Capítulo 29: Chapter 18.2 - Memories Linked [2]
When Shirou finally comes to wake, he feels a distinct lack of the flowers he remembered falling unconscious atop of. He immediately bolts upright only to wince when the many healing wounds on his body are stretched, and he forces himself to sit back down.
He takes a moment to look around, at the small empty shed Merlin seems to have placed him in, and he lets out a sigh of relief when he sees Sakura sleeping not far from him, the pained expression she wore previously gone. For a moment he just sits there, idly watching the girl the Matous had tortured for so long, and at the knowledge that he'd managed to save her.
It feels...almost liberating, to know that he'd managed to save someone. Could this be what Kiritsugu felt when he pulled him out of that accursed fire?
For a short moment he wondered why Merlin placed them here out of all places, but he shakes the thought away.
Nevertheless, he can't stay here, not for long. There's already some knowledge on what's currently happening in the world outside, seemingly from Merlin placing them inside his mind while he slept. He can't sense Hanami anywhere either, and that familiar sense of dread begins to creep in.
He stands up, slower this time, and as gently as he can, he picks Sakura up and carries her on his back. Taking a deep breath, he opens the door and steps out,
To see the world breaking apart, with cracks spreading all over the earth's surface, bursts of mana exploding up into the sky, and a bright aurora decorating the night sky above. He already knew of it, had knowledge of it implanted within him by Merlin, but still, the entire scenery looks almost beautiful.
Of course, there's also that chain of explosions happening in the distance, one particularly being caused by a battle between a certain familiar ship and a divine being of old.
Then, he can hear something approaching, accompanying it four different distinct smells; one of smoke and gunpowder, another of a garden of lilies, one a pristine vinyl, and the last of metal and something distinctly magical. He knows them all, two of them more than the others, and he turns to their direction and waits.
Slowly, a car can be seen coming his way, before it jerks to a stop. The door at the driver's seat opens, and out from it comes Kiritsugu, his eyes wide in surprise.
"...Shirou?" He begins, and he can't quite help but smile.
'This is probably why Merlin chose this spot.'
"Hey, d-, Kiritsugu." Shirou quickly corrects himself, knowing that he isn't the man's son, at least, not yet. The other doors open to reveal the rest of his team, with Irisviel looking particularly stricken by his condition.
"S-Shirou, what happened?"
"...It's a long story." He says, before turning to Kiritsugu. "Is there enough space for one more?"
"We can manage." Shirou nods at the man, and they all quickly return to the car, just with Maiya and Saber making more space at the back for him to sit. He gently moves Sakura down onto his lap, and nodding at his father, Kiritsugu turns the car back on and drives onward atop the still undamaged roads.
"What happened Shirou? Where's Hanami and her servants?" Irisviel asks again, her eyes staring at him with an amount of worry he'd only seen on Hanami. He doesn't quite know what to think about it, but he sighs and leans back, already beginning to compress his experience for them to understand.
"It's a mission. Hanami would deal with Zouken while I went in and saved Sakura." He begins, looking down to the sleeping girl before continuing. "I managed to save her, but...then Erebus appeared."
"Erebus?" Saber asks from his left, clearly unfamiliar with its name. "It's...essentially humanity's desire for death, somewhat like a phantasmal beast but created by humans instead of the planet."
The moment he says so, the atmosphere becomes eerily silent, and Shirou blinks, wondering if he'd somehow said something wrong. "Um, Shirou…" He turns to Irisviel, still confused why everyone is so silent. "Y-You said, a phantasmal beast, right? O-One made by humanity's consciousness…?"
"Yes?"
"Then it's immortal...right?" Irisviel continues, looking visibly shaken. He simply nods. "Ah...Yeah."
Silence reigns once more, and Shirou can only grimace at how awkward the entire atmosphere is. "B-But I killed it, so it's fine." He says in hopes that it'd alleviate some of the strange tension in the air. He succeeded on that front, but the car suddenly stops, and he's faced with surprised stares from the four individuals inside the car.
"Forgive me, Shirou, but you said you...killed it?" Saber asks, he nods, and she backs away slightly, clearly uncomfortable. It makes him feel slightly nostalgic actually, reminding him of how many times he baffled Saber when he was her master, and he can't help but smile.
He leans back onto his chair, closes his eyes, and lets himself rest as he let the others take in what he'd just said.
