Epilogue — Day 10: Shirou — Dawn
==Interlude: Caren Ortensia==
Silence had fallen in the cavern of the Great Grail. The vast space, formerly illuminated by the sinister crimson light of the magical formula inscribed in its floor, was now lit by the rays of dawn shining through the hole punched in the mountainside by the final blast of Excalibur. As the wounded heroes regrouped after the hard-fought battle, Caren Ortensia entered the cave.
She had felt it the moment the Grail had been destroyed. As the mountain had shook with the thunderous reverberations of the holy sword's strike, the pain tormenting her frail body had lifted – the agonizing pain caused by the overwhelming presence of All Evils of This World vanishing as the ritual of the Fifth Heaven's Feel came to an end. No longer debilitated by her condition, Caren had advanced to the chamber to take stock of the situation. To check on her loose coalition of allies, and apply her nursing skill where necessary – but also to ensure that the mission entrusted to her by the Church had been carried out.
She found the corpse she was looking for near the center of the cavern. Her father's body sat kneeling, as though in prayer. His mangled hands and the rips in his magically-reinforced bulletproof robes stood testament to the ferocity with which he'd fought his final battle, and a large hole through his torso where his heart should have been indicated how he had finally been slain. The assignment given to her by the Church, to eliminate the heretic Kirie Kotomine, had been completed. Not by her own hands, but completed nonetheless. His proximity to the overpowering evil within the Grail had prevented Caren from carrying out the task herself, but she was certain that she could have... certain that she would have. Her father was an absolute evil who threatened the destruction of the entire world; there was no doubt that killing him was a decent and moral act. Caren had known that from the start, had agreed to take on the mission for that reason. ...So why, then, was her heart torn by such conflicting emotions as she looked upon his dead face?
Caren had always tried to forgive her enemies their sins. Even Servant Avenger, a spirit so foully wicked that his mere presence had caused her evil-sensitive body to bleed and convulse, she had been able to forgive – because the evil he did and the curse he bore were nothing more than the result of his inherent nature, the way he was made by those ancient villagers who elevated him to a Heroic Spirit by forcing him to bear the curse of All Evils of This World. And Kotomine's own personal philosophy was that there was nothing wrong in being true to one's own inherent nature; so he had viewed Angra Mainyu the same way. Why, then, was it that Kirie Kotomine was the one person in the world who Caren wasn't able to forgive?
If she looked into the darkest depths of her heart, the part of herself she refused to acknowledge and spent every day trying to repress, the answer was obvious. The reason she could not forgive him, when she could forgive everyone else... was because she was the same as him: a sadist who could find pleasure only in suffering. She had known since long ago that she had inherited her father's defect, which made ordinary happiness impossible and allowed joy to be found only in what was wrong and evil. But rather than surrender to her base animal urges, she resolved to live a life completely free of joy, abstaining entirely of the wickedness that would give her pleasure. She had continued to work faithfully for the Church, to endure the pain of being used as their canary, to deny herself indulgence in the sins in which she could find joy. And since she had been capable of that strength, then that meant Kotomine should have been strong enough to make that same decision as well: to forsake his own happiness in the name of being good. Caren's life stood as proof that it was possible for even one with their defect to overcome their darker natures. If Caren had been able to do it, why hadn't he?
Looking at Kotomine's face, Caren was struck by the sincerity and serenity of the smile he had worn to his death. Caren had never once in her life smiled so sincerely, so truthfully, from the heart. Oh, she might smile falsely during small talk; but a true smile could come only from true joy, which she had never allowed herself to experience – not when she knew she could only derive it from doing evil. She had become an automaton, killing her inner identity in order to remake herself into the false image of a perfect angel who unconditionally loved everyone. Suffering had become a form of solace to her — being tormented by God had meant that she was deserving of punishment, which had meant that she truly did have an evil heart, and was right to be ruthlessly crushing it behind this facade. She had struggled all her life to be good, and found no happiness. Kotomine had struggled even longer than her; then he had met Angra Mainyu, and finally known true joy. Contemplating the life ahead of her if she stuck to the path she had set out for herself, she finally understood Kotomine's choice. At last, she was capable of forgiving him.
