17 Chapter 13.2 - One of Future Past [2]

And while I'm watching all of this happening with my Mystic Eyes, I let out a small sigh, contrasting Gilgamesh's laugh. "I assume you have to go?" Gilgamesh looks to me knowingly, and I give a small nod as I stand up. "Yep. Kiritsugu's not going to last this day if I don't go, and I can't let Shirou's dad die, you know?"

'I promised to change things.'

"Then I shall wait. I am eager to taste this 'sushi' you've mentioned." I laugh slightly, enjoying the enthusiasm the woman holds for the Japanese cuisine. "I'll be going now. See you later!"

With that, I leap off the building and fly forward, the [Prana Jet Propulsions] on my feet boosting me through the air. After some time flying around, I manage to make it to Shirou, who's currently staying at the forest west of Fuyuki, teaching Akemi some basics of magecraft while the servants are chatting.

I make my descent, landing right in front of Shirou and surprising the hell out of the other girl. "Yo." I say, smiling, as I hold up my hand in greeting. Shirou smiles wryly as he slowly coaxes Akemi to calm down. Then, after the girl managed to calm down and apologized, I continue. "It's fine. Anyways, mind if I borrow this guy for a moment? Something important's come up."

"What is it?" He looks to me.

"Kiritsugu's dying. We need to go."

His eyes go wide for a moment, before they narrow. He nods, determined, and he makes a quick farewell to the other master before he turns back to me. "Let's go."

I smile, and activating my Mystic Eyes, quickly locating Saber and Irisviel. Now with Shirou and my two servants in tow, we make our way towards Saber's car, making haste but doing our best to not draw in any suspicion.

(Had to hold Shirou back several times from breaking the sound barrier. It was hard)

Now, for those confused as to how I know all this?

To that I say,

[Mystic Eyes of Myriad Perception], son!

…doesn't have the same ring to it, huh…

Anyways, it was actually much easier said than done. This all stemmed from my origin, [Change], which messes with all predetermined roads fate had laid out. It's both a blessing and a curse really, since I had to go all Doctor Strange and look through the many possible paths laid out in the [Tree of Possibilities], as I call it.

It took me the entire previous night. Thankfully, my Stamina regeneration kept me energized enough, but god did I miss sleep!

But for the greater good, I shall abandon that night of sleep! For the greater good!

After browsing the interweb of countless possibilities, I determined a series of actions Shirou and I needed to do for today. I would remain back at the hotel room, watching over everything, while Shirou would be teaching Akemi in the secluded forest to the west, making sure to be as secretive as possible.

And it worked!

…well, not completely.

I didn't expect to suddenly meet Gilgamesh, nor did I expect to get that skill earlier. Still, Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh, and just like how fate can no longer chain me, it can't seem to chain Gilgamesh as well.

Well, as she (he?) said in Carnival Phantasm, she is the rule.

Now then, after some more time traveling through Fuyuki, we finally come upon a black car. I can see two particular figures inside, and as I did earlier, I casually rose my hand in greeting.

