72

070 - To the next great adventure (Epilogue)

With the defeat of Gilgamesh, things came to an end. There was a bit of a mess with the golden bastard's worth of energy ending up within Sakura after having been swallowed by Haku's [Cursed Shade Lord] while Cu Chulainn's part went the normal route and straight into Illya like it was supposed to do, but Medea made short work of that nonsense.

There's also the fact that Fuyuki's 5th Holy Grail War wouldn't theoretically be over until a wish was made, but that had never happened with the previous four, so nobody batted an eyelash when the official statement from Fuyuki's Second Owner to the Clock Tower mentioned yet another failure. If it was a bit sparse in details, well… Japan is bumfuck nowhere for Magi society and the Holy Grail War is nowhere near as respected as it should. Nobody was going to raise a ruckus about it.

Well, that's not strictly true. There was some ruckus since someone thought it would be great fun to use the excuse of an investigation to send some undesirable away to poke his nose around Rin's turf. Someone with experience in Holy Grail Wars. Unfortunately for the eternally stressed guy and as soon as he set foot out of his plane, Lord El-Melloi II found out that Fuyuki City was a trap and there was a tiger waiting to pounce on him.

I might or might not have played matchmaker and a certain sadistic blonde midget might or might not find the whole situation amusing enough to play along with it.

Fast forward a few years, Taiga is now part of Lord El-Melloi's usual harem entourage. Some might be surprised that she gave up her life's dream of becoming an English teacher to chase after a man with too many suitors, but let's not forget who it was that gave her the dream in the first place. She's happier solving supernatural mysteries around the world as part of a battle harem supernatural investigation group than she ever was playing teacher. I hear she somehow manages to seamlessly merge the roles of team mom and cloudcuckoolander and I still receive postcards from every location she visits.

Granted, we're not as close as we used to be back when she came over every morning to mooch off food check on us, but that was a relief in many senses. Even if she's now aware of the Moonlit world, Team Emiya isn't… we're not exactly your everyday supernatural group. And we won't be staying around for much longer.

It's for the best that she has a life somewhere else.

In the meanwhile, since we were finally free of the pressures and time constraints involved in the War, Team Emiya finally had time to take it easy and do things at our own pace. Medea made the entire Grail System her bitch, but cleansing it of all the leftover impurities and setting everything up for our next step would take time.

Time that we spend in equal parts enjoying our life as a very romantically active polyhedron and improving ourselves in preparation for our mid-term goals mostly in peace.

Rin and Ayako kept their honor student façádes all the way to graduation, though it involved a bit more frivolous use of hypnosis and a bit less actual academic excellence than before. High School has a way of falling to the wayside when inter-dimensional travel lies in the future.

Sakura also finished her studies, but Haku cheerfully abandoned them to focus on more gainful pursuits. High School isn't mandatory in Japan and, once the threat of Taiga nagging at her stopped being constantly around, she dropped it faster than a hot potato.

Jackie and Altera… grew up. Their incarnated bodies maturing in something vaguely resembling a natural way while they got to experience proper childhood in a way they never had in their first life.

Barbara never did, not in the same way they did, at least. As an entity steeped in Mystery, fending off Gaia's degradation took most of her energy, though she could still use her Adult Form for short amounts of time. This usually involved sex, which never stopped having a mana transfer component when it came to her, in a somewhat vicious circle of vice and debauchery that helped her… you know, continue to exist.

Illya and the maids got a longevity tune up that fortunately didn't require Aoko's intervention. Fresh out of the War, I had just regained control of my money and was in no hurry to lose it all to another money-hungry bottomless pit of a magus. By this point, I owe Medea for far too many things to keep count.

… Illya decided she liked being a legal loli though, so her body won't ever grow past her early-teens appearance. Objectively speaking, I can't really blame her for it. She's lived in that body for ten years already, and I can only imagine the prospect of having to go through the changes involved in natural growth would be daunting. Body dysphoria is a thing that's probably not worth going through just for the ability to reach the top selves.

