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*****
In the city of Fuyuki, inside a traditional-style courtyard—
Seventeen-year-old Emiya Shirou stood by the window, gazing at the lifeless red maple tree in the yard. He couldn't help but sigh.
"If only you were an appliance. Then I could use my ability to fix you."
That maple tree had been planted ten years ago by his adoptive father, Emiya Kiritsugu, who had rescued him from a sea of flames.
Sadly, five years ago, after his foster father passed away, the tree inexplicably began to wither.
He tried many methods to save it, but none of them worked.
Until today—what remained was only a bare trunk, the tree completely dead.
After waking up and finishing his morning exercises, he dressed and went to the living room.
"Sorry to bother you, Sakura!"
In the kitchen connected to the living room, a beautiful girl with blue hair and an apron set the final bowl of miso soup on the table. A gentle smile appeared on her face.
"It's no bother at all. I'm helping because I want to."
She was not his sister, nor was she any kind of blood relative. All of his family had died in that great fire ten years ago.
Her name was Matou Sakura, a first-year student at the private Homurabara Academy and the younger sister of his former friend, Matou Shinji.
After falling out with Shinji, Sakura felt guilty that her brother had kicked Shirou out of the archery club, so she often came to help with chores.
She was an incredibly kind and gentle girl.
"Morning, Fuji-nee!"
Once he sat down, Shirou greeted the short-haired woman across from him who was holding a newspaper.
She wasn't related to him either. She was a friend his adoptive father had met after moving here, and after his death, she had become Shirou's guardian.
She was also his English teacher at school.
Since she couldn't cook, she pretty much came over every day to freeload meals. Her personality was completely unrestrained.
"Morning, Shirou."
Fujiwara Taiga—her head still buried in the newspaper—replied casually.
When Shirou took his first bite of breakfast and immediately spit it out, she jumped up triumphantly and burst into loud laughter.
"Well? Fooled you, didn't I? I switched the labels on the sauce and soy sauce this morning to get back at you for yesterday!"
"It's so early in the morning… You're twenty-five—how are you still like this?"
It took Shirou a moment to recover before he pressed his palm to his forehead helplessly.
All this over him accidentally calling her by a nickname yesterday? She really held onto a grudge overnight.
Honestly, the only reason he'd matured so early at his age was thanks to these unreliable adults around him.
Just like that, the three of them noisily joked and argued their way through breakfast as usual, then headed off to school one after another.
Taiga rode off first on her little scooter. After washing the dishes and tidying the kitchen, Sakura and Shirou left together.
But just as the door was closing, Shirou glanced into the yard and suddenly froze.
"What's wrong, senpai?"
Seeing his reaction, Sakura looked at him with concern.
Shirou locked the door and smiled, shaking his head.
"It's nothing. I must've seen wrong."
Just now, he thought he'd seen the dead red maple sway slightly, as if it were alive again.
But he quickly assumed the wind had moved it and his mind had played a trick on him.
However, not long after Shirou and Sakura walked away, the dead maple tree began to revive at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In only a few seconds, it had returned to a lush, thriving state.
And if one looked closely, they would notice that the tree—no more than five meters tall—radiated an enormous life force and magical power.
"Well, this is unexpected. This time I actually became a tree!"
A human face emerged on the trunk of the red maple, speaking in a tone of mild surprise.
Indeed, this was no ordinary tree. It was George—the one who had just activated a new avatar.
"A tree is fine. Even if it were a rock, it'd be the same to me now."
Though surprised that his new avatar was a tree, he didn't care much.
With his current mastery of magic, he could transform any avatar into a human form with shapeshifting.
And the strength boost from this new body wasn't particularly important to him now.
In the past, gaining a human avatar—any ordinary human body—would double his physical capabilities.
But now, the addition of one more human physique was practically negligible.
What mattered to him was the power system of this new world. Its magic would let him study, borrow strengths, and enhance his own spells.
It would also help him further perfect his little world.
Truthfully, having a giant tree avatar early on would be far more useful than a normal human one.
If humans possessed all the abilities of a tree—like photosynthesis—they could just plant themselves in the soil and not worry about food.
And trees tended to live long lives. Even broken branches could regrow by the next year.
"I wonder what kind of world this is. Looks like Japan, but I don't think there's a city actually called Fuyuki."
With a wave of shapeshifting magic, George soon changed from tree form into human form.
He looked around, turning his head thoughtfully. He knew he had once again arrived in a world he didn't recognize.
After so many avatars, he'd noticed certain patterns.
All the worlds he had entered so far came from movies, TV shows, manga, anime, or novels.
And these story worlds generally fell into three categories.
The first category was Western worlds—like the main Marvel universe, Middle-earth, Harry Potter, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Arcane.
He'd been fond of those in his past life, had seen most of them, and understood them well, making them the easiest to handle.
The second category was Japanese story worlds—like A Certain Magical Index's Academy City, Fairy Tail, and Cardcaptor Sakura.
Some of those he'd watched as a kid, others had come out later and he hadn't seen them.
But from the world's environment, major powers, and power systems, he could generally tell they were set in Japan, with fictional place names.
This world seemed to fall into that same pattern.
The third category was domestic Chinese story worlds, of which only the cultivation one had appeared so far.
However, all those worlds shared one common trait—they were definitely not ordinary worlds.
There would always be spellcraft, magic, Taoist arts, or similar powers.
"Since I don't know this world yet, I'll hold off on making any moves and observe first."
Reverting from tree to human, concealing all traces of his aura, George disguised himself as an ordinary person and vaulted over the wall, heading after Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura.
(End of this chapter)