Chapter 414: Whoever Finds Him, Keeps Him
Although the world appeared prosperous and flourishing, some things, once lost, never return. When Shirou made his choice, he was destined to bear the consequences.
Everything returned to its original state. Within the nodes of the past, Emiya Shirou's existence would evolve along different paths based on his repeated choices, achieving his own specific results in various parallel worlds.
In the town of Fuyuki, a small boy was rescued from a fire. In a hospital, a black-haired man arrived at the bedside of a red-haired boy and reached out to extend an invitation. On a junior high school track, a boy challenged the high jump bar over and over again. The bar was knocked down time after time until, in the end, he failed. He could only dutifully pack up the sports equipment and walk out of the school gate to go home. He did not know that behind him, two girls were watching him quietly, observing his clumsy efforts all the way to the end.
After participating in the Holy Grail War, he realized his own shortcomings, went to the Clock Tower for advanced studies, and upon graduation, began traveling the world as a volunteer for an international organization. Wherever he was needed, he went... In one mission, a man whose skin had turned black and hair lost its color due to overuse of mana encountered a saint-like woman...
They would continue to live their lives, continuing their destinies. Be it a cruel life, a regretful past, or even a cursed, collapsing end-of-the-road—people could only accept it; after all, these were choices they had made themselves.
All parallel worlds returned to their original state, moving at the pace they held before they were altered. Yet, there were a few worlds that suddenly felt as though something was missing. The Hikigaya family still did not know what had happened to their son. And then there were Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou...
Except for Artoria, like Shirou, these two girls were existences who had lived a second life under the god's subconsciousness. In nature, they were no different from the sacrificed Shirou—they were existences the god hoped would find happiness. But now that the god had disintegrated, the two girls had become lonely relics.
They had come as four, but now only three remained. The joy of a hard-won reunion, the long-prayed-for desires in their hearts—they had only just begun to experience a sliver of such happiness, and now they had lost it once again. The girls felt nothing but emptiness.
Rin Tohsaka punched a tree nearby, saying painfully: "Damn it, we clearly decided to fight alongside that boy and then go home together. Idiot! Bastard! Idiot!"
"Rin, don't say that! Shirou fought by his own convictions; even in my era, he was a knight worthy of respect," Artoria said, looking at the black-haired girl with a serious expression.
Although Artoria had awakened from her slumber in Avalon, the bond between her and Shirou had been realized under the guidance of the Holy Grail before she made her choice. No
matter what choice she made, Shirou was her most important partner. It was precisely because of Shirou that she was able to let go of her obsession with England and take a step forward. Her sorrow over Shirou's disappearance was no less than that of the two girls. However, as a knight, she could better understand why Shirou would do what he did, even at the cost of his own life. Though she felt sad, she was willing to support the choice Shirou made for his beliefs.
"What is it! I'm just angry at myself!" Rin Tohsaka let her hands drop, hanging limply in front of her, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"No, the fault is mine. I clearly came here as a savior, but I still let things turn out like this. Truthfully, it is my fault," Artoria said, hanging her head as well.
"That's not it! I'm the one who didn't contribute anything," Sakura said.
"Sakura tried hard too; without you, it would have been impossible to defeat that white god," Rin corrected herself.
"That's right, Shirou would definitely think so too," Artoria quickly chimed in.
"Even so, saying these things now is meaningless..." Sakura hung her head, dejected.
[Girls, stop arguing.] A colorful radiance appeared in the sky, and a diamond-shaped crystal manifested out of thin air.
"Counter Force? Why are you appearing here!?" Rin Tohsaka looked vigilantly at the variegated crystal that had suddenly appeared in the space. As someone aspiring to reach the Root and become a Magus, the Counter Force was her greatest enemy.
"Rin, don't be hasty, listen to what it has to say!" Artoria placed her hand on the girl's shoulder to calm her down.
