Chapter 30: ...Yeah, you’re right. Once everything’s settled, let’s go together.

Artoria had died. He hadn’t been there to witness her final moments, but apparently, she’d passed away satisfied. To his own surprise, Shinji felt… a faint sense of relief at that.

As Sakura licked his fingers, just like always, Shinji thought to himself—

"...I was sure I hated her, though."

They were surrounded by a mountain of corpses—what was left of the sacrificial victims Sakura had gathered after Shinji had her re-summon Hassan of the Cursed Arm.

It was an outrageous act, utterly disregarding the secrecy of the magical world. No doubt the Mage’s Association and the Holy Church had already caught wind of it. But he wasn’t afraid of punishment. After all, once the appointed time came, the world would end.

"...Sakura. I’m sure somewhere in this world, there’s a feast to your taste."

He wanted to feed his sister something truly delicious—something far better than the tasteless meals she’d always had.
And to make that happen, he would slaughter all seven billion people on the planet.

People would laugh at such a foolish thought.
They’d denounce it as wrong.
They’d recoil in disgust, calling him insane.

But he had no intention of stopping.

"Sorry… that I couldn’t save you."

Sakura could no longer be saved. She had been broken beyond repair long ago; nothing he did now could change that.

Even if her body were healed, even if her memories were erased, it wouldn’t restore the “broken girl” she had become. A shattered gemstone pieced back together would still only be a hollow imitation.

Everything was already far too late.

"...This is all I can do for you now."

Artoria had called him a clown. And she had been right.

In the end, it was nothing but self-indulgence—feeding the entire human race to a broken girl just to give her a sliver of happiness.
To try and summon a “god of calamitous evil” for such a foolish wish—what else could that be but the work of a clown?

"Zouken has already been dealt with. All that’s left is..."

It had been taken care of before Artoria’s battle with Archer.

Once, in this very place, Shinji had asked her for a favor.

"Hey, Artoria."

"What is it?"

"All you care about is getting the Grail, right?"

"Yes, that’s right, Shinji."

"Then—"

At that time, he’d told her:

"Kill Zouken… and become mine."

It had been a betrayal—words of defiance against the master who bound them both. That was why, back then, Artoria had called him "reckless." But the deed had been done. The promise they’d made had indeed been fulfilled.

Zouken’s mistake had been keeping Shinji near Sakura all this time. He’d thought Shinji was useless, unable to do anything. But to Sakura, Shinji was a feast—and so she would never tolerate anyone endangering him.

In the end, breaking her mind to turn her into a tool had backfired. She no longer responded to pain or pleasure. She also didn’t have the will to openly defy Zouken, so until now, she had simply obeyed his orders.
But once her priorities shifted—once she decided she didn’t want her “feast” taken away—she followed Shinji’s command instead. Long since inhuman, Sakura took control of the worms within her body. The true body that had been hiding was captured by the Assassin she’d re-summoned, and finished off by Artoria.

"Emiya… can wait. For now, we’ll crush the Lancer faction first."

The Emiya faction was already effectively neutralized. Archer, their most mysterious and powerful asset, had been taken down. Victory was now almost assured. No matter how skilled a schemer Caster was, there was no way she could overturn such an overwhelming difference in strength.

Lancer’s faction, on the other hand, was troublesome. Lancer was extremely capable in combat, and his Master—Bazett—was not to be underestimated.

Their side’s forces consisted of the Servants Sakura had re-summoned, but there was a problem—her “re-summons” corrupted the spirits of Heroic Servants. The purer the hero, the more severe the corruption, and the more their power diminished.

Rider and Assassin, being Anti-Heroes, hadn’t suffered much loss of ability. But Berserker could no longer use his Noble Phantasm. Artoria’s skills in Magic Resistance, Instinct, and Charisma had all dropped sharply, and even her Riding skill was gone. Still, because she had taken physical form, the dragon’s core within her now functioned at full capacity, which had actually improved her raw combat ability...

"...Sakura. How about re-summoning Archer and Artoria?"

"...It would be difficult. Archer is completely rejecting our control, and for Artoria, this would be her second corruption, so—"

Of course, if you corrupt something twice, the impurity only deepens. After the first corruption, Artoria had lost most of her memories and her personality had been twisted. If she were again tainted by “All the World’s Evils,” she would likely be summoned as a mindless monster.

Archer was problematic as well. Rider and Assassin had been easy to control because they had no will to resist from the start. But Servants like Archer and Berserker, who strongly maintained their will to oppose, had to be stripped of reason first. In Berserker’s case, that worked because his overwhelming power and speed compensated—but for Archer, who relied on Noble Phantasms and technique, a mindless state would render him nearly useless.

