I've Liked You for Many Years / Nuclear Peace at Ryūdō Temple

Archer—Emiya Shirou.

This was exactly the same as when the Crystal Dice had first begun to move!

Another person was responding to her...

Sakura looked at Ritsuka, whose determined gaze and demeanor had finally returned close to what they used to be. Color gradually returned to Sakura's pale face. "Even if what lies ahead is hell?"

Ritsuka nodded firmly. "Yeah... Even if it's hell, I have to walk through it now."

Gently touching her chest, Sakura took a breath. As though she had been granted a final burst of life, her spirit suddenly brightened.

Her gaze settled on the Archer card in Ritsuka's hand, and Sakura slowly spoke.

"Senpai, that card may be a Class Card, but it doesn't contain the power of a Heroic Spirit. It's a useless card Enzō gave me to deceive me."

"No, that's not it. I'm not doubting your strength, Senpai. It's just... there's another enemy you'll have to face this time. The most troublesome one."

"The strongest Heroic Spirit—the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh."

In Sakura's mind, that Archer, the King of Heroes, was undoubtedly the strongest. Having fought Ritsuka using the Assassin card, the only opponent Sakura worried about for Ritsuka was Gilgamesh.

He was the greatest enemy in this Holy Grail War!

But before Sakura could explain just how powerful the King of Heroes was to Ritsuka, her expression suddenly changed.

!!

As though glass had suddenly shattered, the suggestion and illusion magecraft Sakura had placed on herself abruptly failed. In that instant, the mana within her body was completely exhausted.

A hollow appeared in her chest. Ritsuka could even see what was behind her through it.

"Sakura?!"

Ritsuka rose to her feet and hurried around the kotatsu to catch Sakura in her arms. The strange sensation that had been nagging at her instincts was finally explained.

Blood continuously sprayed from Sakura's mouth and chest cavity as she collapsed into Ritsuka's embrace.

Although her battle against the puppet Matou Shinji had ended in a one-sided victory after Sakura's outburst, Shinji had still injured Sakura beforehand.

At the moment before he died, Shinji had activated his Noble Phantasm—Assassin's Noble Phantasm.

C-rank Anti-Person Noble Phantasm, Delusional Heartbeat!

A terrifying Noble Phantasm that used a demon god's arm altered through mutation to place a "curse" on an enemy, then destroy their heart within a certain range.

Sakura, who used illusions, had suffered a backlash from her own illusion magecraft. She had used excessive mana all at once, and with her Magic Circuits and Magic Crest almost entirely paralyzed for the time being, she had failed to notice the danger she was in.

Even Ritsuka had only sensed that something was wrong. She had been using the magecraft Kirei Kotomine gave her to suppress the pain caused by the Hydra's deadly poison in her body.

That magecraft also had the side effect of causing hallucinations.

The Snowy Night Confession

The heavy snowfall had gradually stopped. Fuyuki City was incomparably quiet beneath the snowy night, as though everyone had already fallen asleep.

Moonlight spilled in from the corner of the room. Ritsuka's eyes were dim as chaotic thoughts filled her mind, countless things surging up only to dissipate again while the hallucinations grew ever stronger.

Holding the girl whose breathing was steadily weakening in her arms, tears spilled from Ritsuka's eyes. The magecraft suppressing her pain quietly shattered.

Pain that tormented both body and soul beyond measure descended upon her in an instant, even more intense than when she had first gained immortality.

This pain kept increasing. Perhaps it would only stop after reaching a certain threshold.

The immortality that would last until it was transferred to Prometheus.

Chiron had given his immortality to Alcides and died as a result, no longer needing to endure the agony caused by the Hydra's poison.

Thus, the duration of Ritsuka's immortality and pain was the same period Chiron had endured that torment. Once that time was over, the immortality would disappear, and the agony from the Hydra's poison would vanish along with the Noble Phantasm.

Until then, it would only grow more painful.

Ritsuka raised her head and looked through the window. The clouds had drifted away, revealing scattered stars overhead. By their light, she looked down at the floor, where the mottled bloodstains stood out painfully clearly.

