It was almost like a soul-shaking interrogation, leaving Shirou silent.
Xuanzang Sanzang went on, "I can't deny that what you're doing is wrong. Just like I don't hate the Lion King, I feel the same toward Ozymandias."
"What they did was actually the same, 'protect only the people of their own country.'"
"I very much understand both sides' justice, or what others might call evil. That's why I hesitated, unable to make a choice."
"But…"
"Now, I have a wish of my own!"
Xuanzang Sanzang's eyes shone like stars, "As a Servant, I have a dream of my own."
"After meeting you, after meeting them, I came to have a wish."
"Shirou," Xuanzang Sanzang said, "When everything here is over, when this era is at peace, come with me to Chaldea."
Shirou: "!!!"
He was so shocked he couldn't even get out words of refusal.
"I want to be your teacher there, to correct your distortion, to make you learn to cherish yourself. To be Fujimaru Ritsuka's teacher too, to train her."
"To laugh with you, cry with you, look up at the blue sky together; and also, to defeat that guy called the King of Mages, right?"
Xuanzang Sanzang's tone surged with passion, "That is my dream! It's what I truly want to do from the bottom of my heart."
"So I want to fight, together with you all!"
"…"
After hearing Xuanzang Sanzang's words, Shirou set down Fou, faced the sky, and stretched his gaze far away, "Really… each of you says such passionate things. It makes it hard for me to say words of rejection. I'm really not good at dealing with people like you."
"But…"
Shirou lowered his eyes with a faint smile, "There's one thing you got wrong, Caster."
"It's not that I don't have anything of my own. It's not that I don't have a wish from my heart."
"Even if it's a fake, it's fine. Even if the ideals are borrowed, it doesn't matter. Whether twisted or deceptive…"
"At least, what's born from them, the wish that arises, that truly belongs to me."
He raised his hand toward the sky. The pale moonlight slipped through his fingers as the boy made his declaration, "I… will become a Partner of Justice—"
"No, I will definitely become a Partner of Justice."
Under the moonlight, Shirou said, "I'm still a naive kid, so it's fine if I dream a little, right?"
"If it can make you all smile with happiness, then I believe not treasuring this body, living for the sake of others, is not something wrong."
"And let me correct it. I'm not living for 'others.' I simply want everyone to show 'smiles.' For that, I live."
The boy's radiant smile was like a blazing torch burning in the night.
Only, no matter how dazzling a torch, there will always be a moment it goes out.
That was what Xuanzang Sanzang feared. That one day, the boy would burn himself away completely.
"You…"
Silent for a long time, Xuanzang Sanzang couldn't find fitting words to scold him.
In the end, she could only say, "You'll break down!"
"Will I?", Shirou held his chin, thinking seriously, "Since you all keep stressing it so many times, then I'll rest properly. I'll sleep four hours."
With that, he whisked Fou up and dashed off.
Leaving Xuanzang Sanzang speechless.
"Really."
She gave a helpless smile, "I should be glad I was summoned as the me from the 'return journey from India,' right?"
"I actually found a goal more interesting than India."
"All right," She pressed a fist to her palm, full of spirit, "I'll sleep too. When that guy comes back from the Azrael Temple, I'll definitely correct his twisted personality."
"But… doing that might only make the path to becoming a Buddha even farther away, huh?"
Thinking that she might end up targeted by Buddha himself, Xuanzang Sanzang shivered, then gave an awkward laugh:
"It should be fine, right? At this level… Buddha will definitely forgive me."
———
Speaking of resting, Shirou really did rest well.
He slept a full six hours.
When he woke, he was refreshed. Other than Fou by his side, no one else was there.
Stretching out hard, Shirou set out full of confidence.
There were no farewells, since everyone was busy.
"Fou~"
With Fou around, the road wouldn't be too boring.
That said, bringing a small animal along didn't count as breaking the rules, right?
As he thought about it, he kept heading into the deep mountains.
When Hassan of the Cursed Arm entered the room and found no one there, he was dumbfounded.
'Where'd he go?'
'Come on, brother, you knew the way? And you just left so easily.'
'Even if you can't guide, at least point the direction!'
Cursed Arm Hassan was so anxious he looked like he'd lost the will to live.
———
The scene cut back to Shirou.
Just after entering the deep mountains, he realized something serious.
He hadn't eaten breakfast today.
So…
His gaze swept back and forth over the monsters ahead.
Shirou asked, "Fou, which one do you want to eat?"
Fou gave him a question mark?
'Look at my tiny body, how could I eat even one?'
"The one on the right?"
Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands, "Then both the ones on the left are mine."
"Fou!!"
In Fou's panicked cry, Shirou charged toward the monsters.
After eating, he continued forward with Fou.
———
[The Azrael Temple]
It lay deep in the valley beyond the Eastern Village, a place even the mountain folk could not approach.
The so-called Azrael was the Angel of Death, Azrael.
Under Heaven's mandate, he appears to mankind to declare death.
He was also the leader of the generations of mountain elders, the very first Hassan-i-Sabbah.
And he held one exceedingly resounding title: Grand Assassin.
Before Shirou realized it, he had reached a cliff.
Calling it a cliff might be too soft, "precipice" fit better.
A true sheer wall of rock.
Almost no foothold to be found.
Shirou advanced only by driving Kanshou and Bakuya into the rock face to climb.
Fou's four little claws clung tight to the cloth on his shoulder, her whole body bristled.
Couldn't blame her.
This cliff truly wasn't something humans could cross.
The wind howled, sight was limited, movement difficult.
Shirou began to doubt he had taken the wrong way.
Maybe… he should go back and ask Hassan of the Cursed Arm?
"Fou!"
Before Fou even reminded him, Shirou was already in motion.
Drawing the white blade of the twin swords, he cut an arc against the wind in midair.
The flash of the sword split the incoming monster in two, sending it tumbling into the abyss.
Watching the monster fade away, Shirou frowned.
This wasn't the first time he'd been attacked.
In this place where birds had vanished from the mountains, human traces extinguished, even insects unwilling to come—
Monsters still appeared?
More importantly…
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The evening bell rang through the heavens.
It swirled from the sky down to the earth, into the valley, fell into the abyss, and then returned from the abyss.
Like the death-bell tolling its declaration.
Hearing that bell, Shirou instinctively shivered.
He let go of the black blade wedged in the cliff face, touched the back of his neck, feeling as if someone was blowing cold air there.
That's the nice way to put it.
The harsh way: a blade was pressed against his throat.
Only Avalon inside him brought infinite warmth, letting him stay calm.
'Saber, it's really good that I have your Avalon!'
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