The battle in the Underworld had finally come to an end, and Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash returned to the land of Uruk.
"It's a good thing we were fighting above the Underworld." Mash breathed a sigh of relief before turning to her Master. "We're back!"
Dr. Roman's exhausted but relieved voice came over the comm.
"Good work, both of you. Beast II's Spirit Origin has been confirmed destroyed. This is your victory. With Tiamat's destruction, the cause of the Singularity has disappeared as well. History will gradually return to its original course."
Mash raised the gleaming Holy Grail in her hand.
"Yes. When I opened my eyes, the Holy Grail was already in my hand. We recovered it successfully!"
"Ow, ow, ow..."
Merlin walked over while rubbing his shoulder.
"Speaking of which, I hope you'll all give me some proper praise. When I hurried back to the battlefield, I happened to see the Holy Grail falling out of the Goddess Tiamat's throat, so I rushed to catch it and brought it here."
Ritsuka thanked him sincerely, then said, "By the way, aren't you glossing over the fact that you have ridiculous stamina?"
Merlin laughed.
"To tell you the truth, I taught Artoria swordsmanship. I'm terrible at Magecraft, and I bite my tongue when I try to chant. Swinging a Holy Sword is much simpler and more straightforward."
"That must have been hard on you. Still, I'm glad you're feeling energetic, because I promised I'd repay the favor!"
Quetzalcoatl's voice suddenly rang out.
Merlin's eyes widened.
In the next instant, his body folded at a perfect ninety degree angle.
"Gah, gah, gwaaaaaaah!? It hurts, it hurts! What is this!? I'm an Incubus, so why does it hurt this much!?"
Ritsuka stared in surprise.
"Quetzalcoatl-san! You're all right?"
Jaguar Warrior leaped out proudly.
"Heh heh, that's all thanks to me. I sprinted across the black mud, caught Kuku while she was falling like space debris, even got my fur set on fire, then ran all the way to the harbor, buried her in the soil of the dense forest, and rushed back to the Underworld to join the fight."
"I was so busy I nearly died, meow! Shirou asked me to do it, so I couldn't exactly refuse... Speaking of which, where's Shirou? Why haven't I seen him?"
"..."
The smile vanished from Ritsuka's face.
"Shirou-san, he..."
Mash lowered her head and bit her lip.
"Shirou-san didn't come back. His Mana reaction disappeared in the Underworld... He fell into the Abyss together with the Goddess Tiamat's draconic body. We don't know whether he's alive or dead."
"...What!?"
The piercing scream came from the goddess Ishtar.
Unlike Quetzalcoatl, whose presence was gradually fading, Ishtar was a local Divine Spirit summoned as a native deity of Mesopotamia.
Even after the distortion in spacetime caused by the Singularity disappeared, Ishtar would remain manifested until the end of Uruk's Early Dynastic Period.
She had finally inherited the Gate of Babylon from Gilgamesh and had been looking forward to spending her days squandering gold and treasure while enjoying a sweet newlywed life with Shirou...
And now her fiancé was gone!?
"If we don't know whether he's alive or dead... then he's dead..."
Ishtar clenched her fists.
If only she had followed them into the Underworld at the time, perhaps this would not have happened...
"No. Shirou chose to fall into the Abyss with the Goddess Tiamat."
Merlin spoke with a sorrowful expression.
"He must have realized it himself. After accumulating so much Divinity, there was no longer any way for him to return to his original world."
"I should have noticed sooner. I've truly failed as a Professor this time... I thought that surely, this time... and yet I still failed to protect my disciple."
"Fou~~"
Fou gave a soft cry, and the mood grew somber.
"No... Shirou-san is definitely still alive."
Ritsuka suddenly spoke.
Her expression had darkened for a moment, but she quickly recovered.
"The Shirou-san I know would never die that easily... And he would never give up on returning to his original world, to the home where he belongs."
Mash finally voiced a question she had kept to herself for a long time.
"Um, Senpai... There's actually something I've been wanting to ask for a while."
