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FICTION

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Chapter 21: Hugs, Cross-Dimensional Issues and Worm

Once I was done dealing with Sakura, I found myself facing the final issue for the day.

I was tired, incredibly so, and for good reasons too.

After dealing with the multiple shenanigans that I was subjected to, part of me would have wanted to just skip this situation to the next day… and yet I had to work onto it now that I could.

While Erika had been quiet, 'well-behaved', after reverting Sakura to her human self, I wasn't sure for how long her patience would have kept her stuck in her new room.

And to be immensely fair to the world, I didn't want to wake up with some crazy blonde staring insanely at me- probably to kill me in the most brutal way possible.

I didn't have any major plans for what was going to happen once I vaulted inside that area of the castle, yet I entered that silent room with some minor idea of what I was supposed to gain from this difficult endeavor.

I was frightened. Undoubtably so.

But I wasn't going to just let this odd and confusing situation come to persist without getting some rightful answers over this topic.

Erika was sitting on her bed, seemingly boring herself with some book about fairy tales.

The blonde was humming quietly, with gusto even as she carefully turned the pages in a somewhat moderate pacing.

The moment I closed the door behind myself, the girl tensed a little as the noise created from the action finally took her attention away from her reading and right onto me.

Bright blue eyes, sporting such an unwavering glint of curiosity and mirthfulness, were narrowed in unquestionable delight at my appearance.

She eased up as quickly as she had mustered her guarded self, a pretty face suddenly painting her face colorfully as she greeted me.

"Oh, hello Shinji."

Simple, innocent and… hinting to some giddiness over the recent developments.

I sighed.

"Hello Pandora," I greeted back, my smile lesser in its intensity compared to the girl's.

She blinked as I took a few steps toward the bed.

"I see that you are enjoying your time here," I pressed onward with an inquisitive tone. "Is there perhaps something that you wish to have at the moment? A glass of milk, maybe some cookies?"

Her sight glowed brightly at the mentioning of the delicious snacks, but her lips parted to reveal just a light pout.

"But it's a little late, isn't it?" Pandora asked with some surprise. "I mean, are you trying to trick me and prank me?"

…

"No."

She smiled once more.

"I actually know that," The girl almost giggled in response. "I know that it's still early enough to drink some milk… but then I would have to deal with an upset tummy for dinnertime."

I raised a fascinated eyebrow. "Truly? Is it some allergy that causes this or-"

She giggled happily, interrupting me. "Maybe~."

Silence resumed shortly after, lasting for a little less than a minute before the blonde actually rekindled the conversation with a hum.

"Aren't you going to ask me about what I did to Sakura-nee?" Pandora questioned with interest dripping from her words. "Maybe even how did I manage to elude your guards-"

"I don't need to, no."

The blonde froze up at the quick rejection, her blue eyes widening in quiet confusion at my genuine disinterest over the subject.

"B-But what about your sister, you surely would want to know what-"

"You restored her body, mind and soul back to the point those were prior to her first death," I curtly interrupted. "While also removing the loyalty compulsion she had over Darius and the rest of the family."

Pandora was gawking just a little at my dull response, surprise adorning her adorable visage just for a handful of seconds before the made a partial recovery.

"B-But surely you would want to know what truly-"

"It's something connected to True Magic you are capable of using thanks to your connection to the Box," I interjected once more. "I admit I wouldn't mind to think about the real mechanics behind the process… but then again I would have to trust you."

I was perfectly aware that a direct approach would have ended in some failure, maybe something far worse than getting injured by the young girl.

She was well-versed with people despite her clear hate directed at Humanity as whole, making her someone too difficult to crack without some serious planning about this conversation.

Pandora was visibly unbalanced by my blatant disinterest almost offended even when I rebuked her attempt to gain some negative reaction out of me.

She wanted me to snap back at her, but the reason behind this kind of instance was lost in my mind.

Why would someone like her be determined to get me angry and confused all at once? What was she trying to achieve by doing this.

The blonde pressed forward on the bed, eyes wide open in shock as she kept herself lifted by holding herself up with her little arms. "B-But I would just tell you without asking for anything in return!"

…

…

What?

I blinked, taking another step towards her.

