He Tore Through The Holy Grail War, And You Still Call Him A Dragon?

"What exactly did you see?" a cold female voice asked.

The survivor's head was covered, plunged into total darkness. He could only hear the faint rain outside the window and, closer still, the dreadful dripping sound—uncertain whether it came from a leaking ceiling or from his bound, bleeding wrists.

Pressed down by fear and tension, he finally broke, blurting out, "It was an oracle! It must have been an oracle!"

But such vague words could not satisfy the woman opposite him. The crisp sound of a blade slicing through something rang out, and the next moment, a cold edge scraped across his skin—pressing ever closer to breaking his mental defenses.

"I'll talk, I'll talk… I saw disaster striking from nowhere!"

His heartbeat quickened, his breath uneven from fear. "At the time, I was out shopping with my girlfriend. She insisted on checking out a few more clothes at this store. I was a little impatient and wanted to leave, but then, for no reason, an image appeared in my mind: a long-tube trailer carrying compressed hydrogen suddenly crashing into the shop and exploding."

"I felt panic rise inside me. I tried to pull my girlfriend away, but she thought I was just unwilling and got upset, walking deeper into the store instead. That was when the image in my head grew clearer—I saw myself blown away by the explosion, and my girlfriend engulfed by fire!"

"I was terrified, and somehow, I just bolted. I ran with everything I had, not looking back, not caring about my girlfriend. Only after I was gasping for breath did I hear the thunderous sound of an explosion behind me…"

"When I turned my head, Shinjuku street was ablaze, choked with smoke. Several cars were overturned, shops collapsed, and the people—either completely dead or entirely unharmed."

"Then I felt a chilling grief, as though countless souls of the dead, eyes wide open and unavenged, were staring at me—the lone survivor. I clearly saw my girlfriend's eyes among them, and she drifted away with those spirits, descending into Yomi no Kuni."

"That place… banners covered the sky, armored troops marched, the Eight Thunder Gods beat their drums, the Yomotsu Shikome served at the sides, and at the center sat the supreme Mother Goddess who ruled life and death over this land…"

"It was Izanami-no-Mikoto! Izanami-no-Mikoto has returned from the underworld!"

———

"Report, Master. That was the information I obtained from interrogating the survivor."

Beyond the cordoned-off accident site, Mochizuki Chiyome emerged silently from the corner shadows, kneeling before Masao Shin.

"You weren't discovered?"

"Rest assured, Master. Though my abilities are limited, my concealment as an Assassin is far superior to any human."

"The interrogation…" Masao's voice faltered, guilt lacing her tone. "You didn't hurt him, did you?"

Chiyome sighed inwardly. Her Master was kind—too kind. Even in the Holy Grail War, a time when morals often crumbled, she still clung to her conscience.

"Do not worry, Master. As a shinobi, interrogation is my forte. Against a mere ordinary man, there was no need for torture to make him speak."

"That's good."

Masao's eyes shimmered with tears as she looked at the cordoned site.

It was the place where she had worked part-time for so long. Though located in Shinjuku's Kabukicho, the manga store had been run by a trustworthy friend of her grandmother, who had taken her in warmly. But now, the manager was gone, killed in the sudden accident.

A trailer carrying compressed hydrogen had crashed and exploded into the shops, killing countless bystanders.

And strangely… the shrapnel wasn't even dense. A wound in a non-lethal spot might have left a chance for survival.

But anyone touched by even a fragment had died instantly. Only a handful of survivors remained, unharmed, shouting about gods like fanatics.

Seeing this, Masao had secretly sent Chiyome to investigate.

"God…" Masao whispered, recalling her exploration in that haunted otherworld with Shirou and the others. Fantastical, terrifying memories bubbled up like iridescent soap bubbles in her mind.

She realized she was drifting further and further away from her everyday world.

Almost unconsciously, she picked up her phone. The first thought in her mind was no longer to call the police—her faith in official institutions had waned ever since the Shinjuku Incident. Instead, she dialed Shirou's number.

"Moshi moshi! Shirou-san, it's me… Ah? Just call me Shin, that's fine. Mm, I've uncovered something strange in a case here…"

———

"Alright, Shin, thank you for the information. Goodbye."

Shirou lowered his phone. He set aside the sword he had been forging, stepping out from the rust-and-oil-scented warehouse to gaze at the endless sheets of rain, a gloomy curtain that felt like the onset of a long monsoon.

But this wasn't even a tropical climate.

"God… has begun to act. In other words, her proclaimed 'myth's descent' means the revival of the Age of Gods, doesn't it?"

He muttered to himself, glancing instinctively at the corridor under the eaves opposite the warehouse. The rain drummed against the roof, but the space was silent. Inside, an oak chair sat before a switched-off TV—where a red-haired girl often sat. Now, empty.

Yes, Eri had already gone abroad. That left some rooms in the house feeling abandoned.

He shook his head. What was he thinking? If a god was beginning to move, then war was inevitable. Now was not the time for sentiment. Stroking the edge of a Noble Phantasm, Shirou pondered how he could resist the divine once again.

If the preparations for this revival allowed the scattered fragments of the god to provide her more power, then next time she appeared, she might be whole again—at least at the level of a Yomitsu Okami, a death-bringing goddess of Yomi.

She would unleash endless death, smothering the world in underworld darkness. Even at an ordinary divine level, modern nuclear weapons would be useless—nukes could disrupt leylines, interfere with the Grail War, but against a god… they meant nothing.

"…I must find a way to stop her large-scale movements."

Shirou's eyes sharpened on the blade's edge. "Unlimited Blade Works… if I use my Reality Marble to trap a 'god' within my inner world, preventing her myth from descending… could that work?"

Perhaps that was a path forward.

But a bigger problem remained—how could he hasten the completion of Unlimited Blade Works?

(End of Chapter)

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