"We can’t even handle Berserker properly… If all we can do is throw him into the enemy camp and let him rampage—"

Both Artoria and Berserker were great heroes with immense power. Even without reason, they couldn’t be completely controlled—at best, they could be pointed at a target and unleashed.

"Throw three Berserkers into their base, exhaust them, then launch a surprise attack with Rider’s Noble Phantasm. Once Rider draws attention, Assassin uses his Noble Phantasm. …Yeah, that should do."

It was the best plan they could pull off with their current hand.
The only problem was—

"Assassin."

"...I am here."

Without a sound, Hassan of the Cursed Arm appeared. Shinji asked:

"Have you found Lancer’s base?"

"...My apologies. I have yet to discover their hideout."

"If even an Assassin—a Heroic Spirit of espionage—can’t find them, then..."

Hassan was the leader of an order of assassins. If he couldn’t locate them, that could only mean one thing—

"There’s a good chance they’ve left Fuyuki, huh?"

Shinji had ordered Assassin to search within Fuyuki City. If Bazett and Lancer had retreated outside its limits, finding them would be far more difficult.

"They are a Master recognized by the Mage’s Association… Leaving the city without risk should be well within their means."

"...That would indeed make them troublesome."

"Yeah, I get it. If they’re outside the city, there’s no way to— …Wait."

There was a way.
Probably one that an ordinary Master would never think of.

"...Alright, let’s move out."

Shinji stood up and spoke to Assassin.

"Onii-chan… what about Rider?"

"Rider stays here. What we need now is stealth. Sakura, keep eating so you can re-summon Archer and Artoria at any time. Sorry—it’s all bad-tasting stuff again today."

"No, it’s fine. Come back safe, Onii-chan."

From the outside, they might look like a loving brother and sister.
But the mountain of corpses surrounding them erased that impression completely.

Deep beneath the earth, in the cavern’s heart, the mistress of this hollow smiled.

"Itadakimasu (Thanks for the food)."

In the dim room, Saber sat alone, lost in thought. It had been several hours since Archer vanished, and the Emiya residence—which until just moments ago had been filled with the commotion of planning for what lay ahead—had now fallen completely silent. From the next room, she should have been able to hear the sound of steady breathing, but there was nothing. No doubt Shirou, too, was enduring a sleepless night.

Quietly slipping out of her room, she climbed up onto the roof where Archer had once stood, and sat down.

“Shirou-kun…”

The moment she thought of his past, a lump rose in her throat, and her eyes began to sting with tears. It was without a doubt her own doing that had set him on the path to such an unhappy life.

“…How irresponsible of me.”

In the end, she had simply shut down her thoughts. She hadn’t even known what was right and what was wrong—she’d just run away. Dressing it up with plausible excuses, she had hurt him one-sidedly, forced all the burden onto him, and fled. It was ugly—disgustingly so. But it wasn’t just his problem. That same ugliness applied to herself as well.

“I… have to face it properly, don’t I?”

Becoming a woman, the battles, and countless other things—there was a mountain of truths she needed to accept.

“…A woman, huh.”

She didn’t know if it was thanks to Caster’s extreme “treatment” or not, but her resistance to being a woman had lessened. According to Caster, the dream she had shown her was nothing more than an “IF” scenario—what might have happened if Emiya Shirou and Saber had survived the Holy Grail War together. And in that case, the “Saber” in question wasn’t Artoria—it was her. That dream, apparently, was something that could actually happen if the conditions were right. How she chose to take it was entirely up to her…

“Come to think of it… I was actually flustered at first, wasn’t I?”

In that dream world, she had been shocked and confused at first—bewildered by how Shirou treated her like a lover. But she hadn’t found it unpleasant. Caster had only shown her the dream. How she felt and what she took from it had been entirely left to Saber.

“So… the fact I thought that life in the dream wasn’t bad—that was my own feeling, wasn’t it?”

She recalled how, as the dream went on, a sense of happiness had slowly welled up inside her. Peaceful days spent with Shirou. Days in which Shirou loved her as a woman. She had truly felt that was happiness.

“…Wait, could it be… am I actually gay?”

Saber paled, shaking her head furiously.

“No, I definitely liked girls before. The thought of kissing a man was absolutely revolting, and getting… you know… was out of the question—at least, it should’ve been.”

Even now, if it were some TV actor or the like, she would absolutely refuse. But when she thought about it being Shirou, that resistance seemed to fade away. Cute Shirou. Always reckless, always making her worry. Nothing terrified her more than him being in danger. If she could take his place and risk her life for him, she would gladly do it.

“Ah… this is bad. Seriously bad…”

Her face grew hot. They say love defies reason—and the deeper the love, the less reason matters. Once she realized it, she couldn’t stop. She found Shirou unbearably adorable. At the same time, thoughts of Archer stabbed at her chest, making it hard to breathe. Lowering her head, she mourned him—the man who had truly loved a worthless fool like her.

