Chapter 392: When the Fireworks Cool
At this moment, Artoria and Jeanne walked over from the vacation villa.
"Illya, want to go set off fireworks together?" Artoria took out a large bag of fireworks—conical ones that spray sparks from the ground.
"No, let's play with the ones that go up into the sky! Bang, and then they explode in the sky—that's definitely more fun!" Jeanne, standing nearby, hugged a firework cannon that looked like an iron pedestal.
"Just having you around is noisy enough. Do we really need to set off things this loud now?" Artoria retorted coldly.
"What! How about we have a contest right now? I'll start by lighting that candle-like head of yours—using it as a match!" Jeanne glared fiercely at the blonde girl.
"Ho oh... If you want to go to the sky so badly, then allow me to send you up there myself." Artoria pulled out her pistol and short sword, speaking in a cold voice.
"Hahaha, the Saber and Jeanne-chan here are both so interesting," Illya giggled and said.
"No, this is not interesting at all." Shirou said, hurrying over to break up the argument. If he let them truly fight, it would be an "explosion" in every sense of the word. "Alright, alright, if you two start fighting, the fireworks we prepared with such difficulty will go to waste."
The entire beach was soon covered by the light of the fireworks set off by the Heroic Spirits and the girls. Seven-colored hues bloomed in the sky, and pillars of light rose from the beach like fountains.
BB went even further, summoning a battery of cannons that launched super-large fireworks into the air. They flashed with her avatar and the letters "BB Channel," spinning in the sky in passionate reds, deep blues, and brilliant purples, changing into different patterns.
The surface of the sea was like a mirror, reflecting all the fireworks. Because of the rolling waves, the images within them gained unique variations, appearing multi-colored and vibrant.
Mashiro stared blankly at the night sky, seemingly wanting to capture this scene for her manga. The fallen angel and her demon companions crouched together, playing with sparklers.
"Come, come, it's a rare and beautiful scene; Sensei, have another drink." The horned Oni girl held her gourd, pouring wine for her drinking buddy.
"Oh, thanks, Shuten-chan." Hiratsuka Shizuka drank until her pretty face turned beet red, raising her wine glass high and laughing happily.
One could only drink to their heart's content and get drunk like this for a single night, and fireworks are easily extinguished. When the fireworks display ended, the revelry on the beach also came to an end, and everyone returned to the villa to rest.
The next morning, BB-chan opened a multi-faceted portal. Everyone said their goodbyes, stepped out of this world, and returned directly to their own homes.
"See you at school, then."
"Goodbye."
Shirou also brought Illya to the front door of his home.
"Shirou, wouldn't it be rude of me to just show up like this? I didn't even buy a gift," Illya asked, sounding a bit worried. When it came to people from Wa-no-kuni, they were famously particular about etiquette.
"It's fine, I already spoke about it on the phone. The adults in my house won't mind such things with a child; they are very good-natured people. Relax, I will explain it for you," Shirou comforted her.
"Hahaha, don't worry! Onii-chan doesn't need to say anything extra; it'll be absolutely fine!" Just then, Komachi laughed out loud as she walked out, saying this with great certainty.
The moment the mother of the Hikigaya household saw Illya, she rushed up and hugged her tightly.
"So cute~! Such a cute child~! Would you like to live here? Why don't you just stay here forever and be our daughter~!"
"Thank you, Shirou's mom~!" Illya replied with a smile. She was very skilled at acting well-behaved and cute, so naturally, she won the adults' affection even more.
"Indeed, indeed." The father of the Hikigaya household nodded repeatedly in agreement. If he hadn't been worried about being seen as a suspicious middle-aged man, he would have pounced on her long ago. But at this moment, he saw Komachi entering the door behind them and hastily changed his tone: "Of course! In Dad's heart, Komachi is just as cute~!"
"No one asked for your assessment, Dad!" Komachi rolled her eyes and retorted. She turned back to Shirou and spread her hands: "See? No need to worry at all."
