7 Chapter - 7 : Entwined Destinies

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Ah, he called me brother.

I'm the brother who saved my little brother's life!

Haha, satisfied, satisfied...

Watching Shirou's breath gradually weakening, Sasuke, although his healing hands didn't stop, slammed his head violently against the wall. Blood accompanied tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Damn it."

"Damn it!"

Sasuke's voice trembled, his pupils covered in blood beginning to change. In response to the blood, his pupils gradually turned red, and around them, tomoe started forming. One, two, three. Sasuke's remaining rationality knew what was happening, but so what? It wasn't the Rinnegan, the Six Paths of Pain, that could save the person before him.

"Is anyone there!" Sasuke's Sharingan flickered with eerie red light, swiftly capturing every detail in the rubble, hoping for someone to come and rescue them from this ordeal.

"Help, someone help!"

The silver moonlight illuminated the city ablaze.

The man who had fought with Kiritsugu before opened his eyes, looking around.

"Where is this?"

"What a troublesome man," Archer's arrogant voice echoed again, as he sat naked on the ruins, unconcerned about his exposed body. "It took quite a bit of effort to dig you out from under the rubble."

"Gilgamesh, what's happening?" the man asked.

"Who knows?" Archer—Gilgamesh—said. "That mass of mud spat me out, it seems the heavens want me to descend to this era once again and rule over mankind."

"Have you obtained a physical body?"

"Hmph, although it wasn't my intention," Gilgamesh snorted disdainfully. "To think they would consider that thing a wish-granting device and fight to the death over it. This whole farce is beyond redemption from start to finish."

"I think I got shot." The man touched his chest. "Huh? No heartbeat?"

He then turned to Gilgamesh. "Did you perform some kind of treatment on me, Gilgamesh?"

"Who knows?" Gilgamesh chuckled. "As far as I'm concerned, you're already dead. You and I are connected by a contract. When I obtained a physical body from that mass of mud, something unreasonable must have bound you as well."

"Was it him who gave me life?"

"All the Servants have disappeared, and we've won the Holy Grail. Kotomine, open your eyes wide and witness this ending!" Gilgamesh looked around. "If the Holy Grail truly grants the wishes of the victor, Kotomine Kirei, then this scene is what you desire!"

Kirei looked around, and this scene ignited something in him. He covered his chest and began laughing madly. "What's happening to me? How is this possible?"

"How wicked, how cruel!"

"Is this... my wish? Is this the pleasure of such destruction, such lamentation? Is this twisted filth coming from the bloodline of Kotomine Risei? Hmph, impossible, isn't it? What is this? Did my father give birth to a dog?"

Kirei's laughter echoed throughout the ruins.

"Are you satisfied, Kirei?"

"No, not yet." Kirei's laughter stopped, but his smile remained. He turned to Gilgamesh. "Indeed, I, who have been seeking answers all my life, have finally found one. However, the process of answering was omitted, leaving me with only a sudden revelation. How am I supposed to accept that?" Kirei picked up a relatively intact blanket from the ground and threw it to Gilgamesh, gesturing for him to put it on.

"The equation that can yield such bizarre answers must have a simple and understandable logic. No, it must."

"I must continue to question, to search, to use my life—to understand it!"

"You never cease to entertain me." Gilgamesh draped the cloak over himself. "Excellent! The path of seeking that can confound even the gods shall be witnessed by Gilgamesh!"

"All the sins of the world... I will eventually reunite with them, and then I will witness them firsthand. Witness their birth, witness their existence."

Kirei saw it, saw a man wandering aimlessly, lost and soulless, searching for something—it was Emiya... Shirou.

Emiya, who never had any light in his eyes, now looked even more like a puppet, with the city illuminated by flames appearing more like his tomb.

But no matter what, if he still wants to fight, then I'll accompany him to the end! Let's fight, Emiya!

At that moment, the cry of a boy broke the heavy atmosphere. Shirou froze for a moment, then quickly looked around.

Shirou glanced at Kirei briefly, then ignored him, running toward the direction of the sound.

"Gilgamesh?" Kirei turned to Gilgamesh for his opinion.

"They're just a few lost and soulless stray dogs." Gilgamesh stood up. "Let's go, Kirei. The real show will have to wait a while longer. We need to prepare."

"Hmm." Kirei watched Shirou running away, and grunted in dissatisfaction.

"He's alive! Someone is alive!"

Shirou was ecstatic at this moment. Even if only one person was saved, it was redemption and solace for him.

"I see!" Shirou saw a boy, a crying boy.

What caught his attention was that there were three Command Seals continuously spinning in the boy's eyes.

"Is that... Magecraft?" Shirou was slightly surprised. "But now is not the time to dwell on that!"

The boy—Sasuke—also saw Shirou and became excited, waving frantically towards him.

Shirou approached Sasuke and saw Shiro lying on the ground. He helped him up. Looking at these two children, the only survivors in the ruins, Shirou suddenly felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders. He tightly held Shiro's hand, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably. Deep down, he had a premonition. These two children would be the greatest redemption of his life.

In Shiro's hazy eyes, he saw Shirou and his tear-stained weary face. Ah, what a happy expression, as if the one rescued was himself. In a tone that others would envy, he said, "Thank you." But perhaps, that was also the expression I had when I saved Sasuke's brother?

Sasuke touched Shirou's back, hinting if he could start the treatment. Shirou quickly nodded.

After some time, Shirou breathed a sigh of relief. "Another moment later, and I couldn't have saved this child." After examining Shiro's body, Shirou stood up. "I saw the green light emitting from your hands, that must have been the healing, right? Thanks to this treatment, he held on until I found you. But is your family a mage family?"

"Magic?" Sasuke shook his head. Although this sentence implied a lot, remembering the expression of the man just now, Sasuke decided to be honest. "This is not magic, it's ninjutsu."

"Ninjutsu?" Shirou found it hard to believe. He indeed didn't sense any traces of magic being cast, but ninjutsu, a term used in different regions and eras for magic. But what this boy used... could it be the ability of his Magecraft Eye?

Shirou wiped away the tears from his face and smiled at Sasuke. "Watch closely, young one. Uncle will show you something. Not magic, not ninjutsu, but... 'magic.'"

With that, he summoned a scabbard and buried it into Shiro's body. To Sasuke's astonishment, Shiro's body began to heal rapidly.

"All done." Shirou hoisted Shiro onto his back and said to Sasuke, "Let's go to a safe place."

The man, carrying the boy with the scabbard implanted in him, walked alongside a boy with blood-red Magecraft Eyes, entering the night before dawn.

A new day dawned, and the destinies of the three were now intertwined, marking the beginning of a new story.

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