[The Shirou you seek has not disappeared, but was pulled into a black hole. In the final moment, the energy he released restored everything to its original state. Emiya Shirou did indeed give up being a god in the end. No one valued humanity more than he did, so he disappeared from this world as a human. The power of creation was used for the purpose of restoring human life to its original state.] Alaya transmitted the message into the trio's minds.
"What! Shirou! He's still alive!" "That guy really isn't so easy to kill!" "Senpai! Senpai hasn't disappeared?"
"Then where is he!?" The three girls, startled and overjoyed, looked up at the crystal Alaya had become and asked anxiously.
Alaya spoke unhurriedly: [He did not follow my pre-set plan and chose self-destruction. To tell the truth, as one who has taken human form, I was indeed shocked. But what cannot be erased is his contribution to the collective humanity. This time it was not five hundred, or
thousands or tens of thousands, but countless worlds. However, under his choice, all of this returned to the starting point. His choices were erased to zero, and even the Earth does not record his actions. But as the Counter Force for humanity's side, I still hope to let him continue to be a guardian of humanity.
[While that boy was still alive, he undertook certain movements. Although it was not his original intention, his subconscious also regarded himself as a member of the original world. Therefore, when all that energy erupted, although he was pulled into the black hole, the power of creation still created a body for him that could obtain a new life. His physical body will drift in the universe, waiting for people to save him.]
"The universe? That... in such an environment, will Senpai be okay?" Sakura asked worriedly.
[Do not worry. His body is currently in a temporary seal. As long as his body senses changes in the external world and perceives that he is in a place where he can safely awaken, I believe it won't take long before he wakes up on his own. Go search for him!] Alaya said.
If it weren't for the prerequisite that Shirou needed to feel safe, Alaya herself would have wanted to search for him. As the Counter Force, she clearly did not have that qualification. But mobilizing humanity to wake Shirou up quickly was something she also hoped to facilitate.
"Ahahaha~! Right~! I remember that before I came here, I added hot water to instant noodles in my room and didn't have time to eat them. If I don't go back, the noodles will soak and won't taste good. So I'll be off first~! Sakura, Rin, let's play again later~!" Artoria said in an exaggerated, drawn-out tone to the girls.
"Saber, you brat! You're really completely different from the knight lady you once were; you've definitely learned some bad habits!"
"I am, of course, myself—it's just that no matter what I do, I will strive to get first place! I'm going to find Shirou now, goodbye!" Artoria jumped onto her rocket ship, pressed the switch, and prepared to blast toward the sky, where the machine completed a spatial teleportation.
"Stand still! Don't you try to run!" Rin Tohsaka rolled up her sleeves, grabbing the Gem Sword in her hand, ready to use the Second Magic to chase her!
"Sister! Take me with you!" Sakura grabbed her sister's hand and looked directly at her.
Rin Tohsaka, caught and stiffened, turned back helplessly and said: "Sakura... your hand! The strength in your hand is too much, it hurts!"
"Ah, sorry, Sister, I was too rash." Sakura smiled apologetically, apologizing to Rin repeatedly.
"Then you should let go first!" Rin said, going mad.
]
However, Sakura maintained her smile, revealing a gentle expression, yet the strength in her hand did not diminish in the slightest; it seemed she would not let go until she reached her goal.
"Sister, I have already decided this time—it is not I who will wait for Senpai to return, but I who will go find him. So, no matter what method I have to use, I am going to find him." Sakura's eyes shone with incomparably firm light as she said this sincerely.
Rin Tohsaka admitted defeat: "I got it, I'll take you with me to find him, is that enough!"
"Mm, Sister, I'll leave it to you." Sakura gladly let go of her hand, smiling.
Rin Tohsaka pulled her hand back, looking at the arm that had been exercised since childhood, now marked with a purple bruise from being grabbed. With lingering fear, she said: "Sakura, sometimes you really are a bit terrifying..."
Since they knew Shirou had been teleported out with the consciousness to survive, the black hole certainly wouldn't be too far from Earth. Rin Tohsaka and Sakura prepared to search the area around Earth.
