The moment I open my eyes, I instantly tense up, fully preparing myself for that agonizing pain to come rushing back.
"...?"
But the pain never comes. Instead the only thing I feel is something incredibly soft underneath my back and cradling the back of my head. I blink a few times, letting my blurry vision clear up as I slowly look around.
"My bedroom...?" I mutter to myself.
As I take in the familiar walls, the desk, and the quiet atmosphere, I immediately recognize exactly where I am.
This is my bedroom from my previous life.
It seems someone moved me from the living room sofa all the way to this bed. But now that I think about it, how the hell do I even lose consciousness in the first place? I am already inside my own inner world.
Fainting inside your own mind shouldn't even be possible.
Shaking my head, I try to push myself up to sit properly, but I quickly realize there is a heavy weight holding my body down.
I stop moving and carefully look down at my side.
"Denial...?"
Sitting on a chair pulled right up against the edge of the bed, Denial is fast asleep. She leans heavily forward, using my stomach as a pillow for her head, and both of her hands hold onto my left arm so tightly it is like she is terrified I am going to float away.
Even though Void and Denial share the exact same face and appearance as me, I never have any trouble telling which one is which, even if they wear the exact same clothes.
Void's expression is always so calm and tender. She carries herself like a gentle, mature adult who knows the answer to absolutely anything I ask her, always ready to give me warm and perfect advice.
Denial, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. She is the type of person who acts first and thinks later. Because of that, her expression is usually sharp and rebellious, like a stubborn wildcat that refuses to be tamed and is always ready to pick a fight with the whole world.
But right now, seeing her sleeping so peacefully, all of that sharp rebellion is completely gone.
Looking at how tightly she holds onto me, I have no idea how long she has been sitting here like this.
"Has she been staying with me ever since I passed out...?" I murmur softly into the quiet room, gently looking down at her.
Seeing Denial sleeping in such an awkward position makes me want to gently move her and put her on the soft mattress so she can rest properly.
I carefully reach out to lift her shoulders since I am already sitting up.
But a sudden familiar voice interrupts the quiet room. "Just let her sleep"
Making me jolt in complete surprise as my hands freeze in mid-air.
"What the!? Void, where did you come from?? I didn't even see you when I glanced around earlier!"
Void walks over with graceful steps and stands right beside Denial's sleeping form to look down at her with a tender gaze.
"I just arrived. She has been really worried about you. She never left your side since you lost consciousness, so let her rest for a bit."
I slowly pull my hands back letting Denial continues to use my thighs as a pillow.
"...How long have I been unconscious?" I tilt my head. "I feel completely fresh, like I just woke up from a really long and deep sleep."
Usually, when I wake up I don't feel this fully rested.
Even in my sleep, I am always training with Lady Ava inside my dreams, so my actual rest usually only lasts a couple of hours after the mental training is complete.
It has never really been a problem for me since I am already used to operating on low sleep from my previous life, but waking up feeling this completely recharged is honestly strange.
Void keeps her serene smile and answers casually. "You have been sleeping for seven months now"
I practically scream as my eyes bulge in absolute shock. "WHAT?? SEVEN MONTHS???" How can she say that with a straight face and act like I just took a seven-hour nap instead of a seven-month coma?!
Panic instantly floods my chest as a million terrifying thoughts race through my head. "Seven months??? What about the Holy Grail War?? Is the orphanage safe?? Wait, did Irisviel already turn into the Grail?? Manaka! Oh god, Manaka is definitely going to be searching for me now!"
A cold shiver runs down my spine just thinking about it.
I vividly remember that one time I didn't meet up with her for just a little while, and Manaka suddenly appeared staring right through the window of my bedroom back at the orphanage like a horror movie villain.
If I have been missing for seven months, she is going to destroy the city looking for me!
Void reaches out and gently pats my head.
Her warm touch instantly soothes my racing heart. "Calm down, Rikka. You do not need to worry because the time outside is entirely frozen. Well, it was right up until you woke up."
I blink as the panic suddenly freezes in my throat. "Frozen? You mean time literally stopped? How did that happen?"
For the next few minutes, Void explains exactly what happened while I was asleep.
She slowly breaks down the chain of events that led to my collapsed soul, and I just sit there in stunned silence as the truth finally sinks in.
I never expected that Denial was the actual reason my body was hurting so much.
I stare down at her peaceful, sleeping face resting heavily on my thighs.
A sudden complicated feeling twists in my chest.
Is that why she stayed right by my side this entire time? Just because she feels guilty for hurting me?
Void notices the conflicted look in my eyes.
She shifts closer and gracefully sits on the edge of the bed right next to Denial so she can look directly into my face. "Do not misunderstand, Rikka. I cannot say anything if you choose to hate Denial for this, but I want to make absolutely sure you know she had no idea this was going to happen"
Void reaches out and starts gently patting my head. "Denial did overdo it by trying to aggressively access Akasha using our connection to the Root. But she meant well. Fighting against Assassin was never going to be easy for her, especially with how small and fragile our physical body is out there"
Everything she says makes perfect sense. I remember watching the fight on the living room TV just yesterday-well, yesterday for me, anyway.
Even through the screen, I could clearly see that Denial was still slower than Assassin in close combat.
If the fight had dragged on, she would have eventually gotten completely exhausted and slowed down, while Assassin wouldn't change at all thanks to his Servant body.
Denial was just trying to protect us the only way she knew how.
Void's warm hand continues to stroke my hair. "She is staying beside you because she feels incredibly responsible for this. But that is not the only reason. How could she possibly hurt her precious family and not stay by your side? You know exactly how she is. The second she wakes up, she is going to apologize to you over and over again"
I look back down at Denial, the tightness in my chest slowly softening.