The agreed-upon backstory for the girl was that she was an exchange student from abroad who had become an orphan due to a sudden accident.
Upon hearing that Illya no longer had any other family, the parents in the house wiped away their tears and accepted her, expressing their willingness to become her legal guardians. Just like that, Illya integrated very smoothly into this big family.
When Shirou returned to school, seeing the gate under the rows of green trees, his long journey made school life feel as though it had become very distant. Although his recent experiences had been magnificent and vast, the other students were still living their peaceful and ordinary daily lives.
In the Service Club, the moment he walked through the door, Shirou was grabbed by the girls and pressed into a chair.
Yui leaned over directly, her forehead almost touching his, her big eyes staring straight into the man's eyes as she pressed him: "Shirou, is there something you're keeping from us?"
"After escaping from the witch of the dense forest, we discovered that the inner space of the world is shrinking bit by bit, and the magical beasts on the outer walls of the world have now disappeared. What ultimately confirmed it for us was Mash's situation," Yukino Yukinoshita said.
"Mash? What happened to her? She should be at Chaldea right now," Shirou asked, puzzled.
"The mobile game 'FGO' is still running, but except for the Servants that were fully possessed before, there is no way to perform any more summons," Asuna said, taking out her phone.
"I've lost contact with the main body at Chaldea. The FGO game operators have all become ordinary, greedy merchants who only know how to trick people into spending money; I'm just an ordinary AI now," Little Da Vinci lay on the screen, shedding tears.
Yukino shook her head and said: "It's not just the loss of contact with Chaldea; recently, Mash has even been forgotten by people at school."
Yui nodded in agreement: "Mm, actually, I went to the class where Mash was before to ask the students there, but..."
The students in that class at the time had answered like this...
"Mash? A foreigner?"
"Was there a girl like that in our class?"
"Ah, seems like she was an exchange student? She already transferred away, didn't she?"
Some people tried hard to recall, but in the end, those were the only impressions they had. The beautiful pink-haired girl in glasses who had originally gone around recommending the game to everyone at school had been completely forgotten, becoming an insignificant passerby in people's minds.
Asuna said: "We were probably able to keep this memory because of the 'Personal Summoning' relationship. But for everyone else, Mash is as if she has been hidden away by the world."
Shirou nodded and said: "Mm, I think I've guessed what's going on. For this world, which no longer needs to deal with outside invaders, Mash is a redundant outsider, and everything related to Chaldea will be faded out."
"What exactly is going on?"
"Mm... everyone, listen to me..." For the first time, Shirou told the girls about his relationship with the White God and what he intended to do next.
Hearing everything Shirou said, the three girls fell silent. After a while, they gathered their thoughts and had to accept the fact. They had many questions, and for every question they asked, Shirou answered them. Such a conversation lasted until the bell for the end of the school day rang.
After returning home, Shirou explained the situation to Komachi.
"No! I won't let you leave! Komachi doesn't care about any gods or clones; as long as Onii-chan is healthy and safe by my side, that's enough!" No matter what, Komachi was unwilling, but Shirou's words were not enough to persuade her as she watched her brother go off to take risks.
"Mm, be a good girl, Komachi. It is precisely so that everyone in this world, Dad and Mom, can all be healthy and safe that I must go there," Shirou said, patting his sister's head.
Komachi wiped away her tears and said: "Komachi absolutely wants Onii-chan to be happy too, so Onii-chan, you'd better return in one piece; otherwise, Komachi will absolutely go out and find you and bring you back!"
Shirou looked at his stubborn sister and smiled bitterly: "What a hopeless little sister you are... Mm, I know, I will do my best."
"You must do a super-super-effort! That's a promise!" Komachi puffed out her cheeks, her eyes still teary as she glared at Shirou.
"Mm! Promise!" Shirou understood the weight of this vow and looked seriously at his sister as he agreed.
