Chapter 28.3 - The Garden and The Sun [3]

Ritsuka is beginning to wonder if the world is doing its everything to prevent her from getting a good sleep.

It'd been a normal day, with dawn slowly approaching as the sun began to peak from the horizon when the alarms rang all across Uruk. She'd groggily awoke from her bed, and went out of her cabin to see everyone suited and geared for battle. With a quick waking slap to her cheeks, she headed out to battle.

The situation was worse than she expected.

She'd been told that a large horde of demonic beasts were approaching, but she didn't think 'large' quite worked for the size of the incoming wave. It was made worse when they noticed a second wave incoming, this time made up by demonic beasts she's never seen before.

The Dingirs situated at the wall helped immensely, the javelins Shirou crafted being a wonderful weapon to fire onto the incoming beasts, but it still isn't enough. The people can only load and fire the cannons so quickly, and Ritsuka soon joins the battlefield with servants fighting by her side.

Shirou and Saber led the defense, the pair working together with flawless efficiency as they cut through the demonic beasts. Ushi stays just behind the two, killing any demonic beasts that happen to make it through Saber and Shirou. Mash, Benkei, and Leonidas are the wall, guarding both Ritsuka and the gate she stands in front of.

While all that happens, Merlin and Gilgamesh are hard at work, using their capabilities to overlay several barriers over the entirety of Uruk.

Soon, with everyone's combined effort, the first wave of chimera-like demonic beasts are slain, and the second wave soon comes.

But then Benkei noticed something in the distance, and then paled when he realizes that it's another wave of unknown demonic beasts, this time made up by dragon-like monsters with the powers of flight.

The entire thing somewhat reminds Ritsuka of Orleans and the ever approaching horde of dragons she had to face back then.

A small part of her laments the entire thing. She'd lost her beauty sleep because of it, and she silently prays to some unseen deity out there to just conveniently erase the encroaching army from existence.

Her silent prayer is wonderfully granted.

Everything stops as the sky is suddenly lit up by bolts of magical light that fell from the clouds, shining like falling stars as they filled the sky above. All that lived look up to see the approaching ruin, and the demonic beasts have only a moment to steer away before their bodies are impaled by the bolts of holy light.

Just as quickly, the army of monsters falls into chaos as survival instinct overwhelms the commands infused into their brains.

Most did their best to escape, some tried to fight back, some tried to charge further.

None of it mattered. As long as their demonic cores lived on, the bolts will zoom towards them. Even the fourth army of monsters are wiped out, killed before they could even join their fellow beasts in battle.

Some of the larger and sturdier demonic beasts survived the falling stars, but even they fell, their heads severed and their bodies cleaved in two by Shirou and Saber's attacks.

And just like that, the calamity is averted.

"...eh?" Ritsuka blinks, and blinks again, and she gapes. One moment she's dreading the incoming monster march, then they're all suddenly gone, and the barren earth is suddenly painted purple from all the demonic blood and corpses lying about.

Then the cloud clears, revealing a giant futuristic spaceship, and Ritsuka's jaw just falls off.

"EH!?"

Everyone else just stares with silent disbelief, except Saber and Shirou, who look up towards the floating ship with wry smiles. "I can't even be surprised anymore." Saber jokingly laments, and Shirou gives the king of knights several sympathetic pats on the shoulder.

"Shirouu…!"

"Ah, there she is." He says, his smile growing as he spots a familiar girl freefalling through the air, wind whipping through her light brown hair as she falls. He looks at her, sees that bright expectant smile on her face, and Shirou lets out a soft huff.

Smiling, he breaks into a run, stopping just under her and he opens his hands to catch the girl. The force of her fall sends a pressure crash down, cracking the earth under him and would surely kill anyone who is close.

Thankfully, he isn't a normal human, and so he catches the girl with nothing but his arms and a smile.

"Nice catch, Shirou!" She cheerfully says, wrapping her arms around the boy's neck. Shirou's smile grows even more, warmth blooming in his heart as he takes in as much of the girl as he possibly can in that moment.

