely better than completely shutting herself off like this.
Based on this reason, Shirou quickly found Sylphy and suggested that she watch the fight between him and Rudeus.
"..."
Sylphy undoubtedly resisted Shirou's words and showed little interest.
But Shirou made it clear that he wouldn't let her refuse and almost forcibly brought Sylphy to the yard.
At this moment, Rudeus was already waiting in the yard and had prepared himself. He changed into light clothes, picked up the staff Roxy gave him, and even equipped himself with a practice short sword, fully armed for the battle.
Shirou couldn't help but smile wryly when he saw this. He didn't expect his younger brother to have such a strong desire to win, which made him feel a little pressured and serious.
"Sylphy, don't be afraid, just sit here."
Shirou knew that he couldn't force her any more at this time, so he found a place for the girl to sit in the corner, and he picked up the practice wooden sword and went to the other side of the yard.
Shirou and Rudeus stood facing each other across the empty space. Neither of the brothers made a move immediately, each preparing themselves.
"Are you ready, Rudy?"
Shirou smiled and asked. He was, after all, the older brother and had to yield to his younger brother, giving him the chance to attack first.
"Don't underestimate me, Shirou, I'm going to give you a big surprise today!"
Rudeus said with a smile, his face full of confidence. Obviously, the boy had grown a lot in the two years he had practiced magic under Roxy, not only in magic talent but also in personality, which had become more cheerful than before.
This was enough to show how excellent Roxy's teaching skills were. If it were her, she could easily solve even a problem like Sylphy's.
Shirou shook his head, not wanting to have meaningless thoughts and not wanting to place his hopes on Roxy, who wasn't here.
He slowly raised the long sword in his hand, waiting for Rudeus's attack.
"Bang!"
Almost the next moment he thought this, several water bullets burst out from Rudeus's hands.
This wasn't just simple chantless magic.
The latter even deliberately pretended to be preparing an action to cover up the movement before casting, successfully deceiving Shirou.
"Good kid!"
Shirou didn't think Rudeus's behavior was cunning. That's how battles were, any means or skills could be used, only victory was the only requirement!
Faced with the incoming water bullets, Shirou didn't dodge. He gripped the long sword in his hands and closed his eyes slightly—
"Pa!"
When he opened his eyes again, Shirou had easily split Rudeus's water bullets completely and rushed towards him at an extremely fast speed.
The secret of the Sword God Style is speed.
Shirou's current intermediate Sword God Style not only has a fast sword swing speed, but also a reaction speed far superior to the sword swing action.
Only by making the speed of the sword surpass the limits of thought can one wield a true divine sword.
"So fast..."
Faced with Shirou's actions, Rudeus was startled. It was the first time he had faced Shirou's swordsmanship head-on, and he realized the amazing pressure on his older brother's sword.
No wonder Paul had recently started to gradually reduce the frequency of practicing swordsmanship with Shirou, worried that he would accidentally make a mistake and be defeated by Shirou, which would completely lose face as a father.
Now that Rudeus was already in battle, he naturally wouldn't give up so easily.
In fact, he was still far from the point of giving up!
"Water Wall!"
Rudeus waved his hand to create a barrier of water to block Shirou and started preparing the next high-level magic as soon as possible.
However, he never expected that with a flash of sword light, Shirou would directly split the water wall he created with one sword, easily destroying this intermediate magic!
"It's over!"
Shirou had no intention of holding back. He knew very well that once Rudeus used his Saint-level water magic, he would definitely not be able to withstand it. So, he could only seize every attack opportunity and not give the other party time to prepare Saint-level magic in order to win the battle.
And Rudeus naturally knew that if he wanted to win, he had to delay the time and give himself the opportunity to release Saint-level magic—
"Pa!"
Shirou's long sword suddenly swung down. With the blessing of the Sword God Style, this sword was so fast that it couldn't even be followed by the naked eye, like an amazing moonlight!
Shirou originally planned to stop at the critical moment and stop attacking Rudeus.
"Boom!"
But he didn't expect that Rudeus would throw out a wind magic spell when he was about to be hit, using the force of the wind to make his body move sideways in an unbelievable way!
"Rock Bullet!"
At the same time, Rudeus also released his carefully prepared mixed magic, using earth magic to make a spiral cone-shaped rock bullet and then using wind magic to shoot it out directly!
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Faced with three rock bullets coming at him continuously, Shirou certainly couldn't continuously defend against them from three directions at the same time with just the Sword God Style swordsmanship.
Rudeus was overjoyed when he saw this, feeling that he was bound to win.
But as the saying goes, any setup must have a reversal.
"Trace, on!"
When Rudeus's attack was about to hit Shirou, Shirou actually suddenly created a second long sword in his hand—
"Pfft!"
Shirou wielded two weapons and directly unleashed defensive swordsmanship like a dual-wielding style with indescribable movements!
"Ding,"
"Ding,"
"Ding,"
Rudeus's three rock bullets were easily deflected by Shirou, and the latter didn't hesitate this time, directly throwing a sword in his hand!
"Pa!"
As the crisp sound of the long sword entering the ground rang out.
Cold sweat broke out on Rudeus's forehead.
He could clearly feel that if the battle just now had been a real fight, he would definitely be dead now, his head separated from his body, directly pierced by that sharp blade.
"I lost."
Rudeus said willingly. He had prepared the wind magic and rock bullet as his ultimate moves, thinking he could overcome his strength and prove himself.
But now, the facts had proven that a younger brother is always a younger brother.
There was still no way for him to surpass Shirou.
"No, you've done well enough, Rudy."
Shirou shook his head. Rudeus's strength was far beyond his expectations. He originally just wanted to use the Sword God Style for this match and didn't want to reveal more.
But Rudeus's powerful ability forced him to even use projection magic and Servant Emiya's dual-wielding swordsmanship. He hadn't even used these things when facing Paul and planned to use them in the future at a critical moment to protect others.
This showed how strong Rudeus's talent in magic really was.
Of course, the problem now wasn't who was stronger between him and Rudeus. In fact, Shirou never forced himself to become stronger because he cared about winning or losing.
He was constantly trying his best and becoming stronger in order to protect the people he cared about.
Shirou turned around immediately and looked in Sylphy's direction, wanting to see if she would have any reaction after seeing the wonderful battle of swordsmanship and magic, and hoped that she would be directly interested in swordsmanship or magic.
However, unfortunately, Sylphy didn't seem to be affected by the battle just now, and she was still silently looking down, completely in a withdrawn state.
Shirou sighed helplessly at this, realizing that solving Sylphy's problem still required a long-term plan.
But what Shirou didn't notice was that if he carefully observed Sylphy, he would find a slight light flashing in the girl's eyes. In those originally dull eyes, a wave called emotion was being created again...
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