"Shirou! Look out!" Medusa yelled out.

Shirou turned around to see an enemy charging at him. Shirou placed himself in a defensive position and countered his charge by sidestepping and slashed him right in the back.

"Thanks Rider!"

Medusa didn't say anything as she used her daggers and threw them across the area they were in, effectively killing another enemy. She then pulled the chains attached to her daggers, returning them to her hand before she started to run toward another enemy.

The enemy was caught off guard as he panicked when Medusa came up to him as quick as a bullet, giving her the chance to kill him by slashing him with her daggers.

"Gaaaaaahhhhh!" the enemy screamed as he fell to the ground and died from blood loss, letting Medusa to do the same to the other enemies.

Meanwhile, Shirou was slashing his enemies down with his katana in swift strokes. As he checked the area to see if any more enemies would pop up, he then dodged an arrow that an archer shot from the trees. He then materialized a copy of Kanshou and threw it at the archer hiding in the trees. As he fired the sword at the archer, the archer died instantly as he was impaled by it. "Okay, that should be the last of the enemies..." he thought.

"Shirou."

Shirou turned around to see Medusa and a trail of the corpses of her enemies.

"Rider?"

"It seems like you are done with your side of the enemies," Medusa stated calmly.

"Yes. And I suppose that the same has been done for you as well."

"Yeah. Anyways, let's go back to master's side."

"Got it."

Shirou and Medusa then left the bloodstained area and headed towards where Ritsuka and Mashu was. As Shirou and Medusa were walking towards Ritsuka and Mashu were, Medusa was looking back at Shirou this whole time and this continued until nightfall came.

(A few hours later...)

"All right, I think that's enough wood for tonight.," Ritsuka said as he grabbed some wood to make a campfire.

"You think so senpai?" Mashu asked.

"Yeah. For now, let's head back to the campfire."

Mashu nodded and went back to the campfire along with Ritsuka.

Meanwhile, Shirou and Medusa were hunting wild animals for food to eat. "I think that should be enough meat..." Shirou thought as he looked at the amount of meat caught from the animals he hunted.

"Shirou, do you think this amount of meat is enough for master and Mashu?" Medusa asked while bringing over her amount of meat.

"Yeah. All I need to do is to skin the meat. Want to help me?"

"Sure."

Shirou and Medusa then prepared to skin the meat off to make it more edible while also getting supplies as well. As Shirou and Medusa were doing the task, Medusa asked Shirou a question.

"Hey Shirou, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it Rider?"

Medusa took a deep breath before asking, "Since when are you able to learn to do this? I mean, this is something I have never seen you do before."

"Well...it was something that I had to pick up during one of my travels after the holy grail war was over."

"I see..."

"Yeah. Anyways, let's hurry before the meat starts to rot."

Medusa nodded before de-skinning the meat and bringing it over to the campfire along with Shirou. As they arrived at the campfire, Ritsuka and Mashu were there already.

"Ah! Shirou-san! Medusa-san! You're back already?" Mashu asked.

"Yeah. Along with some meat for food," Shirou said.

"Thank you...I'm so hungry right now," Ritsuka groaned as his stomach growled. Shirou laughed as he prepared to cook the raw meat.

Eventually, Shirou was done cooking the meat and shared it with himself, Ritsuka, Mashu, and Medusa. As Medusa tasted Shirou's cooking, she felt a relief growing in her body.

"So, this is what Sakura has been eating every time she comes over to Shirou's house...I can see why there were times she asked for cooking lessons from Shirou..."

"Uh Rider...are you okay?" Shirou asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing," Medusa replied as she continued to take a bite of her meat.

Eventually, the meat was gone, and Ritsuka and Mashu decided to turn in for the night while Shirou and Medusa decided to stay up to keep watch.

As Shirou and Medusa were watching the campfire, Medusa decided to ask Shirou a question.

"Shirou, I want to ask you something."

"Sure. What is it?"

Medusa took a deep breath before saying, "What happened to Sakura after I left the holy grail war?"

Shirou gathered his thoughts before saying, "Well...after you went back into the throne of heroes, what happened was that Sakura was targeted by Caster and was used as a catalyst for some sort of ritual to summon the holy grail without ending the war. We did manage to stop her from sacrificing Sakura and summoning the holy grail by stopping her magic circuits. However, she didn't stop there as she had a backup plan which involved sacrificing both Sakura and Tohsaka.

Medusa was shocked. "So, what happened next?"

