Blazing flames spread across the entire city, dyeing the night sky red and black.
A pitch-black hole hung high above the sky, with black sludge pouring endlessly from within it.
The entire city was eerily silent. Other than the crackling of the flames, there was not a single other sound.
Shuffle—
Footsteps rang out as a red-haired boy stepped out from the flames.
The boy's bare upper body was covered only by red-and-black sleeves. His skin was charred black in patches, as though pieces of someone else's skin had been stitched onto his body.
Golden light flickered within the boy's eyes, appearing especially terrifying beneath the reflection of the firelight.
Of course, the main reason was because his face held no expression whatsoever, as though everything happening around him meant nothing to him and was not even worth acknowledging.
Shuffle—
The boy continued walking forward.
He walked for a very long time and a very great distance.
Even as his feet stepped into the sludge flowing from the hole, the expression on his face did not change in the slightest.
The farther he went, the deeper his body sank into the black mud.
"..."
Only when the sludge reached past the boy's thighs did he finally stop walking and lower both hands into the mud beneath him.
He searched for quite some time before carefully lifting something out.
It was a pure white crown.
Even though it had been pulled out from the black sludge, not a single stain from the mud remained upon the pristine crown.
The boy stared at the object in his hands for a long time.
"i... il...?"
He remembered who the owner of the crown was, yet he had forgotten her name.
What was it?
He remembered it started with "il," and beyond that, he also remembered that she was someone incredibly important... family.
Yet he had forgotten the name of his own family member.
Perhaps because he was trying to forcibly recover the memory, an overwhelming wave of pain flooded his mind.
Pain intense enough to make an ordinary person faint did not even cause the boy to frown.
To him, this level of pain was insignificant. If anything, the erosion from the black mud beneath his feet felt more tangible.
After staring at the crown for a long while, the boy showed no attachment and placed it back into the sludge before once again searching through the black mud with both hands.
If the crown was here, then did that mean...
After searching for quite some time, the boy touched something else.
It felt cold and soft.
Slowly lifting it out from the sludge, the boy saw the face from his memories.
But the hollow look in those eyes and the coldness of that touch already explained everything.
The expressionless boy widened his eyes as he stared at her.
"...!"
The instant he clearly saw her face, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet disappear, causing his entire body to sink into the black sludge.
Yet he never loosened his grip.
His hands clung tightly to her.
Even though he could no longer see her or the surroundings within the sludge, it did not stop him from holding on.
After all... leaving her alone inside the black mud would be far too lonely, would it not?
As long as he did not let go, then the two of them would remain together.
But things did not unfold the way he had hoped.
Having gone so long without fresh air, his consciousness gradually began to blur.
Vaguely, he could hear someone speaking near his ear.
"...rou!"
A gentle girl's voice echoed beside him.
But the boy merely assumed it was a hallucination born from the brink of death.
Yet what happened next made him realize it was not an illusion.
"Shirou! You have to keep living!"
As the words fell, the boy felt someone push his body away.
At the same time, the sensation in his hands vanished.
Even though he had never let go.
The moment he realized he had lost her, the boy struggled within the black mud, trying to climb upward.
However, his body had already been in terrible condition to begin with, and his struggling only wasted more of his strength, causing him to sink even faster.
But he refused to give up.
He continued struggling upward without stopping.
At the very least... he could not let her remain alone...!
Repeating those words endlessly within his heart, the boy continued fighting with all his might.
The sleeves covering his arms also came loose from all the struggling, leaving behind only a small piece of red fabric wrapped around his abnormally muscular right arm.
And the moment the sleeves fell away, he felt a tremendous portion of the power in his body instantly disappear.
Even so, he ignored everything else and thought only of swimming upward.
It seemed that his efforts had moved something, because this time the boy saw her figure.
Unlike the lifeless appearance from before, the girl now standing before him had white hair and ruby-like red eyes.