It was even more confusing as I couldn't just grasp the reasoning in being so 'easy' to get answers to.

I knew of her wish, her desire to die by enabling the content of the box as…

Her 'death' was within the box, together with the various evils of the world.

This decision wasn't truly bad considering that Pandora had been ready to activate her Noble Phantasm and unleash Chaos upon the world as a whole…

Yet something had forced her to back away and not go through with her main priority.

"Why didn't you open the Box, Pandora?" I finally asked, now unsure how to properly wriggle myself in the pressing topics and focusing onto something probably more important than what had just happened.

The child gulped nervously, but she didn't as she fell back on the mattress.

I walked closer to her bed and she followed my steps with a quiet glance, keeping her hands pressed on her lower face as to hold her mouth shut.

"I really don't want to hurt you Pandora," I continued with a tired voice. "I really don't. While I'm genuinely terrified with what you can do with your powers… with what you can achieve in so little effort, I still don't have a true reason to actually despise you."

She blinked again, this time her surprise vanishing to make way to a sad look.

"W-Why not just- why don't you just hate me?" The girl inquired softly. "I-I hurt you, I messed around with Sakura and then… and then now!"

Pandora looked at the ceiling with a slight pout embedded on her face.

"A-Are you dumb?" Her statement trailed some quietness, her fierceness trying to stuck verily upon my confused state. "H-Humans should know how to hate, yet y-you are dumb enough to not know how!"

Not truly a wrong statement, but I could perceive some emotion driving her to commit the girl into this kind of retaliation.

There was no violence, yet she seemed so hostile at the mere approach I had adopted.

Just like as if she was…

"You are afraid of me."

My words cut deep in her defense, wide eyes showing some surprise at the unexpected response.

The blonde tensed up, almost horrified by this statement and soon… she smiled.

She smiled and started to giggle, the intensity of her laugh increasing the more it went on undisturbed.

"Y-You are so stupid- to think that- that you were this close to-"

"I'm telling the truth," I calmly rejected her little effort to make me appear wrong. "But maybe I'm simplified what the reality truly is for the sake of bringing you back to earth."

The girl stopped, freezing up again and this time I pressed on.

"You… you are not truly afraid of what or who I am," I explained with a cautious voice. "You are utterly unnerved by the fact that I'm not someone that you can easily predict as Darius is."

Pandora blinked, her head resting on her pillows as she continued to stare at me dully while I continued with my answer.

"Your fear is that I'm not here to use you for the powers the Box gave you," I quickly pointed out. "And the reason why it frightens you so much is because it reminds you so much about… Julian."

…

"Nii-san?"

A smile returned on my face as I nodded at this little opening.

She wasn't speaking as Erika, the youngest child of the Ainsworth Clan, yet she was addressing the teen as her big brother in such a genuine manner.

"I can only assume that before Darius decided to turn him into his new host, Julian had cared for you on a true degree of love," I said. "He considered you part of the family and loved you the same way he did with Beatrice and Angelica."

Staring away from me, the girl sighed and squirmed on her bed at the mere thought of the past.

"He cared for us and he promised that he would have tried to stay the same even when Darius ordered him to become his newest host," The blonde admitted. "B-But Darius doesn't care for family. He… he said that it was the only choice we had to- to save the world."

"You sought death, maybe you do even now that we are talking to each other, but I think you found purpose by staying with the original Julian," I pushed her a little more over the subject. "He gave you a reason to stay alive despite the fact you are aware of your immortality, he gave you some bright color to paint your life a curious thing to once more delve into."

"I… I miss him," She let out a sob, her hands reaching for her eyes as to keep the tears from flowing down. "I-I hate Darius for stealing him. H-He was mine!"

One could easily be confused by her wording over this matter and possibly skeptical over her capacity to truly act against the parasitical being that was Darius Ainsworth.

But there was a limit within her power, something that was connected to the Box itself.

With her mean and understanding of 'Death' sealed away, her magic can't act to resurrect people that were past gone.

Sakura's case was possible due to the oddity of the nature of Dolls as their souls are preserved within meat puppets.

Julian was still human and, while she could try to detach the ancestor off from his soul, the process could easily see her butcher the young man's own soul.

The head of the Ainsworth clan had been devious in evolving Zouken's own capacity to keep alive for so many centuries.

