Chapter 262: Saving Emiya Shirou
"Then, for the next question—your Spiritron Transfer. You use it so skillfully. How is that possible?" Shirou asked, speaking within yet another unfamiliar space he had been brought into.
"Of course! When it comes to Spiritron Transfer technology, the data BB-chan possesses is even more comprehensive than Chaldea's. Plus, BB-chan is a super-genius! So, I hacked into Chaldea for a bit of study. Now, even in a different world, as long as there's enough computing power, BB-chan can do it with ease," the purple-haired girl said. She stood on her tiptoes and spun around, her long cape fluttering like a blooming flower as a triumphant smile played on her lips.
"What is really going on? What is your goal? Is it possible you just want to toy with over a hundred humans in the palm of your hand?" Shirou looked at the girl and questioned her.
"Not at all. BB-chan has no need for extra Holy Grails, and from the start, I never intended to manage these humans," the girl shook her head in denial.
Her wide eyes flashed with an intimidating red light as she continued: "From the very beginning, I have only been here for you, Senpai! Because before I came here, I had already decided: this time, BB-chan is going to make Senpai happy!"
"BB, regardless of the reason, involving other people is wrong. And don't think about doing anything for me. In the end, I'm not the Emiya Shirou from the world you know, right?" Shirou looked at the girl sternly.
"No! Senpai is Senpai!" The purple-haired girl retracted the madness from her eyes and flashed a cute smile.
"Of course, what BB-chan wants most is for Senpai to do nothing at all and just sit quietly. Then, BB-chan will resolve everything!"
"Why? Why go to such lengths for me?" Shirou asked.
"Ah, Senpai is BB-chan's savior. You see, BB-chan was supposed to have disappeared, but now I've survived. However... the person known as 'Emiya Shirou' in Chaldea no longer exists."
"Doesn't exist? He's a Heroic Spirit, a Counter Guardian. Even if he's killed, isn't he the type of existence that gets summoned over and over again?" Shirou asked in surprise.
"Exactly as I said. Emiya Shirou no longer exists. Mr. Nameless in Moon Cell no longer exists. They have all been absorbed."
"Absorbed?" Shirou asked, puzzled. He had a premonition that this time, he might finally learn the reason behind everything.
"Or perhaps 'returned to the source' is more accurate. When the person Emiya Shirou chose to transcend the limits of Heroic Spirits and the limits of the soul, he was no longer restricted by time or space, and his body returned to the origin.
He accepted a power that transcends all, but in doing so, he embraced the Root. He became a concept existing outside the world—with no past, no present, and no future.
In that world, even those with strong bonds to Emiya Shirou cannot change the fact that this existence is now a phantom dream. And this dream will be treated like a familiar face one happens to see while dreaming; as he stops appearing in those dreams, he will gradually be forgotten."
"I see... so that's how it is..." Shirou seemed to understand something.
Until now, he had felt a sense of dissonance regarding his own birth, even though the ten-plus years he spent with his family, his parents, and his sister were certainly not a lie.
He felt an inconsistency regarding his memories of a past life. Initially, he hadn't noticed because memories are naturally vague things. But after Mash found him, and he used his eyes to read the memories of the alternate-world counterparts summoned through possession, the feeling those memories gave him was identical to the feeling of his own past-life memories.
The principle involved using Mystic Eyes to construct a channel to an alternate world, searching for related future possibilities, and copying Heroic Spirits that shouldn't be summonable into this world via the Holy Grail to generate a Pseudo-Spiritron Foundation. This was then possessed by the Shirou of this alternate world.
This was a special combat system specifically built for Shirou by the mages of Chaldea.
However, the consciousness of the Heroic Spirits had never once been summoned. "Add," the seal-box for King Arthur's Holy Spear acting as a guardian, had appeared once as an adjunct to a Heroic Spirit. But after that farewell, he never appeared again when summoning Lancer-class Heroic Spirits.
Normally, during a possession summoning, the Heroic Spirit is summoned into the body; spirits who don't want to come out usually just stay in the Reality Marble of the mind.
But according to BB, these alternate-world counterparts had already begun to disappear at that time. If the Mystic Eyes only read and copied data, then even if they disappeared, possession summoning could still be performed.
"But... if that's the case, my eyes are too strange. No... even my own existence has become so strange..." Shirou fell into a state of confusion. Cold sweat poured down his forehead and back as if something was about to burst out of his mind.
Words spoken by the Black Mud Heroic Spirits he had fought before began to surface one by one.
"For revenge, I will definitely kill you..."
"There is no meaning in defeating you..."
"Killing you is for the sake of retaliation..."
"Even if you win, you will eventually meet destruction..."
Behind the Black Mud Heroic Spirits, in a much more distant place, a pure white figure had already determined everything after making a certain resolution.
Shirou sighed and said, "I see... so I will disappear too?"
"Of course not!! BB-chan won't let Senpai disappear! And I will definitely never forget Senpai! Everything! Every single memory will be recorded in the database, and it will always be as clear as if it just happened yesterday!"
Shirou looked at the purple-haired girl with complex emotions. He felt that his existence seemed to have become a heavy burden for her.
