Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

It is getting worse.

Watching the crowds coming and going in the sunset-lit streets, Shirou Emiya felt a strange sense of familiarity mixed with strangeness.

It's as if I've been to these streets before, but they feel completely different.

"Buzz—! Buzz—!"

A strange feeling arose in Shirou Emiya's mind at that moment.

"It seems like something is about to appear—!"

It was as if a vibrating sound was ringing in his ears. Shirou Emiya could sense that something that should belong to him, or rather, something very familiar to him, was about to appear in front of him.

With a furrowed brow and a look of extreme confusion, Shirou Emiya quickly slipped into a more secluded alleyway.

"Zheng——!"

However, before he could stop in his tracks, a pitch-black door with gold trim suddenly appeared in front of him on the wall.

"What!?"

"boom--!"

Emiya Shirou was clearly startled by what suddenly appeared before him. He stumbled and fell backward, his head making a heavy slam against the wall.

My head was already hurting even more, and now I'm having a head-on collision with the wall.

Shirou Emiya could only cover his forehead and scramble to his feet in a panic.

"Door!?"

Looking at this thing that suddenly appeared in front of him, Shirou Emiya's eyes were also filled with doubt.

"Could it be that my condition has worsened and I'm experiencing even deeper hallucinations?!"

Looking at the ancient doorway that seemed so out of place with its surroundings, Shirou Emiya couldn't help but fall into doubt once again.

For a normal high school student, Shirou Emiya would simply assume that the shattered version of himself he saw in the bathroom was a hallucination caused by his severe illness.

He wasn't actually as white-haired and broken as he appeared in the mirror. Whether he looked in the mirror again or asked his friend, the teacher always said he didn't see anything unusual about him.

It's just that the location of the pain closely matches those cracks; Shirou Emiya simply takes it as a hallucination caused by his excessive pain.

"Want to give it a try?"

Although he kept saying it was an illusion, the sense of familiarity made Shirou Emiya want to push the door open.

From the moment he left the classroom, Shirou Emiya was filled with doubts, partly about his recent situation and partly about his memories.

He couldn't recall his past memories; whenever he tried to remember them, his brain felt like it was being torn in two, causing excruciating pain.

Both the school and the city outside gave Shirou Emiya a strange sense of familiarity, making him want to explore his past.

With a somewhat tentative mindset, Shirou Emiya slowly reached out his hand towards the door in front of him.

"Zi——!"

At that very moment, a sharp pain shot through the back of his left hand.

"—!"

There, a faint red mark was imprinted on it.

My mind, my consciousness, started to disconnect.

Everything around turned pure white.

What's this--!

A warm feeling.

A feeling of peace of mind.

It has the feel of a fairy tale.

The physical pain vanished without a trace at that moment.

The surroundings were incredibly quiet, as if all the pain in the world had vanished.

Sleepiness crept into my mind in an instant.

If only time could stand still, and I could sleep forever, how wonderful that would be.

However------

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the entire world exploded.

The world around us suddenly shifted, with one skyscraper after another rising from the ground.

A burst of ferocious red flames erupted like a volcano bursting from the depths of the earth, overturning the rock face and surging into this space.

The scale of this terrifying red flame was unimaginable.

Everything visible to the naked eye was devoured by it.

It's as if a piece of the sky has been hollowed out, with a circular hole floating above.

The building was reduced to rubble in the raging flames.

The ground was pulverized by the impact of the flames.

"Help--!"

"Someone, please save me—!"

"My child! My child!!"

"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!!!"

Shouts.

The sound of running.

The sound of collapse.

The sound of cracking.

The sound of splashing.

The whole world was like hell.

The street was instantly reduced to ruins.

That was a sea of ​​fire that did not allow any life to exist.

That is a disaster that does not allow anything to remain intact.

In such a purgatory, there are no living people.

The flames devoured everything, devouring life and hope.

One life after another turned to ashes before Shirou Emiya's eyes.

Until, amidst the sea of ​​fire, a red-haired boy wearing a white hoodie appeared in his line of sight.

With his frail body upright, he walked forward step by step through the sea of ​​fire.

"Hey! That's hell ahead!"

As if he had heard what Shirou Emiya said, the boy paused slightly in his forward steps.

Then they became steadfast again.

Why are you doing this?

"What am I doing this for?"

"To survive such a hell—"

"Slap! Slap! Slap!"

The sound of stones colliding with each other echoed crisply through the ruins. It wasn't the sound of collapsed buildings, but rather the noise of someone prying up stones from the ground.

The all-consuming flames covered every corner, causing the entire ruins to slowly burn and constantly fill the air with the smell of gunpowder.

In one corner of these ruins, a man in a black trench coat dragged his heavy steps, walking slowly through the rubble, his eyes filled with despair.

He seemed to have gone mad, constantly searching through the ruins.

"How could I possibly forget!"

"How could I forget!"

"That wish to overthrow hell!"

"That desire to become someone else's strength, yet ultimately achieving nothing, that unfulfilled wish!"

He shouldn't stay here, and he won't stay here.

"I want to become a champion of justice!!!"

Chapter 677 The Sudden Global Anomaly

"Just a little bit more!"

"Wait—I'm coming right away!"

"Please don't—forget—yourself!!! Emiya—!"

It was a female voice, a female voice that Shirou Emiya had somewhat forgotten yet remembered with unparalleled clarity.

"Ruler—! Thank you—!"

Looking at the Command Seals shimmering on the back of his hand, so dim they were almost losing their luster, Shirou Emiya's eyes changed from innocent to mature.

An angry female voice seemed to emerge from the void, reprimanding Shirou Emiya for his actions and expressing regret for his behavior.

At that moment, Shirou Emiya slowly lowered his hand from the doorknob.

At the same moment, the door also slowly disappeared as if it had merged into the void.

As time went by, or perhaps as his strength grew, Shirou Emiya used the door more and more.