"Archer currently has no intention of killing Shirou."
As if responding to Rin's words, Archer rested the blade in his hand on his right shoulder.
"Archer? What are you…?"
Illya stopped struggling, looking at him with confusion.
"I'm a Servant. In a state like this, this is the best choice, at least one person can survive."
Archer looked at Illya, who had been trying to stop him, and Rin, who was holding her back, and spoke with a relieved smile.
Although he had not been able to personally bury the ideal of becoming a 'partner of justice,' when he first saw how the relationship between Emiya Shirou and Illya had improved, he abandoned his extre approach and chose peaceful dialogue instead.
He did not reveal his true na and only spoke as soone who had been through it all, saying many things. The seed had already been planted. That alone was enough.
Through that, he also rembered why he had once made the wish to beco a partner of justice.
What he had always wanted to kill was not Emiya Shirou, but to stop the next 'partner of justice' from becoming an executioner.
Yes… he only hoped that Emiya Shirou would not repeat the mistakes of Heroic Spirit EMIYA.
"Emiya Shirou! Since you've taken Illya's hand, then do not ever let go! Live on! And go defeat that guy!"
The mont he finished speaking, Archer brought his blade down in a single strike—and Shirou jolted awake.
Startled awake, Shirou first touched his right hand. Only after confirming it was still there did he let out a sigh of relief.
"What was that just now? A mory from the Gate? No… rather than a mory, it felt more like a dream."
He looked at his right hand. No matter how he saw it, it was still the sa hand he had always had.
His rational mind and the intact hand still attached to him both told him it had just been a dream. But his subconscious insisted it was not that simple. Perhaps it was a fragnt of a lost mory from the Holy Grail War.
If it was not his mory, how could it have felt so real?
But if it was his mory… then what was going on with his right hand?
Letting out a deep breath, Shirou organized the fragnts he still rembered.
First, he had lost his right hand while trying to save Illya. Rin and Illya were helping him stop the bleeding. Then Archer arrived, raised his blade and cut off his own right arm.
There was no beginning or end to it. Where was Saber? What happened afterward? Why did Archer cut off his own arm and was he planning to attach it to him? Could a human even receive the arm of a Heroic Spirit?
"Only giving fragnts like this, this is just pure malice! Is this the Holy Grail's doing? Do you have any idea how awful it was when you only gave textual knowledge before? And now you are stuffing partial mories into too?"
By the end of his thoughts, Shirou, frustrated, dumped all the bla onto the Holy Grail.
If anything goes wrong, it's all the Holy Grail's fault!
"Calm down… The first thing to do now is to write everything down."
Forcing himself to settle, the first thing Shirou did was take out a notebook and record everything.
He would write down particularly vivid mories from the Gate, as well as anything related to magecraft.
This was to prevent those mories from suddenly disappearing. Even if they did vanish, he could use his notes to recall them.
He also recorded things from real life, though less frequently. Most of his ti was spent grocery shopping, cooking, and doing housework, while Penguin Logistics spent most of their ti working.
Though he would be joining them in the future, according to the boss, his daily routine would remain the sa, he would only go along on long-distance jobs with Penguin Logistics.
As for the specifics of what he needed to do or prepare, he would have to wait until Exusiai contacted him.
After writing everything down, Shirou put the notebook away and got up to wash up.
Even though his mood had been shaken, he still completed all his usual daily tasks.
Since Penguin Logistics had left early today, Shirou packed all the food into insulated bags and had Sora take them along. He even added extra portions and cleared out the fridge.
According to a certain unnad red-haired woman, when she saw Shirou chopping vegetables that morning, it looked like he was hacking at his mortal enemy, so she had Sora pick up breakfast instead.
After finishing his chores, Shirou went out for his usual run. The events of the morning had left him feeling frustrated and he needed sothing to distract himself.
"Yo, isn't that Emiya?"
While running, Shirou was suddenly called out.
Turning around, he saw the owner of the voice, it was Swire, the one who had taken him to the Guard Departnt a few days ago.
"Officer Shi?"
Seeing Swire, Shirou recalled what Penguin Logistics had told him about the three big figures of the Guard Departnt:
Swire, Hoshiguma, and Chen.
Exusiai had said he could call them Officer Shi, Officer Hoshi, and Officer Chen.
But in Shirou's view, he had probably been set up by Exusiai. Because the mont he said "Officer Shi," he could clearly see veins popping on Swire's forehead.
"So the people at Penguin Logistics did give you a proper introduction, huh? But my surna is not 'Shi,' you know."
After adjusting her emotions, Swire quickly figured out what had happened, it must've been those Penguin Logistics people talking behind her back again.
"Uh… yes. So, Officer Sh—Swire… , why did you stop ?"
Shirou nearly said "Officer Shi" again but managed to correct himself in ti and asked her purpose.
"Nothing much. I just happened to see you while I was out and ca to say hello."
Seeing that Shirou stopped using that nickna, Swire let him off the hook, considering it was his first offense.
Today happened to be her day off. She wanted to check out the shop that had been burned down earlier by an infected criminal. Even though the chances of finding evidence were low, she still had to go.
After all, compared to aimless searching, starting from a related location would give her a better chance of finding clues.
The problem was… she seed to have gotten lost. After wandering around for quite a while, she spotted Shirou jogging and ca over to ask for directions.
"I see. Well, if there's nothing else, then I will—"
Seeing that she was not here to arrest him, Shirou imdiately thought about slipping away. Even though he had not done anything wrong, facing soone from the Guard Departnt still made him uneasy.
"What's the rush? Seeing you running at this hour, you must have a day off, right? How about we go on a date?"
Seeing Shirou trying to slip away, Swire grabbed him. She'd only intended to ask for directions, but seeing how scared he seed, she decided to try a different approach.
No one can refuse a beautiful girl's invitation!
"…Thanks for the invite, I'll pass."
After a brief mont of thought, Shirou chose to imitate Croissant's thod—run.
Watching him turn to leave, Swire's expression stiffened. Wasn't rejecting a woman's invitation like that a bit too rude? Was this guy made of wood or sothing?
"Hey, wait right there!"
The increasingly irritated little tiger stepped forward, blocking Shirou's escape route.
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