Disclaimer: See chapter 2.
5 A.M, March 19, 2004.
Atlas Mountains, World Serpent's underground base, Morocco, North Africa.
Shirou slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing that squeezed into the field of vision through the slits of the eyes was the bright yellow soft light. The nearby environment was quite dim. The consciousness that has not yet fully awakened makes the surrounding scene look like it is covered with a thin layer of fog.
"Well..."
His body feel very heavy.
There is a numbness all over the body, similar to poor blood circulation.
He had just woken up, but it seemed as if he would fall back into sleep as soon as he relaxed a little.
"Damn, what happened?"
Just as he started to speak, he was startled by his own voice.
His voice was extremely hoarse, and there was a numbing feeling deep in his throat.
Damn it...why is it keep happening to him?
With great effort, Shirou forced his upper body to sit up.
The moment his sat up, he felt a very soft feeling under his body.
The touch of the leather surface is so delicate that you can understand that this is definitely a very luxurious sofa without even looking at it.
He rubbed his eyebrows, temporarily closed his eyes that could not see anything clearly, and used his fuzzy brain to recall the reason why he lost consciousness -
He remember, it seemed that when he returned home, he suddenly saw the ghost again. The same guy, after using up the last bit of power in his class card... he probably fell down unconsciously.
No, if that's the case, why did you wake up in such a strange environment?
Also, the injury on his shoulder -
after recalling the reason why he lost consciousness, Emiya Shirou raised his palm and lightly touched his shoulder.
"Huh?"
Because the upper body of his clothes was not changed, Emiya Shirou easily discard the cloth that was punctured by the bullet and touched his skin.
But beyond his expectation, although there were traces of scar on the surface of the skin, the wound itself had long since healed.
Opening his eyes and taking a closer look, he saw a bandage stained with blood on the seat next to his thigh.
As consciousness gradually recovered, the scene that could be seen gradually became clearer.
Emiya Shirou's pupils shrank, and he couldn't help but stood up with a shudder. "Where is this place?" He whispered, voice nearly inaudible.
After he could see everything in front of him clearly, only then did Shirou realize that he was sitting in a rather large but neatly decorated room. He couldn't help but be surprised.
The dark hall is more than four meters in height. The smooth and shiny floor reflects several triangular post-modern chandeliers. Next to it is a bar counter for bartending. The cylindrical space on the right side has an inverted spherical dome. Below, there is an unknown device emitting a faint light.
In addition, there are conference table with rotating earth models, and supercomputer libraries with high-speed data streams... It would be fine if they were simply decorated luxuriously, but these weird things don't look like they should be. The facilities that appear in modern society are more like those that appear in the distant future -
Just when Shirou Emiya was dumbfounded because he saw a scene that was beyond reality, an unknown device suddenly emitted a slow damping sound under the spherical dome.
The metal ring floating in mid-air quickly unfolded, and the shimmering core stretched out a strange film in the middle of the metal ring.
Then, a ripple appeared in the center of the film. Just when Shirou Emiya thought something would emerge from it, the rapidly surging light quickly condensed around him.
After a moment, a girl appeared next to him.
"Ooof-"
The moment her body condensed, the girl quickly opened her eyes, followed by rapid and chaotic breathing, and the sweat on her forehead dropped like waterfall, her widened pupils were filled with fear.
"Ha... ha... I thought I was going to die... What are you thinking, that monster? Aren't they all people who protect the world? What kind of inability to communicate, and attacks that don't distinguish between friend and foe...?"
"..." Shirou blinked, experssion blank.
The moment the girl appeared, he almost instinctively raised his arms in a defensive posture, but seeing this girl's frightened appearance, he felt something quite wrong, he just couldn't place his finger on it.
Out of kindness, he temporarily put down his arm and asked cautiously: "Um, are you okay?"
"—!?" The girl freezed, and she jumped to her side like a frightened animal. She quickly turn toward the voice, setting into a fighting stance.
"Who is it?"
Then, after seeing Shirou, the girl was stunned.
After a moment, she breathed a sigh of relief; and ease her stance, wiped the sweat from her forehead, "It turns out to be you, please don't scare me so suddenly again, okay?"
"..." Emiya Shirou rolled his eyes, and then her word registered in his head, "Wait, you know me?"
"No, I don't." The girl shook her head.
"Then why did you say 'It's you,'? Is this what you would say to a stranger?" Shirou asked.
"Let me tell you, no matter whether you are familiar with someone or unfamiliar, after carrying someone on your back for more than ten hours, you will definitely recognize his face no matter what, right?" The girl snorted.
"Originally... I wanted to throw you away halfway, but who knew your life would be so tough. That bastard is the same. He only dumps things he hasn't done well on others... After I go out this time, I have to ask him to help me. I need to get my salary raise."
"...In other words, you brought me here?" Shirou frowned, "You are in the same group of that guy… The Homunculus…"
"Homunculus?" The girl furrowed her brows, then shook her head, "Although I don't know what you are talking about, if it is about Gray Serpent, I have never regarded him as a companion."
"What? What do you mean?" Shirou Emiya asked.