"I... forgive you." Caren whispered. "Kyrie, eleison."
An explosion of red light burst from Kotomine's corpse and engulfed her. Caren staggered backwards, unsure what was happened, and felt a sharp pain in her right arm. Caren was used to pain, to her body rebelling in the presence of evil spirits; but this sensation was unlike those caused by her affliction. As the light faded and she gazed upon the limb, she saw what had transpired: eight Command Spells had engraved themselves upon her skin. Unused leftovers from Masters who had dropped out of previous Wars, they were a precious resource passed down through the years by the Overseers. When Caren had been assigned to eliminate Kotomine, it had been taken for granted that they would be lost; that Kotomine would have changed the mystic password that allowed for their postmortem inheritance to something unguessably obtuse. But that simple prayer she had spoken for her soul... that had been the phrase to initiate the transfer?
As she thought about it, however, it began to make sense to her. Kotomine had felt alone in the world, had despaired of anyone ever understanding his twisted heart. However, even in the end, he had held out hope that his daughter might understand him. Just as Kirie had sympathized with Angra Mainyu despite knowing it was irredeemably evil, Caren had found it in herself to pray for Kirie's salvation despite knowing of all his sins. And because she had forgiven him, because she'd understood him, he had left her the only inheritance he had left to give.
Caren felt tears trickle down her cheeks. For the first time, she wept for the father she had hated so much. Kotomine must have known his gift would have had this effect, of course; he wouldn't have been able to take any joy in doing it if it had not in some way caused her pain. But now, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms, she found she could forgive him that. She did not hate the man who could inflict only suffering on even his own daughter, but instead pitied the man who wanted to leave his daughter a last dying gift but was condemned by the defect of his birth to find meaning in the act only if it somehow hurt her in the process.
After a few deep breaths, Caren managed to steady herself. This was no time to break down; inheriting the Command Spells left her with a dilemma she needed to face. Now that the corruption of the Heaven's Feel ritual had been exposed, she didn't imagine that the Mage Association would permit it to continue; but even if there were no future Grail Wars, the Command Spells remained valuable as extremely potent prana sources. The Mage Association would undoubtably want to claim them for use or research, under the pretext that they were works of magecraft and remnants of an Association-sponsored ritual. Just as surely, the Church would want to keep them: to pass them to an Executioner who could make use of their power, or simply to keep them out of the hands of the Association.
Of course, Caren's duty in this matter was clear. She should immediately sneak away from the surviving Masters and report this unexpected development to her superiors. If she could prevent the Association from discovering that the Command Spells had been passed on at all, it would save the Church a great deal of argument and political maneuvering; failing that, by returning to Church custody and transferring the Command Spells somewhere safe, she would greatly increase the Church's leverage in negotiations by securing their possession for the time being. Faultless, obedient little Caren could do as she'd always done – as she was expected, as she was told – and hand the problem over to her superiors, absolving herself of any moral responsibility for the situation, secure in the knowledge that she was willing to forgive the Masters she had partnered with for any resentment they might feel over what they might construe as a betrayal.
Or, she could do something else.
