Shirou's Return from the Fae Kingdom

Shirou asked in confusion, "What's wrong today? Makiri, you're acting so strange?"

"Heh heh heh, Master, it's actually like this,"

Lady Avalon leaned close to the boy's ear and whispered cheerfully, "Because I, who am both excellent and perfect, beautiful and a genius, have appeared, Mr. Makiri feels he has no place to use his talents and is being difficult."

"Is that so, old man?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Don't be shy, Mr. Makiri."

"I already said it's not!"

The little yellow duck huffed, "In short, our immediate priority should be to form an alliance, choose suitable allies to fight the remaining enemies together, rather than sending the brat to fight them."

Shirou said, "That may be so, but who would be willing to ally with us?"

Lady Avalon said with a cheerful expression, "Heh heh, I think many girls would be willing to ally with Master."

Shirou asked in confusion, "Why?"

The silver-haired beauty covered her lips, leaving only a beautiful, enigmatic smile.

Although you are still young now, your 'affinity for trouble with women' has long shown its signs, my dear little Master.

Volume 1, Chapter 033: The Wonderful Day of a Serial Killer

The strategy meeting ultimately ended without a resolution.

Lady Avalon and Makiri bickered endlessly, neither able to reach a sensible conclusion.

However, they did manage to reach a tentative consensus on the need for an alliance.

Makiri's suggestion was to seek an alliance with the Tohsaka Family.

Tokiomi Tohsaka, who possessed the advantage of home turf and was also from a prestigious family of Magic elites, was the strongest contender to win this Holy Grail War.

Furthermore, given that man's personality and character, he wouldn't lose his life even if he ultimately lost.

But Lady Avalon had a different opinion.

If they were to form an alliance, they should find a faction with a similar strength, so they wouldn't be manipulated.

Both sides made valid points, and Shirou naturally understood the difference in their thinking.

Makiri believed that "staying alive" was most important; even if they lost this time, there would be another chance in 60 years.

Lady Avalon, on the other hand, believed that "winning!" was most important. There was no next time; this time, she was determined to win, win, win until the very end.

Even regarding the life-draining side effect of the "Dead Count Shapeshifter," she casually stated, "As long as we win in the end, it's fine. Master can then wish for an immortal body~."

Neither side was wrong in their thinking; the final decision rested with Shirou.

Three days later, Shirou arrived at an audio-visual shop in the shopping district.

In the final stage of preparing for the war, he intended to purchase some items that might be useful in the Holy Grail War.

After buying what he wanted, Shirou walked on his way home.

Just then, a young man brushed past him...

Ryunosuke Uryu possessed an extraordinary fanaticism for death.

Only death was something that could never be experienced while alive.

At the same time, he seemed to have an unusually keen ability to discern the authenticity of death.

To him, violent and bloody movies were utterly laughable.

Whether it was the plot or the visuals, everything was childish.

From them, one could not experience even a shred of the so-called "essence of death."

Although there were frequent discussions about how fictional depictions of violence could negatively influence adolescents, to Ryunosuke Uryu, these were merely ridiculous jokes.

If the blood and screams in horror movies were depicted a little more realistically, perhaps he wouldn't have become who he is today.

Not real enough, not real enough, not real enough!

The color of blood gushing from arteries, the temperature of internal organs touched by hand, and then pulling them out.

The pain the victim felt before dying and the despairing cries before death.

Ahhh... it's truly wonderful to be a murderer.

Nothing was more real than killing someone with one's own hands.

People considered murder a crime, but Ryunosuke Uryu had a peculiar way of thinking that differed from the norm.

There were over six billion humans on Earth, and millions died every day.

Compared to that number, the number of people he had killed was insignificant.

He believed that when he killed someone, he made them fully understand death.

Compared to prolonging a worthless life, the information, stimulation, and experience gained from one person's death were more meaningful.

He was an artist.

With this belief, Ryunosuke continuously killed people while traveling all over Japan.

The streets at night were Ryunosuke's hunting grounds, and his prey never sensed his threat until they were caught.