Jubstacheit and the 'Main' Einzbern family, we left to their own devices. Sure, they disinherited Illya and that hurt her a bit but they don't really have the power to harm her further, or actually enforce anything. Their riches and political influence have constantly diminished in the last five centuries and they're only a shadow of what they once were, a dried-up husk that isn't just dead already, but actively accelerating its own decay by kicking out promising talent.

Never having to think about them again is probably the best revenge Illya could ever have.

When I said Team Emiya was left mostly in peace, it's because not everyone was polite enough to leave us well alone. In the years after the War, Fuyuki received numerous prodding attacks from various organizations, probably suspecting there was something more behind the story of 'Grail War Failed as Usual' we'd sold to the Clock Tower.

Sometimes we managed to fend them off through diplomacy and politics, but more often than not, things got violent. The rise of a power bloc -us- capable of deterring such attacks only made the suspicion grow stronger but, fortunately, things never got to the point where anyone who could actually pose a danger was sent here. Those are few and in high demand and we're still pretty much irrelevant in the great scheme of things.

Still served to keep our instincts sharp and get the feet of our less experienced members wet. Ayako in particular never had the mentality of a magus or a legendary hero in the first place, so killing people was hard on her. It took all the shine away from her new and improved [Extremis Armor], though she still went through it with remarkable staunchness.

In any case, things happened, time passed and, before we knew…

It was time for the next step in my plan to get a beautiful home with a green garden and a white picket fence in a peaceful universe where we can raise our children without fear of memetic abominations after our asses, hostile cognitohazards trying to screw us over or becoming the collateral damage for some random planetary threat.

Over the years, the Emiya Residence has become much more than it used to be. This is somewhat expected since it's become the home base of a supernatural family big enough to be called an organization, which includes both traditional magi and non-standard magecraft users, legendary figures and even a bona fide baby demon god.

Improved and secured through both mundane and magical means, the place is as unassailable as it can be made to be in four short years. That is to say, not exactly Camelot, but a fair deal more secure than most places on Earth.

This is true to the point that, as long as it happens within the Boundaries of the residence, we can get away with some flashy shit without having to worry about random bystanders, magical spies or even satellite observation.

That's why we stand utterly relaxed in the middle of the courtyard, in spite of the nine shimmering blue portals around us which could be easily described as 'anything but subtle'. This is it, the product of years of work and the result of stretching a single Grail Wish to the utmost limit.

Not quite enough to get away from the Nasuverse and into somewhere a bit less hectic, but more than enough to abandon this particular branch of reality and get somewhere we can get the means to achieve the real goal.

"Everyone has everything ready?" I ask, taking a glance at the group around me. "Once we cross the portals, there'll be no going back until we're done with our tasks."

"Please Master, things won't be nearly as bad as you seem to think they will be." Medea answers, sounding like she's holding back the urge to roll her eyes. It might be the seventh time I've asked that question. Today. "For most of us, at least. But you…"

"I'll just have to seduce a goddess." Hopefully getting immortality in the process, but I don't want to jinx it saying it out loud when it's not a sure thing. "The easiest task out of anyone here. Don't worry about me."

"... Right." Medea drawls out, not sounding an ounce less incredulous than she did the first time I tried to wave her worries away. "I'm still unsure about you acting without support, Master."

"Pish-posh, I'll be the safest out of everyone here." As long as I get to leave before I let slip what my plan actually entails, of course. "If anything, I'll be worried about you. Are you sure you don't want to leave that specific assignment to someone else?"

"Oh, don't worry Master." Medea titters cheerfully, all her worry vanishing from her demeanor as she hides her lips with a dainty hand. "I'm sure I'll be enjoying my own duties… a lot."

"Yeah, that's what worries me."

"Did you say anything, Master?"

