Chapter 388: The Time for Parting Has Come
Under the azure blue vault of the sky, an eagle with spread wings flew by. The sun shone brilliantly, illuminating the world, yet the light was not harsh—it was the perfect weather for watching the sky and observing the clouds. A gentle breeze blew past, transforming the shapes of the white clouds; they shifted from sheep into little chicks, and then from chicks into balls of fur. Everything was so lazily quiet and leisurely.
The pink-haired swordswoman felt extremely light at this moment, as if she were about to float up and drift into the clouds. In her relaxed and leisurely state, it felt as though she could just lie there doing nothing for a lifetime.
Just a moment ago, the goal she had strived for her entire life had been achieved. She had finally grasped the "Invincible and Void" way of the sword she had envisioned, and with it, she had defeated two of the world's top-tier swordsmen. She had proven herself, and even if she were to die now, she could close her eyes in peace.
The long and busy journey drifting through parallel worlds had kept her heartstrings taut—it was either fighting or fleeing, and from time to time, she would be filled with anxiety. Now, she was completely relaxed.
The pink-haired woman looked at Shirou, this young man who was good at cooking and had a cold exterior but a warm heart, and pressed her hands together in front of her. "Thanks for the hospitality, Shirou! I will never forget your meals and shelter. It would be even better if I could have one more meal of the udon or ramen you make!"
The pink-haired woman laughed in a silly, adorable way, sucking back the saliva from the corner of her mouth.
Shirou looked at this swordswoman, who could probably compete with Artoria in a gluttony contest, and laughed playfully. "You, really! You're thinking about food until the end! Sure! I also want to thank you for taking care of Afu and Tasuke. When we meet again next time, I will treat you well."
"Ahaha, then I'll look forward to it." Musashi narrowed her eyes and laughed in agreement. At this moment, she was already very, very tired; she just wanted to lie on the clouds, or anywhere really—as long as she could lie down and get a good, comfortable sleep.
However... before that, there were still many, many things she wanted to say...
Musashi tried hard to open her eyes, but her eyelids were already heavy. She turned her head to look at the girl who had fought side-by-side with her until now.
"Musashi-chin..." Gudako looked at the woman, feeling something warm welling up in her eyes.
Musashi looked at the young girl, revealed her signature smile, and said, "Gudako, thank you. Because you were in my body, I was able to carry out the 'partner of justice' act to the very
end. If it had been just me alone, I definitely would have turned and run the moment I realized things were going south."
"Coming to this world and meeting you all was really... too great! I'm too tired; I need to sleep for a little... while..." The pink-haired swordswoman's voice grew lower and lower, until finally, she closed her eyes.
Then, the swordswoman's body gradually became transparent and eventually vanished.
"Musashi!" Gudako shouted loudly, but at this moment, there was no longer any trace left in this world that the swordswoman named Musashi had ever existed.
Shirou patted the young girl on the shoulder and said, "Rest easy, Gudako. She is the number one sword saint of Wa-no-kuni; we will definitely be able to meet again!"
"Mm!" Gudako nodded heavily.
Because this was a very strange world—a world where the fates of drifters from two different worlds collided, a world where the Avenger Amakusa Shirou Tokisada finally reached his end, and a world where the sword saint Miyamoto Musashi completed her way of the sword.
But for Chaldea, this felt like a dream the young girl had that was linked to the reality of another world. The Spirit Graph of the Heroic Spirits met here could not be recorded, and there was no guarantee they could meet again in their original world.
Perhaps Musashi had completed her wish and gone to the Throne of Heroes. Or perhaps she had left this world. After all, her existence was very special—an outsider drifting into this world, forgotten by the world she originally belonged to, having lost her hometown and place of return, she was a visitor who could only wander between various worlds.
She was a mysterious existence drifting between worlds, something more similar to a person and yet more like a Heroic Spirit. Perhaps she would continue her journey of drifting through worlds. Perhaps one day, she would suddenly appear again; perhaps one day, she would even come to Chaldea.
Who knows?
However! If both the Master and the Heroic Spirit desired to see each other, then they would definitely make it happen.
"Shirou~! You've worked hard. Both the business with the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen and the Serpent have been handled; our mission is complete." The silver-haired little girl smiled sweetly, leaped high into the air, and pounced on him.