Shirou sighed. "Gilgamesh appeared and unleashed his Gate of Babylon on Caster, killing her instantly. Due to her death, the temple me, Arturia, Tohsaka, Sakura, and Gilgamesh were in collapsed on us. Luckily, we managed to escape, but so did Gilgamesh."

"I see...and what happened after the holy grail war?"

"After the holy grail war was over, since Sakura couldn't use her magic circuits, she assumed the life of a normal high school girl."

Medusa sighed in relief, now knowing that Sakura was free from the torture she was dealing with in her life. However, she remembered one more thing.

"And what happened...to Shinji...?"

Shirou let out a sigh. "According to Illya, she had berserker kill him."

"I see..." Medusa said.

For a while, silence came between the two.

Until Medusa asked Shirou one more question.

"Hey Shirou, can I ask you one more question?"

"Sure. What was it?"

"Was Sakura happy in the end?"

Shirou gave that question a long thought and said, "Well...after the holy grail war, Sakura seemed a lot happier than before. I thought the death of Shinji was going to make her sad, but turns out, it made her a lot happier. I guess everything went well for Sakura after the holy grail was over and her magic circuits destroyed, because in the end, she was able to live freely and more happily as a normal person."

After hearing Shirou's answer, Medusa's relief for Sakura went up immediately, now knowing that she was free from the curse she was born with. "I see...thanks for telling me Shirou."

"No problem Rider," Shirou said with a smile.

Rider saw the smile and quickly turned around. "Shirou hasn't changed this whole time...he's still the same person Sakura fell in love with...and I hope he doesn't change...for her sake..."

Shirou was walking in Chaldea's hallway, minding his own business.

When he suddenly felt a tug on his kinomo. As he turned around, he saw a young purple haired girl wearing a black hood with cat ears and an eye design on the front.

"Rider? But wait, she looks younger..." Shirou thought as he looked at her.

"Hey you. Are you Emiya Shirou?" the young girl asked.

"Y-Yes. And who are you?"

"My name is Ana."

"I see. How do you know who I am?"

"My older version of me told me about you."

"I-I see. And what do you want with me Ana?"

"Oh nothing. I just want to observe you. That is all."

"I-I see," Shirou said before he started walking again. As he was walking, Ana continued to follow him everywhere he was going, and it was kind of creeping Shirou out a bit. "Wow, Ana is literally observing me..." he thought.

Eventually, Shirou landed into the cafeteria, preparing himself for his daily duties in Chaldea. As Shirou went into the kitchen, Ana sat on one of the chairs was sat there.

"Hey Ana, do you want something to eat?"

"Hmm...let me think about that..." Ana muttered before she went into her thoughts to think about what to have as a snack for today.

Eventually, she came to a conclusion.

"I would like for some cookies please," Ana said.

"All right then."

Shirou then proceeded to preheat the oven and grabbed the materials to make cookie batter from the fridge and prepared to make cookie batter. As he was making cookie batter, Ana was watching him with interest.

"So, this is the Emiya Shirou my older rider self was talking about earlier...he does seem like a nice guy...although I may be jumping to conclusions a bit too early..."

Meanwhile, Shirou was mixing the cookie batter and was rolling the batter on a non-sticky surface area. Afterwards, he grabbed the cookie cutters and created multiple cookies of various shapes. He then placed the cookies onto a non-sticking baking tray and placed it into the oven.

As Shirou closed the oven's door, he then turned around to see where Ana was. As such, she was at the table, minding her own business.

"Ana, I hope you don't mind, but the cookies will be done in about an hour or so," Shirou said.

"I don't mind," Ana replied with a straight face.

For a moment, silence came between the two.

Since neither of them know what to say to each other.

Eventually, Ana broke the silence by asking Shirou a question.

"Can I ask you something Shirou?"

"Sure. What is it Ana?"

"How is it that the older rider version of me knows you?"

Shirou took a deep breath before saying, "It's kind of a long story. You see, during my time when I was still a human, I got myself involved in the holy grail war of my time by pure chance, and it wasn't pretty."

"How so?"

"Well...I got myself killed early by a lancer. And then when I was revived, I went back to my home...only to see the same lancer that killed me earlier waiting for me...in my own home. At that moment, I had to defend myself and fought against that lancer."

"Really? What happened next?"

"The match ended up with me summoning a servant and lancer retreated."

"I see."

Shirou took a sigh before saying, "A few days later, I came across your rider version along with her master. During that time, we never actually fought against each other and she even gave me a warning."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. However, the next time we met, we had to fight because of her master who happened to be my friend. During the fight, the rider version of you used her noble phantasm to escape."