When his mother, who had finished her shift, opened the door and walked into the living room:
"Mom, I want to eat the potato beef stew you make." Shirou stepped up from behind, placed both hands on his mother's shoulders, and hugged her gently.
"What? What's wrong, Shirou?" Mom turned around, surprised and amused by her son, who was usually so rigid, suddenly being so close to her. If Komachi did this, it would usually be because she was asking for pocket money.
However, she hadn't enjoyed such treatment from her son since he was a few years old. But she didn't doubt it; after all, he was the son she raised, and she laughed very happily.
"No, I just suddenly wanted to eat Mom's cooking," Shirou said with a light smile.
"What exactly is going on? You rarely act like this, my child. You suddenly want to be spoiled, fine. I'll go buy groceries right now." Mom patted her son's head, laughed happily, and agreed directly.
"No, I'll go." Shirou said hastily.
When he reached the shopping street, Shirou bought beef from the butcher shop, as well as wild river eel—which they usually wouldn't dare buy because it was too expensive—and of course, he didn't forget fried chicken and other fried foods. He then went to the vegetable shop and bought several kinds of vegetables he liked to eat.
Next, he went to the liquor store. Since they had been neighbors for many years, he only had to say a word, and the shopkeeper brought him a large bottle of Wa-no-kuni baijiu.
After that, Shirou helped his mom prepare a table full of good food. When everyone sat down at the table, Shirou poured a glass of wine for his father.
"Hahaha, Shirou, I can do it myself." Dad said with a smile.
But this time, Shirou not only poured one glass but also poured one for himself.
"Here! Dad, I'd like to toast you." Shirou said, looking his father in the eyes. In his life, he had had three fathers: his biological father from his previous life, for whom he had no impression; Kiritsugu, who had saved his life and given him a goal; and the laughing middle-aged man before his eyes.
By ordinary standards, there was no doubt that this middle-aged office worker before him was the one who had raised him the longest, and in Shirou's heart, he was also the most competent one.
"Hahaha, what's going on today? Is it a holiday for me?" Dad asked happily.
"Mm! That's cheating! Komachi wants to drink too!"
"Wait a minute! Komachi! Shirou! You are also under twenty, no drinking allowed." Mom heard this and pulled a stern face.
"Then Komachi will use fruit juice, that's fine." Komachi turned her head and stuck out her tongue. 'No... I've drank it before already, alright... together with Onii-chan...'
"Hahaha, let it go, dear; Komachi can just have some juice. Shirou, don't you trust him? He's been more mature than an adult for a long time. Alright! Let us men have a little; come, cheers~!" Dad agreed with a smile.
"Mm, cheers!" Shirou held a full glass of strong liquor. Ten-plus years of upbringing, receiving every little bit of sincere care.
After saying everything he could possibly say to those around him, Shirou returned to his room.
Shirou looked at the portal of light and stepped into it without hesitation.
The meeting place was still the platform with the big tree. Under the tree sat a woman in red robes; Alaya seemed to have been waiting there all along.
"It seems you've really thought it through this time, Shirou." Alaya said.
"Since it's come to this, I have nothing left to hesitate about." Shirou said. In his eyes, the woman who was exposing her chest and stomach was, in the end, nothing more than a mechanical skeleton wearing a very beautiful human skin.
She was, in the end, the Counter Force formed by the collective unconsciousness of humanity as a whole. When returned to the void, she would only be a ring of light flashing with seven-colored brilliance. In the Age of Gods six or seven thousand years ago, the human species held a very humble status globally.
Distributed all over the world, they gathered into tribes only in a few areas. Relying on the advantage of weapons they manufactured, although they could hunt giant beasts, they still feared the crocodiles and venomous snakes in the mud by the river, the ferocious beasts in the mountains and forests, and were completely helpless when facing natural disasters. They didn't know how to guard against droughts or floods and could not withstand the cold of winter.
