"Mr. Anno."
Waking to the morning light, Shirou Emiya saw the somewhat lonely figure sitting at the end of the hallway.
"Shirou."
Anno had been resting with his eyes closed. When he saw Shirou approach, he opened them.
Shirou sat beside Anno. The two raised their heads together, looking at the still slightly dim sky.
He turned to glance at Anno and suddenly felt that the scene before him was familiar.
Somehow, this scene felt familiar.
Back then, hadn't he and Kiritsugu also raised their heads like this to look at the moon?
"You look like you have something to say, Shirou."
Anno looked at his hands resting on his knees, his voice calm.
"Yeah."
"Mr. Anno, why didn't you draw that sword?"
Shirou Emiya asked the question that Emiya Kiritsugu had never asked Anno.
"Because of a meaningless persistence, I suppose."
Anno spoke as though a burden had been lifted.
"A persistence for loyalty, and a persistence for dignity. I chose to leave the throne to the Pendragon family."
It was as though he had always been waiting for someone to ask him that question.
"...Do you still think that way now?"
After listening to Anno's answer, Shirou Emiya fell silent for a moment before asking again.
"...Not anymore."
Anno raised his head.
"She is still my king, and she always will be. I will respect her as my sovereign and offer her my loyalty. But if I were to return to that time, to stand once more before that sword, then no matter what, I would draw it."
"'Learn to bear what you ought to bear.' It took me my entire life to understand what those words meant."
"...Is that so?"
Shirou Emiya nodded.
That was, more or less, the answer he had wanted.
He looked at Anno.