After the talk under the night sky, Kiritsugu sat at the dining table the next day for the first time in a while. He ate a meal with Ritsuka and Miyu with a smile and then performed a big cleanup with them.
Because of Kiritsugu's health issues, Ritsuka originally wouldn't have allowed him to overexert himself, but she couldn't resist Kiritsugu's rare cheerful mood. His heartfelt smile made him look very happy, and Ritsuka fell silent before such a smile.
Miyu stayed in high spirits all day, and Kiritsugu spent the entire day playing with them, only falling peacefully asleep when night fell.
He never woke up again... After burying Kiritsugu, who had passed away from illness, with Miyu, a continuous rain fell from the sky. The rain in Fuyuki City probably wouldn't stop for a while.
Ritsuka was soaked through. It was hard to tell if the water flowing down her face was rain or tears. She stood blankly before Kiritsugu's grave, her silhouette looking lonely in the rain.
After bidding farewell to Kiritsugu, Ritsuka returned to the Emiya Residence. Suddenly, the whole world seemed much quieter. She continued to act in her role as the older sister as she always had.
She boiled bathwater and helped dry Miyu's hair to prevent her from catching a cold, then took a bath with her to wash away the stickiness from the rain.
The things she did hadn't changed at all, but the communication between them had decreased significantly. The laughter that had recently begun to appear between the sisters vanished without a trace. Miyu also remained silent, perhaps not knowing what to say.
The world is cruel. After making up her mind, Miyu spent a good day with Kiritsugu, and then everything changed. Kiritsugu disappeared from the world—
He disappeared from the world that belonged to Ritsuka.
For the next several days, communication between the two was non-existent. They just mechanically maintained the household. A pale pain enveloped the Emiya Residence until Ritsuka regained some spirit when Miyu's birthday arrived.
"Sister, what are we having for lunch today?"
"Hamburger steak. We have the ingredients ready."
In the living room, Ritsuka, who was tidying up dishes in the open kitchen, looked at Miyu who had come up to her. She forced a smile and reached out to rub Miyu's head, the depression in her eyes lessening slightly.
Being gently petted, the familiar action made Miyu daze for a moment before she smiled and reached out to grab Ritsuka's clothes. "Sister, I'll help too."
The silence was finally broken. Amidst the crisp sound of the kitchen knife hitting the cutting board, Miyu and Ritsuka began to chat idly.
Onions, carrots, eggs, and so on became their topics of conversation. Smiles gradually returned to their faces. Although tinged with some helplessness and bitterness, an improvement had appeared. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before they could walk out of the sorrowful atmosphere together.
In her subconscious, Ritsuka was, after all, used to the loneliness of over a dozen years, and she had someone by her side who could accompany her.
Time slipped away quietly through their fingers, and soon two plates of hamburger steak were formed. A delicious lunch was born from the hands of Ritsuka and Miyu, and Ritsuka also brought out the cake and candles she had prepared in advance.
This was a very different birthday. It brought the two unrelated sisters closer together and helped them both set aside their grief... Night fell, and all things were silent.
The peaceful Fuyuki City was plunged into darkness. Most lights in the residential area were extinguished. Among them, the relatively luxurious Emiya Residence still had one room with a light on. Inside, the two girls, one big and one small, had already changed into pajamas and were preparing to turn off the light and sleep.
After coaxing Miyu to sleep, Ritsuka, sitting cross-legged on the tatami, wasn't very sleepy and began to wipe the Mystic Code she had taken out from the crystal dice.
Most of the 20 faces were filled with miscellaneous items; there weren't many truly useful things. Aside from one face representing character abilities, the others were used by her as storage tools for various items.
She wiped the weapon clean with a clean towel, lined up the bullets one by one, and then put them back into the crystal dice one by one.
"Sigh~ how useless. In the end, it still didn't serve any purpose."
What exactly was the use of this thing? To manifest the power of some 2D character and replicate it in oneself?
Since Kiritsugu's health started having problems, she had been praying to the crystal dice for the possibility of obtaining a way to heal Kiritsugu, but this thing gave no response at all, not even a single hint.
Gently squeezing the sturdy-looking crystal dice, she had a gut feeling that this thing was indestructible... "I still haven't figured out the principle of this thing."
A 'Cheat' is a must-have for Transmigrators, usually coming as a standard system or some other form of enhancement. Ritsuka considered this strange thing of hers to be her Cheat.
But whose Cheat is so unreliable that it doesn't even react when needed, and you have to figure out how to use it all by yourself?
With no after-sales service, Ritsuka could only sigh while flipping the small and exquisite crystal dice in her hand, checking the contents of the 20 faces. She enlarged them one by one to look, but the only one with actual significance was... [Emiya Shirou].
[synchronization value (32%)]
...Aside from the men with white hair and brown eyes or red hair and brown eyes, there were only some convenient items.
Is there some trigger condition needed?
Or is it just a convenient storage item?
But if so, how to explain the guy named 'Emiya Shirou' in the image?
Ritsuka fell into an unprecedented daze. Kiritsugu's departure was somewhat sudden, although in some ways it could be said to have been expected... Ritsuka, whose thoughts had unconsciously begun to wander, was then awakened by a voice.
"Sister?"
Miyu opened her eyes and looked at Ritsuka sitting beside her with a dazed face. The light that hadn't been turned off yet made it hard for her to open her eyes.
Realizing the problem with the light, Ritsuka quickly reached out and turned it off, then slid into the covers with a whoosh. She reached out and pinched Miyu's nose, making the Little girl instinctively pout.
"Sister is mean."
"Well, get some rest. When I have time, I'll take you out to play."
Holding Miyu in her arms, Ritsuka listened to the pitter-patter of the rain outside and made a promise that made Miyu instinctively show a smile.
"Sister is the best."
Miyu nuzzled into Ritsuka's embrace, then closed her eyes again and fell into a light sleep. Her smooth breathing hit Ritsuka's chest; the warm breath felt a bit ticklish, but she got used to it over time.
Speaking of which, Miyu hadn't seen the outside scenery for nearly a month. The last time was when she and Kiritsugu took her away from the Sakatsuki Family... Kiritsugu didn't let Miyu go out for a reason. The cloaked figures they fought that day were a living example, proving that the Divine Child was being sought after. Those guys had the same purpose as Kiritsugu and Ritsuka had at the beginning.
Logically, Ritsuka shouldn't take Miyu out either, but she still made that promise. Rather than a bird in a cage, she hoped Miyu would have more contact with the outside world.
However, this matter still required careful consideration. After all, just changing her last name wasn't of much use. Miyu was still the last descendant of the Sakatsuki Clan; it wasn't as if changing her name to Emiya meant she was no longer the Divine Child.
"Forget it, let's just sleep."
Her head growing increasingly weary, Ritsuka also closed her eyes and entered dreamland, a tear gently sliding from the corner of her eye.