Fate Of A Gamer

Fujimaru Ritsuka can't help but shake slightly, playing with her fingers to alleviate some of the building worry in her heart. Silently, she takes a glance at Mash, and the Shielder seems just as worried, her eyes snapping from the people and Gilgamesh, the king that sits atop Uruk's throne.

She turns again, and she sees Merlin and Shirou. Both are seemingly calm about this, Merlin reading one of the tablets the woman, Siduri if she heard correctly, gave him. Shirou on the other hand seems taken in by the soldiers milling about the room, his eyes flashing a bright greenish blue as he looks around.

Wonder what he's doing?

Before she can ask however, the man in the king's audience leaves the room, and it's now their turn to meet with the king. Taking a deep breath, Ritsuka steels herself and steps forward, her eyes kept high.

"I have returned, your majesty." Merlin begins with a bow, smiling as he looks to Gilgamesh. "These two are the ones I have informed you with."

"Hmm. Last master of humanity, and demi-servant Shielder. Both tied to Chaldea, arriving from the future to save the past." Gilgamesh states, and Ritsuka blinks, surprised he'd known so much about the two.

"The stars told me so." He answers, somehow having heard the question in her mind. "As a king, it is imperative that I hold knowledge over the flow of time." He smiles slightly as he sees the master's jaw drop slightly.

Then, he turns to Shirou. "However, you are very much an unknown variable, one not even the stars can comprehend."

Eh? Ritsuka turns to Shirou, who simply shrugs.

"I'm not sure why myself. My...summoning into this time was a rather sudden thing." He says, frowning slightly.

"Oh? And who is your summoner?" Gilgamesh asks, and with delay, Shirou points his finger at the flower magus. Merlin blinks at the sudden attention brought to him. "And you didn't inform me of this?" He asks with narrowed eyes, and Merlin smiles wryly.

"In my defence, the opportunity was rather sudden for me as well. There was no telling if his summoning would be a success had I waited even a single minute later."

"Hmm." Gilgamesh hums, clearly not believing his reasoning. Instead, he turns back to Ritsuka, sizing her up. The air around them grows heavy as magical energy begins filling the atmosphere, golden portals glowing by his sides. "Leave the room."

"Yes sir." Siduri, who'd been standing by his side, bows and turns to leave, the rest of the people in the room following her. Soon, only the king and the four newcomers remain, and he stands. He brings forth a stone book, glowing with golden sigils, and staves of many kinds begin to extend out from the portals behind him.

"Now, prove your worth, master of Chaldea."

And with no further words, the staves fire, bombarding them with a shower of magical bullets. "Mash!" Ritsuka calls, and the girl quickly responds, summoning her shield and bringing it forward, blocking the incoming rain of attacks. "Rush him!"

"Yes!" With incredible strength, Mash hefts the shield over her shoulder and leaps forward, the Noble Phantasm ready to be swung.

Shirou watches it all from the sidelines, a small smile present on his face.

"Not going to join, Shirou-kun?" Merlin asks, slyly smiling, but with eyes shining with genuine curiosity.

"No. This is their test." He has no right to join in, and he will not. He knows that the two girls are overpowered by Gilgamesh. He's sure the Chaldeans know that too, yet their eyes remain set in determination, Ritsuka's voice steady as she says her orders, Mash's shield ever vigilant as she leapt onwards.

"Hmm, but is it not a hero's task to intervene?" Merlin asks, mirroring the question Merl had asked him many nights ago. .

