An adventurer.
For Fujimaru Shirou, it was a dream that bordered on fantasy. The silhouette he had seen as a child and the stories he had read in books continued to echo in his imagination. A vast, borderless world filled with endless challenges and discoveries... just thinking about it made his heart race. He knew it might be an empty wish, but he couldn't stop himself from yearning for it.
Now that an opportunity had presented itself, he naturally reached out for it with both hands. He wanted to be like the hero from ten years ago, traveling through different lands and exploring different worlds.
"..."
The other Shirou,the Archer of the Miyu-verse,stared at him in silence, his mouth opening as if to speak only to snap shut a moment later. Perhaps this was what he would have become if he hadn't been forced to endure so much suffering. This version of himself was naive enough to hold onto dreams and explore things that left no trace in reality. The Archer, on the other hand, was content to struggle just to protect the few things he could still see.
'I wonder how Miyu is doing in her new world...'
He glanced up at the vibrant blue sky, a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes. Even though her power as a Child of God was gone, he was certain she would find a way to live a safe and happy life.
"Oh? So the White Faction really is here in this town?"
A cheerful voice broke the silence, drawing their attention to the intersection. A well-built man and a young girl in casual clothes were watching them from across the street.
"And they're just strolling down the sidewalk as if they don't have a care in the world."
"Wait, what is going on with those two? Why do they have the exact same face?"
Mordred blinked, completely caught off guard. She stared at the two youths, her brain momentarily stalling as she tried to make sense of the identical features.
"Homunculi? No, that doesn't feel right."
"One is a Master and the other is a Servant..."
"Is such a ridiculous thing even possible?"
Sisigou, possessing much more experience, was the first to realize the truth. He knew that Heroic Spirits were legendary figures, but he had never heard of a case where a man summoned his own older self. It meant the boy standing before him was an opponent who possessed the potential to become something truly formidable.
"Hmm?"
Fujimaru and the Archer were equally wary, but they also felt a strange sense of familiarity when they looked at Mordred's face.
"The Red Faction's Master and Servant?"
The memory of where they had seen her before was right on the tip of their tongues, but they couldn't quite grasp it.
"We can figure that out later! I have a very important question for you two first!"
Despite her casual clothes, Mordred's combat-ready attitude was impossible to miss.
"Good grief. You handle the Servant, and I'll take care of the Master."
Sisigou didn't waste any time. He tossed a processed "severed hand" toward the center of the street, activating a bounded field that would drive away bystanders and prevent magical energy from leaking out into the city. As a professional magus, he was meticulous about following the rules of concealment.
"They aren't here for a friendly chat..."
"You ready?"
The Archer summoned [Kanshou] and [Bakuya] into his hands, casting a final glance at Fujimaru.
"Don't worry about me."
"I've spent the better part of the last few years preparing for a fight like this."
Fujimaru began to channel his own mana, and a single sword manifested in his grip. The Archer watched him with a sense of relief. The boy's control over projection was far deeper than he had anticipated. It seemed he had spent a significant amount of time refining his craft.
"Even if it's just a hollow shell..."
"I've studied the original owner's experience more times than I can count!"
Fujimaru set his shopping bags down on the sidewalk, his voice filled with a hard-won confidence. It wasn't an empty boast. While he didn't know why his projection magic was so different from other magi, he had dedicated himself to mastering it. Between the tutelage of Lord El-Melloi II at the Clock Tower and the practical lessons from Artoria, his combat skills were far greater than his appearance suggested.
***
"Hmm?"
Muramasa paused in the center of his workshop, his brow furrowing as he set his tools aside. He picked up the [Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi] and headed for the door.
"Was it just my imagination?"
He wasn't feeling the resonance of Fujimaru's battle. Instead, he had caught a whiff of a familiar presence,someone he had encountered in the past. It lacked the wild, violent edges of the person he remembered, which was why he couldn't be entirely sure of the identity.
"I'd better go and see for myself."
He didn't know exactly what was happening, but he knew something was wrong. With that thought in mind, he stepped out of the workshop and into the street. On the roof of the adjacent building, Red Archer was looking out over the city, seemingly indifferent to Muramasa's departure.
"More enemies are closing in?"
He wasn't worried about the two Shirous handling themselves. The real problem was the "mechanical object" he could see flying toward them from across the skyline.
A homunculus?
The technology of this era shouldn't be advanced enough to produce something of that caliber. That meant it was almost certainly a Servant. Whether it belonged to the Red or Black faction remained to be seen.
***
"Wait, was that magical surge just my imagination?"
Rin, Illya, and Artoria were walking down a main thoroughfare when Rin stopped, her expression wary.
"It came from Shirou's direction."
"It seems they've encountered an enemy."
"A bounded field was just deployed."
Artoria could feel the magic at work, a technique designed to isolate a battlefield and prevent any spillover from being noticed by ordinary people.
"I thought as much... Is that truly the legendary King of Knights?"
"But isn't this joke going a bit too far?"
Before they could move to support the others, a polite voice from the head of the nearby bridge stopped them in their tracks. A man in priest's vestments stood there, watching them with a calm, measured smile.
"An enemy?!"
Rin immediately pulled Illya behind her, her mana surging as she prepared to defend her sister. Artoria drew her holy sword from its sheath of wind, her gaze fixed on the intruder. She wasn't surprised that her identity had been discovered. Her sword and scabbard had both been seen during the previous night's skirmish. Any Master or Servant who had been paying attention would have guessed who she was by now.
"Having a physical body while occupying the Saber class... all while acting as a Master."
"I have to wonder how you managed to pull off such a feat."
Amakusa's gaze shifted between the three of them, but his focus was primarily on Artoria. Even as a former [Ruler], he had never seen anything so bizarre. He could understand the concept of a Servant possessing a host, but for a Servant to act as a Master was theoretically impossible. The foundation of the Holy Grail War was the summoning of a Servant by a Master, not the other way around.
'Could it be the Counter Force?'
He considered the possibility that [Gaia & Alaya] were involved, but he quickly dismissed it. If the Counter Force had intervened, there would be no need for such a complicated arrangement.
"I didn't expect to run into you in a place like this."
"Are you the one responsible for the recent anomalies?"
"Sorcerer... no, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada!"
Amakusa froze at the sound of the voice coming from behind him. He slowly turned to find a Servant standing there, studying him with a complicated, knowing gaze.
"Have... have we met before?"
Amakusa was genuinely stunned. He was usually the one revealing others' secrets, but this stranger had just called him out by his full name without a second thought.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]