One night was more than enough time for running away and hesitating.
Shirou decided to face the women at home head-on.
After school, he didn't linger. He handed his class duty over to Shinji and headed straight home.
Objectively, only a single day had passed, but from Shirou's perspective, it had been half a year since he had last returned to the Amamiya residence.
"Welcome home, Shirou!"
Long silver hair streamed through the air like a waterfall.
That pure white figure. Was she an Elemental? An angel? No, it was Illya.
She came racing out of the entranceway and threw herself into Shirou's arms with a radiant smile.
"I'm back, Illya. Have you been a good girl while I was gone? You didn't make Sella angry, did you?"
"Hmph~ I'm not like Shirou. I would never cause trouble for everyone~"
"...Guh."
It was nothing more than an innocent remark from Illya, yet it struck Shirou precisely where it hurt most.
Just as he was silently blaming everything on Merlin and cursing him in his heart...
"What's wrong? Did Shirou do something to make Sella angry again?"
Illya hugged Shirou around the waist and looked up at him.
The Amamiya residence's two Homunculi maids stood behind Illya, and one of them was giving him a piercing stare.
"N-no...?"
"Then you must have done something that would make Mother angry."
"......"
Why was this child's intuition so sharp?
"Heh, heh, heh."
Illya clung tightly to Shirou and gave him a smile far too bewitching for her young age.
"Don't worry, Shirou. As long as you explain everything properly, Mother will definitely understand."
"R-really?"
"Mm-hmm. Illya will stay by Onii-chan's side too."
The silver-haired Einzbern girl wore a perfectly composed, devilish smile.
If Rin were here, she would probably be marveling at how dangerously charming Illya already was at such a young age, and how frightening her future might be.
"Illya!!"
With a thud, Shirou dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the petite girl, from whom he had suddenly sensed a distinctly maternal aura.
With the expression of a loving mother, Illya gently stroked Shirou's hair.
"Mm~ Good boy~ Good boy~ Everything's all right now, Shirou~"
"Even if the whole world betrays you, Illya will always be on Shirou's side~"
"Illya... Illya... Mm... I love you..."
"Hehehe~ That's right~ Just let Illya captivate Shirou, body and soul~"
"Onii-chan belongs to me. I won't give him to Rin or Sakura, even if my opponents are Mother and Ancestor-sama..."
"Illya, you said your true feelings out loud."
"Oh my, how careless of me."
Illya playfully covered her lips with one hand.
That was close.
Ignoring Sella's contemptuous stare, Shirou let out a long breath.
Fortunately, his willpower had held firm. For a moment there, he had nearly made an irreparable mistake.
Holding Illya's hand, Shirou walked into the living room.
...
"I still have some things to take care of with the Fujimura Group, so I'll be heading home now. Shirou, thanks for dinner again tonight~"
After dinner, Taiga Fujimura climbed onto her motorcycle and disappeared into the night.
The roar of the engine gradually faded into the distance, leaving silence behind.
So far, everything had gone according to Shirou's plan.
He had seen off Fuji-nee, who had nothing to do with the world of Magecraft.
Then, after telling Sella and Leysritt to take Illya to the bath, Shirou gathered the adult women of the household in the living room.
Namely, Irisviel and Justeaze.
"There's something I need to explain to both of you."
Shirou's gaze moved back and forth between the two Homunculi.
"I already had a vague feeling something was going on."
"You did?"
"Tonight's dinner was even more elaborate than usual."
Irisviel smiled. "Actually, there's something we wanted to tell Shirou too."
"?"
Shirou frowned slightly. "Let me go first."
"Hmm? What is it, Shirou?"
Irisviel stared intently at him.
"Where should I even start?"
Shirou scratched his cheek, troubled, while rapidly organizing his thoughts.
A parallel world? The Incineration of Humanity? Tiamat?
Every one of those terms was shocking enough on its own. How was he supposed to make any of this easier for them to understand?
Forget it. Better to just say it outright.
"Yesterday afternoon, I went to a parallel world and happened to save human history over there."
"???"
Irisviel and Justeaze stared at him blankly.
His tone was as casual as if he had just said, "I stopped by the shopping district to buy groceries," but his expression made it clear that he wasn't joking.
"That's quite a leap... You said you saved human history. What exactly happened?"
Without changing his expression, Shirou continued explaining.
"On Earth in a parallel world, a catastrophe called the 'Incineration of Humanity' occurred."
"A man calling himself Solomon, the King of Magecraft, wanted to destroy human history. He created ignition points in seven eras that represented major turning points in human history and placed Holy Grails there..."
"The era I arrived in was one of the seven Singularities created by Solomon. Mesopotamia at the very end of the Age of Gods."