Shirou simply stared at him and asked back. "What is a hero?"

~~~

"A hero?" Hanami asked, wondering why he'd suddenly asked her that. She soon quiets down, idly cradling the cup of tea in her hands as she ponders.

In truth, he'd been restless for the past few days. Though travelling about England with Saber had been a calming experience, it brought out a thought he'd long buried in the back of his mind.

Did this world truly need a hero of justice?

But as he once more walked through the streets, he saw people milling about, men and women heading for their jobs, children playing and laughing. There is no imminent danger for them, no threat, and even with the growing worry over the recent events left behind after the destruction of the Grail War, the world moved on.

Saber was content at seeing just how much everything had grown, but Shirou only grew restless.

Was there really any need for a hero?

"Well, I personally think the entire concept of heroism is flawed in the first place." Hanami said, and Shirou stills. "A hero is to others a villain, and vice versa. There is but a fine line separating the two, and there might be no reason for them to be separate at all."

Strangely, he finds himself compelled to listen, the rest of the world growing into silent static as only she remained. "Consider a thief. He works day and night, laughing as he steals treasures and sells them to make big profits. But then, he throws his costume away and gives all he earned to the hospital, hoping to make a dent in the debt he'd made to save his ailing daughter."

"A villain he may be to the ones enforcing the law, but to his daughter, and to all who knows of his cause, what else can he be but a hero?"

She was right. Of course she was. Even someone as gallant and as righteous as Saber isn't freed from such a thing. She's a heralded hero for the people she fought for, but for the men she fought against?

She was a monster, one that soaked the earth in their blood.

"But, well, looking at it using just that perspective won't bear much fruit, right?" She suddenly added, looking at him with a smile.

"...What do you mean?"

"A hero means different things to every person. Just as Justice has no true concrete meaning, so does a Hero." She took a sip of her tea. "A hero is whoever you want them to be. It could be your parents, your friends, your instructor, maybe even someone like Taiga, who'd helped you through your everyday life."

"To me, a hero is an ordinary person, one who simply goes about their days, but one who'll step up in certain circumstances and become extraordinary." She said, finally emptying the cup she'd been holding. "Of course, that's only what I think." She added with a laugh, her gaze held towards the stars above, her eyes seemingly looking towards a world beyond this one.

"But what about you Shirou, what do you think a hero is?"

"I…"

In the end, he couldn't come up with an answer, but Hanami simply smiled and patted his shoulder, coaxing him to return and sleep for the night.

And so he did, resting his body as his mind continued to ponder.

~~~

"Indeed, what is a hero?" Merlin hums, rubbing his chin. "What do you think, Shirou-kun?"

"...I don't know." He admits, frowning slightly. Even after many hours spent pondering the question (and listening to many lectures from both Merl and Yorrmir about it), he still hasn't come to an answer.

"Well, whatever answer you may come to, I believe it's time to finally rest, no? Ritsuka and Mash over there seem to be struggling to even stay awake." Merlin says, and blinking, Shirou turns to see the battle over. Gilgamesh sits back on his throne, frowning slightly but with no visible evidence of the battle, while Mash is visibly exhausted, having to be supported by a similarly exhausted Ritsuka.

Did I really blank out for that long?

Immediately, every single individual living in his soul responds with a powerful "Yes."