"Waah!" Shirou hurriedly reached out his hands to catch the girl, laughed, and replied, "Mm, Illya, you'll be coming with me from now on, right?"
Shirou met the little girl's eyes and extended a sincere invitation; for him, Illya was an important family member.
"Shirou, you want me to live with you no matter what? Even as I am now?" Illya raised her head, looking only into Shirou's eyes.
Shirou nodded and replied, "Ah, I want to live with Illya no matter what!"
"What should I do~! I know, I know~! Since Shirou has invited me so many times, then your big sister will agree. After all, I am also very interested in the world Shirou lives in now." Illya put her hands behind her back and said with a devilish, little-demon smile.
"Good, then it's decided." Shirou laughed happily.
"Yes, yes, what a touching brother and sister... no, sister and brother? Farewell. Can you look at us now?" The fox dancing girl on the side raised her hand and said.
In the back, a certain Princess-sama also poked her head out, watching the situation here.
"Ah, Miss Tamamo, sorry, I got caught up in talking." Shirou took his hands back and looked at the fox dancing girl on the side. "Thank you for your help, and thank you so much for helping to rescue the wounded," Shirou said.
"Well, as a resident of the same town, these are things I should have done." The fox dancing girl replied with a slightly reddened face.
"What are your plans for the future?"
"Shirou-kun, do you want to come along? My room is always open for you. Actually, it's also okay if you take me and elope to a country village. No! Elope with me right now!" Kiyohime held her shy little face and said excitedly.
"Alright! You get over here, Princess-sama! The people in the city all need you." Tamamo-no-Mae summoned the servants of the City Lord's mansion to drag the runaway girl back.
After sending off Tamamo-no-Mae and Kiyohime, Shirou turned back and saw that there was still a black-haired Kunoichi with a vertical ponytail standing quietly there.
"Thank you for repairing my body, Lord Shirou." Kato Danzo bowed slightly and said.
"I hurt you and Kotaro. Aren't you angry?" Shirou asked.
The black-haired Kunoichi shook her head and said, "No. Lord Kotaro already told me about Chaldea. He did not truly want to fight you; the reason he worked for the Serpent was only to protect the girl who is your Master and to repay the kindness of his ancestors for bringing him into this world. Besides, the reason I am thanking you is not for that, but to thank you for helping me restore my memory."
Shirou nodded slightly and waved his hand dismissively; to him, with his Mystic Eyes, it was nothing. He smiled and replied, "It was just a small matter. I have always liked fixing things, and when I was repairing your body, I saw some errors, so naturally, I fixed them."
Kato Danzo held her hands to her chest, looking extremely grateful, and said, "But this was a very, very important thing for me. My mission should have been to protect the mechanized ninja of the Fuma clan even if the body's functions were completely damaged. To not be used to harm Lord Kotaro... it really... it really is great."
The girl was a mechanical doll created by the joint efforts of Koshin Koji and the first Fuma leader. She had accumulated the experience of a ninja bit by bit and moved closer to the side of humanity bit by bit. When she reached the fifth-generation Kotaro, she had raised the boy of the Oni race like a mother as he grew up. If she had truly harmed Kotaro and his important people, she would have felt so guilty that she would have had to cut off her own energy supply and die to apologize.
"Don't worry, you will definitely meet him again." Shirou made a prediction. He knew that the girl before him was no longer just a doll; her life was full of legends, and when she left this world, she would also ascend to the Throne of Heroes and would sooner or later meet everyone again.
"Mm! I think so too." Kato Danzo revealed a rare, light smile.
"So, what do you plan to do next?" Shirou asked.
"I will stay in Shimousa Province to help the people here. It is also to apologize for what I did to help the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen in the past, until the day this body reaches its expiration date." Kato Danzo said.
"Is that so? Then I wish you good luck. We will meet again in the future." Shirou smiled and said goodbye to the Kunoichi.
At this moment, only the girls gathered together, glancing over here from time to time, remained. Shirou walked toward them.
"Ara, it seems that the black-haired Kunoichi didn't end up in the harem. BB-chan feels deeply sorry for Senpai. But since you already have such a cute junior like me, Senpai should be happy enough~! So please don't lose heart." The purple-haired girl blinked and said in a sugary voice with stars in her eyes.