Having preferring to stabilize his form as a leech within another host's body, the elder had been granted plenty of powerful 'pawns' to use within his family and the compatibility of their Circuits made the ritual even more stable than anything known to other Magus families.

So she was rendered useless from actually be able to save the one individual she considered part of her family, the one that connected them all in the sense of friendly kinship and… love.

I didn't even remember moving onto the bed, nor I could remember when I had my arms wrapping up around her neck, forcing her to rest her chin on my right shoulder.

But I did remember giving her a comforting pat on her back.

"He still is your brother, Pandora," I whispered back to her, ignoring the little tension to took hold over her body. "And I promise you that I will save him, like I will save Miyu's brother."

…

Her arms slowly reached upwards and… wrapped around my waist in a desperate manner, the sobbing increasing threshold as the girl let go of the last inhibitions and broke the last dam of her resistance.

I kept quiet, merely brushing off some of her hair while caressing her head until she managed to wrap up the entire emotional baggage that she had yet to unleash.

It was little, but I was sure that this wasn't the first time she had to cry over her past and over her own sorrow.

But just as I thought that this was going to be a repeat of what had happened earlier that day with both Sakuras, my little calm vanished the moment I realized that my body was now paralyzed.

Wide-eyed, panic surged within my mind as I tried to make sense of what was happening, I felt her hold growing more fiercer if not… careful.

"I know you care, Shinji-kun… but promises I have trouble to truly trust," She admitted with a sigh, staring up at me, her eyes now a dark-blue as she stared at me with a genuinely saddened look. "I believe more when there is some proof of your truthfulness, something that can't truly be denied."

I felt something rising up from the bed, slowly starting to latch onto my body and coating it in… darkness.

Utter darkness.

I felt the Worms wriggling madly within my body, causing me to yelp at the sudden wave of pain rushing all over my limbs and torso.

But before I was granted a sight of what was happening, I found my eyes deprived of the means to look around.

I was into the nothingness, my body being slowly squished and compressed into something else no-

It was different- far too different to be described so easily and in that moment of hellish nightmare.

I barely could breathe, yet I could still listen to her words as Pandora hummed quietly.

"Prove me that you are seriously interested in saving people instead of focusing only on Sakura and a handful of 'lucky ones'," The blonde ordered bluntly and tiredly. "Show me that I can really put my trust on you..."

"-Oniisama."

And with that, I found myself finally plunging down somewhere else.

My capacity to properly understand what was going on around me was once more deprived… until I fell on some hard floor.

Pain rushed over my left arm as-

I groaned in pain as I found myself finally 'landing' on some stable ground, the darkness having lessened to some shadowed and dim-lit small room.

I was alone, there was no noise and… I was no longer in the castle.

I was sure of this circumstance the moment I realized that the floor felt like wood- no, it was made with wood.

The kind of floor that no room in the fortress had available for me to check up.

Blinking around, I found my eyes finally getting accustomed to the dark location, noticing some broken pieces of school tables and the distinct presence of various school-related objects within the room.

I slowly stood up and I found a sudden bright light coming right from behind me.

I glanced back and I stopped to see a certain Kaleidostick looking around in a somewhat confused way, then she settled her stare onto me.

"Shinji-sama, what is going on here? Where are we?" She inquired with a hint of nervousness at the sudden teleportation.

She was here too and I felt relief about that.

By having Ruby with me I could face any dreadful developments that could be born from this and… now I needed to understand where I was exactly and why she did this when-

"Also, when did you became a particularly-handsome teen?"

…

…

No. There was no possible way that she was-

But what if it was the case?

"R-Ruby, I need a mirror," I asked with a brief stutter, my face paling a little as I felt a strange theory taking form from within my mind.

Even my voice felt different, older and… mature. It wasn't my usual one.

It also felt familiar to listen to as the pitch was just resonating within my mind in a dreadful echo.

I knew this tone, I knew this… voice. And I sighed a moment as I glanced back at Ruby.

The Mystic Code was quick to provide the requested tool and I was swift to check on my reflection.

I was still Shinji as far as my hair and face were on spot with the character, but I was no longer the chibi version of the firstborn Matou.

