Chapter 268: All the "Sakura-types" are Crafty
Due to an unexpected accident or some other unknown cause, the missing oil base reappeared in a future sea sector. An anomaly seemed to have occurred internally, and it was slowly sinking into the seabed. If left alone, it would likely transform into a complete Singularity within four hours.
Gudako accepted the mission to enter and search for survivors. Conveniently, BB-chan had hacked into Chaldea's communication system to send a distress call, luring her into this world.
However, due to "insufficient capacity," only Gudako managed to make it inside; her companions, Tamamo-no-Mae and Nero (Red Saber), were bounced away and had been separated from her since the entry.
It was a major crisis from the moment she arrived. With no Servants by her side and the oil rig already undergoing "SE.RA.PH-ification," Gudako was attacked by Suzuka Gozen. Melt-Lilith appeared just in time to save her.
Later, Gawain appeared, followed by Tristan, who had been hunting Lilith.
And then, the events Shirou witnessed took place.
Gudako recounted everything that had happened, but there was one sentence she had been suppressing in her heart, desperate to vent to someone. Now, she finally could.
"That's how it is, Shirou-senpai! Only she has a voice actress—don't you think that's way too crafty?! I don't think she's a bad person, but she's definitely too crafty!" Gudako grumbled to Shirou, explaining her dissatisfaction with the situation.
"Also, Mash seems really angry for some reason. I don't know why, but she's developed a competitive rivalry with BB-chan. And since we can't contact Chaldea right now, that girl must be worried sick. It's going to be a bit scary when I go back."
"There, there. When you return, I'll plead your case to her with you." Shirou comforted his kouhai.
"Gudako, what are you so concerned about?" Lilith walked over with her arms crossed, looking at her Master.
"Um, how tall are you?" Gudako asked, looking up at the petite girl.
"190 centimeters!" Lilith was a sadist; she loved the feeling of looking down on everyone. Although her equipment looked like she was walking on stilts, she naturally included the length of her heels in the total.
"And your weight?" Gudako asked again.
"A slender 33kg, of course," Lilith smiled elegantly and replied matter-of-factly. When it came to weight, she decisively excluded the weight of her spiked legs.
"Shirou-senpai! I knew it—people with that cute face are all so crafty! There's no way those legs only weigh 33kg!" Gudako grabbed Shirou's arm and shook it back and forth, pouting.
"How rude! Gudako, what do you expect a lady to say? Even if you count the legs, I'm only 53kg! Speaking of weight, Lip over there is a whole ton! And yet you guys were still staring at her with those lecherous eyes!"
Shirou couldn't help but think to himself, 'Honestly... no matter who they are, no matter which world it is, they're all such a handful...'
At that moment, the hidden BB-chan, who didn't want to be discovered, was getting so anxious her eyes turned red. Within Shirou's mind-scape, she cried out in protest: "Senpai, no! That girl who's obsessed with playing the 'streamer game' is different from me! The ones she likes are Hakuno and Gudako, whereas I, BB-chan, am single-mindedly devoted to you, Senpai!"
"Alright, alright." In his mind, Shirou pushed away the girl who was taking the opportunity to open her arms for a hug. While it was nice that she was becoming honest, her over-closeness was a bit overwhelming. He decided that once things settled down, he would have to teach BB a bit about maintaining proper boundaries between men and women.
Just then, another troublesome girl appeared. The BB-chan from the broadcaster's room transferred over with a mischievous grin.
"Ah! BB-chan! Why did you come here?" Gudako asked.
"I was just monitoring and causing trouble from the sidelines, but since an unexpected new face appeared, BB-chan decided to come say hello! You look a bit familiar? Hmm, that 'meddling mother' aura of yours is actually quite... disgusting. Is he an acquaintance of yours, Gudako-senpai?" the purple-haired girl asked with a laugh.
"This is my Senpai, Shirou-senpai!" Gudako introduced him.
"Eh? Senpai's Senpai?! Hmm, this strange, extraordinary 'female trouble' constitution of his... he looks like a troublesome guy. Gudako-senpai, I advise you to stay away from him, or you'll get caught up in all sorts of bothersome things," BB-chan said with a smirk.
The BB-chan in this Singularity seemed to have memories related to the Moon Cell Holy Grail War. For super AIs like BB, identifying an existence relied not just on appearance, but on the sensitivity to Spirit Graph data. Thus, she could see the connection between Shirou and Nameless at a single glance.
If Nameless let down his swept-back hair, he looked very similar to Shirou; after all, their physical ages differed by less than ten years. With that kind of insight, BB and Lilith would recognize him instantly even if he turned black or white.
"Hey, Gudako-senpai, I suggest we kick this man out! He's an outsider who broke in for unknown reasons. He's an unstable element; it's better to just let him stay on the sidelines," BB-chan said, sizing up the boy before raising her hand.
Gawain stepped forward. "Silence, witch! At the very least, this young man seems far more trustworthy than you."
Tristan agreed. "Mhm. Having fought him, I can guarantee he is a fair and honorable warrior. If we were born in the same era, perhaps we could have fought for the King together."
"Fine, I get it. BB-chan will take her leave for now. It's not time to rest yet. The chapel ahead is suitable for you, but a powerful enemy I prepared is waiting for you there. Hehe, don't die too quickly." BB-chan laughed mischievously and vanished.
"..." Shirou thought in silence. He felt like he was being disliked, but compared to the BB-chan in his mind-scape, this version's attitude was actually easier to handle.