"I see..." Ana said as she was interested in the fight.

"The day though, it was the last time I ever saw her. You see, the reason why I said that was because during the battle, my servant used her noble phantasm against her, immediately sending her back to the throne of heroes."

Ana was surprised of what the rider version of her did. "Wow."

"Yeah," Shirou said. As he said that, he heard a ding coming from the kitchen. "Ah, the cookies must be done now," he thought. Shirou then put on some oven mitts, opened the door to the oven, and grabbed the cookies out of the tray. Shirou then removed the cookies out of the tray and placed them on a cooling rack. After a few minutes, the cookies cooled down.

"Ana, the cookies are done. You can have them now."

"Okay," Ana said as she proceeded to take a cookie. For a fleeting moment, her face went up into delight as she took a bite of the cookie and ate it really fast.

"You like it?" Shirou asked.

Ana's face went back to her normal stoic face and said, "It's not bad. Another please."

Shirou smiled. "As you wish."

And Ana continued her day eating Shirou's cookies.

"Eh? You want me to deliver something to a servant?" Shirou asked Ritsuka.

"Yes, why? Do you have a problem with that?" Ritsuka replied.

"Well no...it's just that...well...never mind," Shirou said. "So, where and whom do I give the item to?"

"It's simple. Head towards room 325 and give the item to Gorgon," Mashu said.

"Gorgon...isn't that one of Rider's alternate selves?" Shirou thought as he received the box from Ritsuka.

"Uh Shirou?" Ritsuka asked.

Shirou snapped out of his daze and said, "Hm? Oh yeah, give the package to Gorgon in room 325 correct?"

"Y-Yeah," Ritsuka said.

"Well then, I'll be off then," Shirou said as he left the room Ritsuka and Mashu were in and went out into Chaldea's hallways to find room 325.

Eventually, he found the room.

"Okay, room 325. Here it is..." Shirou thought as he was at the front door of room 325. "Um, excuse me, is Gorgon-san here right now?"

After a few seconds of silence, a voice returned. "Yes. What do you want?"

"I have a package here from master. He told me to bring it to you."

"Master said so? If that's the case, then bring it over here."

Shirou then went into the room, seeing a woman who looks similar to Medusa with a bit of changes in some areas. "Where do you want me to put the box Gorgon-san?"

"Just put it somewhere where it doesn't annoy me."

"I see." Shirou then looked for a place to put the package where it wouldn't annoy Gorgon. "Is this area good?" Shirou asked as he pointed to an area in the corner of his room.

"Hm? Over there?" Gorgon asked.

"Yeah."

Gorgon gave it a long thought and said, "Sure. That seems fine."

"Really? If that's the case, then I hope you don't mind if I put it over there."

"Sure."

Shirou then placed the box into the corner that Gorgon told him to and was about to leave before Gorgon said something to him.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to be Emiya Shirou right?"

Shirou turned around and said, "Y-Yeah. Why?"

"I've heard about you from my alternate selves and they said that you're like master."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, you do give off the same foolish habits and aura master has."

Shirou didn't know to feel if that was an insult to himself or master, so he just stayed quiet.

"Can I ask you something?" Gorgon asked.

"Uh sure. What is it?" Shirou asked.

"Why do you always cherish other people's lives before your own? From what I heard from my other selves, you always risk your life not only for master, but also for other servants. While I do get why would you do it for master, I don't get why would you do it for other servants, and it puzzles me. Just why?"

Shirou took a deep breath before saying, "It's because I don't want to see the people I care about die in front of me. That it all."

Gorgon was surprised by Shirou's answer. "Just for that? Just for a selfless and selfish reason you will commit yourself to great lengths to protect the ones you love and care for?"

"Yes. It may be selfless and selfish...but still, I will commit myself to those ideals."

"I see..." Gorgon said. "Then let me ask you this Emiya Shirou. What do you think of me? Considering that what my name is and what my lore is, do you see me as a monster?"

Shirou took a deep breath before saying, "I don't see you as a monster. All I see is you and that is all. And I will not treat you like such."

Gorgon was surprised at the answer Shirou just gave her. After all, no one besides master and her other selves have gave her an answer like this.

"Well then, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving then," Shirou said as he proceeds to head towards the front door.

"Sure. Go ahead," Gorgon replied.

Shirou then left the room, leaving Gorgon alone in her room.

"Emiya Shirou...he doesn't seem that bad..."