~~~
Of course, he doesn't truly 'sleep', instead reappearing within the gardens of Avalon. Actually, when did he last truly 'sleep', without having himself be transported to Avalon or train in that strange world where Okita and the rest are? He can't quite remember.
He looks down to see clean, chiseled stone instead of flowers, and he realises he's appeared atop Merlin's tower instead of the ground this time. And talking about the mage, she's not far from him, sitting by an ornate table with a cup of warm tea held in her hands. There's also another cup of tea on the opposite side of the table, presumably for him.
"Come now, enjoy the tea. It'll get cold if you don't." Merlin says, taking another sip from her cup. Shirou nods, taking a seat by the table and picking up the cup of tea. Then, he stared at it, a random thought suddenly cropping up in his mind. "Wait, can it even become cold? Is something like that possible?"
Merlin stops, blinking in surprise at the question. "...I do not know." She admits, staring at her own cup. "I suppose I could force it to become cold, but I don't know if the heat could naturally escape." She takes another sip, humming in thought. "Hmm, I suppose that's another experiment I could try out."
They sit there in silence, enjoying their cups of tea. Of course, they aren't truly drinking tea. Despite the wonders the Avalon are capable of, it isn't able to use the first true magic. The tea, the cup, even the tower they stand on are mere fragments of dreams given form by Merlin's magecraft. Still, the creations are real enough for them to satisfy themselves on the taste of warm tea.
"So, what are you going to do?" Merlin says as she places down her empty cup, letting the ambient air waft back into the cup to slowly refill it. "The world is in ruin, your companion is missing, and there're still rampant servants running amok." She smiles, "Well, that, and the corrupted grail is about to activate, no?"
"What can I do about it?" He says, frowning. "The other fake servants seem to be occupied by the others."
"So you would do nothing? Even when the masses are being swallowed into the world at this very moment?"
Shirou stills, the echo of that old damaged dream crying in the back of his mind, but he pushes them away. "And waste myself? The corrupted grail will activate either way." He said, distantly noting that he'd sounded a lot like his possible future self. Whether that was a bad thing or a good thing however, he doesn't quite know.
"And yet you saved little Sakura, no?"
"...It's the least I could do, after neglecting her for so long."
Merlin hums, thoughtful as she picks up her now filled tea cup. "So, you're saying that you'd go save only those you care for?"
"I guess." He says, before raising an eyebrow at her. "What's with all the questions?"
Merlin smiles vaguely. "Oh, just idle curiosity."
It really isn't though. Right before her is she witnessing the birth of another hero, one that could compare against those of old. It almost reminds her of her time with Arthur, of the guidance she'd given to him, just this time they were far closer than a simple student and teacher, intimate yet not quite partners, close yet not simply friends.
[Hero Maker] is one of the skills that'd somehow been integrated into her Saint Graph, and it's actually something she takes quite a lot of pride in. There isn't much that could compare to the satisfaction of watching her students grow.
So to see him grow from a naive young boy carrying the weight of his father's faulty dream, to a young man capable of matching ancient monsters is...she isn't sure how to describe it actually. There aren't any words of the human language that can explain the special warmth she has every time she watches her students grow.
Of course, Shirou is still far from his path's end. There're still many trials he must undertake, many more arcs his story must go through.
Merlin closes her eyes, hiding her smile behind her tea cup.
'And I'll be there for him, every step of the way.'
~~~
From the moment Saber laid her eyes on him, she knew there was something special about him.
A young man with auburn hair and bright, golden eyes. It was a pair of colors uncommon, not just in the land of Japan, but everywhere else. His body is sculpted, similar to heroes of the old generations, and his gait is both confident and humble. His powers are even stranger, capable of bringing the [Gardens of Avalon] into the real world, something she knew only a certain magus could do.
But what was perhaps most confusing is those discrete gazes when he thought she wasn't looking. Those eyes that glanced at something familiar, holding inside them a sense of both nostalgia and guilt.
She knows she has never met him, she would've remembered someone like him if she did, but a small part of her, hidden in the far reaches of her heart screamed at her, wanting to comfort those pained gazes of the young man.