The number of victims in his hands had already exceeded thirty, and they had experienced all sorts of execution and torture methods in human history.

However, even a serial killer like Ryunosuke Uryu was recently troubled by a lack of novelty.

To return to his roots and regain his former feelings, Ryunosuke returned to his hometown, which he hadn't seen in five years.

In the warehouse where his Sister (corpse) quietly awaited him, he found a Chinese Western book filled with words like "demon," "Satan," and "necromancy."

Ryunosuke, his passion reignited, immediately headed to the city called the "Land of Spiritual Veins" in the book—Fuyuki.

Next was the preparation for the demonic ritual.

A sacrifice?

Of course, he'd choose a girl or a child!!

Ryunosuke excitedly wandered the streets and quickly found a target.

No, to be precise, the target walked right into his hands.

As the elementary school boy brushed past him, Ryunosuke heard him mutter, "So smelly."

What a stinky brat!

I'm an artist! I bathe three times a day, morning, noon, and night, how could I possibly have body odor!

Could it be that you smelled the blood on me?

Ryunosuke stopped and turned to the red-haired boy, enthusiastically inviting him to his place.

"Brother has something interesting to show you, do you want to come over?"

"Yeah, I want to go."

The red-haired boy agreed without hesitation.

So stupid, Ryunosuke chuckled inwardly.

Just like that, he brought the red-haired boy to his "home."

As soon as they entered, the boy was so shocked by the stench in the apartment and the scattered corpses and remains that he couldn't speak.

Those were the remains of a family Ryunosuke had killed for amusement when he first arrived in Fuyuki. A week had passed, and the blood had long since coagulated into black.

"Haha! Now you know how amazing I am!"

Ryunosuke skillfully tied the red-haired boy's hands.

Good, tonight I'll use you, you arrogant brat, as the living sacrifice for the ritual... Huh?

Ryunosuke confusedly lowered his head.

Strange, why is there a sword stuck in my chest?

"..."

He suddenly sensed a gaze, looked up, and his eyes blazed with anger.

Hey, brat! What's with that look!

Don't look at me like that again... Where are your restraints?

I clearly tied your hands properly, why...

Whatever... There are so many strange things happening today...

It's really... a strange... day...

"--Thud."

Ryunosuke fell with a dull thud into the pool of blood.

"Ugh..."

When he woke up again, it was pitch black all around.

"I feel like I had a really strange dream, what was it about? Ah, forget it... My head hurts so much~~~"

Ryunosuke clutched his head, which felt like it was splitting open, and crawled up from the floor in the dark.

Upon closer inspection, the clock on the wall pointed to twelve.

"Oh no, no, no! I have to hurry! I slept on the floor for a whole day!

I'm supposed to have the ritual tonight, and I don't even have a sacrifice ready!"

Ryunosuke Uryu fumbled, beginning to enact his plan.

"Wahaha, how lucky, there's fresh blood here! Coooool~!"

The owner of this house had been dead for over a week, yet a large amount of fresh blood had appeared. Something was off, no matter how you looked at it.

But Ryunosuke Uryu didn't mind, nor did he suspect anything.

No, his brain was probably already incapable of "basic logical thought."

The young man used the mysterious fresh blood to draw a summoning circle on the floor, chanting incantations as he did so.

"Seal it, seal it, seal it, seal it, seal it... repeat four times each time... Huh? Was it five? Ah, whatever..."

The homicidal young man, who was happily enjoying the magic ritual, was about to have the greatest encounter of his fated life.

However, Ryunosuke Uryu—no—

The "thing" that was once Ryunosuke Uryu seemed completely unaware: the fact that his heart had long stopped beating and his body temperature had vanished.

Volume 1, Chapter 034: What are "Normal" and "Matter-of-Course"? (6/6)

When he walked out of the apartment, it was almost dusk, 5:50 PM.

"Big sister, you're here, right?"

Shirou whispered to the empty space beside him.

Soon, a response came.