Shirou Emiya

Run!

That was his only thought at that moment.

Though there was still quite a distance between them, Shirou Emiya felt as if he could be caught at any moment.

By the time he came to his senses, he had already sprinted into the school building at the absolute limit of his body.

His returning rationality told him that this was not a wise choice.

If he wanted to run and hide,

weren't there plenty of other routes?

The die was cast, and fear drove Shirou Emiya to keep running.

Perhaps it was an illusion or something, but he heard a crisp voice in his mind.

[Ding—]

Run!

He had no time to consider whether the sudden voice was a hallucination or an auditory illusion.

His heart kept pounding, nearing its limit.

[Ye Fan, Su Lin, and Shirou Emiya have joined the chat group.]

What is this?!

Shirou Emiya's heavy legs, which had barely been able to move, instantly found a little more strength.

"Yo—!"

"The game of cat and mouse is over."

[This chat group is dedicated to creating...]

The voice in his mind and a strangely amiable voice by his ear rang out in his brain simultaneously.

There was clearly nothing around him.

A strange interface suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

Monkey D. Luffy: "@Everyone Whoa, what is this?"

Xiao Yan: "Stop messing with me. Has Old Ma's business expanded across worlds now? Spare me, I really don't have any money left. @Monkey D. Luffy, you seem familiar. Aren't you the guy from Pirates?"

"You should know better than anyone that you can't escape, right? What, is this what it means for the one who gets beaten to gain something?"

Rows of messages flashed before his eyes, while the voice beside his ear continued speaking softly.

"Unlucky child, since you've been spotted, I can't let you go."

A blue-clad man appeared out of thin air, a crimson spear in his hand.

Without mercy or emotion, the spear pierced Shirou Emiya's heart.

Shirou Emiya had no time to dodge. None of the results of his past training were of any use.

He had been killed.

The scene before his eyes gradually blurred, leaving only a flood of messages passing by.

"What an annoying job. Calling someone like this a hero is just ridiculous."

All he could hear was the man's voice.

"I know. No objections. I saw that girl's Servant. I'll head back obediently." That guy spoke with some irritation.

After that came the sound of running through the corridor.

In the darkness, there was utter silence. Shirou Emiya simply stared at the strange interface before him.

Wшw¸тTk дn¸￠o

It was a very strange feeling.

His consciousness gradually returned to nothingness, as though everything were about to disappear.

Just like that experience ten years ago.

The difference was that a strange screen kept updating with new information before his eyes.

Was someone using this chat?

Indistinct footsteps sounded by his ear again.

Then came a voice he had heard somewhere before.

"Why are you..."

Afterward, he vaguely heard some more words.

He felt himself returning to his body.

Slowly, little by little, like droplets falling from a leaf, Shirou Emiya felt his body's functions recover.

He returned from that void to reality, bit by bit.

Before long, he could feel his body again, and his heart began to beat.

His consciousness sank into sleep.

When he woke again, Shirou Emiya discovered the bloodstains around him in horror.

His body still seemed very weak, and his head felt groggy as well.

Rubbing his head, he casually picked up the necklace-like object on his body and stuffed it into his pocket.

In a daze, he used a mop from the classroom to wipe away the bloodstains, as if destroying evidence.

Shirou Emiya walked home.

He staggered along the road with a muddled head, his entire body burning hot. Even the cold wind from before no longer felt cold against his skin.

Messages kept popping up on some interface in his vision. So annoying—stop blocking his view.

With that thought, the messages in his vision disappeared.

"Anyway, the next time we meet, we'll be enemies."

Rin Tohsaka left those words behind and headed off in another direction along the street.

After dragging his exhausted body through the night's battle,

Shirou Emiya smiled helplessly in Saber's company.

For some reason, the body that had been shattered by the giant's axe had recovered, but the fatigue of that night still weighed upon his mind and body.

After returning home, Shirou Emiya fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning.

After waking up, Shirou Emiya noticed a strange icon in his field of vision while making breakfast.

"?"

Swish—

With a thought, the scene he had considered an illusion last night appeared in his vision.

Shirou Emiya did not go to school that day. He asked for leave, citing poor health.

He stayed home and read through a novel in the chat group called [Fate Stay Night].

The novel was a story written from his perspective as the protagonist.

What happened earlier in it was almost exactly the same as what he had encountered yesterday.

One Piece existed in their world too. Although he did not usually watch anime, it was a pillar industry in the island nation, so he occasionally saw the show on television.

He knew that the protagonist of that hugely popular manga was named Luffy.

"There are stories in other worlds with me as the protagonist?"

"I'm also a character in a work?"

With mixed feelings, Shirou Emiya began reading the novel.

Rider would attack Rin Tohsaka and me at school?

I was kidnapped by Berserker's Master?

What is replenishing magical energy?! Replenishing magical energy means doing that kind of thing?!

Wait, Saber and I...

King Arthur was actually a girl?!

It had to be said that after Shirou Emiya spent the entire morning reading with full concentration, towering waves had already risen within his heart.

Was this his own future?

When he saw Saber say to him in the text, "Shirou, you are my scabbard,"

Shirou Emiya's heart inexplicably gave an unsteady thump, whether because of the story in the text or for some other reason.

Scabbard...

Shirou Emiya touched his abdomen and understood why he could still be alive and well today after taking the Warrior's axe yesterday night.

"Shirou."

The door was pushed open. Saber stood outside, her pure azure-green eyes free of the slightest impurity as she asked with concern, "Is your body all right?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I've mostly recovered." Shirou Emiya lied. "Sorry, I'll go make lunch right away."

The novel in his vision had reached the end of the story.

Shirou Emiya did not look at Saber. His emotions were somewhat strange at that moment, and his face was slightly flushed.

Though those things had not happened yet, he was still a high school boy. He could not help feeling a little embarrassed.

Was the end of the story a farewell?

Reluctant, yet only natural.

"Hm?" Shirou Emiya discovered that he could keep turning the pages of the novel. There seemed to be more afterward?

Why had it started over again?

Ye Fan: "The lurker has surfaced."

Su Lin: "Seems like it."

Shirou Emiya: "Then why do I have three different futures?"

So that was what this was about.

Su Lin still remembered that countless parallel worlds existed in Fate's worldview. That series had far too many settings.

Everyone, I tested positive. Please take precautions... There'll only be one update a day for the next few days. I have no strength...

(End of chapter)