"Yo."

~~~

Shirou is afraid.

Hanami had told him of what would occur today, of how Kiritsugu would suddenly fall ill and his wife would rush into Fuyuki looking for him, but even though he knew that they'll manage to heal his adopted father back to health, what would happen then?

He isn't his son. Not yet. This Kiritsugu still works as the Magus Killer. He holds no memories of who Shirou is, and it frightened him.

Because what would he do? What would he think of him? Would he accept him? Deny him?

Even with Hanami assurance and the three inhabitants in his soul keeping him calm, the feeling still gnaws at him as he follows Irisviel and Saber down the halls of the Einzbern mansion. They stop before a pair of doors, and Saber quickly pushes it open. They quickly head in, and inside, he can see Kiritsugu lying in a bed, asleep, with an unfamiliar woman sitting by his side.

It's the weakest he's ever seen the man be.

His breath hitches, and his body clamps up, refusing to move.

Then, slowly, he begins to walk forward.

"Shirou, calm down." He feels Hanami place an assuring hand on his shoulder, and he turns to her. "Things can go wrong, but…I'll do my best, alright?" He makes a silent nod, and Hanami smiles. She walks up to his bedside, and her Mystic Eyes activate, her green eyes bleeding to a shifting blue.

"That's-!" Shirou hears Irisviel gasp, but he ignores it, choosing to watch as Hanami's expression slowly dim. Before long, her smile is turned into a grim frown. "…Shit."

"W-What's wrong, Tsunaka-san?" Irisviel asks, worried. Hanami turns to the woman, her frown growing.

"Seems like the situation's gone from bad to worse." She laughs slightly, though it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Angra's taint on him is heavy, and it's slowly eating through his body. We don't have long before the man turns into a puddle of hot mud."

"A-Angra? Who's this Angra!?"

"…Story for later." She says, and before Irisviel can get any angrier, she quickly continues. "I'll have to focus as much as possible. Don't interrupt me."

And with that, Hanami places a hand on Kiritsugu's chest, and light begins to shine around them, surrounding them light a cocoon.

It's the same light he'd seen her use countless times, but now, being so close to it, he understands what it truly is.

[Avalon], the sheath of ever distant utopia.

The ancient artifact thumps within his soul, and he can feel it hum together with the cascading light before him. The same seems to go for Saber, though she looks a lot more shocked.

Why wasn't he shocked then?

Because it's Hanami. She probably found a way to extract [Avalon]'s light or something.

But even as wisps of black smoke began to rise out from his Kiritsugu's skin, and as colour slowly returns to his face, Hanami looks hardly pleased.

"Umm…something seems wrong…" He hears Okita say, and he thinks the same. It'd been quite a while since he's seen Hanami truly look displeased. At worst, she's peeved at something, but quickly bounced back to her neutral smile.

But something seems wrong here.

Then patches of black begin to surface on Kiritsugu's face, and Hanami went from displeased to furious panic.

"What's happening to him?!"

"…Shit. Angra's growing violent. The curse is growing wild and…" The rest foes unsaid, but the point is clear.

If something isn't done soon, Kiritsugu will die.

"Come on…" Hanami pushes again, and the light around them shines brighter than ever. "Come on…!" He hears her plead, but the black taint continues to spread. Prana is being wildly flung all over the place, and Hanami continues to struggle, even as signs of strain begin to show on her face.

Kiritsugu will die.

"Stay put you piece of sh-, agh…!" Cracks begin to appear around the room. Irisviel and Maiya suddenly fall, overwhelmed by the sudden denseness of prana in the atmosphere, while Saber stares at the girl, shocked and unbelieving that Hanami is even human. After all, what kind of human can emit such large amounts of prana?

'But Kiritsugu will die.'

Even then, the curse continues to eat away at Kiritsugu, and the patches of black begin to make it up to his neck, reaching towards the brain that keeps the body living. Glass shatters, floors begin to break away, and the roof starts to cave in. The two opposing forces clash against one another, fighting for dominance.

'But even then, Kiritsugu will die again.'

Shirou's lung feels like molten lead as he watches the black taint reach up to his foster father's eyes, only now inches away from the brain.

He would watch his father die again.

"Let's not give up hope just yet, shall we?"

'…Merlin?'

She doesn't respond, but he can somehow picture the smirk on her face. Pink flowers begin to somehow grow underneath his feet, before spreading all over the room, coating the floor in a pink bed of flowers. Maiya and Irisviel look down in shock, but Saber goes from awe and shocked to being absolutely catatonic.

"Hmph. Her expressions are always funny." Merlin giggles, and he has to admit, he thinks so too, especially with how she's looking at the pink flowers with as much enthusiasm as a dead fish.

But, that isn't important right now. Merlin has appeared, and she's somehow brought a portion of the [Garden of Avalon] into the real world. Her intent and his match, merging into one. Her wisdom, her emotions, her history, her everything; he sees it all, and he takes it all in. The tranquil winds of that ever distant garden blow through the room, and he smiles.

"[Let me tell you a story of a king]."

"[The inner sea of the planet. The platform of the watchtower]"

Two voices rings out at once. The air around him ripples, winds swirling around the room, and the blooming pink flowers sway to the rhythm of an unheard song. The cold seeping from the outside vanishes, replaced by calming warmth.

"[From the edge of paradise, you shall hear my words]"

"[Your story shall be full of blessings –Let only those without sin pass]!"

Let there be no suffering in these tranquil gardens.

"[Garden of Avalon]!"

And so the Noble Phantasm is invoked, and the ever distant utopia shrouds the room. The blessings it holds seeps into every individual in the room, taking away all blemishes and healing any injuries. The fatigue and weight Irisviel has for being the Grail fades away, and the days of sleeplessness Maiya has disappears.

Hanami's light sings in tandem, and it grows even stronger, reaching deeper into the core of Emiya Kiritsugu and coming upon the channel carrying the taint, connected to the corrupted Grail. Almost there! Hanami glares at her hand, determined, and with one last push, she sends her prana into the Kiritsugu's entire body, breaking past the walls the taint had been building.

Then-

"[Gehen]"

Lines of white stretch across the man's body, before bursting into light. An otherworldly shriek fills the room, before it fades, and with it gone, the taint on Kiritsugu's body drains away, leaving him healthy. "Ha…" Hanami heaves a slow sigh, before immediately falling onto the floor.

"Agh, everything hurts…" She says and turns to him, a wide smile stretching across her face. "Well, there ya go, Shirou!"

"He's…okay, right?" He asks warily, and Hanami responds with an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Yep! He'll be asleep for a day or two, and his magic circuits won't be running at full capacity for a while, but he's fine.

"Now, if you'll excuse me…" As she says that, she tilts back and falls onto the floor, immediately going asleep.

And then she disappears, probably into an…[Empty ID], if he remembers correctly. The presence of her two servants vanishes as well, following their master.

Which leaves him here, alone, with an asleep magus killer and three woman, each looking to him with many questions in mind.

"…alright, how should I begin…?"