"It is entirely up to you to decide how to respond, so just take your time and think about it" Void stops patting my head and slowly stands up from the bed.
She looks down at Denial and makes a small, gentle gesture with her hand. Suddenly, Denial's sleeping body lightly floats up from my thighs.
Void gently guides her through the air and softly places her down on the mattress right beside me so she can sleep much more comfortably.
Just like how we can effortlessly summon books and objects straight from my memories, we have absolute control over this inner world.
Making someone float or even kicking them out of the space entirely is as easy as breathing here.
I sit quietly on the edge of the bed and stare down at Denial.
She looks so peaceful sleeping beside me with her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Void's words keep echoing in my head and repeating over and over again.
I let out a long and heavy sigh. How can I even stay mad at her? She pushed herself past her absolute limits just to keep me safe from Assassin.
I gently reach out and brush a stray lock of hair away from her sleeping face as I quietly think about what I should say when she finally wakes up.
---
---
---
Back in the physical world the frozen gears of time finally click back into place.
Deep inside the forest surrounding the Einzbern castle the wind suddenly howls again.
A falling leaf resumes its slow descent toward the ground.
The chilling air rushes through the heavy trees just like it did a second ago.
The world takes a breath completely unaware that it had ever stopped.
Standing perfectly still in the middle of the dense woods Manaka slowly lowers her hand.
She clenches her fingers into a tight fist and opens them before clenching them again.
She flexes her muscles as she feels the warm blood finally rushing through her veins after what felt like an absolute eternity.
While the rest of the world remains completely oblivious to the massive gap in time Manaka knows exactly what just happened.
She was awake for all of it.
For seven excruciatingly long months her consciousness was fully active and trapped inside a paralyzed body in a completely frozen time.
She tried to break it of course.
As someone connected to the Root she immediately understood the sheer scale of the authority that had locked the world in place.
But understanding it and shattering it are two very different things.
No matter how much she reached out to the Root her innate magecraft circuits were simply too weak in raw output still ranked at a mere E in quantity to forcefully overwrite a time-stopping phenomenon of that absolute magnitude.
She lacked the physical body to break the cage.
So for seven months she could do nothing but stand there in the frozen time and think.
And the only thing she thought about during that time was Rikka.
A faint and almost terrifying smile slowly creeps across Manaka's angelic face.
She stops clenching her hand and lightly presses her fingertips against her own chest to feel the steady rhythmic beating of her heart.
Her smile widens just a fraction.
Rikka's existence is becoming more beautiful and intoxicating to her by the second.
After spending a few quiet moments soaking in the cool autumn air, Manaka decides she has stood there long enough.
She lowers her hand from her chest and turns her gaze deeper into the dark, rustling woods.
She still has a very important task to complete.
If anything, this massive accident with the frozen time only makes her completely certain that her ultimate plan is absolutely necessary.
The feeling of being trapped in her own paralyzed body still lingers in the back of her mind.
How can she possibly protect Rikka and keep her all to herself if she cannot even move when the Root decides to stop time in this timeline?
Her current physical form is simply too weak.
She needs a much better vessel to gain deeper access to Akasha.
Or even better, she needs to find a way to completely hijack the Root itself.
If she can pull that off, she can rewrite the rules and force the Root to completely exclude this version of her from its recognition.
She will become a total anomaly outside of its control, just like her beloved Rikka.
Manaka continues her quiet stroll through the dense woods.
After some time navigating the gnarled roots and heavy shadows, she emerges into a wide, open clearing.
In the exact center of that space stands Kirei Kotomine.
His tall, imposing frame is completely still as he stares out toward the distant silhouette of the Einzbern castle.
He is here waiting for his Servant to return.
His orders were for Assassin to infiltrate the enemy territory and kidnap Rikka to see what makes his teacher Tokiomi telling him to not do anything with a girl named Rikka.
Added with the strongest servant king of heroes Gilgamesh is seems interested in her making Kirei curious about her.
Kirei remains completely unaware that the specific persona sent to do the job has already been killed by Denial.
Because Assassin's unique Noble Phantasm splits their soul into multiple independent bodies, the Servant still technically survives.
To truly eliminate them, every single fragmented persona must be destroyed.
Until then, Kirei patiently waits in the dark for a report that will never come.
Manaka steps out from the veil of trees and intentionally lets her presence be known.
The dry autumn leaves crunch softly beneath her small shoes.
Kirei immediately turns around.
His sharp, calculating gaze locks onto the small figure walking out of the deep brush.
Manaka takes a few more graceful steps before coming to a complete halt. They stand just a few meters apart in the moonlit grass.
Neither of them moves to close the distance.
A heavy silence falls over the clearing. Kirei does not say a word, but his mind instantly goes to work.
The moment his eyes lay upon her, a bizarre and deeply unsettling sensation crawls up his spine.
It is certainly not something as trivial as love at first sight, as his twisted heart is completely incapable of processing such normal human emotions.
Instead, it is a profound, undeniable familiarity.
Looking at this seemingly innocent girl feels exactly like looking into a dark, bottomless mirror.
It is the exact same hollow, empty resonance he felt when investigating Kiritsugu Emiya.
He is staring at a reflection of his own void.
Manaka tilts her head and offers a flawless, angelic smile. "The sinner"
Kirei does not utter a single word in response as he simply stands his ground and stares back at the strange girl.
Behind his cold and emotionless eyes his mind is rapidly dissecting every tiny detail about her, carefully analyzing her relaxed posture along with the rhythm of her breathing and her complete lack of a fighting stance.
He is trying to determine exactly what kind of threat she poses, whether she is a traditional magus preparing to cast a spell from a distance or a fellow Executor who relies on brutal physical combat.