Thankfully the Dursley's weren't all the surprised about Saber, having already been told about her by Dumbledor. They weren't happy about here, but they had expected that they didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
In the end, it was decided upon that Harry and Saber would avoid the others for the summer, with the only chore Harry doing was the cooking. Harry didn't mind, he enjoyed cooking, it was simply something he found fun.
Once they had finished speaking with Harry's family they ended up going to his room, where they finally got some proper introductions done.
She was Shinsengumi's first unit's captain, Okita Souji. The Shinsengumi was like a police force from what Harry could understand. He had been a little surprised that he had summoned a Japanese hero when he was in Britain, but he didn't mind. She also had some pretty good stats from his point of view, with her having B rank Strenth, D rank Endurance, E rank Mana, D rank Luck, C rank Noble Phantasm, and a ridiculous A++ rank Agility.
Of course, he was interested in her Noble Phantasm after he was told what a Noble Phantasm was, only to find out that she had two. The first was her Haori, the Coat of Oaths, which when activated would boost all of her stats. The other was a flag with a Japanese kanji on it, it was the Flag of Sincerity, which would summon a number of the Shinsengumi to fight at her side.
Of course, the discussion about the Noble Phantasms eventually leads to the two of them talking about the upcoming war.
"The Holy Grail War is a competition that decides the ownership of the Holy Grail through an intense battle royale. Magi such as yourself summon Servants, who are Heroic Spirits such as myself that are bound as familiars. As a Master in the war, it is expected for us to go to Fuyuki city in japan to participate in the war, which I think supposed to happen sometime October."
Harry looked at the calendar on his wall, marking it as still being mid-June in 2004. There was still a couple of months, but... "I'll be at school."
She shrugged, before continuing. "We'll figure that out. Anyways, the winner of the war will get the Grail to grant them their wish."
"Whats yours?" He watched as she got a smile on her face when he asked.
"To be able to fight to the bitter end."
"Huh. That's basically what I was thinking when I summoned you." Harry leaned back, thinking of what he wanted. He remembered when he found the Mirror of Erised back at Christmas. One would think that he saw something like his parents, but he hadn't. It had been something that he had noticed, how everyone thought his parents would be incredibly important to him, but while he did hope they would be proud of him it didn't drive him.
He had been so confused when he saw himself in the mirror with that knife, with no scar on his head. It was why he kept coming back, trying to puzzle out what the hell it was and why he saw it.
He smiled, he had finally figured out what his heart's desire was.
"Yeah, that's my wish as well."
Harry looked at the smile the seemed to glow on Sabers face after his request. He had been a bit worried that she would say no, but he was quite glad to see that he was wrong.
"Really? I'm not going to lie and tell you it's going to be easy. Swordsmanship isn't easy to master."
Harry had a grin on his face, here cheer could be infectious. "Yeah, I'm not afraid to put some work into learning how to fight."
So the two of them got to work, looking for the things that they would need for him to start to learn. Harry had managed to get on Dudley's computer while the other boy was out with his friends, using the computer he had managed to find a place that had some wasters on sale. He figured that he would drop by the place in a week or two, giving him some time to get through some of the other exercises that Saber had set for him. Unfortanently they didn't have any nearby dojo or anything like that, so they searched the forest that was on the border of town. After a couple of days, they found a small clearing that they had decided they would use once they got the practice blades.
Harry found that while he did do exercises for quidditch, he simply wasn't in the shape he would need to be for learning swordsmanship from Saber. The simple fact is that since quidditch was up in the air, it didn't actually do a hell of a lot to keep the body in shape. He had heard from people talking about quidditch players being in good shape, but he was really doubting that anyone stayed in actual good shape while playing the game.
It was a few days after they started to look for a place to train that Harry saw Percy, though at first, Harry didn't actually recognize the older boy. Gone was the robes that wizard as a whole wore, unlike every other wizard that Harry had seen Percy actually was passable in the muggle world. He was wearing a set of black trousers that meet up with a white button up shirt that was covered by a black vest and red long coat, both the coat and vest having a golden trim. Along with his arms, he had a pair of vambracers on his arms, and along with his legs, there were armored boots. He smiled at Harry when he opened the door.
"Good to see you Harry, mind if I come in? I'm still setting up a place nearby for us to practice since my workshop is quite a ways from here."
Harry grinned and lead him in. "So, what are we going to be doing today?"
"I'm going to be checking how many circuits that you have and making sure that they are all active. Once that's done with I'll go into some explanations on the difference between wizard magic and Magecraft, and some things that you're going to need to know as someone who can use both."
