Chapter 285: Searching for Emiya Shirou
Under BB's guidance, Shirou opened his eyes and unfurled a white gate of light. The more he used them, the more he marveled at the capabilities of these Mystic Eyes. Within the white, divine radiance lay infinite mysteries; by tracing the flow back to its source, one could even glimpse the "Truth" related to the Root of the world.
The purple-haired girl following Shirou kept one secret hidden: the fate she was about to experience. The boy did not know that she would eventually encounter his own "Origin"—the myth known as Emiya Shirou.
It was a concept that transcended time and space to save all based on a singular conviction. Like a sudden downpour during a fire or a drought; like finding an oasis after losing one's way in a desert sandstorm; it was the salvation for all of humanity facing disaster in their moment of despair.
The BB/GO who had been transferred to the white space remained in a deep slumber, drifting within a rift in time. There was nothing there, making it the most suitable place for healing and recovery. Furthermore, the time within that space was isolated from the outside world, ensuring she would face no danger. The girl slept there until one day, sensing something, a white-haired man arrived and picked her up.
When BB/GO woke up, she saw a man who shared a similar aura with the senior who had saved her before her disappearance. Although he had white hair and was significantly older than that boy, their essence was identical. White hair, white robes, an otherworldly temperament—this was no human, but a conceptual entity of higher, denser quality. Though his body possessed substance, it felt illusory, as if it might dissipate at any moment.
'Perhaps this is a terminal of some gargantuan entity... but was that senior who saved me also such a terminal? Or a different type of Alter Ego?'
The super-AI's identification abilities allowed BB/GO to reach this judgment, while also discerning that the person before her and the person who saved her were indeed one and the same.
Just as BB suspected, he was indeed a Divine Spirit avatar of the white Deity atop the iceberg, an envoy dispatched to a certain temporal layer. He was an individual who had descended to the outside world in the relatively early stages. Because the Deity was still in the period of mastering this new power back then, his influence was slightly less profound; he retained his memories as a human and a Heroic Spirit. Though he remained expressionless, he still possessed a human temperament.
Thus, upon seeing the girl's face, he had not hesitated to bring BB out.
"Did you save me, Senpai?" BB asked, looking up at the man in white.
"No, this is our first meeting. I simply found you alone in a white space of healing. Seeing that you had recovered, I brought you out," the white-haired man said, denying it.
The purple-haired girl tilted her head, looking at the man with confusion. She blinked, then laughed, patting his shoulder. "That counts as saving me! Are you trying to make BB laugh, Senpai? Besides, you're Mr. Red Archer, aren't you? Did you think BB wouldn't recognize you just because your hair turned white?"
"No..." The white-haired man tried to explain.
"Don't tell me you're going to say you have amnesia, Archer-senpai, or that that person is a long-lost brother? Even if you're going to lie, find a better excuse! Besides, BB-chan can feel it—the warmth in this gentle white light is exactly the same as it was then."
The white-haired man looked at the girl helplessly. "Fine, it seems you are indeed the BB I know. However, there shouldn't be a second portion of this power in the world. If there is, there might be some special reason behind it. Forget it; the current me doesn't have the authority to interfere in other matters."
The avatar of the white Deity used a system similar to the Throne of Heroes, but while Heroic Spirits are "fixed" at the moment they enter the Throne, the Deity rejected the Throne and Alaya, choosing to bear everything himself. To save more worlds, he had to constantly expand himself. If he remained static, no matter how vast his "mass," he would eventually be exhausted. He chose this path because he had no other choice.
The main body of the white Deity remained on the iceberg as a command tower, manifesting his consciousness as countless Divine Spirit avatars wandering through different timelines. They were responsible for handling all disasters that harmed humanity—eliminating what could be eliminated and evacuating victims from major historical events.
Because his "Origin" had crossed the boundaries of humanity, all his counterparts in parallel worlds disappeared from the world, recalled and converged into the Deity's body. The remaining memories and traces of those counterparts were recycled as catalysts to summon Divine Spirit avatars, becoming part of the plan to save the world. To ensure the happiness of all humanity, the required labor was never enough.
He even sought to borrow the power of the "Beasts"—or perhaps, as "evils generated by humanity," the Deity wished to protect them as well. Because resources were limited, there would only be one of "him" in each temporal layer; identical powers could not appear simultaneously.
"Is that so... then BB-chan isn't leaving. I'm homeless anyway. Wherever Archer-senpai goes, BB-chan follows." Seeing no sign of lying, the girl simply sat on the ground and refused to budge.
