Kaguya's Story (Black Zetsu Version)

At this moment...

How could he let Shirou Emiya think in peace?!

Black Zetsu had lived for over a thousand years. How could it not know what to do?

When someone came into contact with information shocking enough to be unacceptable, it was all too easy for them to let their imagination run wild, even connecting it to some conspiracy to destroy the world!

At that time...

No matter what corroborating information that person received in the future, that conspiracy to destroy the world might remain impossible to shake from their mind!

Black Zetsu knew very well...

It really did have a conspiracy to destroy the world!

Especially since Shirou Emiya had been born in the Ancient Era and already knew many things. If left to his own thoughts, he might just guess the truth behind Kaguya Otsutsuki's disappearance!

It had to seize this chance to instill its ideas into Shirou Emiya, make him calmly accept his identity, completely accept the so-called truth it told him, and thoroughly brainwash him with the truth it had fed him!

"Listen to me."

Black Zetsu felt that its words sounded somewhat familiar.

They really did sound familiar.

Because Shirou Emiya seemed to have said those exact words just now.

Black Zetsu felt that this truly was the cycle of fate. It had no choice but to imitate Shirou Emiya and begin telling a story that it had slightly fabricated and embellished.

"In our era..."

"You must have heard the stories of the God Tree."

"In the Ancient Era, the God Tree appeared in this world and became humanity's faith. Kaguya, who descended alongside the God Tree, also became the Rabbit Goddess worshipped by mankind."

"However..."

"What you do not know is..."

"The humans of that era were also locked in endless conflict."

Black Zetsu racked its brain, trying to give its mother a more positive image. "The suffering humans of that era prayed to Kaguya to end the wars. Kaguya heard their prayers and used the God Tree's power to bring an end to the wars of that era..."

"However..."

"That was not the end."

"Even though Kaguya possessed power akin to that of a god..."

"Even though Kaguya's strength was as formidable as your wisdom in the study of the human body, she eventually encountered a predicament in which she was powerless..."

Black Zetsu had not wasted its time. It had also learned a few techniques for communicating with humans, such as casually bringing Shirou Emiya into a fabricated story to make its words resonate with him more easily.

"Could it be..."

Shirou Emiya frowned and began to think.

"Correct."

"There are too many humans in this world."

Black Zetsu did not wait for Shirou Emiya to give his answer before hurriedly continuing its fabrication. "Kaguya hoped to distribute her power—the Chakra within her body—and find people of noble character like you, allowing them to help save the suffering people of the world..."

"Me?"

Shirou Emiya shook his head, unwilling to accept Black Zetsu's flattery. "I do not possess such noble character. I am merely a lucky man who happened to obtain the power of the God Tree Remnants. I simply did not wish to squander that power, so I wanted to save the suffering people of the world just as the Rabbit Goddess did..."

"Do not be modest."

Black Zetsu firmly refused to let Shirou Emiya decline, continuing to praise him. "I have walked this world for a thousand years, yet I have never again seen even a trace of someone like you..."

"In this world..."

"People like you are far too rare."

Black Zetsu sighed and continued its story along that line. "However, Kaguya knew that Chakra's influence was too great. She believed that the power of Chakra could not be casually given to the world, lest people use it to commit evil..."

"That is only natural."

"Humans of noble character are always few in number..."

"Therefore, Kaguya's plan had never gone smoothly..."

"However..."

"This was no great obstacle for Kaguya."

"Because Kaguya possessed a long lifespan. She could live through endless years in this world, and she had more than enough time to seek out people worthy of being entrusted with Chakra..."

"She truly should have been cautious."

Shirou Emiya nodded, seeming to agree greatly with the Kaguya in Black Zetsu's story. "If Chakra were distributed so freely..."

"Yes..."

Black Zetsu let out a faint sigh and earnestly continued fabricating the story. "But Kaguya's two sons did not think the same way..."

"Two sons!"

Shirou Emiya seemed to have heard an entirely new version.

"That is right!"

