Chapter 37 The First Day
His consciousness was chaotic; he felt as if he were floating in a vast ocean. Sinking and surfacing, dissolving into it. However, he realized he couldn't stay here forever. There were things he had to face. There were people waiting for him. The moment he realized this—Shirou's eyes snapped open.
"You're awake, Shirou?"
The object beneath the back of his head was very soft. In his peripheral vision, he could see snow-white. What was that?
"Don't mind it, Shirou. I was just very worried, and this makes me feel a bit more at ease..."
Directly above his field of vision was a young girl, so level he could see her cheeks; Illya's face, looking relieved, leaned down to meet Shirou's upward gaze. Amidst her joy, she wore an expression that looked ready to spill tears.
It appeared she was giving him a lap pillow. Shirou looked to the side, somewhat dazed. The warmth coming from one of his palms was because Saber was tightly holding the hand of the bedridden Shirou. Shirou was currently inside a room. Judging by the appearance, it was a hotel he didn't recognize.
"Why... ah, it's because of magical energy, isn't it?"
Saber nodded silently. Saber was using this method to replenish the magical energy of the "thing" inside Shirou's body. Though her cheeks were slightly flushed, she was doing the necessary work she was capable of without any hesitation in her purpose. Shirou regained his senses and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't have time to say anything.
"Shirou, how are you feeling now?"
"Senpai, I'm just glad you're okay!"
Only then did Shirou notice the sisters sitting on the other side of the bed. Rin held a thick book in her hands, pretending to read even now, but her cat-like eyes would occasionally steal glances at Shirou. When Shirou turned to look, Sakura showed a spirited and moved expression, immediately making a clapping gesture. Rin hurriedly and reactively joined in, and the two let out a "clap" of applause.
...They really get along well. Their sisterly love was heartwarming. Further away by a table, the materialized Rider silently and wordlessly focused her gaze on Shirou.
"No way..."
This scene was heartwarming to the point of being a bit terrifying. Moreover, with four women—excluding Rider—all squeezed onto one bed with him, Shirou found it hard to evaluate the situation. Rather than being moved, Shirou began to feel that perhaps it would be better to quietly get off the bed first.
"Because it happened so suddenly, this is just an ordinary hotel. Shirou, you have no idea what a spectacular expression the receptionist made when we brought you in to get a room."
Rin, her expression relaxing, joked teasingly. A hotel room with a double bed—no matter how you looked at it, the optics were terrible.
How can you say that so proudly without being embarrassed!? Is there really not a single person nearby to step in and refute that!?
An unconscious young man, five young and beautiful women, and a room with a double bed. Shirou was now more worried about what was going through the receptionist's head. However, seeing as the receptionist hadn't been scared off in a different sense, Shirou understood that the bloodstains on his body had already been cleaned.
"I'm back."
Sitting up from the bed despite the aching all over his body, Shirou said with a bitter smile.
"""Welcome back.""" "Welcome back, Senpai." "Welcome back, Shirou~"
After returning from the brink of death, hearing such words felt as if he were still dreaming. Shirou pinched his own cheek—it really did hurt. Shirou himself had no memory of how he had broken free from the suffocating spiderweb of death.
"Can I ask... exactly how you managed it?"
"I only found out later myself," Rin said plainly, her expression complicated. Shirou didn't know what she had experienced during the day, but her heart seemed to have grown heavy due to other events.
"Illya called Saber the moment she escaped. Then she called Sakura, who has long-range teleportation magecraft. At that time, Sakura happened to be separated from Rider, so she teleported there alone."
The reason they didn't tell Rin the specific location was for fear that Rin, as the prana source, might impulsively rush into the Heroic Spirit's field of vision and throw her life away.
The excluded Rin felt very lonely.
'Illya, you brat, could you find a slightly better way to show you care?'
"...So it was just Sakura and Saber who pulled me back. Incredible." Shirou really was still far from being enough. Shirou recalled the flashes of blades and swords with the monster Heroic Spirit with a sense of regret. It was blurred like a phantom, yet the lingering sensation of holding a sword and betting his life remained in his palms.
"No, you can't put it that way. Shirou, if you hadn't fought that Heroic Spirit alone for such a long time, we wouldn't have made it at all. If anything, the moment I arrived was the absolute final second. If you had held out for even one second less, your life would have vanished."
The words Saber spoke after having personally exchanged blows with Alcides revealed both lingering fear and relief. As a Heroic Spirit even stronger than Shirou, her words carried absolute authority.
She was saying—that Shirou, who could hold out under Alcides until her support arrived, who never gave up struggling in such a desperate situation and fought to his physical limit, was already remarkably strong.
"That Heroic Spirit's combat power is at least equal to Gilgamesh. You worked very hard, Shirou."
Shirou still felt that the King of Knights' praise was a bit mixed with bias.
"Probably. I feel that before he was tainted by 'that,' he must have been one of the strongest Archers in the world." His palms remained pressed together during the conversation to let the magical energy flow, and Shirou spoke his feelings.
Alcides—the class he was summoned in was undoubtedly Archer. The fact that he was clearly powerful in swordsmanship yet used only a bow as a weapon in close combat was proof of that. That guy had already reached a terrifying level, enough for Shirou to make such a judgment.
"That's strange." Rin furrowed her brows. "Shirou, do you know? I saw Gilgamesh last night. He was exactly the same as last time. His attire, the way he used his weapons, even his trump cards—everything was the same. He can only be an Archer as well."
Comparing information. Although the shock of hearing that Rin had seen Gilgamesh made his head spin, there was a greater anomaly that pushed even that to the side. To use a metaphor—the gears were slightly misaligned.
""Two Archers?""
The anomalies were piling up like a mountain. The writhing curse of the black mud, and two Archers appearing simultaneously. This Holy Grail War was so wrong it felt as if it hadn't been normal from the very beginning. Shirou couldn't help but feel his mind groan.
"Nee-sam, we can discuss these things later. At the very least, please let Senpai rest for a bit." However, just as Sakura's dissatisfied reprimand suggested, these things could be thought over carefully later.
He had survived. Just because of that fact, Shirou could show a faint smile and face things with a revived spirit. Come to think of it, though he had been ignoring it due to the priority of events, Shirou seemed to have heard a concerning word in the conversation just now.
"Last night?"
When this question was asked, everyone present remained silent as if they already knew.
"That's right." Finally, Rin nimbly got off the bed and walked decisively toward the window. Smiling mischievously, she pulled back the curtains that completely blocked out the outside world, and a faint, clear sunlight poured in from outside the window.
"You were completely sound asleep. Look, it's dawn now. Good morning, Emiya-kun?"
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