“…Mind if I sit here?”

She didn’t even need to lift her head to know whose calm, comforting voice that was. Without waiting for a reply, Shirou sat down beside her, smiling gently. She stared at his face blankly, almost stupidly. She had never been so captivated by someone’s face before. Shirou’s face could make eternity feel like an instant.

“Saber.”

Hearing her name, Saber blushed furiously and nodded. She just hoped he hadn’t noticed her staring.

“I… wanted to make something clear.”

“…Um, what exactly?”

She’d given such a foolish reply that embarrassment made her avert her gaze. Then, Shirou reached out, cupping her cheek and forcing her to meet his eyes. Suppressing the emotions threatening to overflow, she tried to read what was hidden in his gaze. Pain… and then—

“…Shirou-kun?”

“Just ‘Shirou.’”

“…Huh?”

“C-call me Shirou.”

Seeing his face turn bright red made her own cheeks flush in turn.

“Th-that’s… well…”

“Is… is it not okay?”

The anxious look on his face made her heart ache with affection.

“N-no, it’s not that. Um… so, what did you need, Sh—Shirou?”

Just saying his name made her want to curl up in embarrassment. So this is what they mean by wanting the ground to swallow you whole. Shirou, despite being the one to ask for it, also looked like he was about to squirm out of sheer shyness.

“S-so…”

“Y-yeah…?”

As she waited nervously for him to continue, Shirou took a deep breath and said—

“…I like you, Sab—no… Sato.”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Hey… don’t use my real name here…”

Hearing Sato—a name that sounded so distinctly masculine—right now gave me a strange, uncomfortable feeling.

“But I like you, Sato! A-and just so you know, it’s not that I’m in love with Artoria’s body! I’m serious—”

“S-Stop!! Please, just wait a second!!”

If he’d called me “Saber,” I might have been able to keep my composure, but hearing “Sato” instead sent my head into total chaos.

“D-don’t you think this is a bit sudden…?”

“…Sorry. But I had to say it. Archer told me not to make the same mistake he did.”

The mention of Archer’s name made my heart waver.

“I’m not going to force you to like me back, Sato. I know… it’s complicated. But there’s one thing I want to make absolutely clear.”

Shirou’s grip tightened.

“I will never let you die. I will make sure you’re happy. Even if… the one by your side isn’t me, I won’t let it end here.”

The look of determination in his eyes swept away my hesitation.

“…Shirou.”

I pushed his hand away, but instead leaned my face closer to his. This time, it wasn’t an impulsive act—I kissed him of my own will.

“Just so you know… this isn’t because Caster showed me some weird dream. It’s just—”

Seeing the surprise in his wide eyes, I made sure to explain so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the mood for some cliché romantic comedy misunderstanding.

“I-I-I-I—”

I couldn’t come up with any excuses. I’d meant to just speak honestly, but the words got stuck in my throat.

“Saber.”

Shirou squeezed my hand firmly.

“Tell me.”

I swallowed, forcing down the pounding in my chest, and confessed.

“…The dream Caster showed me was just a glimpse of a possible future—one that might happen between us. And I thought… it wasn’t bad. And Archer… you, Shirou, spent so much of your life for the sake of someone like me…”

Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop.

“…Heh. In twenty years of living, I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I can’t even imagine a daily life without you anymore. Just picturing it makes my body freeze up. You… you’re someone I can’t live without.”

Once I’d laid it all out, a strange sense of relief washed over me.

“…I like you too, Shirou.”

I said it with a smile, and Shirou’s face lit up.

“I see.”

He repeated “I see” in a voice full of quiet joy. Now that I’d realized I loved him, thoughts of what I wanted to do with him flooded my mind one after another.

“…For now, can I hug you?”

“Huh?”

Before he could even answer, I pulled Shirou into an embrace.

It felt so comfortable. Warm, and reassuring. For the first time since coming to this world, I felt a sense of peace.

If I kissed him again now… I could guess what would come next. Like water flowing downhill, it would all happen naturally.

I knew I could be happy. A future living together with Shirou would without a doubt be happiness. But…

“…First, we have to finish this fight.”

There were still far too many obstacles in the way.

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

We’d have to overcome them one by one. There was no time to get lost in distractions. If the two of us were ever to truly become one, it would be after everything was resolved. For now—

“Shirou…”

“…Yeah?”

I spoke.

“When everything’s over… will you come with me to my hometown?”

“Your… hometown?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if my house is still there… but I want you to know more about me. Though… you might end up disappointed.”

“…Not a chance.”

Under the night sky, the two of us talked, our hearts set on the future.

“…Yeah. When everything’s over, let’s go together.”