001 - What Makes it Hard to Go Home ?

The four of them stood tense, eyes locked on the school as Shinki emerged slowly from the building. Her calm steps contrasted with the violence she'd unleashed inside, and despite the eerie smile on her face, there was no sign of her servant, Gorgon. This absence made everyone even more cautious. Saber scanned the surroundings, her grip on Excalibur tightening as she prepared for anything.

Shinki stopped at a distance, her unsettling gaze fixed on Shirou. "Hello, Emiya Shirou," she greeted with a twisted smile. "Do you want to give me food again?"

Her voice was sweet, but the dark undertone in her words made the others freeze. "I'm still really hungry, even after eating all of the others' guts. So I wouldn't mind if you offered me another meal." Her eyes gleamed with a sickening hunger as she stared directly at Shirou.

Shirou clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he tried to control his rising anger. "This isn't right, Shinki. Please stop killing all of these people."

But Shinki's smile only widened, her gaze unrelenting. Saber stepped forward, ready to defend against whatever Shinki might try next.

"Stop? Why would I want to stop?" Shinki's voice dripped with sadistic pleasure as she licked the blood from her lips and hands. "You have no idea how delicious these people are~" Her eyes gleamed as she hugged herself, trembling slightly as if savoring the memory. "And my children inside me love it, too."

"Children?" Saber murmured, not understanding what Shinki meant.

Rin's eyes narrowed in realization. "Wait… you're talking about the worms inside you!?"

Shinki's smile widened disturbingly. "Worms? How could you say that? They're my children… my adorable, precious children."

Sakura's expression turned grim as she whispered, "Nee-chan, she's beyond saving…"

Rin glanced at Shirou, who was standing unnaturally still, his body trembling as if gripped by fear. Rin could see it in his eyes—he was remembering something, something deeply painful.

"Shinki… I'm sorry," Shirou finally spoke, his voice heavy with regret. "If only I had realized what you were going through when we first met… maybe we wouldn't be here like this."

He tightened his grip on Excalibur, forcing his trembling to stop. Slowly, he raised his head, his eyes now burning with resolve. "At the very least, I'll put you out of your misery. I hope you can pass on peacefully."

Raising Excalibur, he pointed it toward Shinki, his voice steady and determined.

Shinki paused for a moment, her expression darkening before she uttered a single command, "Rider, kill them—but leave Shirou to me."

Without warning, a barrage of lasers shot toward them from behind Shinki, and Saber and Shirou moved in unison, blocking the incoming assault with their swords. Though Shirou's technique still wasn't perfect, he managed to deflect the lasers alongside Saber.

"Haaaahhh!!" Saber shouted, striking down the blasts with precision.

"Domination Shot!" Sakura fired another flaming arrow toward Shinki, but tendrils of darkness erupted from the ground, intercepting the arrow before it could reach her.

"We need to force her Servant to appear and separate Shinki from Gorgon!" Saber called out over the chaos. "Avalon can only protect those near me, so I can't attack her directly!"

Rin's eyes flicked between the chaos and the situation, weighing their options. "Should we summon Rei right now?"

"No," Shirou answered firmly, still keeping his focus on Shinki. "Just leave Shinki to me. Saber, you handle Gorgon."

"What? Are you serious right now?" Rin shouted, disbelief filling her voice.

"It's fine. I have an idea," Shirou said, his tone filled with a strange confidence, though before anyone could argue further, another wave of lasers and dark tendrils surged toward them, more intense than before.

Shirou and Saber braced themselves, deflecting the relentless attacks, while Rin and Sakura tried to find an opening. The battlefield was growing more dangerous by the second, and time was running out.

---

Meanwhile, Rei was in the Tohsaka mansion basement with Echidna, Fujino, and Ayaka.

"Why am I here? I need to go to school..." Ayaka asked Rei.

"I'm curious about your ability to manipulate plants, so I want you to demonstrate it here," Rei answered casually.

After Rin and Sakura left for school, Rei had quickly vanished and reappeared where Ayaka was, kidnapping her along with Fujino her servant Archer.

"You know the school is being attacked by Shinki, right?" Ayaka told him.

"Yeah, I know. But who cares? Sakura and Rin will be fine because I put a lot of protective barriers on them. Nothing can hurt them," Rei replied nonchalantly.

He then pointed toward a dummy in front of them. "Now, use your magic or whatever you call it in this world on that."

Ayaka stared at the dummy in front of her—more precisely, at the dummy that was far away.

Somehow, Rei had transformed the basement into an absurdly large and tall space, so large that it should have been touching the mansion above them but it's not.

But whatever, it didn't matter. She decided to just do it and use her ability.

Rei had also mentioned that he could easily revive anyone who died, and after hearing about his power from Archer, Ayaka no longer doubted him. Especially since Archer had said Rei only cared about results and experiments.

After Ayaka used her power to control the plants, Rei realized her ability wasn't meant for attacking. It was simply a normal ability to grow plants.

"So, you can't use it for attacking or defending?" Rei asked.

"No, I use a different method for attacking or protecting myself," Ayaka responded.

"I see. Then use that."

"...I can't. I can only use it with a specific ritual, and only during a full moon."

"What? That's... kind of a terrible ability to have. What kind of ability is it?"

Ayaka then explained to him about Formal Craft, which was basically the same as other magi's abilities, except that it drew power from the world's mana instead of using personal reserves. It converted that mana into elements like fire, which she could then use.

"So, that's basically just normal magic in my world," Rei muttered, shaking his head after hearing all of it.

"What about you?" Rei turned his gaze to Fujino.

"Me? I can create an axis of rotation anywhere within sight and warp objects telekinetically."

"Hmm, then do it on that dummy over there," Rei instructed, pointing toward the dummy once again.

Without hesitation, Fujino activated her Mystic Eyes of Distortion, causing the dummy to twist and swirl until it was utterly destroyed.

Afterward, Fujino deactivated her eyes and looked back at Rei.

"I see, that's a pretty good one. Mystic Eyes of Distortion—I'll put that on the list."

"And you?" Rei then turned to Echidna, asking the same question.

The three of them continued following Rei's orders for a while, each demonstrating their abilities until Rei was finally satisfied.

---

Meanwhile, back with the others...

After a hard-fought struggle, Shirou and the others managed to force Gorgon to appear and successfully separate her from Shinki.

With quick thinking, Saber taunted Gorgon, provoking her to follow.

"Over here, face me!" Saber shouted, brandishing her sword as she ran, leading Gorgon away from the others.

"Go on. kill her, Rider" Shinki said without any worries even though she's know this is their plan to separate her with her servant.

Gorgon roared in fury, her massive form shaking the ground as she gave chase. Saber led her toward a more open area, away from Shinki and the others, ensuring their battle wouldn't endanger the rest of the group.

With Gorgon now focused solely on her, Now it was just Shirou, Rin, and Sakura standing against Shinki.

"Hehehe, do you really think I can't devour you without my Servant?" Shinki suddenly said with a chilling grin as her shadow began to expand.

Dark tendrils erupted from the growing shadow beneath her, writhing and twisting as they started to envelop her. The air around them felt heavy with malice, and her body began to distort as if merging with the very darkness.

"She's using her weird tendrils to cover herself?" Rin shouted, her eyes narrowing as she prepared for what was coming.

"We need to take her down before she fully transforms!" Sakura added, readying another arrow of fiery energy.

Shirou, gripping Excalibur tightly, stepped forward. "We'll stop her here, no matter what it takes!"