She recalled something Kotomine had once told her, long ago: that humans are superior to angels, because angels are beings of pure good while humans are beings who contain evil within their hearts yet are capable of choosing good. Because Kotomine had ended up choosing evil, she had tried desperately to disbelieve his words. She had closed her eyes to the possibility of malice being inborn within human hearts and forced herself to believe that everyone was fundamentally good and that all evil came from without. But in doing so, she had denied those who acted maliciously their free will: deeming them without exception to be inherently good people who had fallen against their will into evil. Kotomine had not fallen or wandered astray: he had deliberately chosen with open eyes to walk the path of evil. For that was the other side of free will: if one is free to choose to do good, then one must also be free to choose to do evil. Caren had not been able to bear to face such a choice, for fear she might follow in her father's footsteps, so had for a long time she pretended that there was no choice. Now, she was ready to acknowledge that there was, and to make it. She could accept that the dark desires within her heart are a natural part of who she was, and that she did not deserve to suffer or need to atone for feeling such urges. She had tried to live as an angel, but she was human, and it was her right to choose between both good and evil. After striving for so long to do nothing but good and getting no joy from it, she wanted to tip her toe on the darker side of the line; to indulge some of the desires she had long dared not acknowledge. She would not perhaps walk the path all the way to the end like Kotomine had; but far enough to learn of the sinful pleasures she had forbidden herself. And once she knew both experiences, good and evil, she could make her final choice.
Thank you, Father, for teaching me that I have the right to choose.
Many times, she had seen her associates at the Church act unethically, and she had simply unconditionally forgiven them; who was she, who had such darkness tainting her own heart, to judge the sins of another? But perhaps God had placed sadism and malice in her heart for a reason. Perhaps instead of denying it, she should embrace it. For a long time she had thought it her role to be the endlessly-suffering pollyanna; but instead, she could be the scourge which punished the guilty. The Church's conduct in the Holy Grail War had been less than praiseworthy: through the background briefing material for her assignment, she'd learned how her grandfather Risei Kotomine had secretly meddled in the Fourth War while pretending to stand apart and impartial. She could hand the Command Spells over to those haughty hypocrites and let them walk away from this mess with a prize; or she could give some aid to the mages who had risked their lives to enter this cavern and fight All Evil of This World. Surely, injured and exhausted from the fight, they would welcome the opportunity to use the Command Spells as prana sources. Or else... it seemed a few Servants had survived their battles, and were still lingering – their contracts ended with the War, they were soon to vanish, unless their Masters were to suddenly receive a new Command Spell to connect and serve as an anchor for them...
Looking at the pattern engraved on the flesh of her arm, Caren got a wicked, sinister idea; and for the first time in her life, she decided to indulge it.
==Interlude Out==
==Interlude: Luviagelita Edelfelt==
Luvia had chartered a car to take her to the airport, where a small private plane awaited. With the conclusion of the Grail War, her time in the land of the East had come to an end. It was now her duty to return to the Clock Tower and report the results of her investigation. Luvia had been prepared to depart without fanfare – though she had temporarily aligned herself with other Masters during the War, it had only been a brief alliance of convenience; they had hardly had the time to become anything like friends. It wasn't like she owed them anything; or they, her. It therefore came as a surprise to her when, stepping outside the expensive hotel where she had been residing for the last week, she found Rin Tohsaka waiting for her.
"There was no come see me off." Luvia said. "I am perfectly capable of departing on my own."
"I am sure that you are." Rin said. "Nevertheless, as the head of the Tohsaka family and supervisor of this territory, it is my obligation to show you proper hospitality by seeing you off at the end of your stay."
The two young women glared at each other frostily for a moment. However, Luvia took a deep breath and re-composed herself.
"As I'm sure you're aware, an incident this large can't simply be covered up." Luvia said. "After I deliver this report to Lord El-Melloi II, there will certainly be a full investigation by the Association. There is no avoiding the fact that you will be subject to a rigorous investigation in the wake of this event. In the coming months, there will certainly be those who criticize your behavior, second-guess your choice, and cast aspersions on the Tohsaka name."
Rin opened her mouth with an angry retort, but Luvia pressed on.
"However... I made sure to fully document your role in resolving the situation, as well as enumerating my own mistakes – that I made a contract with a Servant without having obtained permission from the Association for such a step; and that I subsequently lost her to the Grail's corruption, both limiting my ability to contribute to the final battle while adding the enemies arrayed against your Servants. So, I give my word of honor: despite the past animosity between the Edelfelt and the Tohsaka, I am not taking this opportunity to scapegoat you to exonerate myself."