"Nothing at all, Princess." Sorry Jason, but if anybody deserves what's coming your way… that's definitely you. "Shall we get on with it?"

I walk up one of the tears in the very fabric of reality the Grail Wish has so kindly opened for us, taking in the lush and somewhat familiar green jungles waiting on the other side.. What we're doing is… not the original purpose of this ritual, but punching holes in reality is punching holes in reality, and there are places much easier to reach than the Root.

… I'm just procrastinating at this point. Best to get this over with.

"Alright, Princess. It's time to say goodb— Ooff!."

My grandiose farewell gets cut off by a tackling Hellenic Princess and, before I can do more than wrap my arms around her on pure reflex, everyone else joins the hug. And I mean everyone. Even if Sella has to be dragged into it, like the party pooper she is.

"I'll miss you." Medea mutters from where she's burying her face on my chest..

"I know you'll come back to me, Princess. When the time is right."

"Papa!"

"Now Jackie, be a good girl and take care of the family for Papa while he's not around, m'kay?"

"Un!"

"Onii-chan."

"Little Big Sis… What can I say? Do have some faith in me, okay? Our lives together have just begun! I'm not going to lose you again."

"Nii-san..."

"Haku… Give 'em hell for me, would you?"

"Of course I will, Nii-san."

"Sakura, Medusa, Ecchan, Nyanta–"

"Don't call me that."

"–Rin, Altera… Take care of each other, okay? We'll be back together before you know what's going on."

They mumble their own agreements from their respective positions within the pile with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Ayako, Liz, Sella… Never forget your roles are vital too, okay? Nobody's playing second fiddle to anyone else here."

More signs of agreement follow, but nobody looks overly intent on letting go. Is it a show of weakness to lose myself in the feelings of warmth and not want to let go of the group hug? It probably is. I also don't care. This is nice. More than nice, this is great. This is all I want to have for the rest of my life. Warmth and affection freely shared with the women I love.

Unfortunately, this world is not kind. In fact, the closest thing to kind that you can call it is 'kind of horrifying'. So we're going to leave. Call me a coward, but I'll take fleeing to a multiverse cluster where I'm top dog over spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, wondering when and how the next big threat to our happiness will arrive and hoping very hard nobody too absurd for me to handle will ever look in our direction.

So here I am, ready to dive headfirst into hell in hopes of making it through to the other side.

… Maybe I am an idiot. Many people live perfectly normal and happy lives in the Nasuverse. It takes a special kind of paranoia to justify my plans when hiding away is a perfectly valid strategy, but…

I'd spent the rest of my life looking over my shoulder and wondering when the good times would end. And that's simply no way to live. With a sigh, I struggle a bit, signaling for everyone to step away and breaking the hug to give me some space.

"Okay, we have to get going." I finally speak out. "Never can be too sure a certain Wizard Marshall won't notice the tears in reality and come investigate."

Before I can be tempted into remaking the nice group hug, I step through my portal and leave my world behind. Both literally and figuratively.

The scenery changes immediately, the portal closing behind me to leave me stranded in this new place. The dry and dusty scent of a late-Summer Japanese courtyard that filled my nostrils a second ago has been replaced by the pungent aromas from the jungle in front of me and the salty sea breeze from the cliffs I know are right behind my back.

The air really was fresher and richer with mana back in the day, when the Age of Gods was still clinging to the texture of the world and humanity was young… actually, this is the Nasuverse, so humanity wasn't that young. But it's still 2600 BC, so pretty far back all things considered.

Taking a step back, I find the heel of my foot has run out of ground to step on, kicking a small pebble off rocky cliffs with the motion. Glancing behind me, I catch the ominous sight of a blackened ocean that tries to encroach into solid ground, countless monsters continuously spawning from the shoreline.

This is going to royally suck, but I have a MILF to court. T-posing from high above to assert dominance, I jump back, diving headfirst into the inky waves.

[Invictus],[Pavlovian Reinforcement]... Don't fail me now.