Irisviel covered her mouth. "Shirou got dragged into an incident that could wipe out humanity... Wasn't that incredibly dangerous?"
Shirou nodded.
But there was no way he could have simply ignored it.
That remained true even if the Chaldea world wasn't Shirou's own world.
Strictly speaking, the Fairy Kingdom from his previous life and Britannia from the life before that, Avalon's sister world, hadn't been his own world either. His original world had been Merlin's world.
"That had nothing to do with Shirou!"
Irisviel was still unhappy about it. She couldn't accept Shirou putting himself in danger.
But Justeaze calmly shook her head.
"It wasn't entirely unrelated, Irisviel."
Her voice was low and rational, and a glimmer of understanding appeared in her deep red eyes.
"Justeaze-sama?"
"That man calling himself King Solomon... was using Holy Grails to destroy human history."
"Ah..."
The moment Holy Grails became involved, it was impossible to say the matter had nothing to do with Shirou or the Einzbern Family.
According to Shirou, the King of Magecraft had created eight Holy Grails, and that alone had driven human history to the brink of collapse and destruction.
Shirou then began recounting the half year he had spent in Uruk.
He had met the King of Uruk of that era, Gilgamesh, the Archer from the Fourth Holy Grail War.
In his own era, that king had shown a completely different side from the one he displayed as a Heroic Spirit. He had been a true wise king who cared deeply for his people and worked tirelessly day and night.
They had fought monsters known as the Eleven Offspring of Tiamat to protect Uruk.
Those battles had been brutal and tragic. Warriors died atop the city walls every day, and songs of mourning drifted through the wind every night.
Then there was the Three Goddess Alliance, which attacked in order to seize Uruk's Greater Grail...
"Wait, wait, Shirou! That's way too much information!"
Irisviel raised her right hand with a pained expression, cutting him off.
"You're saying Rin-chan was summoned to that Singularity just like you..."
"And that she became the vessel possessed by the goddesses Ishtar and Ereshkigal?"
"And even Taiga, who's an ordinary person, became the vessel for the Divine Spirit Servant Jaguar Warrior?"
"That's right."
"So Shirou fought Rin-chan and the others after they became goddesses, without receiving any kind of power boost yourself?"
"Mm... We were enemies at first, but eventually I managed to bring them over to our side."
"Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Jaguar Warrior were enemies for a while, but in the end, all of them became comrades who protected Uruk until the very last moment."
Irisviel looked both amazed and exasperated.
Then she suddenly seemed to remember something.
"Oh, right, Shirou! What about me?"
"What?"
"Wasn't there one for me? Some goddess possessing me?"
"No."
At Shirou's answer, Irisviel pouted unhappily.
"Why does even Taiga get one, but I don't...?"
Shirou gave her a helpless smile and continued.
The "Three Goddess Alliance" had not actually been the final enemy of the Mesopotamian Singularity.
One of the Seven Evils of Humanity, Beast II.
Tiamat, the Beast of Calamity who possessed the Principle of "Regression."
She was the being Solomon, the King of Magecraft, had regarded as his trump card for destroying human history.
Together with the people of Uruk and the goddesses he had brought over to his side, Shirou challenged the Goddess Tiamat after her return to the world.
"Since Master is standing here now, that means you successfully defeated Beast II, the Goddess Tiamat, correct?"
When Justeaze asked that, Shirou's expression became complicated.
Had he defeated Tiamat...?
Well, they had certainly defeated the Evil of Humanity on a physical level, and they had also quelled Mother's rage.
But from another perspective...
Shirou had ended up giving himself to her completely.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that he had been utterly defeated by Mother's Compassion.
"Shirou... what exactly happened?"
Irisviel raised her delicate eyebrows.
A woman's intuition allowed her to pick up on something from Shirou's ambiguous expression.
Shirou said, "Making Tiamat return to a world where nothing exists... wouldn't that be too cruel?"
Irisviel snorted. "Cruel...? She's a Beast of Calamity that tried to wipe out all of humanity!"
"Even so, Mother really does love humanity."
"She loves every form of life on Earth equally, yet her own children betrayed her, killed her because they saw her as an obstacle, and cast her aside. It's only natural that she would come to resent them, isn't it...?"
"Shirou? Whose side are you even on?"
"..."
Irisviel sighed. "So what happened in the end?"
Shirou had never intended to hide it from her in the first place.
"In the end, Tiamat and I got married."
"......?"
Irisviel stared at him blankly.
"Is my Japanese not good enough, Shirou? Did I hear that wrong?"
"No, you heard me correctly... The Goddess Tiamat is my wife now."
"......"
An overwhelming silence descended upon the living room beneath the warm fluorescent lights.
"Sorry. I should've discussed it with you first."