He trusts her. He trusts that she'll arrive.

They haven't been separated for long.

But in the depth of his heart, a dark voice had whispered that everything would go wrong. Saber might have arrived, but maybe Hanami and Gilgamesh are lost in the Dimensional Gap, forever trapped in that void because of him.

And here she is now, in his arms, her smile and warmth and magic the same, and he feels a tight knot in his gut finally begin to loosen.

"Mm." He returns the hug, pulling her closer to his chest.

Others are watching, all are curious and wary, but Shirou doesn't care. He never will.

Let them watch. Let them wonder. Let them question. He doesn't care, for as long Hanami is with him, nothing else matters.

They spend a minute or two just taking each other in before Hanami frees herself, smiling gently. "I'm glad you're okay." She whispers softly, and he nods.

"I'm glad you're fine too."

Hanami hums, before she turns to Saber and waves cheerfully. Saber just smiles and waves back before pointing at a bewildered Ritsuka, still gaping at her. Hanami grins, before suddenly appearing in front of the bewildered girl and gently pushing her jaw back close. "Don't keep your mouth open too much, Ritsuka. Flies might fly in."

The girl's jaw drops again.

To be fair, Ritsuka had just seen Shirou and Hanami hug and cuddle one another for a couple minutes. For how much the girl has seen throughout her grand journey, she's never seen such open displays of affection between two people.

"Are...Are you Hanami?" Ritsuka finally manages to say.

Hanami nods with a smile. "Sure am! I arrived about a day ago, but there were some...uh, complications I had to deal with before I can take a visit over here." She explains. "So, how've you been here, Ritsuk-, wait, I can call you that, right?"

"Um." Ritsuka blinks. "Yeah."

"Alright! So, how've you been, Ritsuka? Anything crazy happened recently?"

Yes. You. Ritsuka wants to say, but she holds back her tongue. For one, she doesn't know the girl, and though Saber and Shirou told her that Hanami wouldn't mind such sarcasm, she doesn't want to push it just yet, not until she gets to know the girl before her better.

Taking a deep breath, she calms herself and shrugs. "Not much. I've only been here for a month, so…"

"A month?" Hanami suddenly asks. Ritsuka blinks at her before giving a slow nod. "A month, huh." Hanami mutters to herself, frowning thoughtfully.

"A month…"

"Hanami?" Ritsuka asks.

"...It's nothing." Hanami says. Though it clearly isn't nothing, Ritsuka keeps quiet, instead pondering on her own over what the importance of a month might be.

Sighing, Hanami shakes her head and smiles. "Anyway, is male Gilgamesh up in the castle?" Ritsuka nods, and Hanami continues. "Then can we go and visit him? Kinda want to see how this singularity's Gilgamesh looks like!"