"Fine. Until we find a good place for you, you can follow me." The man did not refuse; he had intended this from the start. He couldn't leave a girl in a strange space; he had to find a suitable place for her to live. His current work was boring; he believed she would soon grow tired of it and leave.
"Heehee! Then it's a deal, Senpai~!" BB happily hugged the white-haired man's arm.
Thus, he kept BB/GO by his side, transferring to various worlds to complete missions and spending a period of travel together.
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Atop a snow-capped mountain peak stood another purple-haired girl. She was the BB from the Moon Cell who had sacrificed herself to block the Near Side's formatting to let Hakuno return. Unlike the BB in Chaldea who was recreated after being dissolved, she was the girl saved by the white Deity before her dissolution and repaired using the power of Creation.
She had been brought to the snowy mountain along with the Third Beast, Kiara Sessyoin. The girl stared at the man in white robes standing at the edge of the peak, gazing into the distance. Looking at that motionless, sturdy back, time seemed frozen. He was like a statue, perfectly still.
The girl was grateful; she had been saved by the Deity before her. She, who should have disappeared, was given a new life to exist here. During her time here, BB clearly felt the man's memories and emotions slipping away bit by bit, becoming increasingly numb.
As a former AI, she understood what this meant. In the Moon Cell, she had upgraded herself as a "bug," absorbing data to expand her processing power, eventually becoming a rampaging monster. Though her appearance seemed unchanged, her essence was a bloated, distorted monstrosity of stitched-together data.
The man before her had to constantly use "Creation" to enhance his own processing power and mass. Within the white Deity's mind, a supercomputer no less powerful than a Moon Cell had to be constructed for every single world, all running simultaneously. As other components increased, the portion of him that was "human" shrank. Over time, even for a God, memories would be washed away by that massive data stream until he was no longer human.
The girl had turned from an AI into a human; now, she was watching the being who helped her turn from a human into a cold AI. His robes were as pure as his choice—no longer possessing any color. He didn't need the red of hot blood, the gold of hope, or the loathing and sorrow of darkness. He was becoming a pure concept: a Guardian who provides salvation to all humanity and never gives up on a single soul.
Despite the warmth she felt by his side, she watched him become as cold and numb as a machine. Thus, the girl chose to set out, searching for a way to save her Senpai. The white-haired man was a reckless fool who pushed himself too hard, dispersing his spirit to manifest avatars across countless worlds.
BB knew exactly how difficult this was. The Moon Cell had evolved its processing power over 4.6 billion years to reach its peak. Even so, to minimize unnecessary impact on observed subjects, SE.RA.PH simulated a school environment and created NPCs to mimic real human behavior. BB disliked this because NPCs would be automatically deleted by the system when the experiment reached a certain point, with only their memories saved for reference.
Because the human heart is many times more complex than previous lifeforms, managing disasters caused by humans is even more difficult. Seven billion is a gargantuan number; every second, several people die while several others are born. He wanted to save humanity at every moment—a task as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, or saving every ant on the ground during a flood.
Although there are methods to predict human behavior, it is an incredibly complex task. Having once controlled the Moon Cell, BB knew everything. To achieve this, the Moon Cell went to great lengths, constantly running simulations and sampling data to ensure accuracy. Since it couldn't predict an absolutely certain future, it calculated all possibilities and recorded them within itself.
It absorbed the strong among humans and let them kill each other, later adding the Holy Grail War system to summon humanity's strongest familiars—Servants—to fight. Only through this constant, cruel slaughter, repeated over and over in cyber-space, could the Moon Cell analyze and calculate one future after another.
And this work could never stop. Simulations had to run constantly, incorporating new things as they appeared and recording countless human futures to calculate the advancement of human history and the Earth's future. If the number of observed worlds was infinite, the workload was multiplied by infinity. Even computing data at the speed of light was insufficient; it far exceeded the Moon Cell's capabilities.
Yet all of this was borne by the white-haired man alone. Even with the power of a God, there are limits. Though he constantly improved his skills, he was trapped. To maintain this mechanism, he had to manage the avatars while simultaneously increasing his own processing power without a single second's interruption. His main body was like a fixed battery providing power, or the axis of a gear; if it were removed, the mechanism would collapse and stop.
Thus, the white Deity stood atop the snowy mountain, motionless, never resting, focusing all his mind on reading information, transmitting commands, and improving performance just to barely keep everything running. In the days since BB was brought here, she had never seen him move an inch.
Now, BB no longer had to worry about the Moon Cell, and the Hakuno she cared about had found her own happiness. Gudako had another "her" by her side. She could finally let go of everything and pursue the feelings in her heart. Yes, BB-chan was now just a girl who wanted to fall in love—selfishly, blindly, recklessly, and disregarding all else.
