Please, Shirou Emiya, Stop Being Fooled Again!

The night was silent.

A cool breeze drifted in through the window.

Shirou Emiya did not feel the slightest chill, because his Impure World Reincarnation Body left his senses no different from those of the dead. Even so, he still closed the window like a living person would.

Perhaps...

That was how one could feel alive?

This house had been arranged for him by Tobirama Senju.

Although Shirou Emiya did not need a house to rest in, he needed a quiet environment. His explanation to Tobirama Senju was that he needed to study the Medical Ninjutsu of this era.

Naturally.

There was an Anbu stationed around the house.

This Anbu ninja was not here to monitor Shirou Emiya, but to protect him and wait for any requests Shirou Emiya might make of Konoha.

In truth, Tobirama Senju believed that he could control Shirou Emiya's body with a single thought. He merely wished to show Shirou Emiya some respect, hoping he would not see the Impure World Reincarnation as a means of controlling him.

"Don't stay up too late. Get some rest early."

As Shirou Emiya closed the window, he spoke to the Anbu ninja hidden beneath the windowsill. "Just bring me a map of the Shinobi World tomorrow morning..."

"..."

The Anbu ninja hesitated for a moment.

However, recalling Tobirama Senju's orders, the Anbu ninja still departed with the Body Flicker Technique. He needed to report Shirou Emiya's request at the Hokage Building.

"..."

Shirou Emiya's mood calmed.

"I clearly left it only one path..."

Shirou Emiya idly picked at the wick, casually muttering to himself about Black Zetsu. Why hasn't my ally come to see me yet?

Black Zetsu...

Why had it not come looking for him yet?

If Black Zetsu's mind had been tempered by a thousand years, it would surely realize that he, its former ally, was its only choice.

Surely...

Black Zetsu was not still as naive and easy to deceive as it had been over a thousand years ago, was it?

Candlelight flickered.

A pitch-black shadow appeared on the wall.

A black creature quietly emerged from the ground.

Just as Shirou Emiya was beginning to worry that Black Zetsu's mind had not matured after all these years, Black Zetsu silently appeared behind him.

"It has been a long time... Wei Yuan-sama."

Black Zetsu's sinister voice sounded beside Shirou Emiya's ear.

Wei Yuan-sama.

It was an especially intimate and respectful form of address.

Usually, only the Slug Shirou Emiya had raised since childhood used that title. However, Black Zetsu considered their relationship extremely close and occasionally used it as well.

Although Black Zetsu had always considered Shirou Emiya its pawn, it only dared to think such things privately. It would never dare expose that idea to his face.

After all, the gap in strength between them was enormous.

Black Zetsu could only deceive and use Shirou Emiya. They had once been partners working together, not master and subordinate. Calling him Wei Yuan-sama was merely an intimate honorific.

"That voice..."

Shirou Emiya stiffened in disbelief. He seemed unable to believe what he had heard, and the finger picking at the wick suddenly stopped.

"It is me."

Black Zetsu's voice was somewhat elusive as its body sank back into the ground. "If you still remember me—the one who shared the same dream as you, only to be cruelly abandoned by Wei Yuan-sama in the end..."

"I'm sorry..."

A trace of guilt appeared on Shirou Emiya's face.

As Wei Yuan lowered his head to express his apology, he saw Black Zetsu emerge from the ground before him and truly stand in front of him.

"You did not expect this, did you, Wei Yuan-sama?"

Looking at the ashamed and shocked Shirou Emiya, Black Zetsu gradually stopped feeling nervous and revealed a satisfied smile.

"I never expected that after living through such a long and lonely stretch of years, I would have the chance to see Wei Yuan-sama from over a thousand years ago..."

"Indeed..."

Shirou Emiya gazed at Black Zetsu standing before him.

The current Black Zetsu was somewhat different from the one from a thousand years ago. Its body was taller than before, and it looked more like an adult now.

"You've grown taller too... Black Zetsu."

A gentle smile suddenly appeared on Shirou Emiya's face, just as it had countless times years ago when he praised Black Zetsu and the Slug.

"..."

The smile on Black Zetsu's face froze.

Hearing Shirou Emiya's praise, Black Zetsu's prepared accusations stalled. For a moment, it did not know what to say.