Wow.

~~~

In the deep of night, Ritsuka wakes, the recent battle still ringing in her ears.

"I have no use for you." Gilgamesh had said, and it hurt her slightly. Siduri had comforted her of course, saying that he simply meant he currently had no need for any extreme actions from the two of them, but it still made her feel hollow.

Ritsuka knows she's nothing without the command seals inscribed on her hand. She's not even a real magus, but one that'd somehow gotten pulled into this journey across the ages. Sometimes she'd wonder why she was the one to have to journey, why she was saved while the other magi were taken away by that explosion.

But such thoughts can be saved after they finish this journey, after they finally face off against the one behind the incineration of humanity.

Standing up from the bed, she looks around. Merlin is asleep at the table, the glass he'd been drinking from left half-full, Mash is asleep not far from her, in another bed tucked in the corner, and Fou is snuggling with her, the little critter taking in the girl's warmth.

Blinking, she sharpens her senses, trying to hear if he might be anywhere near.

She does. She hears the distant sounds of flowing winds, accompanied by the gentle tapping of footsteps against the earth.

Gently, she rises from her bed and makes her way to the door, doing her best to not wake the others. Thankfully, she'd gotten some lessons in sneaking from the various Assassins she's met through this grand order, so she escapes the small cottage with hardly any trouble. Sighing in relief, she ventures out, following in the direction of where the sounds are coming from.

Soon, she reaches a small opening, hidden north from where she'd been sleeping.

And there, she sees Shirou. His eyes are closed, and his body relaxed as he moves, changing from one kata to another. The style seems rather familiar, as if she's seen it somewhere before, but the answer escapes her.

He moves with grace born from experience, pacing from one stance to another like an elaborate dance. Every move, every strike he makes sends forth a blast of wind, and the dust below him rises with every movement, almost swirling around him.

She finds herself silenced.

Because under the glow of the moon, with the night sky decorated with thousands of blinking stars, he looks beautiful, almost divine.

Ritsuka can feel her muscles ache, wanting to join in, needing to follow the motions of the demi-servant before her. As a budding martial artist herself, she couldn't help but follow through his every motion, her [Structural Analysis] activating in every moment to sear his movements into her memory.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Ritsuka nearly yelps as she hears Merlin comment from her side. "M-Merlin?" She says softly, doing her best not to disturb Shirou. "Did I wake you…?"

The magus smiles at her. "Don't worry, Ritsuka-chan. I very rarely sleep after all."

She blinks. "But, you were…"

"A convincing act, was it not?" He says, smiling with amusement. "Of course, it's not that I do not sleep, but that I simply don't have a need for it. My body runs purely on prana after all."

"R-Right." She's completely forgotten about that actually. Servants don't need to eat, sleep, or sate natural human needs.

...Wait, then why did so many of the servants she met sleep so much?

"But that aside, what do you think of him, Ritsuka-chan? He's one of a kind, isn't he?"

"...Yeah." She recalls the blood he left in his wake as he cleaved through hundreds of demonic beasts, looking like he bȧrėly broke a sweat, while she and Mash struggled even facing against a group of 7 or more of those same demonic beasts.

And he did all that with his bȧrė hands as well.

Furthermore, there's that [Gehen] of his. In concept, it was a simple thing, but to actually manage to do something like that was near impossible. Even Romani and Da Vinci were surprised to hear about it, with the servant commenting that it'd essentially turned his blade into an unstoppable force.

"Hmm, actually, why don't you ask him to teach you?" Merlin suddenly says.

"Eh?"

"I don't think he'd mind teaching you." He adds, smiling at her. "After all, you wish to become stronger yourself, right?"

She looks at him, surprised. How did he know-?

Merlin doesn't say anything, but he simply gestures towards Shirou, and she can only stare at the boy. As kind as he is, she doubts he'd be willing to share his techniques when not even a day has passed since they met.

She turned to Merlin, her reasons ready to be said, but by the time she turned, the magus was already gone, leaving nothing but the fragrance of flowers.

"Ritsuka?" She hears Shirou say, and she quickly turns to him, smiling as her cheeks lit up with embarrassment.

"Erm, hello there." She says lamely, and Shirou merely tilts his head in confusion. Ah. That's adorable, some part of her mind says, and though she agrees, she quickly banishes the thought, her cheeks growing redder with every passing second. "Why are you still awake?" She asks with a soft cough.

He blinks. "I'm training. You?"

"Ah, well…" What can she even say? That she woke up in the middle of the night, saw that he wasn't in the cottage, and decided to find him?

Thankfully, Shirou answers it for her. "Couldn't sleep?" He asks, and while not technically true, she nods. Seeing that, he smiles kindly, patting his shirt to blow away some of the dust he'd caught from before.

"Hey, Shirou." She begins, and the boy turns to her. "Did you learn martial arts on your own?"

He blinks. "Eh? You were watching?" Silently, she nods, and Shirou smiles shyly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, I learned most of it from someone else. It was...in the middle of a battle, and I needed to get an edge over my opponent, so I forced myself to learn using [Structural Analysis]." He explains.

"Ah…" So Shirou learnt it in the midst of a battle? What battle though, and against who?

"Why ask though?"

"Well, I, uh," Ritsuka takes a moment to calm herself, and steeling herself, she looks up to him. "Can you tutor me?"

"...tutor you?" He asks, incredulous.

"Ah, well, if you don't want to, it's-"

"No, no, it's fine! I was just surprised!" He quickly ȧssures, smiling at her. "I've always been the one to learn under someone else, so having someone come to me to learn under me is...well, it's a weird feeling."

"So...you accept?" She tries, and in response, Shirou gives her a smile. He nods, and she immediately brightens up, a smile easily appearing on her face. "So, when do we start?"

"Mm, anytime you're ready.." He says, his smile now challenging, and she rises to the challenge without any further words.