Wearing what I could see being the Homurahara Academy uniform, I was indeed looking much taller and older than my former self.

My face had also lost some of the baby-fat, now appearing a little slim and leaner.

But I wasn't Shinji Matou himself as I wasn't as scrawny as he had looked in each route from the Fate series.

My posture looked more similar to Shirou's, if not a little bigger than his own figure.

My hair were also longer, some of the locks reaching way lower than they were supposed to be.

I panicked at first, my heart drumming in cold shock at the fact that I had been somehow moved in this kind of situation after had appeared to have been just a mere hug.

It was just a blasted hug, and now I was stuck in what looked to be…

Hell. This was true hell for me.

There was no way to describe the growing sense of horror at the fact that the more I looked at myself, the more I started to theorize where exactly Pandora had sent me.

I was in the premise of Homurahara Academy, the hints present here in what looked to be a storage room giving me this absolute answer over the main question troubling my brain.

But now I was supposed to deal with the bad predicament itself.

I, Shinji, was probably dealing with one of the routes from Fate Stay Night and there was a high chance of death for me if I wasn't careful enough around this new dimension.

I wasn't sure how Pandora had been able to do this kind of move as I was sure that Magic itself was limited to reach out the impressive heights of the original five known True Magics, but now I was stuck to face what seemed to be the hardcore version of a Dark Souls game.

I would have set up to keep myself around this place until I was sure about how to deal with what was lurking outside the door but… I was sure that I wasn't the original Shinji here.

I didn't have anything on me that resembled the Book of the False Attendant, plus I was pretty sure that Shinji barely stayed around Homurahara during all routes.

He might have made some stands here at the school, but he wouldn't be hiding in this place of all the rooms that were for him to use as hideouts.

And the ultimate hint was given by the fact I felt less constrictions over my body and… I could feel the energy running all over my Worm-free Magic Circuits.

I was surprised at first by this development, but instead of keeping around for too long I decided that it was time to go out there and see what route I had been sent to face against.

Knowing the limited time I had to work with, I sure wasn't going to linger too much around the original timeline as I had much more to do.

This detour was certainly as unexpected as irritating, yet I couldn't just whine before knowing the difficulty I was supposed to face in this very moment.

Ruby reached back to my left arm, letting my fingers get hold of her as I finally decided to venture out of that dark room and right into the corridor beyond the door.

I was still in dubious territory, especially since I was clueless about the route I was dealing with, but I wasn't going to wait patiently for some rogue Servant to attack me as an easy target.

Rider was still going to be a problem for me, especially since I looked like the individual she hated the most and I wasn't protected by Sakura's orders about her real brother.

Yep, I should have truly listened to the little part of me that wanted to skip dealing with Pandora.

But no, now I had to face the worst thing I could be forced to endure on my own.

At least I had both Ruby, some poor-looking but working Magic Circuits and… wait.

I stopped a moment in my little wandering to reach out for my pants' pocket, trying to find something I was sure that I had on me when I had visited Pandora and-

I retracted the Berserkalot Card from my left pocket.

It was the card used by Sakura, the one the Ainsworths had bestowed to the plum-haired girl to be best-equipped with the opposition that she ended up facing in the Prillyaverse.

I stared at the card with a grim look, thinking of it more as a last ditch effort to use in case I had to face a real Servant.

While any of the six other Classes from the Cards would have to go through some trouble in fighting normal Servants, I was quite sure that the Berserker card in my possession could still keep up fairly well against everything that wasn't Herakles.

Hopefully, Illya wasn't going to just end up wandering around Homurahara or even nearby the zone.

But I wasn't much accepting of the drawbacks of using the card to the full potential.

If it was a mere Insert, Ruby could completely suppress the effects of Mad Enchantment but the issue would rise if I tried to Install it.

My psyche, albeit far stronger than the one of many people within the Nasuverse, wasn't made to be subjected to that kind of emotional pressure created by the blind rage from a scorned knight.

At least I wasn't going to face any Servants anytime soon.

A sigh left my lips as I put back the card where I had found it.

But just as I prepared to turn the corner of the seemingly-endless hallways of the school in the effort of making my way to the front doors, I felt a grand concentration of loud noises coming from… one of the rooms nearby.

