IBHJ 1253

Shirou pulled a black crown from his pocket—the Eternal Crown that symbolized the Eternal King's authority. But he no longer had the right to wear it. He was now standing against the Eternal Kingdom, which was probably why he couldn't access the records of the Eternal King anymore.

It seemed everything had been set in motion long ago. Only when either he defeated the Incarnation, or the Incarnation defeated him, could the record of the Eternal King be used again.

Suddenly, he felt a dull pain in his chest. A powerful signal was reaching directly into his heart through [Evil]. Frowning, he separated a portion of the black mud, which expanded and transformed into a large screen to analyze the message. After a moment of darkness, a girl's figure appeared on the screen.

"You're looking quite well, Shirou.”

Her elegant voice, with just a hint of seduction, came through the screen, causing everyone in the room to freeze.

"Manaka Sajyou..." Tiamat's expression was complex.

Shirou stared coldly at Manaka's image on the screen. "You killed Goetia, and now you have the nerve to show your face to me?"

"Hmph," Manaka smiled and was about to respond when Ritsuka suddenly popped her head into view, waving enthusiastically.

"Manaka, Manaka! I'm over here~!"

Manaka's face immediately fell, and everyone turned to look at Ritsuka with bewildered expressions.

Kama couldn't contain her curiosity. "You're being awfully familiar with her... what exactly is your relationship with her, Ritsuka?"

"She's my companion," Ritsuka replied with a blink.

"You can't just claim anyone as your companion. This woman isn't someone to be trusted."

"Even if you're my sister, I won't let you talk about my companion that way," Ritsuka said, puffing out her cheeks. She turned back to the screen, waving again. "I'm right here, Manaka~ Say hello to me~!"

Everyone's expressions grew increasingly uncomfortable, especially Saber and Gilgamesh. Having suffered terribly at Manaka's hands in the past. In fact, not just them—even Manaka herself seemed unsure how to handle Ritsuka's unexpected friendliness, looking at her with visible irritation.

Finally, she simply chose to completely ignore her. She turned her attention back to Shirou. "If you want any chance of reclaiming the Pan-Human History, you might want to drop that cold attitude."

"What?" he raised an eyebrow. "Are you offering to help me? Since when did you become so generous? Did you eat something strange?"

"I only ever help myself," she replied calmly. Seeing Ritsuka still waving enthusiastically at her, she let out a resigned sigh and added, "And incidentally, I want to repay favors to a certain... problem child."

…

After sharing information for a while, Manaka said, "I don't really know much about the Arrow of Akasha. I'm not even sure what it actually is. But I do know that the Emperor's power comes from the Holy Grail. If you can't find a way to break that connection, you'll never be able to defeat her."

He frowned. "That much is obvious to everyone. The real question is how we can actually do it."

"I'm getting there," she replied patiently. "Listen carefully, Shirou. Even though the Emperor's power comes from the Holy Grail, she doesn't receive it directly. It works because the people of the Empire hold the Emperor as their only belief system. All that collective power gets channeled straight to her."

"So basically, it's the concentration of collective thoughts focused on a single person?"

"Exactly," she nodded.

His frown deepened as he processed this. The Holy Grail had created the Empire, and the minds of all its citizens were focused solely on the Emperor as their one ideology. This meant the Holy Grail's power was being directed entirely toward the Emperor, transforming her into a Holy Spirit. In simpler terms, she was being sanctified through their faith.

"So there's no need to directly confront the Emperor," she continued. "If you can disrupt this unified ideology within the Empire and make people's thoughts more diverse and scattered, the Emperor will lose power on her own."

After a brief pause, she added with a hint of mockery, "And that happens to be your specialty, doesn't it, Shirou?"

"You're not too bad at it yourself," he shot back. "What about you? What are you up to these days?"

"I'm doing what needs to be done." As she spoke, Manaka seemed ready to end the transmission, but then she noticed Ritsuka looking somewhat dejected. She hesitated for a moment before reluctantly saying, "Ritsuka..."

"Oh, you finally acknowledged me, Manaka!" Ritsuka brightened immediately. "I thought you were just being tsundere again."

Ts-tsundere?

Everyone immediately turned to look at Ritsuka with expressions of disbelief, especially Arthur, who looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

Hearing this, a visible vein pulsed on Manaka's forehead, but she took a deep breath and said with forced calmness, "Don't tell Kiara about Demonic Bodhisattva situation. And... since you're Beast VII, you'll be in more danger than the others, so take care of yourself..."

"I understand," Ritsuka nodded, then broke into a wide smile. "But wait—are you being nice to me now? I thought you were going to stay all cold and distant."

"You..." Manaka's fist clenched tightly, but unwilling to lose her composure in front of Shirou and the others, she just shot her a sharp glare and snapped, "You big idiot!"

Then, before Ritsuka could respond, she abruptly cut the connection.

"Ah, she's being tsundere again," Ritsuka sighed.

Without question, Manaka's decision to end the conversation was the right move.

Everyone stared at Ritsuka in complete shock.

Even Gaia looked stunned.

Manaka... even if this wasn't her true self, she was still Manaka—someone who cared for no one except Ayaka. Yet somehow, Ritsuka had managed to embarrass her to the point of running.

"What exactly happened between you two, Ritsuka?" Shirou couldn't help asking.

"It's a long story," she replied, before explaining everything about her previous experiences, including all the details about Demonic Bodhisattva situation.

"So that's what was going on..." he nodded, his eyes showing a flash of understanding. He had always wondered why Demonic Bodhisattva could kill Kiara repeatedly, yet would go to such lengths to deliberately spare her each time. Now it made sense—there had never been a separate Demonic Bodhisattva. It was just Kiara all along, with Demonic Bodhisattva being a protective personality that emerged from Kiara's trauma response.

None of this could be called fate—it was all the result of human choices and actions.

Shirou felt conflicted. He'd been reunited with Ritsuka after thirteen years, and had encountered Vivian again after a thousand years. He wanted nothing more than to sit down with each of them for a proper conversation, to hear about their lives and experiences. But the current crisis left no room for personal feelings or catching up.

"Kama, why don't you stay here with Ritsuka? You two should take some time to catch up."

"What? But I—" Kama started to object.

"I'm counting on you," he said simply, then turned and headed toward the meeting room.

Kama looked at Ritsuka standing so close to her and felt incredibly awkward. She turned hopefully toward Tiamat, silently pleading for rescue from this situation. To her dismay, Tiamat simply stood up and walked out. Clearly, she was still upset with Sakura.

"Sister~!" Ritsuka exclaimed, throwing her arms around Kama in a big hug.

Kama became flustered. "I... I believe you're mistaken about who I am..."

Ritsuka buried her face against Kama's chest, took a deep breath, and smiled. "This familiar scheming scent—I couldn't possibly be wrong. You're definitely my sneaky sister."

The flustered Kama immediately grew still, staring at her with an annoyed expression. "..."

"I've missed you so much, sister~" Ritsuka squeezed tighter.

Kama's expression softened. "I'm sorry, Ritsuka... I... um... ow, ow, OW!"

Crack, crack, crack

Ritsuka was hugging Kama so tightly that the sound of bones crunching filled the air.

Kama let out a pained wail.