"Literally speaking, would you regard a person who is about to kidnap you as a companion?" The girl shrugged and said in a calm tone, "So, I don't care how you want to treat the person who kidnapped you here, If you want revenge, don't take me with you. I just saw that you were bleeding to death, so I brought you back temporarily according to Gray Serpent's instructions. If that guy hadn't shot you, I wouldn't have any ability to kidnap someone like you, who is went head to head against Gray Snake; and still rearing to go for more, back to the World Serpent's base."
"Were you also kidnapped here?" Emiya Shirou looked at the girl's.
Only then did he realize that although the girl's behavior and tone of voice were quite mature, in terms of appearance alone, she was only just a little older than the body he was using today, which was almost seven years old. Only three to four years old.
"So, you were forced by that guy?" Shirou said softly.
"No." The girl shook her head, "Although I was taken away by force at first, after that, he really didn't force me to do anything - except for those hard exercises. ."
"...I'm getting more and more confused." Shirou said, "After being forcibly kidnapped here, you are not forced to do anything?"
"No, other than giving me missions, he didn't force me to do anything. And the reward are worth it so…"The girl said, "Don't people live in this world just for a few simple things? After I see through this truth, I'm no longer regret that Gray Serpent kidnapped me. I'm complaining about coming back."
A rather mundane, but at the same time quite convincing reason.
Although the girl was a victim of the kidnapping like him, she also accepted this situation because of the generous material conditions provided by the kidnapper.
"That is, the so-called inducement...right?" Shirou sigh. Since it was the girl's own choice, he naturally had no right to interfere. "You can stay here as you please. But will you stop me if I'm going to leave?"
"Please do so." The girl stretched out her palm in the direction of the entrance and said nonchalantly, "I am only responsible for bringing you back, and I have already received the reward. As for whether you want to leave or to seek revenge on that guy, these things have nothing to do with me."
After saying that, the girl stretched and took steps.
She walk pass Shirou and walked towards the bar counter: "Let me see to what drink..." The girl picked up her drink and walk toward a chair.
Shirou stare at the door.
The door was not far away. After passing the two stairs that folded downward, the metal door appeared in front of him.
The steel door had no lock, only a circular touch area. Emiya Shirou covered the surface of the touch area with his palm, and the red warning light suddenly flashed.
"Hey!" Shirou Emiya raised his head and shouted loudly: "Do you know how to open this door?"
Footsteps sounded from far to near, and the girl holding a cup of colored liquid poked her head down from the edge of the railing.
"The permission to freely enter here is only in the hands of the World Serpent cadres. If you want to get the key, I suggest you wait for the Gray Serpent to come over. Ask him for it yourself ." The girl stated loud enough for him to hear, sipping on her cup of alcohol, leaning on the rail.
"..." Emiya Shirou was silent for a moment, then turned his gaze towards the door again.
Suddenly, the girl who had just been drinking the drink squirted out all the liquid in her mouth.
But she completely ignored her blunder, and instead shouted with a trembling voice: "Wait! What are you going to do?!"
- Just when the girl said that she didn't have the key to the entrance or exit. At that moment, the red armor quickly covered Emiya Shirou's body.
He summon the bow and the slender spiral arrow that had appeared out of nowhere, and stretched the bowstring with the arrow to its full length.
In an instant, a manic arc of electricity, accompanied by an extremely violent wind, swept through this spacious space, which was still just a hall.
Although she couldn't figure out what the arrow was and why it glowed, the girl could tell at a glance that Emiya Shirou was preparing to do something quite terrifying just through the violently affected environment.
Emiya Shirou's subsequent words also confirmed the girl's guess.
He raised his head, glanced at the girl innocently, and said matter-of-factly: "Of course I'm going to blast this door open. Is there any problem?"
"Blast... blast it open?!" The girl looked down in stunned silence. "Wait, wait! Stop!"
"Why stop?" Emiya Shirou said coldly, "Didn't you say you weren't going to stop me?"
"It's true that I wasn't going to stop you! But do you know that this place is deep underground!" The girl shouted in fear, "Do you want to bury us all here!?"
Emiya Shirou freezed "Deep underground?"
Probably because the master's will was shaken, the sharp arc and violent wind gradually calmed down.
The handle of the bow, which was pulled to full length by Shirou Emiya, also slowly straightened after he slowly removed the power concentrated in his fingertips.
"Ahhhh - it's true! Could that bastard have expected this situation and just left you to me?!" Seeing that Shirou finally gave up the dangerous idea, the girl crossed the railing, jumped straight down from above.
She grabbed Shirou Emiya's wrist, and dragged his body up the stairs: "Come with me first!"
"Wait, let go, what do you want to do?"
"You want to leave from here, right?" The girl turned around and asked impatiently.
"Yes! What's wrong? Is there anything wrong?" Emiya Shirou snorted, "If you are kidnapped, you will want to leave here."
"Then just listen to me. No?" The girl took a deep breath and said earnestly, "Rather than doing such dangerous things, I know there is a way for you to leave here without being blocked by anyone, you know?"
"I can't trust you."Emiya Shirou broke free from the girl's hand, took two steps back, and glanced at the girl wearily, "Even though you claim that you and the guy named Gray Serpent are not partners, you obeyed that guy's orders and followed his instructions. It's also a fact."
"That guy is my enemy. No matter what the reason is, if you obey that guy's orders, you will only become my enemy one day in the future."