Black Zetsu's voice turned sinister. "Besides Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths whom we know of, Kaguya also had another son, Hamura Otsutsuki..."

"Because Kaguya's two sons had possessed Chakra within their bodies from the moment they were born, they did not regard Chakra as a precious power. They believed their mother should proactively share Chakra with the people of the world, then guide those people to determine their own destinies..."

Black Zetsu was very subtle.

Black Zetsu did not say too many bad things about the Sage of Six Paths.

Because the Sage of Six Paths and Shirou Emiya belonged to the same era.

However, Black Zetsu knew that what it had said was already enough to stir Shirou Emiya's dissatisfaction with the Sage of Six Paths!

"This..."

Shirou Emiya's brow furrowed again. He seemed somewhat dissatisfied with the proposal made by Kaguya's two sons. "To rashly distribute power capable of harming the people of the world... That idea is rather naive..."

"Yes..."

Black Zetsu nodded in agreement and said faintly, "Now we have also seen the result of distributing Chakra among the people..."

"This naive idea..."

"Naturally met with Kaguya's rejection."

"Kaguya was stronger than anyone in the world and had lived longer than anyone in the world. Her exceptional insight and broad perspective allowed her to foresee the outcome we see today long before her two sons did."

"..."

The Rabbit Goddess?

Exceptional insight and broad perspective?

Was Black Zetsu actually serious?

Shirou Emiya somewhat suspected that Black Zetsu had slipped far too much personal bias into this.

However, Shirou Emiya certainly would not expose it at a time like this. He even had to act as though he deeply admired Goddess Kaguya of the Rabbit. "No wonder the people of our era never forgot the God Tree or the Rabbit Goddess who served it..."

"..."

Black Zetsu was somewhat embarrassed to respond, so it could only continue with the story. "What was regrettable was that the naive sons could not understand their mother's greatness. Kaguya, who had always been worshipped by the people, rarely communicated with others and did not understand how to make her two sons obey. In particular, her excessive indulgence of her sons had also left her with little maternal authority..."

"The naive sons believed they knew better than their mother how to save the suffering people of the world. Using the power their mother had bestowed upon them, they started a war against their mother..."

"That great calamity that nearly destroyed the world?"

Shirou Emiya's expression suddenly changed, as though he had thought of something.

In the Ancient Era, people had experienced a great calamity. Even when Shirou Emiya had crossed into this world, he had still heard of people's fear of that world-destroying catastrophe.

"That is right."

"It was a war that nearly destroyed the world."

Black Zetsu nodded, conveniently placing the blame on the heads of the Otsutsuki brothers. "The two brothers, now grown, used the power within their bodies for the first time..."

"They had never realized how terrifying the true eruption of Chakra's power could be. With a casual strike, they could kill countless humans..."

"It was a true disaster."

"And that was precisely why Kaguya did not wish for the power of Chakra to spread."

"If humans obtained Chakra, they would inevitably use its power to fight over benefits, only causing the people of the world to suffer even more..."

"Kaguya had originally not wished to use her power to defeat her sons. Yet she saw this world nearly destroyed by battle, and saw the people who worshipped her die in the aftermath of the fighting..."

"This was a painful thing for Kaguya."

"Those people whose homes had been destroyed, those innocent people who died in the aftermath of battle, and the fact that the ones opposing her were her two most beloved sons..."

"The Rabbit Goddess ultimately softened her heart..."

"As a mother, she finally chose to yield during the war."

Black Zetsu paused. Seeing Shirou Emiya immersed in the story, it nodded in satisfaction before continuing with the story's ending.

"In the end..."

"The war came to an end."

"Kaguya, who had originally been stronger, was sealed away by her sons."

When Black Zetsu reached this point, it found another excuse for the Sage of Six Paths and his brother, while conveniently pinning another charge upon them.

"Because the brothers had limited lifespans, they feared that after they died, their mother would reclaim the Chakra she had distributed..."

"From then on..."

"Goddess Kaguya of the Rabbit disappeared..."