It sounded just like an explosion, and I was quick to check on whatever was going on there.

The door was half-open, enough to give me way to see what was happening inside what looked to be a…

Library.

I could remember vividly what was happening before my eyes as it had been one of the key scenes of Heaven Feel the lost butterfly.

The route was already unfolding, way far from its starting point as Shirou was now without a Servant as Saber had been corrupted by the Shadow and… Rin was supposed to make her glorious entrance quite soon.

There was smoke, but the curtail was starting to dissolve away as I was presented with quite the scene of a furious Shirou Emiya standing in front of a panicking Shinji Matou.

Sakura was staring at the close up in a frightened state while Rider looked as impassive as usual.

I crouched away from getting spotted from the occupants of the room, giving my attention to the plum-haired girl as she seemed clueless about what she was supposed to do in that very moment.

Meanwhile, I was almost rubbing my hands at the opportunity presented here at this scene.

I could conclude a large majority of this route in some careful moves, especially since I knew what was going to happen very soon and how I could just solve the troubling issues afflicting the route altogether.

Oh yeah. It's all coming together.

Ruby had left my grasp to peek her own head through the little opening offered by the door, her confused posture glancing briefly at me as I gestured her to approach me once again.

"What do you need me to do, Shinji-sama?" The Mystic Code inquired with some curiosity, obviously intrigued by what was happening just a few meters away from the two of us.

I sighed. "First thing first… I need you to disable the effects of the little earpiece Sakura is currently wearing," I ordered quietly. "There should be a spell that connects it to another crystal. I want that one gone first."

The Kaleidostick bent slightly towards me as to nod my way before stealthily flying over near the ceiling of the room as it started to work over the defusing the connection spell.

I waited silently, knowing that I had to gamble over the timing of a certain sword-using Archer for making some distractions to keep Rider from discovering my little ploy.

Much to my immense relief, Rin wasn't late to make some proper badass entrance in the room, her attention directed at Shinji while EMIYA started to target Medusa in some disappointing and rushed fight.

Without Sakura's better Circuits and input bringing her to full strength, the weakened Gorgon was easily beaten by the Counter-Guardian, forcing the Book of False Attendant in Shinji's hands to burst in flames for a second time.

It was as anticlimatic as I remember the scene being, with Rin starting to describe how Sakura had to have been the Master of Rider considering the pathetic magical potential available to my counterpart and how the girl was supposedly the unknown heir to the Matou clan.

The explanation was then followed by some begging from the tragically-inept version of myself, trying to leech for the third time in a row Rider off from Sakura and… getting rebuffed by the plum-haired girl.

Knowing that he was no longer a 'Master' and that he was now an enemy to his 'one and only love', the young Matou decided to go for what in his mind was the ultimate winning move.

His hand reached for the tiny transparent crystal in his pocket, bringing it up as he prepared to unleash the spell and…

"You can die now."

He cracked it.

There was some silence, some confusion and… some sudden dread coming from the other Shinji at the lack of any reaction coming from the crystal near Sakura's face.

The girl looked surprised by the harsh words, and so were the two other students present in the room.

But I, the one that was now standing behind the incredibly-confused purple-haired prick, was actually feeling giddy as I prepared to unleash the hot fury of the weapon I decided to bring from the occasion to deal with this scumbag.

*BANG!*

The shovel struck true unto the skull of the unsuspecting youth, the young Matou collapsing almost instantly at that powerful bash allowed by the tool created by Ruby.

The Mystic Code had been swift in complying with my first order and even quicker in concluding the second one.

A solid thud preceded what looked to be the weirdest development that the already-mad situation could have gone for.

Everyone was gawking at the sight of a second Shinji, even Archer and Rider looked shocked at the presence of two similar-looking young men.

"N-Nii-san?" Sakura stuttered in blatant surprise at the insanity unraveling before her violet eyes and I sighed.

"Kind of," I replied quietly. "Different dimension." My curt answer was then followed by another one, this time directed at Rin, the Tohsaka gracing me with a wide-eyed look just as Shirou was.

"I'm an apprentice of Zelretch."

Her surprise tripled from that mere comment but she managed to muster some words out.

"T-The Kaleidoscope?"

The Emiya glanced at the twin-tailed girl with a frown. "T-The what?"

