"Wait a second! Japan… so all this time, we were speaking Japanese?!"
Only now did Yuuki Sato realize something bizarre: he had been communicating fluently with a Japanese child for over half an hour, despite not knowing a word of the language, and there was no way this elementary school-aged kid knew his former langauge.
In other words, some kind of strange force had automatically translated everything he said into Japanese.
It was so seamless, so subtle, that he wouldn't have even noticed if he hadn't asked where they were.
"Could this be an ability of the Ajin? Or is it something granted by that Wrathflame…?"
He pondered, confused. His understanding of Ajin was extremely limited. In his original world, all concrete information about Ajin was classified in every country. As far as the public knew, the only defining trait was that they couldn't die, everything else was a mystery.
But of course, his original world no longer existed.
And the lack of information was frustrating. He didn't even know what powers he had now.
Logically speaking, though, Ajin shouldn't have something as convenient as automatic language translation. That seemed way beyond the scope of "can't die."
But demons… that was a different story.
Those alien fleets and demonic invaders clearly hadn't come from space, they had come from another world entirely. And if they were used to crossing between dimensions with different languages and cultures, being able to understand local speech would be necessary for conquest.
From that angle, maybe the demon that stabbed him had this ability, and the Wrathflame inherited it… and then passed it onto him.
"Yeah… that actually makes a lot of sense…"
What Yuuki didn't know, however, was that the Wrathflame had done far more than just let him understand language.
If it weren't for the Wrathflame's unique "entropy-reversal" property, one of the hidden traits of the Light of the Soul, he would never have survived the void between worlds. The flame that constantly burned and tortured him… had quite literally saved his life.
"Also… there's all that other stuff in my head. Holy Grail, Heroic Spirits, some kind of wish-granting machine… doesn't seem related to the Wrathflame. Maybe it's something about this world?"
He had a growing suspicion: that when he returned from death, he had been dragged into something huge.
But that would have to wait.
Right now, Yuuki had a much more pressing problem:
What should he do about this boy, the sole survivor of a family massacre?
Killing him? Out of the question.
Yuuki had been an honor student for the first sixteen years of his life. He'd never even killed a chicken, let alone a human. Yes, he had sworn vengeance and accepted the fact that his hands would be bloodied in the future, but murdering the innocent? That crossed a line he would never violate.
Especially not this boy, someone who had just lost everything, much like Yuuki himself.
They were kindred spirits.
Calling the police?
That would definitely help the boy. Even if his family was gone, the government would likely send him to an orphanage or find him a foster family. He wouldn't starve on the streets.
But Yuuki? He'd be screwed.
He wasn't Japanese. Hell, he didn't even belong to this world. As far as this country was concerned, he was a complete ghost, a foreigner with no ID, found at the scene of a ritualistic family massacre.
And the real killer? Already dead. Burned to ashes, no, not even ashes remained.
Who else could they suspect but him?
He couldn't count on the boy's testimony. Even if the child told the absolute truth, no one would believe a story involving demon summoning and black flames.
People would chalk it up to trauma-induced delusion. No sane adult would believe it.
And Yuuki couldn't even run to his nation's embassy, his "nation" didn't exist here.
If the authorities found out about his immortality… he could forget about jail. He'd be dissected in some lab as a test subject.
And that wasn't even the worst-case scenario.
There were two far more terrifying factions in this world, ones that made dissection sound merciful by comparison.
So, should he take the boy with him?
Also impossible.
He had appeared in this world naked, with nothing. Surviving on his own was hard enough. Dragging a child along would only get them both killed.
Which left him with only one option:
Call the police, indirectly.
He knelt and looked the boy in the eyes.
"Hey, kid… do you know any of the neighbors nearby?"
The boy nodded.
"Good. Once I leave, I want you to run to one of them and tell them what happened. Ask them to call the police. Got it?"
"…Got it…"
The boy replied in a whisper, lips trembling.
"Good boy."
Yuuki ruffled his hair and smiled gently.
Then, he began preparing to disappear.
He found a map of Fuyuki City in the study, took some bills from the homeowner's wallet, and grabbed a hooded coat from the closet. Once dressed, he quietly left the house.
From a corner down the street, he waited.
Sure enough, the boy ran to a neighbor's home after Yuuki left. Moments later, the adults inside called the police.
Only then did Yuuki pull his hood tight and slip away.
Thankfully, it was 1994. Security cameras weren't everywhere yet. Unlike 21st-century criminals, he didn't have to worry about facial recognition or CCTV footage.
As long as he stayed off the beaten path and avoided crowds, he'd remain invisible.
On his way out of the city, he stopped only once, at a 24-hour convenience store to buy food and water. Then he made for the forest on Fuyuki City's outskirts.
It wasn't just to avoid police. He also needed space and solitude to evaluate his current condition.
He still remembered what the boy said: that before Yuuki was reborn, a demon wreathed in black fire had emerged from the summoning circle.
That black fire had to be his Wrathflame.
But the demon?
"Could that be some kind of transformation ability? Or maybe something like a Stand from JoJo?"
He had no idea.
But one thing was certain, testing it in the city would be a disaster.
And there was something else…
The knowledge in his head about Heroic Spirits and a Holy Grail War.
He wasn't sure if that Holy Grail had anything to do with Christianity… or what Norse mythology had to do with Heroic Spirits. But one word made everything clear:
"War."
This city, Fuyuki, was not as peaceful as it looked.
Until he understood his powers and could defend himself, Yuuki decided it was best to lay low.
…
But just as he neared the forests in Fuyuki's southwest, a sudden burst of light exploded in the distance, emanating from a Western-style mansion nearby.
Streaks like falling stars lit up the sky, followed by distant booms.
Yuuki's instincts screamed.
"Danger. Don't go there."
His entire body tensed. That light, he could feel it, was the kind of power that could obliterate him dozens of times over.
"That must be… the Holy Grail War."
Though he didn't know how, Yuuki could tell those lights weren't ordinary. They pulsed with a force far beyond human.
Not an army. Not a military.
Supernatural individuals clashing with powers that could level buildings.
"Heroic Spirits… could they really be actual mythological beings?"
He muttered, shivering as the weight of that possibility sank in.
If legends walked the earth in this world, then maybe, just maybe, there was a way to truly kill an Ajin like him.
That thought sealed his resolve.
He would stay hidden. He would survive.
Until he fully understood his situation and gained the strength to defend himself… he would not show his face.
And so, he turned his back on the blinding lights and vanished into the forest.
…
"Insects should die like insects, groveling, heads bowed, broken beneath a king's feet."
The man clad in golden armor stood tall, gazing down at the mutilated corpse of Assassin, slain by his Gate of Babylon.
He had only acted because Tokiomi Tohsaka had asked him to, wanting to "demonstrate the power of the King's Treasury to those who dare covet it."
How dull.
Even as the mightiest trump card summoned in this Holy Grail War, they still plotted behind his back. Intrigue. Schemes.
Disgusting.
Pathetic.
Boring.
Just like Tokiomi himself, a mongrel with no flavor.
Still…
That disciple of his… Kirei Kotomine…
Now he was interesting.
If that man ever awakened to his true self… then this war might finally become something worth watching.
With a smirk, the golden king turned away. His form dissolved into glittering golden light and faded into the night.