Epilogue

Shirou fidgeted with the small bouquet of flowers in his hand as the elevator took him up to the third floor of the hospital. The hospital was busy, with the survivors of the fire filling it to capacity. It was a miracle there weren't more dead and injured, with half of uptown – the fancy district on the other side of the river – reduced to ashes.

But that wasn't what was preying on Shirou's mind. Instead, he still felt guilty about letting Ayako get injured by Shinji's draining spell. Though she had been pretty impressive in her own right, stopping Shinji like she did. 'She would make a great Hero of Justice.' A small smile played across Shirou's face momentarilly.

Nevertheless, Shirou was unhappy with his performance. Shinji had disappeared, escaping justice, and a lot of the other students got badly hurt, 'Thank goodness at least none of the students died.' He didn't count the casualties from the fire, as that had nothing to do with him.

Shirou had spent the last two days dwelling on what he could have done better: he had tried to be a Hero, but somehow things hadn't worked out as he had imagined. Nobody had ended up happy. And to make it worse, he hadn't been able to find any trace of Sakura – he didn't even know if she had survived the fire. Her house had been destroyed by the fire but he still hoped that she hadn't been home.

He opened the door to the hospital room and entered quietly. Ayako had a private room - the perk of having rich parents - and she appeared to be resting. Shirou walked over to her bed and placed the flowers on the end table. As he did, her eyes opened. "Shirou?" A smile spread across her face the likes of which he had seen only once in his life, when Kiritsugu had saved him from the fire. It was such a beatific expression that Shirou was struck dumb. He just stared back at Ayako. 'This is what I have been striving for. To make just one person smile like that.'

He didn't resist as Ayako gently pulled him down towards her and enveloped him in a hug.

No Hero

[[Six moths later]]

"I can't believe that you actually decided to go to university." Ayako exclaimed as Shirou held up his acceptance letter.

"It's only Waseda University. It's not exactly Tokyo U." Shirou looked pointedly at Ayako. The two were relaxing on a hillside overlooking the city. The view was nice, and it was quiet.

"Still.." Ayako blushed slightly, "It's just down the street."

"We can rent an apartment halfway in between," Shirou nodded. He had come to the realization that he didn't need to save everybody. He just needed to save one person. As long as he was Ayako's hero, it was as if he had saved the whole word. So he had applied to college at the last minute, and put his dad's place up for sale to pay the tuition.

"SHH!" hissed Ayako, blushing furiously as she looked around, "My parents will kill me if they find out!"

"What, that you got into Tokyo U despite having a boyfriend?" He reached out to take her hand.

"No, that we're planning to.." Her voice faded out as the enormity of it all struck her. "Live together."

"Have you spoken to Rin, recently?" Shirou rescued Ayako by changing the subject.

"No. Not since the big explosion at the Matou mansion." She paused, "Do you think that was Shinji's doing as well?

Shirou just shrugged. He hadn't had time to investigate - after his realization in the hospital, Shirou had focused most of his attention on helping Ayako as she recovered from the affects of the draining spell, and on getting into college. With any luck Shinji would eventually get punished for his actions, but Ayako was his priority now. He focused on what she was saying: "Last time I tried to talk to Rin about, you know, everything, she just gave me the cold shoulder. It's like she's decided that other people aren't worth the effort."

"Do you think she's ok?

"No. But if she won't talk to me, there's nothing I can do," Ayako sighed. At least Rin was alive – the fire had swept right by her house, with only the large yard saving it from the conflagration.

Shirou nodded. He felt he had learned so much from Ayako on how to interact with people.

No Hero

Rin sat in her work room in the Tohsaka mansion, gently pulling the glove off of her burnt hand. It was a miracle that she lived. Her last minute Reinforcement had saved her life. Even still, she had barely survived the fire that came after the blast. It had been shear agony, crawling out of the rubble and then staggering, half blind to her home, to her sanctuary. Nobody had come to her rescue. She had had to fight through the pain all by herself, but she had finally made it. Once in her sanctum she had been able to heal most of her burns by draining the few scattered gems left in her workroom, but there were still scars all over her body, including a thick, ropey one that ran from the right corner of her mouth up to her hairline, narrowly missing her eye. She allowed her hair to hang down on that side, covering the hideous frown. At least in part.

She placed the burnt husk that used to be her right hand onto the ritual circle inscribed on her table and started the aria to transform it into living gemstone. At least this way it wouldn't be completely useless. 'Maybe I should make my entire body gemstone,' Rin smiled. She needed to be as hard as diamond, so that nothing could ever touch her again.

The fire had burnt all the softness and silly-girlishness out her. From now on she would be the best magus that the world had ever seen. And she would burn down anybody that stood in her way.

No Hero

"Come along, mongrel," Gilgamesh proclaimed as he pulled out his newly forged passport. Airplanes were an inconvenience, but one that he would tolerate, for a short time. "You did purchase the first class tickets?"

Kirei nodded as he walked at Gilgamesh's side. It was disappointing, the way the fifth Grail war finished. Only 5 of the Heroic Spirits had ended up in the Grail, not enough for it to activate. No apocalypse. No re-birth of humanity. Kirei sighed. He still didn't feel anything.

So he had instead transplanted the lesser Grail into Gilgamesh. At least this way his Servant would not fade away, despite his primary mana source having gone up in smoke.

"Wonderful. Then it is time for the king to go out and meet his subjects," Gilgamesh had too long been locked up, stifled in that out of the way city. It was time for the world to re-learn his name.

And learn to bow down before him.