Sorry, Black Zetsu, I Let You Down

This was truly frustrating...

Black Zetsu could not suppress the melancholy in its heart.

It would have been one thing if Shirou Emiya had believed Ashura in the Ancient Era, but why did he acknowledge Hashirama Senju in this era too?

Yes!

Hashirama Senju had indeed brought the Warring States Period to an end!

But once Hashirama Senju died, new wars would inevitably break out!

"Wei Yuan-sama."

"You are the smartest person in the history of the Shinobi World..."

"Even though I have spent a long millennium following the traces you left behind, I have never been able to find anyone remotely like you..."

Black Zetsu's voice was hoarse and gloomy as it sighed faintly. "You should understand that the peace Hashirama Senju brought to this era is only temporary..."

"As long as ninja exist in this world..."

"As long as greed still exists in the hearts of ninja..."

"As long as there is no power above them capable of suppressing that greed, a power that can force every ninja to restrain their greed..."

"The conflicts between ninja will never cease!"

"It does not matter how many times Ashura's Chakra reincarnates!"

"When Hashirama Senju dies, the ninja of this world will once again start new wars for the sake of profit, repeating the cycle again and again, doomed from the day they are born to endure painful and tragic fates..."

"Wei Yuan-sama..."

"Have you already forgotten your own conviction?"

"You endured pain that others could not endure and strove to save people who could not escape their suffering. Are you going to watch helplessly as they continue to repeat this cycle throughout their painful lives?"

Thinking of how difficult it had been to spread Shirou Emiya's story throughout the Shinobi World, Black Zetsu questioned Shirou Emiya like a devout believer. "Have you forgotten the will Wei Yuan-sama once wanted future Medical Ninja to uphold?"

"But..."

Shirou Emiya frowned. As Black Zetsu exhorted and questioned him, he pondered how he should defend himself and instinctively found someone to take the blame.

"Ashura once told me..."

"Ashura was an arrogant idiot!"

Black Zetsu hurriedly stopped Shirou Emiya from recalling Ashura's words and continued persuading him. "If Wei Yuan-sama had not believed his nonsense back then, if you had instead chosen to kill Ashura, completely destroy the Ninja Sect, and reclaim all the Chakra the Sage of Six Paths had distributed, this world would not have suffered wars that lasted for a thousand years..."

"The ones who brought war to this world..."

"Were all descendants of the Sage of Six Paths and those despicable people from the Ninja Sect!"

"..."

Shirou Emiya fell somewhat silent.

Black Zetsu had grown quite a bit after living for over a thousand years.

Just looking at Black Zetsu's righteous demeanor, Shirou Emiya was almost dazed. It seemed as though Black Zetsu was the righteous one...

This was absurd...

How had things turned out like this?

"Hehehehe..."

"Why aren't you answering me?"

When Black Zetsu saw Shirou Emiya remain silent, a sinister smile once again appeared on its face. It seemed to think this could provoke Shirou Emiya into awakening once more. "Is it because Wei Yuan-sama has realized that you still walked down the wrong path?"

"..."

Shirou Emiya remained silent.

"..."

Unease suddenly welled up in Black Zetsu's heart.

Had it gone too far?

Had its words pushed Shirou Emiya too hard?

"Black Zetsu."

Shirou Emiya slowly lowered his head. As though he had completely lost his faith in life, his voice was filled with boundless disappointment and regret.

"We..."

"Cannot succeed."

"..."

Black Zetsu immediately wanted to refute him.

"Let me finish."

Shirou Emiya interrupted Black Zetsu before it could speak. In a calm voice, he seriously began recounting his past. "Back then, after I obtained the Sage of Six Paths' power, I immediately wanted to reclaim the Chakra he had distributed..."

"However..."

"I studied the Sage of Six Paths' corpse..."

"But I never found a way to completely reclaim Chakra."