'How cruel, Senpai! Don't listen to that tsundere out there. I'm the only one who's truly sincere toward you!'
The girl clinging to him and acting spoiled in his mind-scape and the girl out here making inscrutable jokes looked exactly the same, but their attitudes were like ice and fire.
However, if that restrained girl from earlier was here too, it would be even more chaotic. Shirou knew he had to save her.
Passionlip. As the elder sister, she was another Alter Ego of BB, the personification of "Love and Hate."
Unlike the warlike and assertive Lilith, Lip was actually a shy, timid, and kind-hearted girl. However, due to the defect of a congenital cognitive disorder, she couldn't understand her own masochistic nature or the fact that her giant claws—built for crushing—could destroy anything with a touch. Her only wish was to hug and hold hands with someone she loved.
She was also a composite entity, merging the data of three goddesses: the virtuous and maternal Parvati from Hindu myth; the jealous goddess of war, Durga; and the Valkyrie Brynhildr, who killed her lover due to a tragic misunderstanding.
Her golden claws represented Durga's ten divine weapons, possessing the terrifying power to compress anything held within them into a five-centimeter cube. Even a light touch caused injury. Her chest was a massive storage space; as long as the data was broken, she could suck in any number of defeated Servants or Masters.
But as long as she had those crushing claws and that devouring "weaponized" chest, she was destined to never be able to hold hands or embrace anyone normally.
The Lip of the Moon's Far Side was a monster with a cursed, defective heart. She craved the love of her beloved but had no idea how to consider their feelings or true thoughts.
If someone refused to hold her hand, she felt betrayed. If someone tried to hold her hand, they would inevitably be injured by the golden claws. Either way, the girl would fall into despair, and her love would turn into a resentment that lashed out at everything!
"What do I have to do for you to love me? What am I doing wrong? If you can't find happiness with me, then why did you appear before me?"
A rejected Lip would take her sorrow out on everything, just as Brynhildr killed Sigurd. She would swing her giant claws at the person she loved, crushing the Master into a cube and placing them inside her chest to be unified with her forever.
After Lip was defeated in the Moon Cell, Hakuno chose to forgive her, finally making the girl understand what "human" truly meant—that humans are incredibly fragile and their hearts infinitely complex. To get along with them, one must look past the surface and try to understand the heart.
It was because of that gentle Master in the Moon world that the current Lilith and Lip existed. It was a precious thing that these girls, who should have disappeared, could start over and change themselves here.
Therefore, he could not leave Lip alone. Shirou made a firm resolution.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, in another world, a massive city had fallen into a state of suspended animation. The highways were jammed with cars of all kinds, but there were no people in the driver's seats.
In office buildings, rows of desks were crowded with computers whose screens still glowed. In school classrooms, black pens lay where they had been dropped. In cafes, steam still rose from cups, but not a single human soul was to be found.
Suddenly, explosions erupted in multiple locations. Black smoke billowed, dyeing the entire sky a gloomy, deathly gray. Crows cawed, and flocks of birds took flight, fleeing the island nation in droves.
A hundred-meter-tall white beast with long ears stood higher than the iconic Sky Tree. Buildings were overshadowed, falling into a silent darkness.
Its fur was white with hints of purple like flickering flames. Its long tail was several times the length of its body; with a gentle sweep, it toppled the Sky Tree and sent it flying. The massive kinetic energy crushed the cars stopped on the highway below and sent buses flying, tearing down power lines and poles alike.
A car flew into a nearby gas station, trailing white sparks and friction-induced flames before exploding violently.
None of this caught the beast's attention; the flames of the explosion couldn't even singe a single hair on its body.
The white beast was named Cath Palug—the Beast of Calamity that even gods feared.
It had descended into this world as the Beast of Comparison, the Fourth Beast, Primate Murder, to destroy humanity and fulfill its mission. As the monster holding absolute power of life and death over primates, it had yet to display its true authority.
It spat a white light of destruction from its mouth, which turned into a kilometer-long beam, instantly swallowing everything in its path. A famous mountain on Earth was left with a hole tens of meters in diameter before it crumbled and shattered.
Leaping lightly, it slammed a giant paw onto the ground. The earth instantly split in all directions, and the ground began to sink. Empty voids appeared everywhere. High-rises seventy or eighty stories tall and residential housing tilted and fell into the bottomless abyss. Tokyo was sinking...
A white-clothed man appeared, drifting down from the sky onto the sea. He stood upon the waves as steadily as if he were on flat ground.
The white beast stopped its movements. Its gemstone-like giant pupils stared at the man. It lifted a massive paw; with every step, it left a giant plum-blossom print, causing the island—already partially submerged—to sink even faster.
It shrank its body down to the size of a cat or a small dog. With a long, fluffy tail like a squirrel's, the terrifying Primate Murder had turned back into a cute little animal.
"Thank you, Fou, for staying by my side and doing this with me." The man's expression remained unchanged, and his words carried little emotion. Even for a sensitive animal, only a faint trace of gratitude could be detected. And even that sliver of emotion would be gradually worn away by the passage of time.
Once again, he had transferred the humans—whose end he could not change—to another world.
Thus, the result for humanity, destined for extinction, was completed ahead of schedule. All that remained was to use Fou's power to execute the destruction, fulfilling the destined process of human extinction, so that everything in this world could return to a stable order.
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