Rin shook her head.
"I was never worried that you'd do something like that." she said. "Not after we fought that False Berserker together. I still can't stand your personality; but I got the measure of you then, and you aren't as much of a cowardly, treacherous hyena as I once imagined."
"Oh really?" Luvia said, one of her eyebrows quirked in anger. "I too got the chance to know you; and since you proved yourself far less of an uncouth, uncultured monkey than I'd imagined, your words are high praise to me.
The young women found themselves glaring at one another again. This time, it was Rin who gathered herself and broke the silence first.
"It seems there's just no way for the two of us to get along." Rin said. "But, last night? I was proud to fight beside you."
"You as well." Luvia said. "When the investigation takes place, you can count on the Edelfelt family's support. I will have a private discussion with Lord El-Melloi II, and he'll see if it's possible to elevate matters to the level of the Wizard Marshall himself. Since you wielded his Jeweled Sword during the incident, he might actually take notice; and having his support could give you a lot of protection from the political side of things."
"Do you think he'll reimburse me for the gems I had to spend saving the world?" Rin asked. "Because I wrote up a list..."
"Don't push it." Luvia warned. "You'll still have some legitimate explaining to do. That leftover Command Spell which the Church lady gave you, for instance; I can't imagine the Association will be very pleased to learn about that."
"There is nothing unorthodox about a magus taking a familiar." Rin said. "True, it is not often that one manages to acquire a Ghost Liner for the position; but that is simply the natural result of my talent as a magus, and does not violate any Association rules."
"An interesting argument." Luvia said. "I look forwards to seeing Zelretch's face when you try that line on him. Goodbye for now, Tohsaka; and good luck to you."
Turning her back on her ally and rival, Luvia ducked into the waiting car without awaiting Rin's response. An Edelfelt always got the last word in.
==Interlude Out==
==Interlude: Bazett Fraga McRemitz==
With the conclusion of the Holy Grail War, it was time for Bazett to depart from her borrowed room at the Emiya estate. Since she lived Spartanly, she had very little to pack; but the process was complicated by her arm. Though her replacement was of fine quality, a top end magical prosthetic produced by a top-end puppet magus working at an agency called Garan no Dou, it would take time for her to become accustomed to the new artificial limb. For the moment, her movements with it were still awkward and clumsy.
"Need a hand with that, Master?" Lancer asked.
"I can manage." Bazett said. "This will serve as good practice for re-developing my fine motor skills."
"Suit yourself." Lancer said with a shrug. "There's nothing wrong with taking a some time to recover, though. You're only human, after all."
"There will be time for recuperation after I return to the Association." Bazett said. "I suspect I will be removed from active duty for a time while the fallout from this incident is handled; and I want to deliver my personal report as soon as possible, rather than waiting for them to hear about things second-hand. Given my initial cooperation with Kotomine, it is only natural that I assume some responsibility for how events transpired; but there is no telling how the political factions in the Association will try to spin matters for their own advantage. I was never good at playing their game."
"Well, whatever happens, there's no need to worry." Lancer said. "That's because you've got me backing you up now."
Bazett paused in her fight against her suitcase.
"...And you're sure you're alright, Lancer?" Bazett asked. "The spare Command Spell Ortensia gave us is working? My prana is enough for you?"
"Come on, I'm fine!" Lancer said. "I can't believe you; you'll sacrifice your own arm without even flinching, but you break down and get all insecure whenever I receive the tiniest scratch. Priorities, woman!"
Bazett bent low over her bag to hide her blush.
"You got stabbed in the heart by an Assassin with the ability to kill anything." she muttered. "I hardly call that a scratch."