When the two of them entered the basement, where they would be practicing until Percy found a better more private place that they could use to not interact with the Dursleys, Percy started to set up the required things to open harry's circuits. While he set everything up he started to give a lecture.
"Raw Magical Energy is divided into two types: Mana, which wizards use, and Od, which Magi use. Mana is the life force of the planet and exists in the atmosphere. It is produced by the world itself. Though Mana is usually found in great quantities, it takes a long time to replenish once it is used up. Other than wizards it is the primary source of energy for Nature Spirits.
Od, on the other hand, is the energy found within living organisms such as humans and animals. Once depleted, the Magic Circuits that are stored in the human soul will begin to replenish it. Od is produced as long as one lives, but the amount a person can store varies from individual to individual.
The difference between Mana and Od is their abundance. Mana can be found almost anywhere and in great quantities, thus it is called the Greater Source by the magi. As Od is the energy inside humans and animals, it is much smaller in amount and is called the Lesser Source. Strictly speaking, Mana and Od are energy in its raw state, whereas Prana is the name given to the energy once it is converted by the Magic Circuits. Mana can be taken in accordingly with the capacities of the Magic Circuits, but the actual conversion process will take time for normal Magi. As Wizard-Magi we can convert Mana into prana faster than purely Magi can."
"Why can we convert mana faster?"
"Good question, one thing you have to understand is that Wizards are more like nature spirits then magi, as rather than converting od into prana with magic circuits, we have magical cores that absorb mana from the area around use and store in into this magical reserve. Instead of then converting it into prana, we use the mana itself and use the magical energy of the world. This is something that many magi are envious of, and why so many say we waste potential. You see when we use magecraft, we are defying gaia by imposing our own rules onto the world, whereas wizards are using the world's own rules.
Now, that doesn't mean that you are able to simply skip the conversion of mana or od into prana, simply that you can convert mana faster than most. So other than having a second easy to reach source of raw magical energy you will still have to follow all of the rules of magecraft."
The boy finished with what he was doing and soon positioned Harry where he was needed to be, before double checking everything. Once that was finished Percy got back into place, and started to get to work on opening Harry's circuits.
Harry could feel Percy's prana reaching out to him. It was an odd experience, though he went to meet it. He tried to push his own prana out to meet Percy, an image of a red jewel spinning flashing in his mind. He felt his prana pouring out of him, with Percy arcing around his and pulling it out, pulling his circuits open. It was...
Painful, like molten metal was pouring down his nerves and burning his insides. It was agonizing, with nothing he had ever felt before, nothing could compare. Opening his eyes he could see his circuits from where his prana was pushing through him on his skin, the light shining through his clothes.
With a sigh of relief, he let the energy fade. Looking up Harry could see that Percy had a small grin on his face before he started to speak.
"The average magi has around twenty circuits, yet you somehow have managed to get yourself thirty-eight high-quality circuits." He looked at Harry, gazing at him with a calculating look. "unfortunantely I didn't get some of the stuff together for us to be able to check your element. I want to wait for a little before then, as we don't know how the whole thing with your cursed scar could effect such a thing. I'm hoping that it's not something to worry about, but it's better to be cautious. Anyways, now that I brought up elements it would be good to actually explain that.
Elements play an important role in Thaumaturgical Theory. The classification of the Elements changes depending on Thaumaturgical teaching. For example, a school classifies the Elements into five groups of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Void while another school classifies them into other five groups of Water, Fire, Earth, Wood and Metal. The set of Elements that, according to the teachings of Magecraft schools, are the basic substances that shape the world.
A Magus normally has the capacity to manipulate at least one of the Elements. However, there are cases of those who can manipulate Elements that are completely different from any of the ones I just specified. Within the Mage's Association, individuals like these tend to either very selective houses or not be part of the Association at all. Cases of a magus who possesses more than one Elemental Affinity, and even affinity to Compound Elements, are also known. Usually said individuals try to master spells that make use of more than one Element at the same time for example: "liquid manipulation" through the use of Water and Wind Elements. Those capable of manipulating all the five Elements receive the title of Average One and are very valued by the Mage's Association. Methods to change one's Elemental Affinity exist, but they are very painful and dangerous. I personally have the element of lightning."
Percy went from their into another lecture about magecraft, explaining how he would end up checking Harry's element and what he ended up doing to open up Harry's other circuits. Part way through Saber had returned from clearing out the small field that they had found.