She wore clothes as white as her hair, accented with crimson decorations matching the color of her eyes.
And upon her head rested the same white crown the boy had held moments ago.
"Make sure to... live on properly!"
The girl simply smiled before gently pushing the boy with her hand as she spoke.
Unlike the faint and blurry voice from before, this time her words were perfectly clear.
Her voice carried endless blessings as she smiled and watched the boy she had personally pushed drift away into the distance.
The moment she pushed him, faint light began radiating from his body, and the familiar outfit from her memories appeared upon him once more.
The remaining red sleeve wrapped around the boy's right arm also began glowing brightly.
"i... illya!"
Desperately reaching out with his left hand, the boy finally remembered her name and shouted it aloud.
In response, she merely revealed one final smile before dissolving into pure white particles of magical energy that drifted toward the boy.
At the same time, the surrounding black mud seemed to sense something and began surging in a certain direction. The overwhelming flood of magical energy caused the boy to lose consciousness, yet his hand remained stretched outward exactly as before.
Within the black mud, faint white magical energy wrapped around the boy, protecting him from outside harm.
This was all she could do.
As the black mud continuously washed over it, the white magical energy gradually dimmed.
Fortunately, the white magic carried the boy away together with the flow of black mud escaping from that place.
When they appeared again, they were already high in the sky.
The white magical energy carried both the boy and a massive amount of black mud into the air. The mud seemed to sense something and rapidly poured into the boy's body.
The white magical energy did not reject the mud. Instead, with the mud's assistance, the fading and nearly shattered magical light regained a faint glow once more, though only slightly brighter than before.
But that was enough.
Looking down upon the barren land below, the white magical energy noticed the nearest vehicle radiating an atmosphere of joy and guided the boy toward it.
In the end, she took the impact of the boy's fall from the sky in his place, exhausting the very last of her magical power.
On the ground, inside the crater, the boy's left hand still remained stretched forward.
"Live properly, do the things you want to do, enjoy the life of an ordinary person... as long as you can do that, it is enough!"
The girl's voice gradually weakened. Regardless of whether he could hear her or not, she continued repeating those words until the very moment she completely vanished.
"..."
Opening his eyes, Shirou saw a familiar ceiling.
It was the ceiling of Penguin Logistics' living room.
After returning from the Lungman Guard Department with Nian, he had apparently taken a nap on the sofa...
Was that just now a dream?
Or was it...
"You are awake?"
Nian's voice interrupted Shirou's thoughts.
Turning his head, he saw her sitting casually on a single sofa nearby, holding one of his projected weapons in her hands.
It seemed he had told her before falling asleep that she could study it as much as she wanted.
"Yeah... sorry, I slept a bit too long."
Rubbing his head, Shirou tried to wake himself up a little more.
Looking around, he noticed that everyone from Penguin Logistics was seated around the dining table. However, instead of eating, they were all staring at piles of documents with troubled expressions.
He also glanced at the time and realized it was already dusk.
He had returned before noon, which meant he had slept for quite a long time.
"It is fine. I had plenty of fun researching this thing. Even if you slept for three days and three nights, it would not be a problem."
Nian waved her hand dismissively.
"I could never sleep that long."
Standing up, Shirou immediately felt that something was off with his entire body.
That strange dream was probably related to what happened earlier that morning, right?
But...
Was that really just a dream?
Although parts of it had become blurry, Shirou still remembered fragments of it.
For example, falling from the sky.
And Penguin Logistics' vehicle.
And also... illya.
The moment he thought of her, Shirou's entire body froze slightly.
"I know, it was just a figure of speech... What is wrong?"
After hearing Shirou's words, Nian responded casually.
But after receiving no reply from him for quite some time, she finally shifted her attention away from the swords in front of her and looked toward Shirou himself.
And then she noticed something unusual about him.
How should she describe it...?
He seemed to be faintly glowing.
