Amiya, caught in the middle, flusteredly stopped the two from arguing.
Shirou and Miss W looked at Amiya, then turned their heads away, refusing to gaze at each other.
Rumble... The engine of the car roared to life, and Miss W drove back along the exact route they had just taken.
As for Shirou, he sat in the back seat, narrowing his eyes to rest a little.
He had not closed his eyes for three days, and he had no idea how busy he would be once they got back.
Both Amiya and Miss W in the car saw Shirou's current state from the rearview mirror, and only after Miss W let out a light snort did she focus on driving.
If the little rabbit hadn't been unable to find anyone else to help drive, she wouldn't have bothered to come.
As for the bomb mounted on the hood of the car before they set off?
She didn't know who put it there, but she had dismantled it before they left.
"Is his condition that bad?"
Having driven a short distance, Miss W noticed that the expression on Amiya's face had been strange the entire time, so she asked about it.
"...Very bad, there's a possibility he could vanish at any moment."
Glancing at the rearview mirror, Amiya spoke.
At this moment, not only was Shirou's physical condition unpromising, but the data relayed back from the data ring on his left hand was also unpromising.
Amiya knew very well that Shirou right now was a castle piled out of sand.
Although it looked tall and sturdy, it would actually scatter at a single touch.
Yet... there was no help for it, there were no better candidates left within Rhodes Island.
The only one they could rely on was Shirou.
They could only rely on that person, whose very existence had grown somewhat ethereal.
"Tch, let the Doctor and that old hag take a good look at what the two of them actually did, then?"
Hearing Amiya's words, Miss W couldn't be bothered to talk much more about this aspect.
It was definitely those two people's fault anyway, so those two needed to see how they had pushed a promising young man to this extent.
Just think what a good lad he had been when she first met him? He had once made her hallucinate that the other party was Theresia.
And now?
The Ghost of Rhodes Island, is it?
"There's nothing that can be done about this, the only one within Rhodes Island who can contend against the sea creatures' swarms is Shirou, the mental pollution causes far too much damage to people."
Amiya knew this was not right.
Shirou was barely holding on by sheer force of will right now.
She shouldn't force someone who could dissipate at any moment to fight.
But there truly was no other way.
The deep-sea operators and Siracusa operators within Rhodes Island had long since departed, and the ones remaining were operators who knew very little about the sea creatures.
If there had been any other choice, Amiya would have asked the Doctor and Doctor Kal'tsit to reassign someone.
As for now... it all rested on Shirou alone to prop up.
"I said it already, it's fine."
From the back, Shirou's deep voice came out.
He was only narrowing his eyes to rest slightly, and was not completely asleep.
He had indeed heard the conversation between the two.
The two in front also knew he was awake, which was why they had said so much.
They simply wanted to let him ease up a bit and stabilize his body first.
But right now there was no time for him to rest.
"Yes, yes, yes, you glass doll, go to sleep and stop talking, alright?"
Hearing Shirou's words from the driver's seat, Miss W immediately snapped back.
Even though I know you're awake, it's still your fault for interrupting.
Shirou fell silent for a moment, then continued to narrow his eyes.
"Ahahaha... Only Miss W is able to get through to Shirou."
Seeing this scene, Amiya smiled awkwardly.
She had long known that Miss W and Shirou didn't get along, but there was no help for it; a potato-smile bomb had been installed on the car before departure, and one could tell at a glance who made it—some people just had rather stubborn mouths, always claiming they didn't want to care or couldn't be bothered to, yet still used such a method to trade for the right to drive and pick up Shirou.
In the Doctor's words, was this what they called tsundere?
Still, this was for the best; the other operators couldn't sway Shirou, and only Miss W, with her rather blunt tongue, could get through to him.
She had no idea whether this matter was good or bad.
The car continued moving forward, maintaining a quiet atmosphere inside.
Soon enough, a massive city appeared in the distance—the Ark.
Constructed by Doctor Kal'tsit and the prehistoric civilization obtained through trade with the behemoths and beasts of this land, it was the Ark belonging to the remaining people.
Noah's Ark, carrying the last hope of life.
The Ark carrying the civilization of Terra toward tomorrow.
Whichever it was, in Shirou's view it wasn't all that impressive anyway.
Yet Kal'tsit had still chosen those two words to serve as the name of the city.
Those technological advances and pieces of civilization—any single one of which, if brought out, could make a person renowned or even ensure they lived without financial worries for the rest of their lower lives—were now the cage trapping the remaining humanity.
A... cage capable of resisting the sea creatures, impregnable.