"Hey, I survived, didn't I?" Lancer said. "It was a close scrape, to be sure; but I've had more than a few of those before. Thinking back on it, I think I've figured it out: part of my heroic legend must have obscured the point of my death from her Mystic Eyes. You've read the stories about me, right? At the end of my life, I tied myself to a rock in a standing position, so my enemies didn't realize I had died until a raven landed on my shoulder. Just like them, she missed my actual death; and so my Battle Continuation was able to keep me going long enough for you to patch me up."
"That is one possibility." Bazett said. "It might also be that she hesitated at that final moment before striking. Her personality might have been twisted by an improper summoning and the corruption of the Grail, but... deep down, I don't think that girl was the type to kill merely for her own pleasure."
She hadn't mentioned it to Lancer, but when getting fitted with her new arm, she'd seen a girl at Garan no Dou – a young woman wearing a red jacket over a kimono, and in possession of a doll arm. Because Heroic Spirits could be summoned not only from the past but also the future, it was possible that that unassuming girl might one day perform legendary deeds that would elevate her to the Throne of Heroes. But even if so, the living person was different from the Servant; and so there was no need to risk any confusion by mentioning her meeting with the human Shiki Ryougi.
"Twisted by the Grail's corruption, huh?" Lancer said. "That would explain why we got so many anti-heroes this time around... But you, uh, you don't think my summoning was corrupted, do you?"
"Of course not." Bazett said firmly. "I read many of the stories about you over my life; and when I finally succeeded in summoning you, I was able to see in an instant that you were precisely the man I had always so respected and admired."
"I'm glad to hear it, my Master." Lancer said.
Bazett finally finished wrangling her unruly luggage and turned to look at Lancer. While she'd been packing, he'd amused himself by running through some practice moves with a spear. Given that the Emiya household included a dojo, Bazett had assumed he'd been using one of their training weapons; but now that she was looking at it, it seemed to be uncannily similar to Lancer's destroyed Noble Phantasm.
"By the way, what's that spear you're carrying?" Bazett asked. "It looks just like Gae Bolg."
"It is Gae Bolg." Lancer said. "A nearly perfect replica, anyway. Emiya projected it for me during his fight with Kotomine. Even I can hardly tell it apart from the original."
He swept it around his shoulders and then spun it in demonstration.
"That's impossible." Bazett said. "Items created through Projection magic are mere phantasms, brief illusions which fade from the world a short time after being created. They can last a few hours at most; certainly not that long."
"It doesn't feel like a temporary illusion to me; it feels as real as real can be." Lancer said. "Well, I'm only experienced with runes, not orthodox magecraft, so maybe I don't entirely know what I'm talking about, but the idea doesn't seem completely implausible to me. I mean, you yourself are a modern human who is capable of reproducing Fragarach, the Noble Phantasm of Lugh, right? This isn't so different."
It was different. Her bloodline had been blessed by Lugh with the ability to utilize Fragarach, making it effectively her Noble Phantasm. Any Fragarach she made were by definition true, genuine Fragarch and not counterfeits which the World would strive to erase. But Gae Bolg was the Noble Phantasm of Cuchulainn, not of Shirou Emiya. A Gae Bolg created by Emiya could only be a falsehood, an illusion which the World would refute as soon as he ceased providing it with prana...
Unless Emiya did possess a Noble Phantasm – one granting him the power to reproduce other Noble Phantasms. Not a single one unique to himself, as Fragarach was to Bazett, but rather each a mere copy of some other hero's Noble Phantasm. Nothing but imitations, which would be exposed as inferior forgeries and unmade if they ever crossed the real thing. But perhaps such fine imitations, copying not merely the form and substance of the original but also its entire history and accumulated experience, that in cases when the original no longer existed, the World itself could distinguish his creations as counterfeit. Or perhaps, acknowledging that his treasured ideals were merely imitations of his father Kiritsugu's, he nonetheless believed deeply that even an imitation could attain the same value as the original; a belief that his Noble Phantasm allowed him to impose on the World regarding his creations. The creation of unlimited blades: not original, but not inferior; not unique, but not fake.