Since Shirou had remained completely dazed, Nian finally decided to check on his condition.
The moment she asked that question, the four people at the dining table instantly turned their heads toward the sofa area.
Compared to the temporary extra workload, Shirou's health was obviously more important. The four of them decisively abandoned their work and rushed over to the sofa area to check on their teammate.
"It is nothing. I was just thinking about someone."
Faced with their enthusiastic concern, Shirou, who had been pushed back down onto the sofa, casually spoke his thoughts aloud.
The moment he said it, he immediately regretted it.
Based on his understanding of their personalities... what awaited him next would definitely be an endless stream of questions.
"Oho! Who is it? Who is it? Do we know them?"
Just as Shirou expected, the instant they heard his words, Exusiai's eyes practically burst with excitement. Even the halo above her head and her wings seemed to glow more brightly.
She eagerly leaned toward Shirou as she questioned him.
Croissant was equally excited, while the others were slightly more restrained, though the curiosity in their eyes remained fixed squarely on Shirou.
"Mm... you do not know her. I was talking about my... adoptive older sister."
Letting out a sigh, Shirou chose to bear the consequences of his slip of the tongue.
It was not exactly some shameful secret anyway, so saying it aloud did not really matter.
Though most of what he knew about Illya came from the memories of other versions of Emiya Shirou.
Still, in that dream just now, she seemed to have been protecting him the entire time.
"Eh!!! This is the first time we have heard about this! Shirou, you really hid it well!"
After hearing Shirou's answer, Croissant immediately jumped into the conversation.
Everyone was already used to the coordinated assault of Exusiai and Croissant bouncing off each other.
"I did not know her for very long. Before the Holy Grail War, I did not even know she existed."
After being pressed further, Shirou continued explaining.
"Wait! The Holy Grail War? Was your older sister one of the participants too?"
Hearing the keyword, Texas raised her hand and asked.
"Uh... yes."
"Then did you and your sister team up together to win the Holy Grail War?"
After receiving Shirou's confirmation, Sora curiously followed up.
"...I do not have memories regarding that part."
After hesitating for several seconds, Shirou chose to use memory loss as an excuse to brush the matter aside.
"Eh... I see."
Looking at Shirou's expression, the group remained somewhat suspicious.
Still, Shirou had said he had not known her for very long, and combined with his missing memories, it was understandable that he did not know much about her.
"That person must have been very important to you, right?"
Nian, who had been quietly observing the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
"Yeah, she was very important to me."
Without any hesitation, Shirou answered immediately.
However, he was curious why she would ask such a question and looked at her with confusion.
"Let me guess. Does her name happen to contain the character 'ill'?"
Seeing Shirou staring at her in confusion, Nian did not answer directly and instead continued speaking.
"It does. How did you know that?"
After hearing Nian's words, Shirou nodded, though the confusion in his heart only deepened.
"You! You were not exactly peaceful while sleeping just now! Your left hand kept moving around, and your mouth kept opening and closing too. Even though no sound came out, judging from the shape of your lips, you kept saying 'ill' over and over again."
After deliberately building suspense for a moment, Nian finally revealed the answer with a huge grin.
Unlike the other four, who had been focused on working at the dining table, she had been sitting right beside Shirou the whole time, so naturally she noticed all of his movements.
She truly had not expected his sleeping posture to be this terrible.
Shirou: "..."
He genuinely did not know he had a habit of talking in his sleep.
"I really did dream about her just now. Though it was not exactly a very pleasant dream."
Faced with the curious gazes of the five people, Shirou rubbed his head and honestly explained.
As for whether it was truly a dream or something else, that was not important.
After all, it had already happened, and there was no way for him to verify the truth now.
More importantly... in the dream, Illya had told him to live properly, do the things he wanted to do, and enjoy the life of an ordinary person.
As her younger brother, listening to his older sister's words was perfectly reasonable, was it not?
But why did it still feel so painful somehow?