This guy...

Why was he still like this?!

Black Zetsu had been ready to turn its cruelest words into the hardest fist and fiercely knock Shirou Emiya awake!

Yet before its fist could even strike, it had hit cotton.

Before Black Zetsu could wound Shirou Emiya's kind heart, Shirou Emiya seemed to have already wounded himself. A look of sorrow surfaced on the face of his Impure World Reincarnation Body.

His hand began picking at the wick on the table again. He reached out, ignoring the flame as his finger stirred the swaying candlelight.

"How wonderful..."

"After more than a thousand years..."

"I actually have the chance to see an old companion again."

"The Ninja Sect of this era..."

"No, they call themselves ninja now..."

Shirou Emiya's voice seemed somewhat cheerful, but his face held an indescribable sorrow. Even Black Zetsu could sense that he was suppressing grief and pain.

"Black Zetsu..."

"The ninja of this era are truly brilliant."

"They actually used the corpse specimens I left behind for future generations to revive me, a dead man from over a thousand years ago."

"Wei Yuan-sama must be angry, right?"

Black Zetsu sneered and mercilessly joined Shirou Emiya in mocking the Shinobi World over a thousand years later. "This is the worst era, isn't it?"

"Is that so?"

Shirou Emiya raised his head and spoke with some self-mockery. "The ninja of this era told me that this was their best era in a thousand years..."

"That's right!"

"For the descendants of the vile ones..."

"This has been the best era in a thousand years!"

Black Zetsu's face turned sinister as it mocked the ancestors of this era's ninja. "Those vile people who obtained Chakra started war after war to seize profit through the power of Chakra, creating the Warring States Period that lasted for a thousand years..."

"Even though I spent that thousand years spreading Wei Yuan-sama's story, letting the ninja know that a great ideal once existed in the Ancient Era—that the power of Chakra was meant to save suffering people—the ninja still endlessly fought using the power of Chakra..."

Naturally.

Black Zetsu concealed the fact that it had incited those wars.

"Wei Yuan-sama."

A strange smile curled across Black Zetsu's lips. It felt that the atmosphere had reached the right point, and at that moment, it decided to ask the question it had wanted to ask for over a thousand years.

"Seeing the endless fighting among the ninja..."

"Hearing of the thousand years of chaos during the Warring States Period..."

As Black Zetsu watched Wei Yuan's expression grow increasingly ugly, it gradually felt a sense of satisfaction. It decided to deliver its fatal blow.

"Now, Wei Yuan-sama..."

"Do you regret believing Ashura's foolish words back then?"

"..."

Shirou Emiya fell silent under Black Zetsu's questioning.

To Black Zetsu, that silence was an inability to answer. The smile on its lips grew brighter, and it even wanted to press on with a few more words!

"Perhaps..."

Shirou Emiya suddenly spoke.

"Perhaps it is still too soon to tell."

Shirou Emiya's voice was hollow and distant, as though he had lost his purpose, as he spoke of the past. "I remember Ashura promising me that he would quell the conflicts brought by Chakra. He would protect the weak from being oppressed by the strong. He would make Chakra into a power that saved people from suffering. Even if his life ended, he would never stop..."

"Originally..."

"I had thought this world was absurd beyond salvation."

"But today, I saw the vessel carrying the reincarnation of Ashura's Chakra in this generation. This generation's reincarnation of Ashura's Chakra is called Hashirama Senju, and he also happens to be Ashura's descendant."

"I vaguely remember the surname Senju. It was one of the surnames I gave Ashura when I first met him, to use for his descendants."

"Senju signifies people uniting together and extending their hands. With the power of a thousand hands, they could quell every future disaster that brought suffering to the world..."

Shirou Emiya spoke of the stories he had heard about Hashirama Senju, seeming to admire him greatly. "I heard about Hashirama Senju. He united many people around him, calmed the wars that had lasted for a thousand years, and ended the chaotic Warring States Period..."

"..."

The sinister smile on Black Zetsu's face froze.

No...

You still believed in Ashura?

Why were you still so naive and foolish?!

No...

You had already been fooled once!

Why did you still believe in Ashura and his descendants?

No...

Stop falling for their lies!

They were all deceiving you!

Could you not just obediently fall for my lies instead?!