IBHJ 1239

"Gaia, I need your help sending a message to Tír na nÓg," said Shirou as he laid out his entire plan against Londinium.

On Earth, Gaia was definitely the best option for transmitting information, but with the Empire interfering, even Gaia's abilities were pretty limited these days. That's why they hadn't been able to contact her until now. They could only reach Gaia here because of Alaya’s help.

"Got it," Gaia nodded. "As the wise and brilliant woman with exceptional leadership skills, I'll naturally consider taking on board the useful suggestions from my subordinates."

Mordred shot her a look of disgust—this pathetic excuse for a entity was just trying to save face with empty words.

Gaia caught Mordred's stare and looked surprised. "Mordred...? What are you doing in Europe?"

Mordred crossed her arms and said, "It just happened."

"This is obviously my blessing. See, Shirou? I told you Mordred would be fine, and look—she is," Gaia said, shameless claiming all the credit.

He couldn't help but give her a look. But as he looked more carefully at Gaia in the virtual screen, though, he noticed something different about her background. It used to be just plain darkness of space, but now he could see what looked like dark red blood behind her.

"Gaia, how are things going with you right now?" he couldn't help asking.

"Me? Well..." She paused. "After sending Altera to you, the particle quality around here has decreased significantly. Now I've got this red giant star inviting me to see their galaxy," she said with a smile, pointing behind her.

In the endless darkness behind her, he could see an enormous red star that looked like some kind of death omen. It was a star tens of thousands of times bigger than the sun—the kind that could easily incinerate the entire solar system with ease.

He stayed quiet for a moment before asking, "So how much longer?"

"What? Are you actually worried about me?" Gaia said with a smile. "Don't stress yourself. I'm just a small part of the planet's senses. Even if I disappear, the planet will still be there."

"But there's only one you," he replied.

Hearing this, she felt a little flutter in her heart. "Are you trying to sweet-talk me?" she asked with a smile. "I have to admit, that just made me feel something, Shirou. Just a little bit, though."

"Not at all. I'm just pointing something out," he said. "It doesn't really matter if you disappear, but before you go, could you return the moon first? Without the moon, even if we manage to reclaim Pan-Human History, we're still going to die out."

Gaia: "..."

‘Damn it, give me back my emotion!’

With a loud clap of her hands, Alaya suddenly shouted, "Well said! How profound! As expected from one of my humans!"

After saying that, she handed the control of the body back to Mana Ryougi.

Shirou glanced at her. Alaya had literally just hijacked Mana's body for the sole purpose of getting under Gaia's skin. She really was something else.

Gaia shot him a dirty look before ending the connection. "Just wait for my update!" she snapped.

After Gaia disappeared, the witch couldn't help but ask, "Is Gaia always that... cute? I always thought Counter Forces would be more like His Majesty—you know, all supreme and majestic..."

"The Emperor is definitely an exception. As for Counter Forces..." He glanced at Mana, who was basically just Alaya's puppet to control whenever she felt like it, and continued, "Most people think Counter Force stands for justice and all that, but when you look at specific cases, Counter Force is really just the biggest exploiter and oppressor around."

"So that Gaia we just saw..."

"She caught a cockroach virus called [Arcueid]."

"A cockroach virus called [Arcueid]?" The witch tilted her head in confusion.

"Yes." he nodded with a completely straight face. "Once you catch that virus, you lose all sense of shame. Even the Emperor would start acting as silly as Gaia if he got infected."

Mordred raised an eyebrow.

"Silly?" The witch shivered at the thought.

"So if you ever run into [Arcueid]," he warned, "just turn around and get out of there as fast as you can."

The witch nodded frantically like a little bird pecking for food, her mind completely consumed by this new fear of [Arcueid].

Mordred gave him a blank stare. "Is it really okay for you to badmouth Arcueid like this when she's not around?"

"It's fine. That woman is constantly trashing my reputation behind my back anyway."

"Oh, you mean like that bestseller 'Eternal King Cannot Possibly Be a True Ancestor Girl'?" she asked casually.

"How did you..." His eyes widened as he stared at her in shock.

She just shrugged. "Three of the four copies of that book are sitting in Chaldea's library right now."

He suddenly remembered. Back then, Arcueid had printed four copies of that book—she kept one as a souvenir for herself and gave the other three to Miyu, Illya, and Chloe as birthday presents.

So his daughters had seen all that embarrassing stuff where he was portrayed as a girl. It felt like being a dad who decides to wear a cosplay dress at a convention, only to turn a corner and bump right into his own kids.

What a black history!

That Arcueid! That absolute cockroach! We're enemies for life! Shirou gritted his teeth, though deep down he knew she only wrote that book to get a reaction out of him. To push his buttons. It was like how children tease someone they actually like.

If he lost his temper or made a big scene about it—or even chased her down with his sword—she'd just run off laughing that musical laugh of hers the whole time.

Thinking about Arcueid now, though, Shirou realized he kind of missed having her around. Not just her either—he really missed Artie and Morrigan too. Nobody knew where they'd gone since they disappeared at that South American connection point during the Emperor's Synchronization.

"You can rest here for now," Mana said.

He nodded. Until they could establish a connection with Tír na nÓg, there wasn't much else they could do.

…

That night...

The sky was full of stars, but somehow still completely dark.

Shirou walked alone to the fortress beneath the sky beam. Before he could even knock, he heard Mana's voice from inside. "Come in, Eternal King."

Shirou wasn't surprised. He pushed the door open.

Seeing Mana standing in the beam of light from the sky, he went straight to the point. "I need to talk to Alaya."

"Alaya knew you'd come. That's why she had me waiting for you," she said with a smile.

Slowly, the light in her eyes faded, replaced by a rainbow glow across her blue irises. Her whole manner changed.

He knew Alaya had taken control.

"So what brings you here for a private visit, Eternal King? Have you finally decided to take on humanity's burden?" Alaya asked.

"I'm not here for that. I just want to ask about someone who made a contract with you."

"Who?"

"Artoria Pendragon," he said seriously. He hadn't forgotten that Artoria's body was still in Alaya's possession.