Chapter 220: Epilogue

Stories, no matter how difficult, must have an ending.

Alek Goosev's story ended when his creation devoured him. Asahi Toru's story ended when he sacrificed himself in that war. Still, if one story ends, a new one can begin.

For the girl who rides next to Waver on that plane. That gift Toru gave her. That peculiar earring in her ear.

For the girl who can't sleep on this strange night, looking at the golden ring on her hand, remembering the moments she lived together with that boy...

...

And so, that entity inside the Holy Grail that could not get what it wanted in this war, has prepared something new for the next one. Sacrificing the physical fragment of Toru's dagger and turned the earring and the ring into real objects, new relics in this World that will bring back that Hero who has lost his way.

All that's left is to make him lose hope again...

Angra Mainyu still awaits his birth...

-Throne of Heroes-

He opened his eyes and felt a deep emptiness in his heart. He felt like he was dreaming for a long time until he woke up. The wind touched his face gently. The warmth of the sun on his body felt all too real. His blood covers the floor and the ambulance siren echoes in the distance.

Again in this place...

"I feel like I haven't been here in a long time..."

And so it was, but the moment he returned to this place, all his memories of the war were erased. That's why he...

"I feel like I... forgot something very important..."

Tears crumbled down his face. His silver eyes looked up at the sky confused by what had happened. This emptiness that made him feel miserable, this deep pain that is slowly hurting him. Blurry images flash in front of his eyes, but he can't see them clearly. What was it that happened... Where was it? Why does it feel so strangely familiar?

That strange feeling of familiarity in this situation.

Yes...

Is that...

That feeling of being lost again...

-In another place-

Rin was looking out the window waiting for her mother, but her mother had been missing since the night before. The Zenjō family takes good care of her, but she's still worried about Aoi. It was still very late at night and this kept the girl from sleeping.

"Everything is going to be fine..."

She wanted to believe, but very hardly everything would be alright. Still, she did not lose hope. She had to remain strong and perfect. She wasn't going to let that mask of perfection fall off before she could look Sakura in the face once more.

'Otō-sama, okā-sama, Sakura, Toru. I'll wait for them, I won't give up...''

-Fuyuki City-

Destruction was spreading all over the horizon, leaving in sight the flames and buildings destroyed by the destruction that the explosion generated. Many dead, there is no one alive....

No... that's not true. There is someone there, someone moving among all that chaos.

A boy with tousled brown hair walks among the death and destruction. He is confused, he is scared and saddened. He can't hear anyone, he can't see anything but lifeless bodies around him. His arm is broken, his head hurts, from which drops of blood are falling.

All this, how did it all happen? The boy wondered, but still did not find an answer.

When he was near one of the destroyed buildings, a stone fell from above, which left him buried down there.

'I see... I'm going to die here too...'

He accepted his fate. There was nothing else he could do. However, just as he was about to close his eyes, he heard a man's voice.

"Just one, even one, please."

The man sounded desperate. Then light emerged from the rubble and the boy frowned to get a better look at who was in front of him.

"He's alive..."

Said the man upon seeing the boy.

"What a relief... what a relief..."

The man, black-suited and empty-eyed, hugged the boy as he cried inconsolably. It was Kiritsugu...

At that moment the boy thought...

'I should have died here, but this man decided to save me. This man is crying in relief... I don't understand, but...'

He closed his eyes and rested.

'This must be fate...'

The story of a Hero of this World has begun.

-On a plane-

"Where will we go when the plane lands?"

Sakura asked, but Waver didn't know how to answer her. He really doesn't know where he's going, but he's sure that he must protect this girl.

"That will be a surprise."

Sakura may be a six-year-old girl, but she understood Waver's words. He didn't know where the hell to go after the plane lands. It didn't make sense, but she wanted to trust him.

"A few moments ago, when the plane shook hard..."

"I know. It's Assassin's power..."

Waver said it clearly. It was exactly that, the truth. Sakura only felt proud for Toru, no more, no less. She still loved him from the depths of her being. Seeing him again has become a dream for her. That's why she hopes that this boy will come back to her to take her home.

"Onii-san must win. If he doesn't win I will be very angry with him."

If he doesn't win he won't return to her side... Waver knew he was taking a risk by making that bet and pact with Toru. There was no way to ensure victory and most likely that boy has died in that explosion that he had to cover up so Sakura wouldn't see it.

His kindness prevented him from making this little girl lose hope.

'Asahi Toru must come back. If he doesn't now, he will at some point. That is her pact with me. We must both keep it.'

That was the word of a man.

-In one of the infinite voids of the multiverse-

Different gods, Mothers and Fathers of Worlds were discussing as a group. They were all planning something very dark, a game of death to entertain themselves. The lives of Worlds eventually become dull and monotonous. Not many Worlds have the creativity to create a story that satisfies them, so they inevitably turn to the gods and other Worlds going through the same thing to make an agreement.