Shirou Emiya's voice remained calm, but that calmness carried despair. "Neither the Wood Release bestowed upon me by the favor of the God Tree Remnants nor the power of the Sage of Six Paths' Rinnegan could completely reclaim the Chakra from those Ninja Sect disciples. So when I destroyed the Ninja Sect, I had no choice but to kill them without distinguishing between good and evil..."

"..."

Black Zetsu's expression became somewhat strange.

Because...

This was all its fault.

It was to blame for not teaching Shirou Emiya the correct method in advance!

After all, reclaiming the Chakra distributed by the Sage of Six Paths was part of reviving Kaguya Otsutsuki. It had never thought Shirou Emiya could make it this far...

"I..."

Black Zetsu immediately wanted to explain.

"Be quiet and let me finish."

Shirou Emiya interrupted Black Zetsu once again. His voice still carried that deadened calmness. "Do you remember Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Rabbit Goddess we worship?"

"..."

Black Zetsu hurriedly nodded.

After all, Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Rabbit Goddess, was its mother. It had been born to revive its mother, who had been sealed by that rebellious son, the Sage of Six Paths!

"I believed the Rabbit Goddess could reclaim Chakra."

Shirou Emiya's voice remained even as he continued fabricating his thoughts from back then. "I heard an unverified taboo rumor from the Ninja Sect disciples. The Rabbit Goddess was the Sage of Six Paths' mother, which meant she was the grandmother of Ashura and Indra..."

"To be honest..."

"Although I was a little worried..."

"I could only place my hopes on the Rabbit Goddess."

"I could only hope that the Rabbit Goddess we worshiped would distribute and reclaim Chakra according to principles of fairness, allowing Chakra to become a power that saved people from suffering rather than a power those Ninja Sect disciples could use to bully the weak without restraint..."

"So when I obtained the Sage of Six Paths' power and went to the Ninja Sect, I actually had another important purpose: to ask Ashura about how to revive the Rabbit Goddess..."

"But while fighting Ashura, I was persuaded by him and gave up asking about reviving the Rabbit Goddess..."

"What happened afterward..."

"You should know it all."

"..."

Black Zetsu was at a loss.

It had never expected Shirou Emiya to have wanted to do so much!

Honestly...

Shirou Emiya was already outstanding enough!

Black Zetsu even felt faintly moved!

Black Zetsu had never imagined that Shirou Emiya had made so much effort to revive Kaguya, that he had genuinely wanted Kaguya to rule the world, and that he had even intended to learn how to revive Kaguya from Ashura!

Shirou Emiya...

This guy was truly incredible!

If Shirou Emiya had known the correct steps to revive Kaguya, perhaps they could have revived her back in the Ancient Era!

"Actually..."

Black Zetsu felt faintly excited.

"Black Zetsu, let me finish."

Shirou Emiya interrupted Black Zetsu for the third time and continued fabricating the thoughts he had after reviving in this era.

"Now..."

"I have revived in this era."

"I have also learned that this world went through a thousand painful years of the Warring States Period."

"I understand that I was impulsive back then, that I foolishly believed Ashura's promise and spared the people of the Ninja Sect, and that I abandoned the hope most likely to change the world."

"However..."

"What use is there in thinking about that now?"

Shirou Emiya's voice completely sank, as though he no longer held any hope for the future. "The Sage of Six Paths died long ago. Ashura and Indra have also been dead for over a thousand years. Only their family knew how to revive the Rabbit Goddess..."

"This era does not even have historical records..."

"The ninja of this era regard the Sage of Six Paths, who bestowed Chakra upon them, as a god of creation, and they treat the stories of the Ancient Era as legends..."

"Black Zetsu."

"Our path has been cut off."

"We have no way to reclaim the Chakra from the ninja of this era. Nor can we find any information about reviving the Rabbit Goddess. I also cannot kill every ninja in this era..."

"Other than continuing to believe Ashura's promise..."

"I simply do not know what else I can do."

After saying all that, Shirou Emiya gave a bitter, absent-minded smile. "Black Zetsu, I was merely a lucky man once favored by the God Tree, not some omnipotent person capable of changing the world..."

"Sorry..."

"I let you down..."