As she gently held Sakura, Ritsuka noticed many small wounds on her body. Sakura had clearly already been through a grueling battle.

"—Sakura."

"Senpai... don't cry..."

Sakura wore a warm smile, yet her eyes seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Her cheek gently rubbed against Ritsuka's chest, like an oversized clingy cat.

Lying on her side in Ritsuka's arms, Sakura looked at the familiar ceiling, her eyes filled with helpless regret.

There were still so many things she had not done, so many words she had not said to Senpai...

"...Senpai... I suddenly feel like this isn't so bad after all..."

Lying in Ritsuka's arms, held tightly by the person she loved.

Miyu suddenly felt a little happy. Things she had never even dared to imagine before could now happen without restraint. Maybe she had gotten the better deal.

"Sakura, I've realized you're more than just a little foolish."

Ritsuka barely pulled up the corners of her mouth, forcing out a smile even uglier than a bitter one. Sakura snorted with laughter, like an exquisite flower suddenly blooming.

Sakura's injuries could not be treated.

Her chest had been pierced through, and her internal organs completely shattered. For an individual human, injuries of this degree were undoubtedly fatal.

Ritsuka had no way to help Sakura recover, and Sakura herself had very little mana left.

If she had possessed enough mana and noticed her injuries in time, Sakura could have saved herself.

The Magic Crest, something that could suppress fatal injuries and was in some ways even more important than a magecraft family's heir, was now powerless to turn things around.

In the Type-Moon world, magi were different from ordinary humans, and Magic Crests reflected that distinction. The mystery that a magus spent a lifetime honing and solidifying was the complete accumulation of a magecraft family's achievements.

In other words, a family heirloom.

Sometimes, in order to keep its bearer alive, a Magic Crest could even transform its bearer into something beyond the bounds of humanity, granting immunity to conventional death.

Zouken Matou, the Grand Magus who had lived for centuries, had also left contingencies within his Magic Crest, but they had failed to take effect now.

Because not long ago, in order to deal with Matou Shinji, Sakura had already staked all of her mana.

Her Magic Circuits ached faintly. Those Magic Circuits, like nerves, had all been overdrawn. Even if Sakura received external mana now, the backlash from her Magic Circuits would cause unbearable pain, and she might even die on the spot.

Ritsuka had experienced that feeling before. Back then, Miyu had healed her using the power of a miracle.

To a magus, blood was no different from life force. The massive blood loss had drained Sakura's life force. This was no longer something mere mana could mend.

With her mana depleted and her Magic Crest suffering backlash, Sakura's Butterfly Magic—illusion magecraft, her specialty—had backfired on her. This was also why she had attacked Ritsuka. Of course, she had come to her senses and stopped herself just before making contact.

But Ritsuka had caught that genuine killing intent and retaliated.

Lacking sufficient combat experience herself, Ritsuka could only fight using skills tied to combat experience and the bodily reactions that gradually surfaced. It was nearly impossible for her to pull back in time, especially since she had not noticed much was wrong when she struck.

Ritsuka suddenly felt hollow inside, as though a huge part of her heart had been gouged out. The last times she had felt this way were when Kiritsugu died and when Miyu was taken away by Julian.

"So Sakura is this important to me."

Looking at Sakura, who lay against her chest as if she could fall asleep at any moment, Ritsuka spoke from the heart.

A junior one year younger than her, a kouhai who admired her... someone she could let down every guard around when she was simply "Emiya Ritsuka."

Maybe... she might even be someone Ritsuka loved.

"Senpai, it hurts... My whole body hurts so much..."

Her fingers turned white as she clenched the corner of Ritsuka's clothes and refused to let go. Sakura's pained expression nearly shattered Ritsuka's emotions.

Tears burst from her eyes, streaming down her beautiful face.

Under the starlight, every tear shone with a strange radiance, crystal-clear and beautiful as gemstones, falling onto Sakura's cheeks.