And so they did.

~~~

A problem quickly arose the moment the two forms of Gilgamesh met.

Both want to be called Gilgamesh. Both want to sit on the throne.

Both are intent on pampering Hanami.

Why? No one is sure. Not even Hanami herself is sure, though she did enjoy how the two kings are treating her. She's not sure why the male Gilgamesh took to her so quickly, but she didn't really mind.

Then, offhandedly, Hanami mentions that one of them can just be called 'Gil'. It sounds innocent enough, and everyone else agrees.

But that comment brings forth another competition between the two, now trying to fight to see who gets to be called who. Literal sparks seem to bounce between the two as golden portals shimmer behind their back, connected to their own versions of their infinite treasury.

Everyone wisely makes their distance.

Except Hanami that is, who remains in place, watching the rivalry brew with no small amount of amusement. However, as funny as this entire thing is, she's hungry, she's dizzy, and she dearly wants to catch up on what Shirou's been doing throughout the time he's spent here.

So, with the finality of a potential king, Hanami brings down her court and states her decision. Female Gilgamesh will be called Gil, and Caster Gilgamesh will just stay Gilgamesh.

No objections allowed.

Gil looks oddly smug about the results, while Gilgamesh visibly droops, sulking even. Though he quickly gifts the beautiful man several slices of soft cake she'd baked several days ago as compensation.

...And now Gil is sulking at her.

What do you want, woman!?

But with that debate out of the way, the group makes their way to the castle's public hall to eat some breakfast. There, Hanami brings out several breakfast bento boxes from...somewhere, and they all proceed to feast on the food they've been presented with, chatting and sharing stories as they eat.

Ritsuka tried asking Shirou where those boxes came from, and all he could do was shrug.

"Hanami's just like that." He says, smiling wryly. "You'll just have to get used to it."

The most interesting thing Ritsuka finds, aside from noticing Gil in the corner playing with what looks to be a portable game console, is Hanami describing her experience as she travelled through the void between worlds, or the [Dimensional Gap] as she calls it.

"It's like going through a tunnel made of reflective glass." She explains, stabbing her fork into a slice of roasted chicken. "You look out, and you see millions of shards that shine, filled with countless worlds, kinda like stars in the night sky. And as you're moving, you feel like there's something pulling you through, like some invisible being is trying to push you out of the void as fast as possible."

"And-" She chews on the chicken slice in her mouth and swallows. "And it's a humbling feeling, because you look out and you realize that you alone are nothing compared to the countless number of people out there in those diverse worlds." She then smiles. "Not that you'll be able to see it all."

"What do you mean?" Saber asks.

"Well, if you don't just die immediately, which is normally impossible, you'll fall unconscious from the unending stream of illegible information that bursts into your brain. Luckily-" She stops for a moment, and closes her eyes. Then, something in the air shifts, and she opens her eyes, their green tint replaced by a swirling blue adorned by flakes of gold. "I have this."

In that moment, the entire table is starstruck, taken by the sheer beauty hidden in those endless pools of blue. Even the loitering people around them stop to take a look.

"Hanami…" Shirou breathes out slowly. "Your eyes, they're-"

"Different?" She smiles enthusiastically. "Yeah. Kinda forgot that I didn't show this to you beforehand, but my mystic eyes got a bit of an upgrade after I became a magician."

At her words, Ritsuka feels a chill crawl up her spine. For how cheery and open the girl is, Hanami is a magician, and a powerful one at that. She can travel through the deadly void between worlds, wipe out hordes of monsters without much trouble, and expose her prowess without worry.

And that magician, for some reason, knows of her and has taken interest in her.

"Anyway," She says as she stabs another slice of chicken with her fork. "That's only the void. The [Dimensional Gap] is a different place entirely."

"The [Dimensional Gap] is a place…?" Mash asks, idly playing with her spoon.

"Yep." Hanami nods. "The void doesn't really have a shape. It's more like empty space filled with shining stars. The Gap on the other hand is a physical plane, like how the [Other Side of the World] is a place."

"Overall, the Gap just looks like a long stretch of plains, with some mountains and hills here and there, but the most important thing is…" Hanami trails off at the end, and her brows furrow slightly in thought. "Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably not a good idea to speak his name."

Most are confused, but Hanami simply smiles mysteriously. "Names have power. And it's rude to talk about someone who's listening."

Everyone is still confused, though Mash, bless her, frantically looks around to see who's listening.

But Ritsuka stays silent, wondering. She glances at Hanami, seeing those mystic eyes of hers, and she thinks.

The one that speaks of her tales looks like a normal girl. One with light brown hair and green eyes. One garbed in a long dark blue jacket and black jeans, with a bright purple scarf wrapped around her neck. One brimming with excitement and with a smile whose brightness rivalled that of the sun's.

But she is a magician as well, one capable of traversing through different worlds, and Ritsuka can't help but wonder.

Who truly is Tsunaka Hanami? How strong is she? What can she do? How did she become a magician? What has she gone through? What stories are hidden behind those bright smiles of her?

Who knows.