What Shirou needed to do was simple: buy time to build this cage, and find a way to effectively defeat the sea creatures.
He had a method; using the gunfire of Gan Jiang Mo Ye to attack could handle them effectively.
Noble Phantasms might work as well, but a single sword could kill at most two sea creatures, so the efficiency wasn't high.
If his magical energy was sufficient, using continuous projection-layer writing accompanied by Imaginary Break ought to work too, but his body would probably give out first.
For now, he could only pin his hopes on the sea creature cells he brought back yielding targeted weapons.
Inside the car, a period of quiet reigned, with only Miss W in the driver's seat humming some little tune from unknown origins as she drove.
Amiya in the front passenger seat held a terminal in her hands, sorting through the data she would soon present for the Doctor to review.
Shirou in the back seat, though his eyes were slightly narrowed, remained constantly vigilant of his surroundings.
Even with Miss W and Amiya present, he maintained his guard.
Though he couldn't remember clearly, he simply felt that this was what he ought to do.
Memories and such... felt somewhat distant to him.
Yet it didn't matter; if his own past could be used to pave a path toward the future for Amiya and the others, having all of it taken away was fine by him.
01 That day, Penguin Logistics picked up...
Clang── clang── clang── The sound of metals striking one another rang out, and his consciousness cleared slightly.
"Shirou, don't give up, you must defeat that Golden Flash fellow..."
Whose... voice was it?
"Shirou, I was truly happy when you called out to me that day."
Called out to... whom?
"Shirou Emiya! Since you've clasped ────'s hand, don't let go! Survive! And then go strike that guy down!"
Whose hand had he clasped...?
"I ask of you, are you my Master?"
Master? Who? Were they talking about me?
Countless voices echoed in his head, followed by scene after scene flashing past.
A blonde knight wearing a blue-and-silver knight's outfit and holding a golden sword, a white-haired man in a red coat holding black and white twin blades, a little girl with white hair and red eyes resembling a snow sprite, and a raven-haired girl with twin tails...
The images continued, but he could no longer remember the names of those people.
"Shirou, what are we having for dinner today?"
A brown-haired female lay beside the dining table, asking.
"Senior, sleeping out here will give you a cold, you know?"
A purple-haired girl spoke thus.
"You really push yourself too far, keep going like this and you'll break down, you know?"
A blue-haired youth wearing glasses spoke thus.
"Congratulations, you are the victor of this Holy Grail War; how you dispose of the Holy Grail is entirely up to you."
A priest who looked thoroughly scoundrel-like and detestable, covered entirely in blood, announced his victory.
Holy Grail War...?
Ah-ah, that's right, the Holy Grail had to be destroyed, otherwise the Holy Grail would grant the wish of that Golden Flash fellow...
No... The Holy Grail had already been destroyed, destroyed by projecting Saber's golden sword with that guy's arm and paying the price of his own life.
Then he ought to be able to rest, right? He was so tired, and his body hurt so much, his entire being feeling as though it had been pierced through by something, and his head too; his memories were intermittent and broken.
Stabbing pain, coldness, dizziness, inability to breathe.
Thump-thump─thump-thump─thump-thump─, yet he could still feel the sound of his own heartbeat.
His consciousness was gradually returning, and in its wake appeared even more images.
"Saber, fulfill your duty."
Faced with the Holy Grail overflowing with black mud, he chose to let Saber fulfill what she ought to do.
"I want to become Justice's Companion."
Holding a blade and pointing it at Archer, he made this declaration.
"I want to become Justice's Companion belonging to Sakura alone."
In the rainy night, holding a weeping Sakura, he made this declaration.
"I hope you can attain happiness."
Clutching Miyu's hand on the altar where she wore ceremonial dress, he prayed thus.
Although every single person within them was Shirou Emiya, none of them were him, yet their memories poured in continuously.
Where did these memories come from?
He didn't know, he couldn't think; as strands of memories continuously flooded in, he could no longer care about the pain in his body. It felt as though a massive number of ants were crawling inside his brain—itching, growing hot, aching, extremely agonizing.
"If doing this can keep anyone from shedding tears..."
Wearing a combat uniform, he gazed at the blue sphere of light before him and murmured to himself.
"Did you run? Have you fled to hell! Kiyohime!"
He was pinned down by many people, yet he still roared at the corpse of the woman lying on the ground ahead.
The images flickered continuously.
One version of him calmly faced the destiny of death, serenely stepping onto the execution platform.
Thump── The scene shifted.
Before you continue