She'd done her best to repress those thoughts, pushing them away and filling her mind with worries over the current situation, but now,
The car is silent, the vehicle isn't moving, and she's sitting right by his side. It almost feels like the world has frozen, blurring and leaving behind only her and the auburn-haired man. Slowly, like an expanding crack on a dam, she begins to feel something, something familiar and tranquil flowing between the two of them, and-
She freezes.
It's a presence achingly familiar, something she once had within her and one that had kept all harm from coming onto her. The partner to her excalibur, the sheath where her destined sword would be placed when the battles came to an end. Her sword is poised to attack, while its sheath is created to defend.
One of the strongest forms of isolation and defense,
The sheath of ever-distant utopia, [Avalon].
How? Is the first thing that comes into her mind. Avalon is still implanted inside Irisviel, so how can Shirou have Avalon as well? Is it a copy perhaps? Is the next question, but such a notion is immediately discarded. The presence feels far too genuine, far too familiar for it to even be a copy. Why? Why him? Avalon will only bond with individuals it finds worthy and pure. If so, does that mean Shirou meets all that criteria? Does that mean he has the potential to be king?
An echo of her wish sounds, a desire to erase her rule upon Camelot. Could she perhaps give the crown over to him?
The image doesn't fit, at all, and she lets out a small laugh, ignoring the strange looks she's garnered from the other occupants in the car. The young man sleeping beside her will not accept it. Perhaps he had the quality, perhaps he may be suited for the throne, but he isn't like that. He would never let himself be chained.
"Because though he is broken, he is still a hero."
She hears a voice say, one sounding familiar yet too feminine compared to the one in her memory. Nevertheless, she agrees, silently nodding.
"He is a hero, a budding one perhaps, but a hero nonetheless."
Saber smiles.
A hero, a magus,
A master.
Her sheath.
In that moment, a spark lights, and a connection is built. From the insides of her soul, Excalibur shines, reconnecting with the sheath it'd long lost in days of old. Inside she sees a garden of flowers, a white tower standing in the center of it all, and a white haired magus that looks suspiciously similar to a certain troll that was her teacher.
Then, her eyes lands on Shirou, casually drinking from a cup of tea-
'Wait, what?'
But then she is forced deeper, reaching deeper into Avalon, and she begins to see.
She sees a world filled with grass, the clear skies lit by a setting sun, colored into a beautiful gradient. She sees a city burning, falling apart as the sky is torn apart, corrupted mud flowing down onto the earth and tainting it with all the world's evils. She sees a large traditional house, people coming and going.
Inside, she sees Kiritsugu, his body and spirit weak. She sees an unfamiliar woman, pouncing around the house with the gait of a tiger. She sees a broken girl, held together by the hope given to her by her beloved. She sees a prideful and naive magus, willing to fight in a war that killed her father.
She sees a young girl, with hair a light brown and eyes a bright green, holding magic comparable to the age of gods. She sees Shirou, cooking by the kitchen, a small content smile as he cooks for the people he'd come to befriend and care for.
She sees herself, enjoying such foods.
And she remembers.
Saber barely manages to hold herself from jerking forward, biting the insides of her mouth to keep herself silent. Her tongue tastes iron, from the blood now leaking inside her mouth, but she doesn't care.
"Saber!"
She hears someone say, but it sounds too distant for her to understand, somewhat like static. Her mind and soul tears as two sets of memories fight for dominance, trying to gain an up over the other. Screwing her eyes shut, she takes a deep breath, struggling to get everything in her mind to order.
"Let me help."
A soothing presence fills her mind, slowly untying the many coils of pain that'd formed in her mind. The two sides are slowly filed accordingly, and her sense of self is slowly returned. She remembers being summoned at that abandoned church, coming to first see her master and his wife. She remembers flying to Fuyuki and coming to fight in what she assumed was a normal Holy Grail War.
But she also remembers being summoned inside a dusty shed, coming to see her master trapped in a battle with a blue-clad Lancer. She remembers first discovering how much of an oddity her master was, of how he managed to fight her on even grounds. She remembers exploring that strange fake Fuyuki, trying to survive as distorted forms of servants summoned in war threw themselves at her. She remembers how she first discovered how Hanami is a magus, and an incredibly powerful and skillful one at that.
Then, as everything settles, she understands.
Just as she is the servant of Emiya Kiritsugu, so is she the servant of Emiya Shirou, being summoned by him a decade from now.
At that moment, something snaps. Her connection to Kiritsugu is broken, and everything around her grows dark.
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