"Did you already know Shirou-san before this?"
Ritsuka gave her a mysterious smile.
"Well, that's a secret."
"That's suspicious~"
"If Fujimaru, an Honorary Citizen of Uruk, says so, then I suppose it must be true."
"Hmph... I also find it difficult to believe that such a stubborn fellow would die so easily."
"What's more, this adventure has caused that fellow's Spirit Origin to be recorded on the Throne of Heroes... If you work hard enough, perhaps someday you may even be able to summon Shirou with a Divine Spirit Origin."
"...King Gilgamesh!"
The King of Uruk appeared on the surface in a form that was clearly not his Archer form, surprising even Ishtar.
"Pay it no mind! My physical body may be gone, but thanks to that Ereshkigal disappearing together with Shirou, there are any number of ways for me to manifest temporarily on the surface."
"Your... physical body is gone? Does that mean you're a ghost now, Your Majesty?"
"I told you not to concern yourself with it. I already said my farewells to you."
Gilgamesh curled his lips into a grin.
"Now return to the observatory while singing songs of victory and praising my name."
"...No, wait. There is one thing I forgot to ask."
"How did you find Uruk? You stayed here for quite some time, did you not?"
"We had a wonderful time!"
Ritsuka and Mash answered in unison.
"Then I'll just stay here and wait for Shirou... Ah! Why are my feet disappearing?"
Jaguar Warrior suddenly shrieked.
"Could it be that my star rating as a Divine Spirit is finally about to go up by one, meow!?"
Quetzalcoatl sighed helplessly.
"Were you even listening to what we just said?"
"This is a sign that you're leaving, Jaguar."
"The earth itself is telling us that our mission has ended."
"Our Summoning was impossible from the beginning. We were Divine Spirits who could only be summoned on the condition that Mother Tiamat existed."
"Once she disappears, we disappear as well. You should have known that already, shouldn't you?"
"No way! Shirou promised he'd make my favorite food for me!"
Quetzalcoatl gave a wry smile and turned toward the girls from Chaldea.
"...Sorry. That's how things are, Fujimaru."
"This is as far as we can help you. But the battles ahead of you are where the real challenge begins."
"I'll be looking forward to the kind of spectacular victory that packs the audience to the rafters."
After embracing Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash in farewell, Quetzalcoatl returned to the Throne of Heroes.
Jaguar Warrior stubbornly resisted for quite some time, shouting, "I'm staying here until Shirou comes back and cooks for me!"
Unfortunately, she ultimately failed to overcome the Counter Force...
Or rather, how did she manage to struggle against the Counter Force for that long!?
Afterward, Ritsuka said farewell to Tomoe Gozen, Ushiwakamaru, and King Leonidas in turn.
Since Ana was a Servant contracted to Shirou, she had disappeared as well when Shirou vanished from this world.
"You don't have to look so sad. As long as your journey continues, you'll meet again somewhere someday."
Ritsuka's expression grew even more troubled.
"Ugh... I can't believe Merlin is the one comforting me."
"That's what bothers you!?"
And so, amid laughter and cheerful voices, everyone disappeared one after another.
...
Looking back, Ritsuka Fujimaru had always had a strange tendency to get caught up in trouble.
All she had done was donate blood at a bloodmobile in front of a station in central Tokyo, only for an enthusiastic staff member to recommend her to a suspicious workplace...
Later, she became humanity's last Master and fought to reclaim humanity's future.
But before she ever embarked on that perilous adventure...
It happened one summer before she entered high school.
Ritsuka Fujimaru had arranged to leave Tokyo with her friends and spend the day at a beach in a neighboring city.
Perhaps because it was the height of summer, Ritsuka, already lively by nature, had gotten a little too excited.
By the time she came to her senses, she realized she had become separated from her friends and wandered onto an unfamiliar beach.
The setting sun cast its light across the tranquil sea, and it felt as though she were the only person left in the entire world.
"Is anyone there?"
No matter how loudly Ritsuka shouted, no one answered.