"It's an alternative name to call the Second Magic, the capacity of manipulating energy from various dimensions," I replied quickly, unwilling to focus to much in this precise topic as I knew that I was working on some limited time here.

The faster I concluded this mess, the higher the chances of getting returned back 'home' by Pandora.

"My presence here is dictated by a serious reason and a less-serious one," I said the half-truth while I looked once more at Sakura, the girl tensing up under my sight. "Sakura, I think you know what the real issue might be, right?"

The female Matou blinked, looking fairly uneasy at my wording but bowing her head somberly.

"I-I'm ready to go-"

…

"What?" I frowned at her reply. "No, you don't need to go elsewhere. Nor I need to do anything truly harmful."

"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Rin jumped in with a confused tone. "W-While I can understand the importance behind your role as… Zelretch's apprentice, I think you should tell more about the case, Matou-san."

I blinked in surprise at the lack of annoyance in using that respectful tone, but I nodded as I continued to glance at Sakura.

"When the Fourth Holy Grail War concluded, Shirou's father, Kiritsugu Emiya, decided to use his Servant's Noble Phantasm to destroy the Holy Grail after he had discovered that it had been corrupted during the Third War," I started to explain with a tired voice. "The Grail survived, but some of the shards fell off from it. Zouken decided to take them under his custody and implant them in some of the Crest Worms… that Sakura currently has in her body."

Only Rin seemed to be able to keep up with the discussion having known much about the Fourth Holy Grail War from her father's journals.

"So she is something close to a… Lesser Grail. The sacrifice that is usually served by the Einzbern Clan."

I nodded. "That is indeed correct and… that is why I need to make sure that the soul of Saber and her corrupted worms are removed as fast as possible-"

"S-Saber?"

Shirou looked shocked by my words, but I was quick to defuse what seemed to be a good way to speed-up the Dark Sakura's process.

In fact, I could see Sakura panicking at the little possibility that her senpai could connect her to the reason why his Servant was no longer here.

I decided to be careful and give only part of the truth.

"The soul of a dying Servant is absorbed by the closest Lesser Grail. Sakura was the closest one and thus the one to take the soul."

The redhead was confused even more by my words, but he was derailed away from pursuing the connection between his kohai and the Shadow.

"Now, we should start from the Soul itself since it's the easiest bit to accomplish with my current equipment."

I looked at Ruby and the floating kaleidostick proceeded to create from nothing something I've been working onto in the last few weeks.

An empty Class Card.

The little matrix that had been altered and reworked from the original Ainsworth-made ones was capable of containing the soul of a full Servant, working similar to a normal Class Card and possibly be used to resurrect the Hero contained within the card.

The idea that made me work upon this little project was the fact that I was going to meet more Heroic Spirits during my journey, maybe in an adventure after I was done with the issues back in my original dimensions, and now I was going to use it to ease up the strain Saber's soul had over Sakura's body.

The process was something not even I was sure about as I was guided mostly by Ruby through all steps, getting glanced quite intensively by both Rin and Rider as I had to make sure the discomfort their friend/family member was reduced to the minimum.

Yet their pressure paled compared to my own inner panic at failing such an operation, knowing full well that it was still a delicate process to accomplish.

It took me around twenty minutes of silent concentration, but I was relieved when everything had gone well about it all.

The soul was quick to be perfectly integrated within the card, making it the second Saber Class Card available in my roster and…

I wonder who would come out of it. The normal Artoria? Lily? Or maybe even another Saber-face altogether?

I was of course not going to resurrect the spirit now that I was in that part of the Nasuverse, a little frightened by the chances of whoever would come out to be considered the Seventh Servant for this Holy Grail War.

If I managed to sneak the card out of this dimension, Avenger would have nothing to get the War to conclude as planned and… that is why some extra information had to be delivered.

Both Rin and Shirou were informed of the fact that Illya was the official Lesser Grail and that continuing to fight over a screwed-up wish wasn't worth it.

Sakura was given a large bag filled with some cookies that were meant to keep her Worms in a dormant state even with Rider's drain on her reserves.

Without the means to replace the Crest Worms with proper Magic Circuit, I wasn't certainly going to experiment on my little sister and… then the greatest issue of them all came up in my head.

