Morning Routine at Home
After a week of hard work from the boys and girls in the alternate space, the weekend passed in the blink of an eye. Now it was time to go to school again.
At 6 a.m., Shirou had already finished his training for the day and came to the kitchen to start preparing breakfast.
Thud, thud, thud — the sound of someone coming down the stairs.
"Good morning," a short-haired girl said as she rubbed her eyes and walked down.
"So mean! Lately, Onii-chan has seemed really busy. Even though Komachi is a student preparing for exams, you haven't studied with me at all. You just leave my midnight snacks outside the door and leave!" Komachi complained.
"That's not true, right? You're the one who won't let me into your room," Shirou replied casually while chopping vegetables in the kitchen.
"And just because I don't let you in, you really don't come in?!" Komachi gave her older brother a look full of exasperation.
"What do you want me to do, seriously?" Shirou muttered helplessly.
"Well, even though Onii-chan is busy, Komachi is also busy with her studies. But seeing Onii-chan living so fully makes me happy too. Just now, your Komachi points went up quite a bit~!" Komachi said with a cheerful smile.
"Yeah, yeah. No matter how much you try to raise my favorability score, it won't do you any good," Shirou said as he stuffed a sausage shaped like a little octopus into Komachi's mouth.
"Mmm~ Tasty!" Komachi quickly gobbled down the little octopus, showing her small fangs as she grinned.
Her words made the boy fall into thought.
Yes, lately he had indeed felt fulfilled.
As an ordinary person reincarnated into this world, he considered himself lucky.
But what he could do for others in this peaceful world amounted to fixing machines or helping move things.
A world that doesn't need a hero of justice might indeed be the most peaceful and happiest.
However, deep in his heart, whenever he saw accidents or tragedies, he still thought — if only he had been there, maybe he could've prevented them.
Because of his experiences in his past life, he valued the people around him even more now.
And now, being able to help Mash, to fight monsters and save the world — he genuinely felt that his life was fulfilling.
After each battle in recent days, he would help fulfill the wishes of the Heroic Spirits, which meant he got to spend quite a bit of time alone with them.
At one point, Minamoto no Raikou had told him:
"Your sense of justice is admirable, but it is twisted. You need someone by your side to guide you, or else happiness will be difficult to attain."
Despite being Berserk-class, Raikou was reliable in battle and difficult to handle in daily life.
Her personality after going berserk was peculiar in many ways, but her words reached deep into Shirou's heart.
Maybe that was true. In his previous life, Kiritsugu had passed away early. Fujimura-neesan was still a high schooler at the time, barely able to care for him — more of a companion than a guardian.
If he had someone back then to teach him how to live and grow, maybe he would've become a completely different person.
That's why, when Raikou made her offer, he was genuinely happy.
"Shirou, I swear I will love you as if you were my own son. So become part of my family.
I will form a bond with you as close as the one I have with my Four Heavenly Kings," Raikou had told him.
If there was such a world — where instead of Kiritsugu, Raikou had taken him in — perhaps he would've followed her along with her Four Heavenly Kings, helping her slay demons and monsters.
His archery would've been useful, and he was confident in maintaining and forging swords.
He probably wouldn't have been useless.
Maybe he would've gotten along surprisingly well with those ancient warriors.
"Thank you. But I already have a family here, so I can't be your son. However, if we can form a close and friendly bond, I would really like that. Please take care of me," Shirou had replied to Raikou back then.
"Eh? I can't have you as a son? But… you want to be close with me? Even someone like me — who, even now, is berserk, can't suppress her demonic nature, and is like a monster?" Raikou asked in surprise.
"Yeah, of course!" Shirou answered without hesitation.
A friend is a friend.
If they do something wrong, you hit them hard. But when they're in trouble, even if their nature is that of a scumbag, you never abandon them.
Not to mention, Raikou was already a trusted comrade-in-arms.
"I-I see. Even if not mother and son, being close like family is still okay, right?" Raikou muttered, her cheeks flushed red.
She hugged Shirou tightly, overwhelmed with emotion, then turned into glowing particles and disappeared in satisfaction.
Left behind were Shirou, trying to escape from her embrace and still confused, and Asuna, whose face had turned beet red.
After that, Shirou also discovered that his compatibility with Merlin had, at some point, reached 100%.
At 7 a.m., his parents, who had worked late until after 9 p.m. the night before, also woke up.
So Shirou and Komachi started bringing the dishes to the table, and the whole family prepared to eat.
While they were eating breakfast, Hachiman's dad, reading the newspaper, suddenly said:
"Things sure have been uneasy lately. There was another earthquake the other afternoon. I think it was near your school, Shirou. Did you feel anything?"
"Nope," Shirou replied as he ate.
At the same time, the morning news on TV was reporting: "Recently, frequent unexplained tremors continue to occur."
The footage showed a building's glass windows, hanging banners, and flags all shaking unnaturally.
An abandoned shopping mall in Shinjuku had suddenly started shaking, suspected to be caused by frequent seismic activity underground.
That building was exactly where Shirou and Yukinoshita had fought together.
The video continued showing other locations — all places they had recently battled in within the alternate space. He didn't expect those places to have been recorded by others.
"Scary stuff. Komachi, make sure you come home right after school, okay? There are more and more of these strange incidents lately," said Hachiman's mother.
"You too, Shirou. These recent accidents are really weird — like a giant bus in a parking lot suddenly flipping over, or an apartment building explosion. Thankfully, no one was hurt. It's almost like a supernatural phenomenon. So scary," she added.
"I got it. Don't worry, Mom, Dad. I'll be careful too, Onii-chan," Komachi nodded obediently, not forgetting to remind her brother.
'I'm sorry!' Shirou apologized in his heart, unsure what to say.
But even more firmly, he resolved to put an end to this as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, in Chaldea of the alternate world, they were under increasingly fierce monster attacks. Though the Heroic Spirits left behind in Chaldea repelled them each time, they kept coming back — in greater numbers and with greater danger.
"Geez! It never ends!" Da Vinci shouted in frustration.
"Director! We've detected that unknown magical source again! It's confirmed to be a Holy Grail!"
Standing there was a male Heroic Spirit dressed in black.
In his hand was a black beast-taming whip. Empowered by the Holy Grail, he could summon hundreds or even thousands of magical beasts and control their minds, turning them into unconscious weapons of destruction that endlessly attacked both worlds.
The black-skinned man was clearly abnormal.
His skin was covered in what looked like filthy black mud. His expression was blank, and his eyes showed only hatred.
When his emotions stirred, black sludge pulsed beneath his flesh like wriggling worms, making him look like he had crawled out of the mire.
"Both Chaldea and that other world must be destroyed. They must be avenged. For Mother. For dignity."