Perhaps Shiki Ryougi was not the only youth Bazett had met on her trip to Japan who was destined to become a legendary hero.
"In any case, I feel there's something I should ask." Bazett said. "Caren granted you the ability to remain in this world; but without the Grail to grant you a wish, what is it you desire?"
"Honestly?" Lancer said. "A good fight. That's why I answered the Grail's call: not for the wishy-washy promise of some reward at the end, but just to scrap against some of the most powerful fellow Heroic Spirits."
"I'm sorry you had to sit most of the war out." Bazett said, flushing guiltily. "I know you were looking forward to fighting a lot more than you actually got to; and it was a tactical error on my part, sending you into the False Assassin's ambush, that led to you having to sit most of it out."
"Ah, it's not a problem." Lancer said with a wave of his hand. "If my Master was anyone else, I would've been disappointed; but I don't mind following orders from a woman like you. Besides, I figure an Association Enforcer like you must get into lots of tough scrapes – renegade mages, summoned Elementals, rampaging Dead Apostles... In other words, it wouldn't be a burden on me to hang around with you for a while longer. Consider me your new left hand."
"R-really?" Bazett asked, raising her gloved hands to cover her blush.
"Hah!" Lancer laughed. "You blushed just like that when you first summoned me, too. You've got a cruuu~sh on me; don't you, Master?"
"Wha-wha-whaaaa-t gives you that idea, Lancer?" Bazett babbled, as she strove to cover her increasingly reddening face.
"Heh, so you're one of those types who are strong physically but weak emotionally, huh?" Lancer said, ginning. "Man, your type are so easy to tease."
"Oh really?" Bazett fired back. "You say you'll be my left hand; but since I've already gotten a replacement, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call yourself my hound?"
"Hey, don't even joke about that." Lancer protested.
"Perhaps it's time you changed your name from Cúchulainn to Cúbazettar?" Bazett suggested.
"Oh? Eager to lose your left arm again so soon, my Master?" Lancer asked, mock-brandishing his spear.
"There's still time to eat before our flight – I could take you for hot dogs, perhaps?" Bazett asked.
"Hah!" Lancer said. "It's been a while since I sparred like this with a woman. You know, this wasn't the Grail War I expected, but I guess things didn't turn out too badly after all."
==Interlude: Out==
I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.
I have created over a thousand blades.
Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain.
Withstood pain to create many weapons,
Waiting for one's arrival.
I have no regrets. This is the only path.
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works.
My whole life... will be... Unlimited Blade Works
An unattainable ideal. An unreachable utopia. An endless conflict between the beauty of his ideals and the cruel truth of the world — a battle that no one could ever convince him was not worth fighting. That is the only life possible for Shirou Emiya. It is the life he will awaken to, if he wakes up at all.
His body was severely damaged by his fight against the priest, skewered from within by countless swords born from the expression of his Origin. And he gave away Avalon, the source of his miraculous healing powers, before he had completely recovered. It would not be surprising if he were to die from the trauma.
Shirou woke up. Some people just won't die — not even when they're killed.
He was in his room, laying on his futon. And sitting next to him, watching over him while he slept, was a familiar figure.
"Arturia!" Shirou said. "You're still here! I thought you'd disappear when we won!"
"I made a contract with her." Rin said.
Shirou turned at the unexpected voice, and saw that Rin was leaning against the wall. Though her voice and posture were aloof, as though she'd just happened to dropped by for a moment, she must also have been waiting for him to wake up.
"It's true, I came very close to disappearing after using Excalibur." Saber said. "However, Rin was able to recharge my mana in time."
"Oh." Shirou said. "I should've known Rin was good at that sort of thing."
For some reason, Saber blushed and averted her gaze, while Rin's face turned bright red.
"A-and just what do you mean by that!?" Rin demanded.
"Well, since you're such a great magus, it only stands to reason that you would know how to transfer mana. You must be pretty talented, to maintain a Servant without the Holy Grail." Shirou said.