One "her" had received love from that person; another "her" in another world was working hard for a different Senpai; and the newborn "her" had been saved by a gentle senior. So, this time, it was her turn to save this senior.
Staying here wouldn't work. If she just stayed, all she could do was stare at his back. She had to do what the "senpais" couldn't.
"I'm leaving then. BB-chan can't stay a moment longer on a barren mountain like this," the purple-haired girl said, spinning around and addressing her friends who had come from other spaces to see her off.
The girl patted Fou's head, then bid farewell to the Earth Mother Goddess with the massive horns.
"Fou~!"
Tiamat gazed silently at the man, then turned to BB and gave a slight nod.
"Senpai~! BB-chan is really leaving now." The girl took one last look at the statue-like man.
The man didn't move, but a gate of light opened before the girl as a response.
"Goodbye, Fou, Miss Tiamat. Miss Fox didn't come; seems she's a shut-in sleeping in her shrine again today. Mr. Goetia, who hates Senpai, is also in a bad mood today—I feel like if I go say hi, I'll just get yelled at, so forget it. Also... Kiara, go die~!" She made a face and jumped through the white gate.
"My, my. Is it really okay to let her go like that? She loves you deeply, you know. Such a scorching love once defeated me; it might defeat you in the future as well. Like the love of a mantis, it will eventually tear you apart," Kiara Sessyoin said with a wicked smile, stirring up trouble. But true to her nature of being honest to her desires, she was not lying.
At that same moment, the BB/GO following Archer also chose to say goodbye. Hearing the girl's words, the white-haired man paused, thinking to himself: 'This is fine. I am no longer on the timeline, and this place is frozen—unchanging, with nothing. But that child's life is not infinite. Since it is her choice, let it be.'
"I see. Then, goodbye." Archer nodded. He had taken her to multiple worlds specifically so she could make a choice and find a place where she wanted to live. Looking back, she had stayed much longer than he expected. He couldn't help but reach out and pat her head, a stiff smile appearing on his cold face. "BB, you are no different from a human girl. As long as you don't hurt others, live as you wish."
"Honestly! Senpai, if you say things like that, it makes it harder for BB to leave you!" The girl looked down and stomped her foot huffily.
"Go. Go find your own happiness," the man encouraged.
"Fine! BB-chan is really leaving! I won't look back! Even if I'm selfish, I'll walk to the end for my own happiness!" the girl shouted angrily.
"Go," the man said.
The purple-haired girl no longer hesitated. She left through the white gate and arrived in a garden filled with the scent of flowers. Green hedges formed an archway, and vines created walls covered in multicolored roses. Olive trees grew on one side, and apple trees with red fruit on the other. A pair of bluebirds flew overhead, their wings scattering fluorescence as they flew toward the center of the garden. There was a pure blue lake, matching the color of the sky; standing on the water felt like standing on the heavens. It was more beautiful than the most glorious Paradise.
In the center of the garden stood a long-haired girl; her appearance was identical to the purple-haired girl. Feeling a presence, the girl on the lake held out her palm. The purple-haired girl stepped forward and held out her own hand.
For him, for Archer, for Shirou-senpai...
The pale fingers of the two girls interlaced, and their two powers merged, breaking through the world's barriers. BB-chan/GO began her pursuit of happiness, seeking the miracle that could save the Deity named Emiya Shirou who had walked a divergent path...
"This time, BB-chan will save Senpai. Not only will we be happy, but we'll make Senpai find his lost happiness and emotions! That is the future we truly want!" the girl said with clenched fists, walking inward.
Then, one day, the girl who was the avatar of the Counter Force arrived before her, led by the Mud.
"I know your determination. Therefore, I will grant you the greatest power I can lend!"
The Counter Force could not interfere with a Deity's salvation, but it sensed the anomaly of a mechanism running at an overloaded capacity. Gaia and Alaya had to find a way to stop the danger that would follow a collapse. Now that the Deity had moved beyond their jurisdiction, they had to choose another way. As a subconscious self-preservation system, the Counter Force would use any method to avoid danger.
From the Throne of Heroes—where the meaning of existence was being denied—came insulted Heroic Spirits, villainous wraiths, the black dragon of the earth, martial madmen, the Mud that yearned for God, the rowdy Demon King, and the girl who wanted to save the Deity...
At that time, Alaya spoke to the purple-haired girl: "Go find the human 'Emiya Shirou.' Only the human Emiya Shirou can stop the divine Emiya Shirou."
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