Shirou was confused, but he seemed to understand 'something' when I alluded to him taking his kohai to a nice place where to spend some time alone.

With the ordeal she had faced, she more than deserved a date with her love interest, but I was of course not going to tell him directly that as such.

I merely suggested him to gift her that kind of wish since they were both close and… I got to deal with the embarrassed protests from Sakura and… Rin's furious glares.

I managed to calm the Tohsaka down by telling her a little about how she could get to be enlisted by Zelretch as one of his apprentice, mentioning how Illya had Justeaze's memories of the Jeweled Sword and that Archer was the key to properly recreate the blade.

EMIYA was slightly pissed at receiving that much attention, but the subtle comment I decided to shot back at him about the Counter-force seemed to get him to stay quiet over the matter.

Speaking of Illya, the situation for her was a little more complicated.

I suggested Shirou to bring to the castle some of the documents or receipts that Kiritsugu might have left around about the multiple trips he had gone by before dying, especially those that mentioned 'Germany' as their destination.

It would surely take a while for the Einzbern to understand the clues the redhead was going to provide her, but knowing her resourcefulness, it wouldn't take too much to see where the hints were leading to.

From there, Shirou had to convince his step-sister to contact Touko Aozaki and try to get herself a new body.

It was odd for the Emiya to take in the fact that there was nothing to do about preserving her body, but he ultimately agreed to the case I was pushing for.

Once I was done with this messy discussion with the group in the library, I proceeded to give them a salute while mentioning that I was going now as I expected to return back to my 'original dimension'.

Ignoring their awed look, and the fact that Rider had decided that the best way to move around my counterpart was via low-kicks onto his ribs, I decided to make my way through the half-closed door of the room, waving at the three Masters (a former one considering Shirou) as I left their sight and…

I tripped into a pool of dark mud.

I merely had the time to blink that I found myself brought back to the familiar bedroom that I had assigned to Pandora as-

"You stupid, stupid m-meanie!"

The blonde was already pushing me off the bed, red-faced and looking incredibly annoyed by whatever I had done.

I fell on the ground on my butt, sighing a little as I felt the strain on my chibified body.

I let out a yawn while standing out. "Look, we can… talk about your flawed plan later… I need my sleep."

She squinted her eyes angrily. "B-But it's not even dinnertime."

"I'm tired," I replied dryly. "I've been awake since four and I need some rest with what I had to deal with, especially with your little test."

The girl huffed but I was already going towards the door.

"I will still save your brother, wherever you trust me about it or not."

The door shut behind myself, my tired form making way towards bed and…

Soon a certain group of individuals led by a certain tanned Einzbern decided to follow me back to the main bedroom and… let's just say that waking up never felt this much complicated in a cuddle box.

AN

I'm tired too Shinji, make way in that bed!

But yes, I managed to break the 6k+ barrier for this story too and… I'm immensely tired.

I decided to play a little trick with ya all by having this little 'insight' over the FSN HF version that will be explored once the Fate Zero Route is completed.

Yes, the story containing FSN elements will happen after a strangely-solved Heaven Feel route.

Expect a lot of insane shenanigans, some cameos from unexpected characters and…

…

Did I tell you that I restarted two old stories of mine? Fate Last Heaven and Tale of Two Kings are now available for you all to read in FFN, QQ, SB and SV.

And after this, I'm hitting the bed. Good Night~!

P a treon . com (slash) socialistbukharin

k o-fi . com (slash) justbukharin

REVIEW Q&A!

Hashirama 1710: Both the FSN and the EXTRA version of EMIYA were seemingly unaware of the continuation of their contract after their death, in fact both pursued their own demise by 'their own hands' (Nameless confessed himself Guilty at his Trial), and from there their lives got screwed even more. EMIYA started to hunt humans too before selling his soul to Alaya.

Byayan: There is no Pinocchio, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Ruler Servant with the Italian heroic figure that is Giovan Battista Perasso, known best as Balilla. I mean, FGO JP just recently unleashed Odysseus as a new Servant (Which I now have) and I bet there are plans to make someone like Dante Alighieri as a Servant. There are plans for the Prillya/Miyuverse cast to wach the crazy 4th HGW with Shinji as… a Master?