Out of all of them, the goddess Amaterasu of the Shinobi World took a puff of her pipe and sighed out a small cloud of smoke. Beside her, a bright golden girl stood. The girl had a crimson halo atop her head, a direct gift from the Overlord who died a little over two years ago.

Now, rather than being present in this place, they were just projecting their consciousnesses there in order to better communicate. Simply hearing voices in empty space would confuse everyone, so it was a good choice to avoid trouble.

"So all we have to do is pick characters from our stories, huh... This is my first time doing this. I'm already so excited."

The golden girl whispered to Amaterasu.

"The problem is who to pick."

"Let's do what most Worlds do. Pick characters who have broken their destiny and punish them by giving them hope that they can get what they want."

Amaterasu was fine with that. She had no objection.

"Listen up, everyone!"

The Father of a Wizarding World raised his voice for all to hear. The limit of characters to choose from was undefined. The more the better, as gossipy people say.

"I've already chosen my character. He is one of my Heroes."

The other Worlds and gods began to argue. Using a Hero is cheating, but... after a few seconds, they all thought it was a good idea. In fact, some even came up with the idea of creating new Heroes especially for this whole upcoming event.

"Let's base it on one of the concepts in my stories to begin with."

Said the mother of one of the Worlds. In her story the most powerful beings come to be called Spirits, which create explosions when they reach other Worlds or dimensions.

"And what are you offering this time?"

Asked the mother of a World based on monsters that devour people. In response, that World, shiny and golden, said:

"In the form of Battle Royale. I call it Date a Bullet."

For those Worlds to quench their thirst for fun.

-Shinobi World, Konohagakure-

Two years have passed since the war that took the lives of thousands of people. Now everyone remembers that as the day when hope and bonds between people emerged. The world has slowly become more peaceful. The Villages work as a team. People have made peace and left all that bitterness and hatred in the past.

The cycle of hatred, thanks to the boy with the Kyūbi inside him, has been broken. And since that time, this very Village has grown and has housed many people. Slowly Konohagakure has become a city.

On the streets of this place, there is someone who is on her way to a very special place. Her clothes are the same as those worn by the shinobi. Tactical vest, sandals and the emblems of two villages on the badges of her bandanas. She was a beautiful and young woman, with the appearance of a young girl in her twenties.

When she walked around the place, all the locals looked at her and judged her for what she did in the past, but that did not matter to her, for she is in this place to serve her sentence.

In her hands she carries a bouquet of paper flowers as white and pure as the clouds of a sunny day. She carries these flowers as a gift to her beloved.

She walked calmly through the streets, as if she were performing a kind of ritual consisting of walking with this bouquet of flowers to her destination. This time it was a little over two years since that moment, so this was an anniversary of sorts.

Soon she found herself leaving Konohagakure, approaching an area a bit far from the village.

The place was a cemetery...

Dozens of tombstones stretched across the ground, along paths connecting different sections of this place. The grass is quite green in these parts and the trees spread around, showing that, even in death, life can also be found.

But she cared little for this, for she realized that she had already reached her destination. A section of the cemetery housing the graves of an entire clan.

She walked among the tombstones until she reached the bottom of the section, where tombstones little larger than the others were housed. There, at the end of it all, two tombstones showed up marked with the names of two people.

[Asahi Kyoko]

The girl, with short shoulder-length blue hair and eyes the color of amber, knelt at the grave next to it and looked at the name on the tombstone.

...

...

[Asahi Toru]

...

...

That's right. That woman who for some reason has rejuvenated fifteen years is Konan....

She put down the bouquet of flowers in front of the tombstone and clasped her hands together to offer a prayer to the man whom, even after a little over two years, she still loves as she did at the first moment she became aware of her feelings.

"It's been a long time... Toru..."

She knew. Inside that tomb there is no one, for Toru's corpse was destroyed along with all his belongings more than two years ago....

-Nasuverse, some time later-

He moved next to the girl in the blizzard of sand that covered the scene. They were both covered by layers that protected them from sand, but unlike the little girl next to him, who had goggles to keep the sand out of her eyes, he only had his eyes squinted.

"This way!"

Said the boy taking the girl by the hand and leading her to an abandoned construction site.

Making sure the sandstorm didn't enter the building, the boy took off his cloak and shook it, revealing his appearance. The little girl, in turn, saw the boy's long hair and couldn't help but tell him.

"Your hair is very long, Waver-san."

Waver replied to little Sakura proudly.

"Well I think long hair looks good on me."

The story of Lord El-Melloi II has begun together with this little girl, Sakura Velvet...

To be continued...