The young man spoke sincerely: "It's precisely because of this that you are so obsessed, right... but I am likely the same person as the one you are looking for."
The girl shook her head. "No, please don't think about that. The one who saved BB-chan was Emiya-senpai. Even if the time and world are different, our hearts are connected. So, the one BB-chan is looking for is you, Senpai! BB-chan flew back here from the future specifically to make you happy!"
She spoke with great determination. Though she was a little devil to her core—mischievous, playful, and a rule-breaker—she was incredibly serious when it came to her feelings.
"BB, tell me the truth about everything. And what is it you want to do for me?" Shirou asked.
"Of course! That is exactly why BB-chan pulled you in, Senpai," the girl agreed with a smile. Her long purple hair fluttered high as she spun around, her body shimmering with light.
"I know! Then Senpai, let's get back to the main topic!" For some reason, BB had changed into a teacher's outfit. She raised a pointer and began explaining the origin of Moon Cell to the boy.
"Starting from 3.8 billion years ago, as microorganisms began to appear, Moon Cell's observation of Earth continuously strengthened alongside the birth of Earth's organisms, following the constant evolution and transformation of life.
Organisms went from simple survival instincts—eating, sleeping, and reproducing in a repetitive manner—to gradually possessing consciousness after hundreds of millions, even billions of years.
Moon Cell discovered to its surprise that it actually couldn't understand the thoughts or behavioral motivations of the life forms on this planet. Although technologically, Moon Cell's intelligence and mastery far surpassed all creatures on Earth, it remained unable to touch the intangible yet vital things like the heart and the brain.
The alien civilization required absolute accuracy from Moon Cell, so the supercomputer had to make a choice to expand its functions."
"Even an intelligence that powerful couldn't understand humans?" Shirou asked. Human hearts are indeed complex, and the structure of brain neurons is far more intricate than computer circuits.
"Yes. If BB-chan were to choose, Moon Cell actually had a very simple and fast method when facing Earth's life: just install new software—a framework called 'Intellect.' Although analysis would still be difficult, with effort, mutual understanding could be achieved."
"But Moon Cell wouldn't think that way. Because if it possessed intellect, the observation itself would be influenced by 'subjectivity' and would no longer be objective. It would then fail to conduct all-encompassing observation as commanded by the alien civilization."
So, Moon Cell chose a roundabout path: performing simulation experiments on organisms, constantly strengthening its own computing power, and installing new frameworks and functions. It attempted to use Big Data to summarize the laws governing the thoughts and behaviors of life.
However, through this method, Moon Cell later found it still couldn't accurately understand the thoughts of living beings. The supercomputer hit a snag: Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle.
When Moon Cell performed experimental observations on Earth's life, it inevitably exerted an external influence on that life. Without the ability to perform perfect observation, there would inevitably be deviations.
This theory touches upon the origins of human science—the field of philosophy. Dr. Heisenberg once said that in the statement of causality, 'If we know the present exactly, we can predict the future,' it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise. We cannot know the present in all its details as a matter of principle.
"Can Senpai understand? Even a higher-level observer cannot see all the details at a single glance, so they can't derive an absolutely accurate result. An existence capable of that would probably have to be one living in a higher dimension," the girl stopped to ask.
"Yes, they taught that in high school," Shirou nodded.
For example, wave-particle duality: it is impossible to accurately measure both the velocity and position of a particle at the same time. The more accurately you measure one, the greater the influence you exert on the other.
A common explanation is Chaldea's observation of a Master. To maintain observation of 'Gudako' as she travels to Singularities or other worlds, Chaldea has no choice but to follow her movements closely.
The more Chaldea focuses its observation on Gudako, the more clearly it can see the things around her and talk to the people she encounters.
But at the same time, this inevitably sacrifices the ability to observe other things. It can't effectively distinguish or track whether the random middle-aged man in that area is actually a traitor.
As long as Chaldea wants to protect Gudako and maintain observation, it inevitably cannot effectively detect the rest of the Singularity. If it wants to detect other parts of the Singularity, it must let go of its observation of Gudako.
"But if even an alien civilization like that can't do it, could there really be a creature capable of that level of observation?" Shirou asked, puzzled.
"..."
To Shirou's question, the purple-haired girl fell silent for a moment, her expression turning complex as she spoke: "There is. BB-chan saw such an existence once. If I had to say, it's a creature that evolved into a higher dimension. When it observes, it doesn't look down or see through things—it encompasses everything in the three-dimensional world within its observation.
Just like a 3D being observing a 2D world. When a person observes characters in a manga, they stand in the position of a 'God's eye view' and can sometimes predict the direction of the story. But the 2D characters have no way of perceiving the person reading the manga.
If you can encompass events happening at the same time on the same 'page,' then you can see everything clearly. It's like a detective solving a case: the more information you gather from the crime scene, the closer you get to the truth.
So, to achieve that level of observation, one must be a higher-dimensional being who holds BB-chan, Senpai, and all life in their hands like characters in a manga. Unfortunately, Moon Cell can't do that. But because of that, BB-chan was able to find Senpai here! Don't you feel like this is the arrangement of fate, and that we basically have to get married?"
The purple-haired girl blinked repeatedly at Shirou.
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