"Rin's skill was indeed—" Saber began, but Rin cut her off.
"Right!" Rin said. "Of course that's what you meant. And just so you don't misunderstand, there's no special reason I saved Saber, alright? It's just because Saber is the best Servant. I lost both my Archers, so of course I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to acquire Saber. That's all, okay? There's no need to read anything more into it."
Rin seemed unusually flustered. Normally she had no issue flaunting her superior knowledge of magecraft.
"A-anyway, Caren Ortensia appears to have inherited Kotomine's former position as Overseer." Rin said, raising one hand to show Shirou the red mark there. "She granted me one Command Spell so that I could be a Master again and form a proper contract with Saber. I can provide her prana normally through our link now."
Rin glanced at Saber with an expression Shirou couldn't decipher.
"Not that I'm saying we can't still share mana that way if you, um, ever want to." Rin mumbled to the Servant. "Just that it shouldn't ever be necessary again, if you... didn't. You know."
Rin had become almost incoherent at this point, so Shirou turned to Saber. He didn't mind that she was her Servant now, instead of his; he had never been entirely comfortable with the whole Master-Servant bond anyway, preferring to relate to her as an equal. However, he wanted to make sure that Saber herself was comfortable being Rin's Servant.
"You're okay with this, Saber?" Shirou asked. "I don't want to force you to remain in this world against your will."
"It is fine." Saber said. "I do not mind having Rin as my Master. And... you have made me reconsider my wish. Rather than trying to change the past, I would like to try to live in the present; as a woman, rather than as a king. This existence may ultimately be temporary, and I may be destined to return to Camlann; but for the time being, I wish to try and experience this type of life..."
Saber's words were cut off when another girl rushed into the room.
"Senpai!" Sakura shouted.
Tears running from her eyes, she flung herself onto the futon and wrapped Shirou in a hug.
"You saved me!" she said. "I knew you would. It was so long, and so painful, but I never gave up hope that you'd come for me..."
"Oof." Shirou wheezed. "Hurts..."
"Oh my!" Sakura quickly drew back and composed myself. "I'm so sorry! Of course you're still hurt from the fight; it's just been so stressful that I lost control of my emotions for a moment."
"It's okay, it's okay." Shirou said, massaging his aching ribs. "It's perfectly understandable, given what you've been through... wait a minute, who is that!?"
He pointed in surprise at the figure who had followed Sakura through the doorway, a tall purple-haired woman who almost looked like...
"I am Rider Medusa, Sakura's Servant." the woman said, bowing deeply. "I owe you both apology and thanks. Regretfully, I must tell you that I slew your other Saber in battle while under the influence of the False Avenger. However, it is because of him that I survived the end of the War and was able to reunite with Lady Sakura. For that, I owe you a great debt."
"It's alright." Shirou said. "We knew going in that we might not all make it out, and he accepted as a Servant and a hero that he might die fighting to save others. You're not to blame for what you did while the curse was controlling you... um, you are friendly now, right?"
"Be at ease." Rider said. "Though I have been wielded by your enemies during this War, Lady Sakura is the only one I have recognized by my own will as Master. Now that she holds my contract, I will act only according to her will."
"The Church lady gave me a Command Spell so that I could keep her anchored." Sakura said. "I never wanted to be a Master in the first place, but... through all the time I was kept prisoner by the False Avenger, Rider was by my side. She did everything she could to support me, despite the curse. And... since I lost everyone else..."
"You haven't lost everyone." Rin said quietly. "I realize... that I've failed you in the past. I'm sorry for that... and I'm ready to atone for my mistake. I'll support you... in any way you need."
The two gazed at each other for a moment, and something undecipherable passed between them.
"So, uh, just to be clear: there aren't any other Servants hanging out that I should know about, are there?" Shirou asked to break the tension.
"No." Rin said, turning back to him. "Aside from Lancer and the ones in this room, the other Servants fell in battle in the cavern. Both of the Avengers disappeared after you liberated them from their curses."