Meanwhile, at Chaldea, they had also received notice from Alaya and had obtained corresponding information through various devices combining magecraft and science.
"Eh? Shirou-senpai was teleported into space?! And he's in a coma? If no one goes over, he won't be able to wake up? Eh eh eh?" Mash, usually composed, screamed out loud.
"That's how it is; it's quite a predicament. He is still in a human body now, but I still hope he can come to work at Chaldea in the future. But if we rush to save him, I have a feeling we'll get dragged into strange events. Still... since we know his whereabouts, it wouldn't be right to just stand by and do nothing," Da Vinci said, resting her chin on her hand, looking very troubled.
"What do we do? What do we do!" Gudako waved her hands and feet in a panic, jumping up and down.
The gathered Servants, who had been eavesdropping, turned to look in that direction. When Mash noticed them, they all quickly looked away.
"Ah~ the weather is nice today, I've had enough sleep, and it's time for this cat to go hunting, woof." Tamamo Cat said with a spirited smile, taking out a wooden stick with a cloth bundle tied to it. She then arched her back and disappeared like a gust of wind. But her way of walking—leaning over, tiptoeing, without a sound—was exactly like a house cat trying to sneak out of the house to meet a stray cat.
"Ah, right, I think I received an invitation to attend a Halloween dance party." Medusa looked left and right, discovered her sisters weren't around, and quickly slipped away. As long as she teleported out and summoned Pegasus, she was confident she could find the boy, no matter how vast the heavens and earth were.
"I can't do anything with you, Illya. If you're afraid to go to the toilet outside, let your sister take you," the brown-skinned girl, wearing a red, midriff-baring tight suit with upturned eyes that were inexplicably lewd, said with a mischievous smile.
"Wait! Chloe! I'm the older sister, right! Also—" the pink-haired magical girl on the other side raised her small fist to refute, but her feet were already taking small, rapid steps toward the outside.
"Guda-senpai, I, Mash, will not waver," the pink-haired bespectacled girl quickly turned back to promise. "Eh? Senpai? What is that outfit?"
But when Mash turned back, she saw Gudako had changed into an outfit out of nowhere: wearing a straw hat on her head, holding a butterfly net in her hand, and looking eager and full of fighting spirit.
Seeing Mash still standing there in a daze, Gudako urged her quickly: "What are you dawdling for! Mash! Spring is here! It's time to capture the prey. The future happiness of everyone in Chaldea depends on us!"
Because the world had been repaired, Chaldea had also fully recovered by this time, and the Servants who had previously disappeared were being summoned back one after another.
"Oh ho, the Master is going to do something interesting again. I wonder if it will be like the Prince kissing Snow White awake, or a suicide pact like Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare said, stroking his little mustache, full of curiosity.
"Don't ask me. Applying fairy tales to reality, don't you think that's incredibly stupid! A stupid woman who gets harmed time and time again and eats things given by others—why would so many people yearn for her?" the blue-haired little boy on the side said with a sharp tongue.
"If it's a kiss! Daddy will not allow it!!!" A gentleman with a mustache ran out and said.
BANG! The gentleman was slammed against the wall by a tall shadow. It was Minamoto no Raikou, radiating arcs of lightning, rushing toward the teleportation device!
"Shirou! Mother is coming to find you right away~! This time we will never be separated again!" The tall woman yelled, relying on her extraordinary strength to squeeze into the teleportation device's cabin.
At this moment, the long-horned girl observing from the rear blinked her eyes and said with a smile: "It seems that I also need to get involved. After all, he is Komachi's big brother, and also quite a good drinking buddy."
"When it comes to running and tracking, I have some experience," said the blue-clad girl with animal ears.
Party after party joined the team searching for Shirou. For some unknown reason, rumors spread, and the message about helping to find Shirou gradually turned into a game rule of "whoever finds him first, keeps him."
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