Chapter 209: The Partner of the Ally of Justice
He is just a piece of trash.
Whether it was in the past, or in the present.
He has always been such a piece of trash. Because even after Julian heard Emiya Shirou state the reason why he always fails, he still could not truly make a decision in his heart.
He still could not firmly choose one path to execute: whether to continue sacrificing humanity to liberate Pandora, or to let Pandora continue to suffer while waiting for humanity to be able to leave Earth before choosing to liberate Pandora from the [Pandora's Box].
"..."
"Yeah, if you, Julian, had chosen to analyze the Holy Grail War ritual of our world and held a Holy Grail War to activate the Greater Grail before we arrived," Emiya Shirou said, "and used the power of the Greater Grail to liberate Pandora from the [Pandora's Box], then the future of this parallel world might truly have become irredeemable."
When the Great Hollow in Fuyuki City of Satsuki Miyu's world was swapped with the Great Hollow in their own world, and the Greater Grail of their world was exchanged for Satsuki Miyu, the divine child, in the original work of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Julian—who could see the essence of Illya as the Lesser Grail at a glance—could not have possibly failed to discover the Greater Grail inside this Great Hollow.
Even though Emiya Shirou had been continuously maintaining the [Pseudo-God Atum] and using its Stand ability to confirm his identity as the victor of the Holy Grail War, as long as Julian wanted to, he could have used the method of "overwriting" the old Holy Grail War with a new one to restart a new round.
After all, for Julian, having replaced Darius as the new head of the Ainsworth family and having gained the experience of Ainsworth displacement magecraft from Darius, it was no difficult task to displace Heroic Spirits, or perform personality displacement—using dolls to replace and resurrect the group of Holy Grail War participants who had died in this parallel world to have them participate in the war once again.
Angelica and Beatrice, the two long-dead helpers of his, weren't they brought about exactly this way?
However, in this situation where he could have realized his wish as long as he made a choice, Julian, realizing that it was a new Holy Grail that had completed the displacement with Satsuki Miyu, did not think of using this new Grail to liberate Pandora. Instead, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that as long as there were two Grails, he could liberate Pandora while simultaneously preventing the black mud inside [Pandora's Box] from continuing to flow onto the Earth, thereby saving the Earth and saving humanity.
Wish.
Just like when Emiya Shirou of this parallel world initially won the Holy Grail War by defeating six opponents, with Julian's strength at that time, as long as he had set up a barrier of spatial displacement at the passage leading to Satsuki Miyu, he could have prevented Emiya Shirou from reaching her. He could have waited for Angelica, who had performed a Class Card Install of Gilgamesh, to strike Emiya Shirou down.
The same choice, the same hesitation... This time, Julian was once again struck down by Emiya Shirou. This was the true intent behind Julian's previous words. And Emiya Shirou, who possessed the memories of his past life, undoubtedly understood.
"However, when I said that you, Julian, didn't actually do anything wrong, it wasn't because I agreed with your idea of wanting to save and liberate Pandora, but simply because your own will was not firm enough, which is why you lost in the end."
Emiya Shirou, who had previously spoken words of agreement with Julian, shook his head at Julian's sigh and regret at this moment.
"What I truly agree with is actually your choice, Julian, to save both Pandora and humanity.
This is not me being sarcastic; I truly feel this way.
Although this idea of wanting to save everyone is very naive, and reality is often much crueler than this fantasy—if it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to truly persevere and would only choose to save one of them."
This was not comfort; it was a fact. Emiya Kiritsugu, the Emiya Shirou of the Archer timeline, and the Emiya Shirou of this parallel world who chose to save Satsuki Miyu... although the former two chose to sacrifice a few to save the many, while the latter chose to sacrifice the many to save the few he held dear, in essence, they all clearly understood that an "Ally of Justice" who could save everyone was merely a fairy tale. Reality often requires them to make trade-offs and choose to sacrifice a portion of people. Including the current Emiya Shirou, he is the same.
"But wanting to save everything is never wrong, is it?"
Indeed, after reviewing the memories of his past lives so many times, Emiya Shirou no longer held any hope for becoming an "Ally of Justice." He also didn't believe he could become a true Ally of Justice.
However, just as an Ally of Justice, no matter how much they fall into darkness, only becomes an evil enemy, Emiya Shirou—knowing he cannot be an Ally of Justice and knowing that the idea of saving everyone is unrealistic—has never once said that he wanted to become someone like Archer, or that he would beat up anyone he met who still held such a naive thought.
"You see, it is precisely because of this persistence of yours, Julian—this idea of wanting to save everyone—that you did not truly destroy humanity, but waited for our arrival in the end. Allowing you..."
Speaking of this, Emiya Shirou extended his hand toward Julian, who had realized the reality: "...to wait until I arrived to help you fulfill this wish of saving everyone."
"...Ah!?" Julian looked up at Emiya Shirou in a daze. "But for this wish of mine to truly be fulfilled, isn't Emiya Miyu..."
Although they hadn't spent much time together, Julian had once fantasized that perhaps the Emiya Shirou in front of him was not the same person as the one in his parallel world. But after hearing those words from Emiya Shirou, how could Julian fail to understand that it was impossible for this Emiya Shirou to give up on Satsuki Miyu? How could he possibly harbor the fantasy that Emiya Shirou would help him?
"That's why I said, this is a method where everyone can be saved." Emiya Shirou said. "If this method required sacrificing Miyu, how could it be a method where everyone can be saved?
Will you help me?"
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