"Why... can't I reach the end...?"
No matter how far she ran, the beach seemed to stretch on forever.
Eventually, completely exhausted, Ritsuka Fujimaru sat quietly on the sand with her knees hugged to her chest.
Was she going to have to stay here for the rest of her life?
No, she would never last that long...
She would probably starve to death first.
To her surprise, she did not feel particularly afraid.
After being subjected to something so absurd, she realized that she was actually the sort of person who could accept her circumstances rather easily.
As Ritsuka Fujimaru gazed at the distant sunset, she thought that even if someone told her the world would end tomorrow, she would probably just say, "Oh, I see. Well, I guess there's nothing we can do about it," without getting particularly upset.
"There's a kid here, Shirou."
"There really is. Did she accidentally Drift here just like us?"
Ritsuka slowly opened her eyes from her brief nap and found a man and a woman staring curiously down at her.
She immediately became wary.
They were older than her.
It was only natural for a middle school student of Ritsuka's age to be cautious around adults in their twenties.
"Ah, don't be scared, don't be scared. We're not bad people."
The woman, dressed in a kimono that looked almost like cosplay, spoke with a carefree smile.
She was an astonishing beauty unlike anyone Ritsuka had ever seen, with a figure that would put professional models to shame.
"I'm Miyamoto Musashi. I'd be happy if you called me Musashi-chan. And this guy is Shirou Amamiya... What's your name, little miss?"
The woman had just introduced herself with the name of the most famous swordsman in Japanese history.
Ritsuka's already limited trust in her immediately plunged below zero.
Meanwhile, the red-haired man beside her looked startled and simply stared fixedly at Ritsuka's face.
"Shirou, seriously..."
The woman calling herself Miyamoto Musashi rolled her eyes and sighed.
"I understand how you feel when you see a cute girl. I get excited too... But could you stop staring straight at her face like that? Are you a lolicon!?"
"Sorry..."
The man called Shirou Amamiya reluctantly looked away.
"My name is... Ritsuka Fujimaru."
In the end, the girl gathered her courage and introduced herself.
Shirou stared at her in silence.
Miyamoto Musashi explained the situation to Ritsuka.
The phenomenon she was experiencing was known as Drift.
In Japanese folklore, it was called divine abduction. In scientific terms, it was a form of travel between parallel worlds.
"Why did something like this happen to me...?" Ritsuka asked nervously.
"Hmm, probably because of your constitution?"
"My constitution?"
Musashi nodded.
"Mm-hmm. A constitution that makes you wander uncontrollably into neighboring worlds. I'm the perfect example..."
"Ritsuka-chan, maybe you have something similar."
"Is Shirou-san the same way?"
"Yeah."
Ritsuka Fujimaru asked another question.
"Do the two of you know each other?"
Musashi smiled brightly.
"This particular meeting was completely by chance, but we really are old friends who've known each other for a long time."
"Now that you've run into us, you don't have to worry anymore. We'll take responsibility and get you back to your original world!"
"You can actually do that?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru grabbed Musashi's sleeve.
She had just been told that Drift was an uncontrollable phenomenon. The chances of returning to one's original world were astronomically low, like winning the lottery.
Miyamoto Musashi gave her a sly smile.
"Normally, it would be almost impossible. But Shirou can do it."
"Travel between parallel worlds falls within the realm of Magic. Right, Shirou?"
Shirou nodded.
"We'll need to make some preparations."
"So there you have it~ Leave everything to us."
Miyamoto Musashi patted Ritsuka on the shoulder, then walked over to the red-haired man.
"Shirou, I'll leave this girl with you. I'm going into the sea to find us something to eat."
"Oh, and use your all-purpose Magecraft to turn me into a swimsuit Spirit Origin~"
Ritsuka had no idea what Shirou did, but like a magic trick, the woman dressed as a kimono clad swordswoman suddenly transformed into a flashy bikini.
"..."
Ritsuka stared dumbfounded as Musashi dove into the sea.
"Ritsuka."