Irisviel calmly shook her head. "Whatever kind of woman Shirou chooses, even if she happens to be a goddess, it isn't my place to interfere."
"That's not what I mean, Iri..."
"Let me take this opportunity to make something clear, Shirou."
Irisviel looked at him with complete seriousness, causing Shirou to unconsciously straighten his back.
"Come to think of it, this is the first time Shirou has ever willingly told me about himself."
"Ever since I met you eight years ago, you've rarely talked about yourself, and I've never asked."
"Why do you possess the Holy Sword, Excalibur? Why were you already strong enough to fight Heroic Spirits as an equal when you were only eight years old?"
"I've never asked you for the details of any of that, have I?"
"I can explain everything now. I'll tell you the whole truth..."
Irisviel cut him off. "I don't want to know."
"I don't care where Shirou has been or what kind of adventures he's had."
"......Huh?"
Irisviel spoke with complete sincerity.
"I trust Shirou's choices."
"Shirou was the one who gave me a human heart. Shirou was the one who rescued me from The Cage."
"The Shirou I love is the Shirou who saved me. That's all."
"As for what Shirou has done in worlds I know nothing about... honestly, it doesn't matter that much to me."
"If Shirou wants to tell me, I'll gladly listen. But telling me isn't your obligation."
"So Shirou has no reason to feel guilty toward me."
"......Iri."
Shirou was left speechless.
"So, what kind of goddess is the Goddess Tiamat? She must be incredibly beautiful, right?"
The corner of Shirou's mouth twitched. "Didn't you just say you didn't want to know?"
"Mm-hmm~ As Shirou's woman, I don't particularly mind you getting involved with other women."
"But as Shirou's mother, I have a duty to properly investigate my son's partner."
Ignoring the speechless boy, Irisviel proudly puffed out her ample chest.
"I need to make sure she's good enough for Shirou. Bring her to meet me when she has time."
For some reason, Irisviel looked extremely pleased with herself.
"Tia is actually here right now... She's been listening to our conversation this whole time."
"What?"
Irisviel's eyes widened, her red pupils filled with shock.
Although the Amamiya residence was protected by Barriers, Shirou had originally constructed those Barriers himself.
Naturally, he had a way to bring Tiamat through without triggering the System.
"Cancel your Spirit Form, Tia," Shirou said.
"...Uh."
Irisviel stood there with her mouth half open, staring at Tiamat as she materialized in the living room.
Beauty that surpassed human limits.
Eyes reflecting the Inner Sea of the Planet.
A mature figure overflowing with maternal warmth.
The long tail of Dragonkind and the enormous horns that symbolized the Beast of Calamity.
Every feature declared that the woman standing before them truly was the Goddess of Creation from Mesopotamia.
"Y-you... Um... Are you really...?"
Feeling the immense magical energy and divine aura radiating from her, Irisviel spoke timidly.
Then...
Tiamat wrapped the silver-haired, red-eyed Homunculus in a tight embrace.
"Iri-senpai!"
"...Huh?"
Not only Irisviel, but Shirou and Justeaze were stunned as well.
"Just like Mother, Irisviel is both Shirou's woman and Shirou's mother."
"That means we're companions with the same attributes! Which means you're my senpai!"
"Mother is so happy. This is the first time I've had a companion like me."
"I'm Mother. It's nice to meet you, Iri-senpai... From now on, let's keep loving Shirou together."
"..."
As expected, Irisviel was completely thrown into confusion.
Was there truly no one who could defeat Tia?
Shirou quietly rejoiced that no conflict had broken out.
If they could continue getting along peacefully from now on, that would be ideal...
...
Afterward, Illya returned to the living room once she had finished her bath.
Shirou and Irisviel introduced her to "Tia-san," who would be staying with them for a while.
"Hmmm~ Shirou picked up another strange thing."
Illya didn't seem particularly bothered.
It simply meant there was one more woman in the house.
Tiamat lowered her head dejectedly. "Mother isn't a strange thing..."
"Sella, Leysritt, could you help prepare the guest room?"
"Understood."
Since Irisviel, the lady of the house, had accepted "Tia-san," the two maids naturally had no objections.
"Mother will help too."
Tiamat followed Sella and Leysritt toward the guest rooms.
"Illya, could you come to my room for a moment?"
"Yes, Justeaze-sama."
Justeaze led Illya away.
The living room, which had been bustling only moments earlier, was left with just Shirou and Irisviel.
"Shirou."
"Hmm?"
Shirou absentmindedly switched off the television.
Irisviel looked at him thoughtfully, then suddenly made a suggestion.
"Would you like to... take a bath together again, for the first time in a while?"
Irisviel's naked body, which he hadn't seen in half a year, and the even more intimate contact that might follow...
Shirou swallowed hard and nodded.