Author's note: This chapter may be a bit OOC.

Even though Fujimaru Ritsuka has successfully saved humanity, it wasn't an easy journey.

Especially with the mental trauma that came with it afterwards.

While his actions did save humanity in the end, it came with a huge cost.

The mentality of his soul.

Because while clearing the singularities did save humanity, it didn't save the innocent people included in them.

And it still haunted him.

Not only that, but the deaths of Olga Marie Animusphere, Romani Archaman, and the many other master candidates and members of Chaldea still haunt him to this day.

Even now, he still has nightmares about their deaths...

"Why did you let us die..."

"Why didn't you save us..."

"You can't save humanity, no matter what you do..."

"You should have died in that explosion Lev created..."

"Why did you live when others better than you died..."

Ritsuka woke up from his nightmare with a gasp as he immediately rose from his bed, grasping his bed sheets tightly. Beads of sweat were coming down his head as he was trying to calm himself down from the nightmare he just received. "Another nightmare again..." he thought as he laid down on the bed. As he was laying down on the bed, he stretched one of his hands and raised it into the air. "Director...Dr. Romani...everyone..." he thought as he tried to go back to sleep.

However, this would be proven useless, because no matter how long time has passed or what technique Ritsuka would use to go to sleep, it would fail, and he would struggle trying to go to sleep.

Ritsuka sighed as he knew he was not going to experience a good night's sleep tonight. "Well, guess it's another rough night for me...maybe I'll go to one of the vending machines to get a drink..." he thought as he got out of bed and left his room...

(The next day...)

"Senpai. Senpai. It's time to wake up," Mashu said as she was knocking on the door of Ritsuka's room.

"Mmmnh...I'll be there Mashu. Just give me a moment..." Ritsuka moaned as he got out of bed and put on his Chaldea uniform. As he opened the door, Mashu was greeted with a sight she thought she would never see.

Ritsuka looked horrible. His hair was in a complete mess and his eyes looked very sore.

"S-Senpai?! Are you okay?! You don't look so good..." Mashu exclaimed as she was in shock of the state Ritsuka was in.

"Hm? Oh...yeah. Just a rough night. That's all," Ritsuka replied as he was rubbing his forehead for comfort.

On the contrary, Ritsuka felt like he could use an energy drink right now. His body felt so sluggish and sore at the same time and his head feels like it was splitting apart and has needles piercing through it.

Mashu looked at him worryingly. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm fine Mashu."

"Well...if you say so..."

Rituka and Mashu then went to the cafeteria. As they were walking, Ritsuka felt like his body was sore in some areas. "Wow. Last night was probably one of the roughest nights I ever had in quite a while..." he thought.

Eventually, both Ritsuka and Mashu arrived at the cafeteria. As they were walking in the cafeteria, they were noticed by multiple servants. Mostly because of the look Ritsuka was giving.

However, the one that noticed it the most was Shirou and Archer/EMIYA.

"Master, are you okay?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah, you look like you haven't slept well," Archer/EMIYA said.

Ritsuka sighed. "I'm fine you guys. I just had a bad night. That is all."

"I see..."

"Yeah. Anyways, can I have some breakfast now?"

"Sure," Shirou said.

As time passed on, Ritsuka was going through his day like normal. He also hoped that tonight he would have a good night's sleep...

Few weeks have passed, and Ritsuka still hasn't got a good night's sleep.

If anything, his condition has gotten even worse.

And it was starting to worry the servants.

Especially for a certain someone...

"Hey Shirou-san, do you think something is wrong with senpai?" Mashu asked.

"You think so too Mashu?" Shirou replied.

"Yes. Recently, he looks like he been lacking sleep and is struggling with something. Not only that, but there were times where he looks like he was about to pass out."

"I see. Now that you mention it, there were times where I would see him late at night at one of Chaldea's vending machines."

"Do you think he's having problems with something?"

"Probably. Want to ask around where he is?"

"Y-Yes!"

Shirou and Mashu then asked around the servants in Chaldea where Ritsuka was. However, they all said that they haven't seen Ritsuka anywhere. Not only that, but they also checked the places were Ritsuka would be, but to no avail, he wasn't in any of the places as well.

"Well, we're out of places of where master would go to," Shirou said as he and Mashu were walking down in Chaldea's hallway. "What should we do?"

"Well...we could try his room. It's the last place he would go to."

"Good idea Mashu."

Shirou and Mashu then went to Ritsuka's room. As they arrived on the front door, Mashu then knocked on the door. "Senpai? Are you there?" Mashu asked from the other side of the door.

There was no response.

"Senpai? If you don't mind, I'm coming in now..." Mashu said before she and Shirou then went into Ritsuka's room. As they went inside, what they saw surprised them.

Inside the room was multiple empty cans of juice lying down on the floor. Alongside the mess of cans was Ritsuka sleeping without the bed sheets over him.

"W-Wow...this mess here..." Shirou said.

"Senpai...so that's where you were..." Mashu muttered as she was looking at him sleeping. She the covered him up with the bed sheets. "Jeez...I told you that you weren't fine...especially when I saw you a few weeks ago..."

Shirou was worried after hearing Mashu's words. "What happened a few weeks ago? I mean, between you two?"

"Well...I was greeting senpai earlier...and when I saw him, he didn't look so good..."

"I see...how bad did he look?"

"Well...his hair was messy, and his eyes were red..."

Shirou sighed. "Sounds like he wasn't able to get some sleep last night..." he thought.

"Shirou-san, do you have an idea of what's going on with senpai?"

"Yeah. And I think I have the solution for it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. For now, let's just wait until master wakes up," Shirou said.

(A few hours later...)

"Mmmnh...mmmmnh..."

"Senpai?"

"Mmmmnh...Mashu?" Ritsuka moaned.