A scene flashed through Ritsuka's mind, and she softly murmured in a trembling voice, "Pain, pain, fly away—"

"Pfft... Senpai, you're so childish..."

Sakura gave her a sweet, sweet smile.

"Senpai, I suddenly feel so cold... And why can't I... see anything anymore...?"

Sakura's voice made Ritsuka instinctively hold her tighter. Something warm flowed across her chest. It was undoubtedly Sakura's blood, her life constantly slipping away within Ritsuka's arms.

Her left hand gripped Sakura's hand. Those slender, soft fingers were losing their warmth.

"It's okay, Sakura. You just need to rest for a little while. I promise... when you wake up, I'll be by your side."

The words were barely squeezed from Ritsuka's throat, and her body began to tremble. She had already gained enough power to oppose Enzō, and she had prepared herself to part with everything familiar in the future, because from the beginning, she had been prepared to die.

This was a journey that would continue until the end.

Though the entire process—everything—had exceeded her expectations.

"Oh, right... Senpai, this..."

Sakura's eyes were filled with deathly stillness. Her fingers lightly held something as blood continuously dripped down it.

It was Imaginary Numbers. Using the last of her mana, Sakura had taken out something she always carried with her.

The small Panda Plushie looked somewhat strange now, stained with blood—enough to make a child cry in fright. Sakura gently held the plushie in her arms.

"This is... the gift Senpai gave me... when we became friends... Now... I'm giving it back..."

The plushie was placed into Ritsuka's arms, then fell to the floor.

Sakura smiled softly, her eyes gradually closing. She wrapped her arms around Ritsuka's back and used her last strength to give Ritsuka a hug.

Ritsuka froze. The breath in her arms suddenly became incredibly faint, as though it could vanish completely at any moment.

"Sakura... don't go...!"

"Senpai, I never actually wanted to be friends with you..."

Sakura's voice grew softer and softer, until it was nearly inaudible. But Ritsuka's exceptional eyesight still allowed her to see every movement of Sakura's lips.

I didn't want to be friends with you, Senpai... I've loved you for so many years...

Nuking Ryuudou Temple into Peace

Under the vast star-filled sky, a shooting star silently streaked overhead with a long tail behind it. If someone still awake happened to see it, they could make a wish. Maybe it really would come true.

Miyu and Ritsuka becoming biological sisters had actually happened later, beneath a shooting star.

Sitting in a familiar spot, where Kiritsugu and Ritsuka had once sat, now Ritsuka and Miyu watched the stars together.

As the shooting star passed, Miyu wished that she and Ritsuka could become real sisters. The heavens granted her wish, and her crimson eyes turned orange.

So perhaps shooting stars really could grant people's wishes.

On that final night, what had Kiritsugu been thinking as he looked at the sky full of stars? Even now, Ritsuka could not understand.

She only knew that Kiritsugu trusted her and chose to accept her decision. Even if only to avoid betraying Kiritsugu's trust, she had to do everything she could to find Miyu.

Ritsuka was not a hero. If she had to choose between family and the world, there was hardly any room for compromise.

If she had the ability, then of course she would save them both...

Treading across the thin layer of snow, Ritsuka walked back toward the Emiya Residence.

After spending nearly a day burying Sakura, Ritsuka sat for a long time beside the place where Kiritsugu Emiya had been buried before finally returning to the Emiya Residence.

With nothing left tying her down and her existence steadily collapsing, she had very little time left.

Immortality could keep her body from falling apart, but her existence would eventually burn away completely. She likely had less than a week.

Furthermore, limited by the rate of internal replacement, the closer she came to collapse, the closer Ritsuka's power would become to the things within the Crystal Dice.

In other words, she would draw ever closer to the true power of Avenger Alcides and Archer Emiya Shirou.

If she managed her time well, overturning the Holy Grail War would not be difficult.

The only problem might be the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh, whom Sakura had not had time to tell her about.

The oldest king of humanity. The king of heroes.

Though he was not as famous as Heracles in myths across various lands, those myths still made it clear that he possessed terrifying power.

When it came to the unknown, Enzō definitely had a trump card.