People at this time had low crop yields; when they encountered drought, they lacked water and the crops withered, and when they encountered floods, they drowned—there was no solution.
They relied entirely on the heavens for food and survival, entrusting their fate to the gods in the sky. They were willing to become servants of the gods, bowing down to worship them, offering livestock, and praying in rituals. They only asked the heavens to grant them a year without disaster, a year of bountiful harvest.
But nature is the most ruthless and cruel; the survival of all species is a struggle under the rules of nature in an attempt to live better, yet in the end, none can escape death.
Even humans, who possess the most advantages and seem powerful enough to destroy the Earth, are in fact extremely fragile, deeply troubled and tormented by all sorts of things: disease, mental trauma, war, the disparity between rich and poor...
With human fragility, perhaps nature only needs to change a little, and it could easily destroy them.
For example, creating a currently unsolvable infectious virus; letting a meteorite fall from the sky; letting artificial intelligence gain wisdom; sending out signal waves to summon an alien invasion;
Of course, these major disasters that could cause the extinction of the most prosperous species on Earth are very, very far from modern people, but they are not impossible.
Moreover, since the Earth was born four and a half billion years ago, there have been examples in history where species that once prospered—even species that could be called overlords—were wiped out overnight.
The invertebrates of the Cambrian, the fish of the Devonian, the dinosaurs of the Jurassic, and the giant mammalian beasts that followed.
The terror and dreadfulness of the dinosaurs, under the propaganda of later films, are something I believe most people have experienced.
In the ancient times, when the sea submerged the entire Earth and only a few high mountains could show their heads, those beasts in the water could even rely on powerful gills and fins to climb onto land to prey on their targets, gradually evolving into giant amphibious beasts.
By modern times... these creatures no longer exist.
The transformation of the rules of nature is the most terrifying thing; the harm caused is no less than reshuffling the entire Earth, that is, the survival of the fittest and the elimination of the weak. It is possible that over 90% of all creatures could disappear because of this.
Compared to this, global warming and the onset of the ice age in later generations are merely trivial matters. Even earlier, two point three or four billion years ago, the Earth experienced a great change in its atmosphere, known as the "Great Oxidation Event," where the Earth's air began to transform into a large amount of oxygen.
Compared to the oxygen levels of later generations, this enabled the appearance of many organisms and plants of huge size; their weights were basically measured in tons, and their heights ranged from several meters to dozens of meters.
However, during this era, a large number of organisms went extinct because of this. Because they did not need oxygen to breathe at all, the excess oxygen replaced the gases they originally required, or they were originally anaerobic organisms, and because of the appearance of oxygen, they were directly poisoned to death.
On the Earth of the future, there might come an era where oxygen does not exist in the atmosphere. In fact, the oxygen content in the Earth's atmosphere has been slowly declining; it is just that because the decline is very small, it is basically negligible.
Humans, in the final analysis, are just a race that has been the most suitable for this environment over the past ten thousand years, occupied an advantageous ecological position, stood out under the rule of natural selection and the survival of the fittest, and taken the temporary lead.
The laws of nature are that there will be typhoons, hail, earthquakes, and tsunamis. In order to survive, struggling people suffered and, in despair, believed in gods and sought their protection. However, facts proved that these worshiped gods were actually not as reliable as people imagined.
It was not until later that humans, led by sages and kings, invented various tools, cultivated high-yield crops, and domesticated wild beasts for their own use. Humans gradually understood the laws of nature, and when disasters came, they no longer just listened to fate. Like Shennong tasting the hundred herbs, they developed agriculture and sericulture; like Yu the Great regulating the waters, they dredged the river channels. The imperial court collected grain and established granaries to provide timely relief to disaster areas.
It was precisely at this time that Alaya stood out. When humans truly became the greatest race capable of influencing the world, she gradually became one of the two great Counter Forces of Earth.
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