Mashu gave him a smile. "Good afternoon Senpai. Had a good nap?"

"Y-Yeah..." he muttered as he was rubbing his eyes. As he got a better look at his surroundings, he saw both Mashu and Shirou in his room. "S-Shirou?"

"I take it you had a good nap master?"

"Y-Yeah..." Ritsuka replied with a yawn.

"Well then...do you mind if I ask you something?"

Ritsuka was confused about what Shirou said, but he continued. "Sure. What is it?"

"Have you been having sleeping problems lately?"

For a moment, there was silence in the room. Ritsuka then broke the silence by saying, 'W-What are you talking about?"

Shirou sighed. "Don't play dumb with me. Considering what's going on with you today, I have a guess that you're experiencing sleeping problems."

"R-Really? Do you have any evidence?"

"Yes. Your recent actions, your facial features, and...the amount of empty juice cans lying around in your room."

Ritsuka gulped as he knew that there was nothing he can't hide from Shirou. Especially with all the evidence that was shown against him.

"I can't hide something from you, can I?" he muttered.

Shirou nodded.

Ritsuka sighed. "Fine I'll tell you what's bothering me lately."

Shirou and Mashu listened to what Ritsuka has to say.

"Well...I've been having nightmares about my past in Chaldea?"

"Your past in Chaldea?" Shirou said.

"You may not know this Shirou, but before you and the other servants arrived here, I wasn't the only master here."

"What do you mean?"

"You see, there were originally 48 master candidates and a lot more members in Chaldea than what you are seeing right now. However, due to Lev's betrayal and actions, all of those master candidates died and reduced Chaldea's staff into what it is now."

"I see...I didn't know that."

"Yeah. And what's more, the first singularity me and senpai went to, practically everyone over there died. There were no survivors as everything was burning. What's more, at the end of that singularity, Lev revealed his true colors and killed off Olga Marie Animusphere, who is the director of Chaldea," Mashu said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Afterwards, me and Mashu cleared out every singularity and ended up facing Solomon, the king of mages," Ritsuka said

Shirou was shocked to hear this. "Solomon?! The king of mages?! You went up against him?!"

Ritsuka nodded with a smile on his face.

"Wow. So, what happened?"

"Well I won...but..."

"But what?"

Ritsuka let out a sigh before continuing. "During the battle against Solomon, Doctor Romani, a friend of ours, gave his life in the process."

"I see. So how are these events related to your problem?"

"Well...I've been having nightmares about their deaths," Ritsuka said with a sigh. "Even though it's been a long time since that battle, I should have moved on with my life, but I guess...their deaths still haunt me to this day..."

"Master..."

"Senpai..."

"And the problem is that every time whenever I try to sleep, sometimes I hear their voices haunting me, telling and cursing me about how I survived while others didn't."

"And that's why you weren't able to sleep recently?"

"Yeah. Not only that, but during the singularities, it felt like I ended up killing a bunch of people because a singularity is kind of like a world, and fixing a singularity means erasing it from the timeline, including the innocent people living in there as well..."

Shirou was shocked to hear this from Ritsuka. "Jeez, I-I never knew about this..."

"I can't blame you. Trust me, it's a lot for me to take in too. In fact, I'm still trying to process all of the stuff that I did..." Ritsuka said with a sigh.

For a moment, everyone in the room was quiet after what Ritsuka just said.

Then Shirou said something to break the silence.

"Um master...excuse me for saying this, but aren't you blaming yourself unfairly over this?"

Ritsuka was confused with what Shirou just said. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let me ask you this. Were the deaths of the Olga, Romani, and the others was your fault?"

"Well no, but..."

"Then there's your answer then. Don't blame yourself for things that were out of your control. Trust me, you may feel like it's your fault that those people died, but it's not. If anything, they don't want you to feel down or have bad dreams about this."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

Ritsuka and Mashu were in awe over how much insight Shirou had on this topic.

"Uhm...I'm not being rude or anything...but how do you know so much about this topic Shirou-san?" Mashu asked.

"Welll...let's just say...I have experience dealing with this..."

"How so..."

"Well...it's not an easy story, but do you want to hear it?"

"Yes," Ritsuka and Mashu said in unison.

Shirou let out a sigh before saying his experience. "Well, you all know about me being a magus during my time as a human correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, before I became a magus, let's just say...I experienced hell..."

Ritsuka and Mashu were surprised with what Shirou just said. "What do you mean you experienced hell Shirou-san?"

Shirou let out another sigh before continuing. "Before I became a magus, I was just a normal kid, living a normal lifestyle. However, a certain incident called "The Great Fuyuki Fire" happened and completely took everything from me. It destroyed a portion of Fuyuki. I was the only survivor of that incident."

"The only survivor?! Of an event like that?!" Mashu said.

"Yeah."

"How did you survive?!"

"My adoptive father found me from the rubble. After that is...well, you know."

"I see..."

"Yeah. Ever since then, I used to have nightmares about that incident, and it would haunt me sometimes, even now."

"Wow. So that's how you know about my problem..." Ritsuka said.

"Yeah."

"Uhm...thanks for the advice Shirou-san," Mashu said.

"Yeah. If it wasn't for you, I would be still having these problems now."

Shirou smiled. "No problem. Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go to do something. So, I'll see you later," he said as he got out from the chair he was sitting on. He then left Ritsuka's room, leaving Ritsuka and Mashu alone together.

"Shirou-san sure knows his stuff huh?" Mashu said.

"Yeah. Thanks to him, I think I can finally get a good night's sleep for once."

Mashu smiled. "You may, but there's one thing you need to do first before you can get one."

"And what's that Mashu?"

Mashu then pointed at the empty cans of juice and said, "You might need to clean this mess up."

Ritsuka sighed. Guess that good night's sleep will wait later...