~~~

By the time he finished an edited explanation of what's going on, it's already turned evening, and the night sky had shown itself. The three women, Saber especially, were very insistent in their questions, and it took him a while to explain that he was indeed a normal human and not some reincarnation of Merlin, though that suggestion did make the actual Merlin giggle slightly.

(Of course, he had enough tact to not mention how he and Hanami got here in the first place)

Though the atmosphere turned heavy as he explained who Angra Mainyu was.

Simply put, the three were crushed when they heard the monkey's paw that is the Holy Grail. The fact that they were only going to receive destruction at the end brought them all down, and they were all anxious as to Kiritsugu's reaction when he hears so.

So, to lighten the mood-

"Why don't you cook them food? Your companion seems to cheer up when you do so."

Merlin suggested so, and he immediately brought up the idea. Understandably, they were wary of it, but after some persuasion, they finally allowed him to do so, if only to gain some time alone to ponder the information they received. Well, that didn't matter much to him, because he's able to cook again!

Oh, by all things that are good, he can cook!

Sure, he never said it out loud, but it'd been so long since he's stepped into a kitchen, and his hands were itching to finally make some food!

So here he is now, standing in the castle's kitchen, with a buffet worthy for a king prepared and ready, arranged neatly all across the long dining table. He can't quite help the smile on his face as he takes off the apron and places it on a nearby counter.

"Dinner's ready!" He calls out by reflex, before remembering that this isn't quite his house. But it did its job, and the three women step into the dining room, drawn by the heavenly smell of a buffet, its beauty surpassing any they've ever seen before.

"You…cooked this?" Saber asks, and Shirou smiles and nods. He can clearly see the conflict in her eyes, and it reminds him of the first time he did this with his Saber, of the crumbling dignity she held before she dove in, eating food in volumes that easily surpassed his surrogate sister's.

Irisviel doesn't quite have the same restraint and dives in as soon as he allows them to. It's quite adorable actually, and it makes him wonder just how she and his father met, and what will happen to her to cause his father's regrets that he heard on that fateful night.

Maiya sits down and begins to eat as well, though with less enthusiasm as Irisviel, though still clearly enjoying it. It's almost like an odd version of Saber, except that she isn't digging through the food at hyper speeds.

And with her two female companions eating, Saber finally decides to sit down and take a bite, and as he expected, all hell broke loose from there. The servant begins eating faster and faster, devouring more and more food and cleaning the plates he prepared with astounding speed. And somehow, despite it all, she manages to eat with dignity.

Such is the magic of servants, he supposes.

But most importantly, the cloud of depression no longer hung over them, and as temporary as a solution this is, he'll consider it a success. Making others smile is never wrong after all.

'It's what a Hero of Justice would do.'

He hears his inner voice say, but it isn't malicious, nor is it filled with pity. It was of acceptance, acceptance that, even if he had failed his last world, even though the billions of people that once lived in those tortured days of future past, that dream of his still lives, and there is nothing wrong with it.

For what is a hero? Is he a gallant knight, facing off against threats unknown? Is he a scholar, who brought knowledge upon men and advanced society? Is he a king, who led his people to prosperity?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

But for him, a hero is one that protects those he still has, and that's enough for him.

He silently brings up a hand over his eyes. Before him, he is serving food to a family he never knew he had. Saber, Irisviel, and Maiya. His partner, his foster mother, and a trusted aunt. If they were still alive back then, how much money would he have to spend to fill the stomachs of 7, perhaps more when counting Saber and Fuji-nee's appetite?

"Hmm? Shirou-san, are you not going to join us?" Irisviel asks as she takes another bite.

He smiles.

"I will."

And as he joins in, if anyone asks if he was crying, he'll just say that it was probably the lighting.