"I should stand on Senpai Shirou's side, but I can't be unfair to Kotaro. That's it!!! Then we should just take both mother and son! Something like a 'mother and son bowl' (mother-son rice bowl)!" Gudako realized, suddenly becoming excited, her face bright red, only for a fist to land on her forehead, causing her to cry out: "That hurts!"
"Shut up~! I didn't have any such intentions!" Shirou lightly tapped the heads of the two juniors and said with feigned annoyance.
"Then let's return to the village now."
"Mm, Afu and Tasuke are still waiting for us!" Gudako agreed repeatedly.
"BB, I'm counting on you. Use the coordinates based on the memories in my mind to locate it." Shirou looked at the purple-haired girl and said.
"Yes, yes, leave it to cute BB-chan~!" The purple-haired girl made a V-sign cutely and agreed.
After that, the group used BB's space teleportation to arrive at the thatched cottage in the village where Shirou lived.
"Eh, Big Sister Musashi has left, and is Big Sister (Gudako/BB) leaving this place too?" Afu asked in surprise.
"There is nothing we can do about it; Big Sister has important things she must do, Afu, Tasuke." Gudako crouched down and said softly.
"Actually, I have to go too. From now on, you and Tasuke will live together." Shirou said.
"What! Even Grandpa is leaving here! No! Don't go!" Afu hurriedly ran over, hugged Shirou tightly, and shouted.
"Ya ya!" Tasuke behind them also stretched out his little hands and grabbed Shirou's cloak.
"We promised from the beginning, didn't we? I might leave at any time."
"But... but... Tasuke and I will be lonely. What will we do when we are afraid to go to the bathroom at night... Grandpa, don't go, don't go!" Afu and Tasuke lowered their eyebrows, and tears welled up in their eyes as they looked at Shirou.
Shirou looked at the two children, patted their heads, and smiled as he said: "Don't cry. You have learned everything I taught you, so it will definitely be fine. Afu, you have already promised your parents that you will take good care of Tasuke as he grows up. If you don't stay strong as a big sister, that won't do."
The girl nodded, wiped away her tears, held Tasuke behind her back, showed a smile, and said: "Mm... Afu! Afu! Will endure, must endure!"
Shirou took two jars out of the thatched cottage, filled with gold and silver coins—the hard currency of large and small oban.
"Afu, Tasuke, this is the money I have saved for you. As long as you don't spend it recklessly, it is enough for the two of you to eat and live your whole lives. Later, if you go to a private school, or learn a trade, you will definitely be fine in the future.
From now on, whatever you want to do, you must decide for yourselves. If you live in the village, you will have no problems with your livelihood. If something really happens, everyone will definitely look after you. The older brother and sister-in-law who raise the cows are also happy to take care of you as their own children.
Or you can go to Big Sister Tamamo; she will teach you how to survive. You can also go to Princess Kiyohime to help you arrange a place to live; living in the city is also possible."
"Afu has already decided! When I grow up to be an adult, I want to become a samurai-sama! Like Big Sister Musashi! A samurai who is beautiful, cool, strong, gentle, and interesting! Then I will travel around the world and eat all kinds of delicious food!"
"Ya ya~!" Tasuke also laughed happily at this moment, as if he completely agreed.
"Ah! Hahaha! Traveling around like Musashi and tasting delicious food isn't bad at all!" Shirou laughed heartily and agreed.
"Mm!" Afu and Tasuke agreed with giggles.
Everything was over, and this world continued on in a very peculiar way—it did not exist as a Singularity, it was distinct from normal human history, yet it was not destroyed like Shinjuku.
It is said that on that night, except for the group that escaped, all the people in the city disappeared. However, with the return of those who had escaped, I believe it will recover soon.
The ancient So-no-kuni (Kazusa Province), later known as Chiba Prefecture—because of the massacre and the mountains of corpses and seas of blood caused by the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen, the population of Wa-no-kuni suddenly decreased by over a million, and it had become completely different from the original history. Shirou could not imagine what this place would become by the 21st century.
The only thing that was certain was that this world was now a completely different world from the one where Gudako and Shirou were. What kind of future was waiting for Afu and Tasuke?
But those were stories for another time...
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