Run!
That was his only thought at that moment.
Though there was still quite a distance between them, Shirou Emiya felt as though 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 speed.
His returning rationality told him 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 onward.
Perhaps it was an illusion, or something else, but a clear voice seemed to ring out in his mind.
[Ding—]
Run!
He had no time to care whether the sudden sound was an illusion or an auditory hallucination.
His heart pounded relentlessly, nearly reaching its limit.
[Ye Fan, Su Lin, and Shirou Emiya have joined the Chat Group.]
What is this?!
Shirou Emiya's heavy legs, which had nearly refused to move, instantly found a little more strength.
"Yo—!"
"The game of cat and mouse is over."
[This Chat Group is dedicated to building...]
The voice in his mind and another unusually gentle voice sounded in his head and by his ear at the same time.
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: "Quit messing with me. Has Old Ma's business expanded across worlds now? Please spare me, I'm really broke. @Monkey D. Luffy, you seem familiar. Aren't you the guy from One Piece?"
"You know better than anyone that you can't escape, right? What's wrong? The defeated side often gains something. That's just how it is."
Rows upon rows of messages flashed before his eyes, while the voice beside his ear continued speaking softly.
"You unlucky kid, since you've been seen, I can't let you go."
A blue-clad man appeared out of nowhere, gripping 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 him gradually blurred, leaving only a flood of messages drifting past.
"What an annoying job. Calling someone like this a hero is too ridiculous."
All he could hear was the man's voice.
"I know. I have no objections. I saw that girl's Servant. I'll go back obediently." The man spoke with some irritation.
After that came the sound of someone running down the corridor.
In the darkness, all was silent. Shirou Emiya simply stared at the strange interface before him.
It was a very peculiar feeling.
His consciousness gradually returned to Nihility, as though everything was about to disappear.
Just like that experience ten years ago.
The difference was that the strange screen before him kept updating with new messages.
Was someone using this chat?
Unclear footsteps sounded by his ear again.
Then came a voice he had heard somewhere before.
"Why are you..."
Afterward, he vaguely heard a few more words.
It felt as though he had returned to his body.
Slowly, bit by bit, like a Droplet falling from a leaf, Shirou Emiya felt his bodily functions recover.
Bit by bit, he returned from that Nihility to reality.
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 was foggy as well.
Rubbing his head, he casually picked up the necklace-like object on his body and stuffed it into his pocket.
Still dazed, he used a mop from the classroom to clean up the bloodstains, as though destroying evidence.
Shirou Emiya headed home.
He walked down the road with a muddled head, his whole body burning hot. Even when the cold wind from before blew against him, he did not feel cold.
A certain interface in his vision kept popping up messages. So annoying. Stop blocking my 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 down the street in another direction.
After dragging his exhausted body through the night's battle,
Shirou Emiya gave a helpless smile with Saber at his side.
For some reason, the body that had been shattered by the giant's axe had recovered, but the exhaustion of the night still weighed on 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 vision while making breakfast.
"?"
Whoosh—
With a thought, the scene he had dismissed as an illusion last night appeared in his vision.
Shirou Emiya did not go to school that day. He took leave from school on the grounds that he was unwell.
He stayed home and read through a novel in the Chat Group called [Fate/stay night].
The novel was a story written from his first-person perspective.
What had happened earlier in the novel was almost exactly the same as what he had experienced yesterday.
One Piece existed in their world too. Although he did not usually watch anime, it was a pillar industry of the island nation, so he occasionally saw the show on television.
He knew that the protagonist of that popular manga was called Luffy.
"There are stories in other worlds where I'm the protagonist?"
"I'm also a character in a work?"
With mixed feelings, Shirou Emiya continued reading the novel.
Rider would attack Tohsaka and me at school?
I would be kidnapped by Berserker's Master?
What was replenishing mana?! Replenishing mana meant doing that?!
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 complete focus, enormous waves were already surging through his heart.
Was this his own future?
When he saw Saber say to him in the text, "Shirou, you are my Scabbard,"
Shirou Emiya did not know whether it was because of the story in the text or something else, but his heart gave an embarrassing thump.
Scabbard...
Shirou Emiya touched his abdomen and understood why he could still be so lively today after taking Berserker's axe last night.
"Shirou."
The door opened, and Saber stood outside. Her holy azure-green eyes held not a trace of 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 already reached the end of the story.
Shirou Emiya did not look at Saber. His emotions were strange at the moment, and his face was slightly red.
Though it had not happened yet, as a high school boy, he could not help feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Did the story end with a farewell?
Reluctant to part, yet somehow it felt only natural.
"Hm?" Shirou Emiya discovered that he could keep turning the pages. There seemed to be more afterward?
Why had it started over again?
Ye Fan: "The lurker has surfaced."
Su Lin: "Looks like it."
Shirou Emiya: "Then why do I have three different futures?"
So that was what this was about.
Su Lin still remembered that Fate's setting contained countless parallel worlds. That series had far too many settings.
Everyone, I tested positive. Please make sure to protect yourselves... There'll only be one update a day for the next few days. I have no strength...
(End of chapter)