"Ah, yes! What do you need, Shirou-san?"
Ritsuka Fujimaru responded nervously.
To be frank, the current situation made her uneasy.
Miyamoto Musashi was extremely suspicious, but she also seemed approachable. The fact that she was a woman gave Ritsuka some sense of security as well.
Shirou Amamiya, on the other hand, was a man considerably older than her, and he had just been staring intently at her face.
Ritsuka had no idea how she was supposed to act while alone with him.
Why did you leave me alone with him, Musashi-chan...?
"Can you help me gather some materials nearby? We need them to set up camp."
"Ah, yes...!"
Ritsuka hurriedly agreed and began helping Shirou put up the tent.
"The soil here is too loose. Depending on the weather tonight, the tent could get blown away. Let's find another spot."
"Shirou-san, you're really good at this. You must have a lot of experience..."
"Stop spacing out."
"Ah, yes! Sorry!"
Half an hour later, a tent stood on the beach.
Ritsuka Fujimaru wiped the sweat from her forehead, strangely satisfied by their accomplishment.
Just as Shirou used Magecraft to light the campfire, the bikini clad swordswoman who had gone to gather food returned.
"T-tuna...!?"
Musashi scratched the back of her head sheepishly and explained that she had finally gotten the chance to eat Shirou's cooking, so she had put in a little extra effort.
Was a two hundred kilogram bluefin tuna really something you could catch by putting in just a little extra effort?
Incidentally, Shirou gave Musashi a thorough scolding.
Apparently, even he had never handled ingredients this expensive before.
Despite that, the tuna dishes they ate that evening were still absolutely delicious.
After that, the three of them spent an entire week living together on the deserted beach.
Since monsters appeared to inhabit the forest by the sea, Miyamoto Musashi frequently ventured into the woods to hunt them down.
Most of the time, Ritsuka stayed beside Shirou and helped him.
At first, the girl kept her distance from the older man, but as they spent more time together, the two gradually became comfortable with each other.
"Shirou-san, can you teach me Magecraft? I want to learn too!"
"That came out of nowhere... Ritsuka, do you think you're the talented type?"
"...Urgh."
"In the future, you'll meet Magi far more capable than I am. Let them teach you Magecraft."
With those words, Shirou rejected Ritsuka's request to become his student.
Perhaps this was what people called the suspension bridge effect.
By this point, Ritsuka had already developed a certain dependence on Shirou.
She simply could not believe there were Magi in the world better than him.
Shirou-san must think I'm a nuisance, so he doesn't want to teach me.
"Not convinced?"
"No."
"Then prove me wrong."
Shirou smiled and gently ruffled Ritsuka's hair.
"Once you've become a Magus capable of standing on your own, come back and show off to me... Make me regret not recognizing your talent."
"I was planning to do that even if you hadn't said anything, Shirou-san."
The girl puffed out her cheeks.
A few days later, Shirou successfully activated the Magic for traveling between parallel worlds, allowing them to leave that dying world where humanity had vanished.
Both Shirou and Musashi belonged to other worlds, so after returning Ritsuka to her own, they prepared to leave.
Ritsuka Fujimaru threw herself into Shirou's arms and tearfully said goodbye.
From that moment onward, the girl decided she would never give up so easily again.
As her brief first love came to an end, Ritsuka Fujimaru buried the memories of those seven days deep within her heart.
Someday, she would become a Magus capable of standing on her own.
"Good morning."
When Ritsuka opened her eyes, she was greeted by a white ceiling and the smiling face of her junior.
"Mash... Why are you in my room?"
"You woke up later than usual this time, so I got worried... How are you feeling, Senpai?"
"I had a little dream about the past."
Ritsuka Fujimaru sat up in bed and lightly patted her cheeks.
The Shirou she had met in Uruk was sixteen years old.
The Shirou she had met back then had been even older.
If she had already encountered an older Shirou, then that meant he had not died in the Seventh Singularity.
Just as Merlin had said, as long as she kept traveling, the day would come when they met again.
***
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