"Thank you for letting me know." Shirou said. "I'm not sure I could handle any more surprises–"
"Shirou onii-chan!"
Ilya stepped into the room, her two maids flanking her. Sakura and Rider had to awkwardly shuffle aside, as the small bedroom was by now becoming quite crowded.
"Oh... Ilyasviel." Shirou said. "You're here too?"
"Well, of course!" Ilya said. "Since I need Avalon to keep functioning, I have to stay close to Saber now. Obviously, that means I'll be living at your house from now on. I'm going to be transferring into your class at school as well."
"What!?" Shirou said. "You're too young to be in class with me!"
"Actually, I'm older than you." Ilya corrected. "But don't worry; with my magecraft, I'll be able to ensure that I'm placed in the same class as you."
"You shouldn't use magecraft to forge paperwork!" Shirou said. "No, wait; in the first place, Saber is now Rin's Servant, not mine, so there's no reason for you to stay at my house!"
"You'd kick your own sister out of your house?" Ilya said, tearing up. "Knowing that my castle was wrecked in the fight between Herakles and the cursed chains, that I have no other home in the world to go to, you'd just turn me out to die in the cold? That's so mean, onii-chan! I thought you were a hero who would protect those in need... but you're really just a horrible person, aren't you?"
"No! Of course not! I didn't mean it like that!" Shirou babbled. "What I meant to say, was... what did I mean to say? Obviously, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you need until your home is fixed... though, like I said before, Saber is contracted with Rin, so you really should be staying with her if you're worried about needing proximity for her prana to charge up Avalon..."
"Ah, but you're my brother, though; and family should stick together." Ilya said. "Oh! How about Rin and Saber move into your house along with me? That would solve everyone's problems, wouldn't it?"
"Everyone's but mine!" Shirou protested.
"I'm not sure I'm ready to move straight to living with Rin, after all that's hung between us for all these years." Sakura said tentatively. "But... if Shirou was also going to be there... it would be a way to start getting used to living as a family..."
"I will of course be by Lady Sakura's side." Rider said.
"Rin is my Master now, and I must obey her dictates; but I admit that I have grown accustomed to sleeping at your house over the course of this War. This seems like it would make for a comfortable compromise."
"Compromise?" Shirou asked in bewilderment. "Just who is compromising what, here?"
"Obviously, we will live where Lady Ilyasviel lives." said one of the maid, Sella or Leysritt; dressed in their maid costumes and without Leysritt carrying her rhenium halberd to distinguish her, Shirou couldn't tell the two of them apart.
"Now everyone just stop for one minute here." Shirou said. "I can't have..." – he quickly counted as he swept his gaze over Arturia, Rin, Sakura, Rider, Ilya, Sella, and Leysritt – "seven girls living with me in my house. Taiga would kill me for sure! You all need to work out alternative living arrangements; and you need to do so quickly, before–"
There was a loud crash as the Emiya estate's front door was flung roughly open.
"Shirou! I'm ho~ome!" Taiga's boisterous voice echoed through the house. "Oh my, there sure do seem to be a lot of shoes here at the entrance. Just how many guests have you been having over while I was way? There better not be a bunch of girls in your bedroom with you, unsupervised!"
"Oh, is that your guardian?" Ilya asked. "I'll go explain our new arrangement to her."
"No, someone Fujimura-sensei knows should talk to her first." Rin said. "Act carelessly, and you'll mess things up for all of us – hey, get back here, you little brat!"
As the crowd stampeded out of his room, Shirou reclined back into his futon. He knew enough to recognize a death flag when he saw one, and was certain he'd soon find himself in the dojo going over his mistakes with Taiga. Until then, he fell back into the warm, welcoming embrace of sleep, and found that his slumber was for once free of fire burning under a black sun and a hill of countless swords. Instead, he dreamed only of a single shining swords, its golden blade pointing towards a bright future.
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