Sakura was feeling a little restless as she waited outside Tohsaka Family Home. It might have used to be her house, but she hadn't returned once after being sold to Matous, and being here once again made her feel all sorts of strange emotions. She wanted to burn this place down, but she also wanted to feel welcome here once again. Thankfully, there were no more worms inside her, or she might have been more than just a little bit sad.

"Sakura! What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you it's outside the rules? It might cause a conflict with Matous."

Sakura was a little startled when she heard her sister's voice, but all the nervousness in her died down when she processed what her sister said. Rin had always been like that with Sakura, especially after their separation – all businesslike. She didn't care about how Sakura was, but more about the fact that it might cause a conflict with Matous.

"Rin-Sempai," Sakura spoke with as little emotion as possible, "You don't need to concern yourself about Matous, Zouken is dead."

Sakura spoke simply, not giving Rin time to process it before she continued, "Emiya-Sempai asked me to call you. He wants to discuss something important."

"Emiya-Kun? No, wait-wait-wait, go back. What is it about Matou Head being dead?"

"As I said, you don't need to concern yourself about that. Sempai invited you, you can come when you wish. I will be going now then."

"Sakura, wait—" Rin said flustered as she put her hand on Sakura's shoulder to stop her, but with a jerk, Sakura easily removed her hand from her shoulders.

"Oh—" Rin spoke softly as Sakura disappeared from her sight. What she didn't know was that Sakura ran away in shock and embarrassment as removing Rin's hand was more of an instinctive reaction than anything.

After a few seconds, Rin once again composed herself. Looking at where Sakura disappeared, she spoke to empty air, "Archer, what do you think?"

And the air rippled as a figure materialized next to her in black and red clothes.

"Why are you asking for my opinion on this? Just do as you wish," Archer spoke, but inwardly, he was glad as his gamble in the previous round had paid off and it was already causing butterfly effects. He didn't know how Zouken died nor did he care, but he sure was glad that old piece of shit was dead.

"Hmm... you are right. Well, I planned to go information gathering tonight, but I guess it can wait. I wonder why Emiya-Kun of all people invited me?" Rin thought aloud as she followed after Sakura toward the Emiya Mansion.

Meanwhile, Archer suppressed a snort as he turned back into spirit mode. 'That brat probably wants an alliance or something, I guess.'

Meanwhile, someone was already on their tail and coming to attack them.

Shirou wiped the tears from his eyes as he realized what a great sacrifice Avalon had made to protect his sanity and body. In a sense, Artoria was protecting him even when she wasn't there.

While he gained great knowledge about the previous loops, that wasn't something a mortal man could handle. And to make matters worse, these weren't the memories of the mind or body, but from a person's soul. Changing or even touching someone's soul was walking a fine line between permanent oblivion and life.

Clenching his fist, Shirou felt the strength coursing through his body as minuscule fragments of Avalon now residing in each of his cells provided him with the power to keep his body stable as it strengthened itself repeatedly to match the Sword Body he had obtained in the previous cycle.

And if due to some unfortunate reason or another, he lost those fragments, he would once again turn into his hideous Monster of Blade form.

Shirou took a deep breath, trying to soothe his mind as he confronted a crucial dilemma - whether or not to summon Saber. Don't get him wrong; he loved Saber just as much as he loved Rin and Sakura, but two crucial details kept stopping him from attempting to summon her.

Even now, as he cleared his store room and stood in front of the summoning circle, he couldn't decide what to do.

Shirou wanted to be reunited with Saber again, but he didn't know if he could still summon Saber or not, especially since Avalon was fused with him completely, or if it would have some unintended consequences. In the previous rounds, Avalon helped in summoning Saber, but due to it being a conceptual weapon, it caused her summoning to be imperfect, and now it was fused with him. Not to mention that his Command Seal was eerily similar to that of Sakura; it may very well summon Rider. If that were the case, he would be okay with her too, especially since he spent almost a year alongside her; she had become a treasured friend (Nakama).

In the end, Shirou decided to just go with the most basic method of just leaving it up to fate and summoning with just chant and ritual.

Holding up his right hand, Shirou let it bleed a little as he chanted:

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg. The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulates. Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Repeat every five times. Simply, shatter once filled. ――――I announce. Your self is under me, my fate is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer. Here is my oath. I shall become all the good in the world; I am the one who destroys all the evil in the world. You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――!"

"Shirou..." A female voice was heard before a flash of light blinded Shirou for a second.

Back with Sakura,

Sakura finally stopped after reaching halfway to the Emiya Mansion. She breathed hard as her face was red from exhaustion and embarrassment.

She didn't want to overreact so much at the Tohsaka home, but for some reason, Rin's nonchalant behavior due to her ignorance irritated her to no end. While she had to suffer so much, Rin was living her dream life.

Unfortunately, her lampooning was interrupted when she heard clashing of steel.

Looking around, Sakura was concerned when she found no soul around her. It was as if they had vanished, even though it was early evening.

"A Barrier..." Sakura muttered as she looked from where the sound came from. It was coming from the same direction where she came from. And despite herself, Sakura found herself going towards the sound.

A few minutes later,

Sakura felt her eyes going wide as she witnessed two men fighting, moving at speeds where she could only see blurs of red and blue.

Most shocking was that her onee-san was in the

middle of their battleground, looking completely unfazed. Instead, it was her feeling dread for her safety; it was a feeling Sakura never thought she would feel towards her, who was only an object of jealousy, envy, and admiration.

And then Sakura did something admittedly stupid, something which would better suit a certain other Sakura, and picked up a stone and threw it towards the two men, yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Run!!!! NEE-SAN..."

Well, that seemed to get everyone's attention as the two men stopped fighting, and Rin's face contorted in horror.

Realizing the mistake she just made, Sakura tried to run away, but the man with the spear was already on her.

"ARCHER!"

Sakura heard Rin's yell and saw the spear about to pierce her, so she instinctively closed her eyes, and good thing she did because there was a flash of light along with the yell of "Excalibur."

Gilgamesh, aka Archer of the 4th Holy Grail War and King of Heroes, was having a very strange day. First, he woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, and a feeling of wrongness gnawed at his being. Again he was not able to find the reason; it seemed as if the whole world itself was wrong.

Now it brought him to the current situation where he was undecided whether he should use one of his Noble Phantasms, "Sha Naqba Imuru," or not. This could easily allow him to see the truth and even predict the Future. But for multiple reasons, he didn't wish to use it, one of the main reasons being that as a Perfect King, he should face everything head-on.

But at last, he could not take it anymore and activated the Noble Phantasm after all. Once he did, he finally understood what had happened and started chuckling, which soon evolved into a full-blown laughter, as if he had heard the world's best joke.

But looking closer, one would see that his laughter contained both extreme amusement and rage.

"Hahahahahaha... Well done, Faker. Well done. I will be waiting for you. Come at me with your best; only then will it be fun to crush you. I will even be generous enough to wait. Don't disappoint me. Hahahahahaha."

TO BE CONTINUED

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