The Next Morning – New Chaldea, Central Control Room
"Good morning, everyone…"
With the soft hiss of automatic doors sliding open, Sion drifted into the control room like a soulless zombie.
Her long purple hair, normally styled with great care, was only barely tied into a ponytail; a few stubborn strands stuck up around her temples.
The most striking part, though, was the heavy dark circles under her eyes, like she was wearing exaggerated smoky eye makeup—combined with a pallor that even foundation couldn't conceal, faintly flushed in an odd way.
"Whoa! Sion?!"
Fujimaru, who had been adjusting the communications channel, nearly spilled her coffee. "What happened to you… Did you fight a Lostbelt King last night? What's with those dark circles?!"
"No… it's not like that…"
Sion weakly waved a hand, slowly making her way to her workstation. She plopped down in her chair like a lump of mud.
"I was just… doing some… high-load… data calculations…"
"Data calculations?"
Mash walked over with a stack of documents in her arms, looking at her with concern.
"But, Sion-senpai, your heart rate seems a little high, and your body temperature is slightly elevated. Could this be a cold?"
Or… maybe overwork?
"N-no, no, no! I'm fine! All bodily functions are in perfect condition! Alchemists of Atlas Academy don't catch colds!"
Sion shot up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, protesting rapidly. But her gaze wandered all over, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.
"Well, well—"
Da Vinci Lily glided over on roller skates, mischief twinkling in her eyes as she leaned close to Sion's face.
"With this reaction, I'd say insomnia is more accurate than overwork."
"And more specifically… insomnia caused by a wandering imagination, perhaps?"
"W-What are you talking about? No! Absolutely not!"
Sion's face instantly turned bright red. She flailed both hands frantically in the air.
"I was just… thinking about the Shadow Border's flight attitude control algorithms! Yes, that's it! That's all!"
Just then—
"Good morning, everyone."
A clear, magnetic voice drifted in from the doorway, a sound that to Sion's ears might as well have been the tick of a nuclear countdown.
Steve walked in, dressed casually in a black shirt, holding two steaming cups of coffee. He looked refreshingly neat and composed.
His radiant appearance stood in stark contrast to Sion's drained and lifeless state.
"Sion, you don't look so good."
He walked straight over to her and casually set a coffee cup down in front of her.
"Did you not sleep well last night? Did you perhaps have a particularly… stimulating dream?"
"Pff—!!!"
Sion had just taken a sip of coffee when those words reached her ears; she promptly sprayed it out.
She coughed violently, her face turning a deep, purplish red as she pointed a trembling finger at Steve.
"Y-you, you, you, you, you—!!!"
"Hm? What's the matter?"
Steve looked at her with guileless eyes, clear as those of a newborn child.
"I only mean that, from time to time, Masters and Servants experience a phenomenon where they connect through dreams."
"Did you witness the battle where I commanded forces in that brutal space war? The explosions and sacrifices were indeed quite horrifying. It would be perfectly natural to have nightmares after seeing that for the first time."
He truly had no idea what she had actually seen.
He knew about the dream link, but he assumed that his early life—full of political strife and military conflict—was a bit too intense for someone like Sion, who had grown up in relatively peaceful times.
"War… war…?"
Sion was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized—
This man had no idea the dream had fast-forwarded all the way to that intimate scene!
"Y-yeah! War! It was terrifying! Like a living hell!"
She shouted loudly, trying to cover her panic as she hurried down from her chair.
"There were beams of light flying everywhere! And these huge robots! It was so, so exciting! That's why I couldn't sleep!"
"…I see."
Steve nodded, and for a moment, he had the urge to pat her on the head.
"You've worked hard. Next time, I'll do my best to wipe those wretched memories away for you…"
"Don't touch me!"
Like a startled rabbit, Sion scooted her chair a full three meters back, tightly crossing her arms as she stared warily at him.
"P-please! I need to get back to work!"
"G-go… go hang out somewhere else! Don't disturb my thoughts!"
"…?"
Steve's hand froze awkwardly in midair. He blinked, looking slightly baffled.
Wasn't that a bit of an overreaction?
"Sigh…"
Ritsuka and Da Vinci exchanged glances, faint smiles playing at their lips—smiles only bystanders could wear.
"Looks like last night's war wasn't the kind fought with guns and cannons," Ritsuka murmured under her breath.
"Indeed. Perhaps it was a kind of battle of wits… one that's called love," Da Vinci Lily said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin.
…
A Few Hours Later – Corridor of New Chaldea
In order not to worsen Sion's CPU overload, Steve, despite being so rudely chased out, very considerately left the control room and wandered the corridors of the wandering base.
As the one who had personally designed and built this place, he knew every nook and cranny of the structure.
Watching the summoned Heroic Spirits live and mingle within this new home filled him with a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
Just as he passed a lounge near the simulation training grounds—
"Uwaaaa! Stop it! Stop it, Ruby!"
A girl's startled scream echoed down the hall.
In the next instant, a pink blur rocketed straight at Steve, accompanied by the odd roaring whine of thrusters.
Steve's eyes narrowed, and his body reacted instinctively.
Rather than dodge, he twisted slightly, redirecting the impact as he extended his long arms to catch the small, out-of-control figure with steady precision.
"Easy now."
He looked down at the small girl in his arms.
She had long silver-white hair and wore a frilly, pink magical girl outfit.
This was Illyasviel von Einzbern.
In this timeline, however, she had manifested as a Caster.
"Ugh… my head is spinning…"
Illya blinked dazedly and realized she was being held by a tall man—cradled princess-style.
The broad chest so close to her, the steady beat of a gentle heart, and the handsome face hovering above her with a soft smile made her snap fully awake.
"…Eh? E-Eh?!"
Her face turned bright red in an instant.
"M-Mr. Steve?!"
"Magical girl, it seems your flight device has gone out of control again."
Steve did not set her down immediately. He first checked her over to make sure she wasn't injured, then gently placed her back on her feet.
His gaze shifted to the side, where a staff—still twitching slightly—lay on the floor.
"Oh my, if it isn't Mr. Steve~"
The staff, Magical Ruby, floated up into the air and let out an obnoxiously shrill electronic giggle.
"That hero saving the damsel in distress entrance was sooo cool! A textbook move for seducing elementary schoolers—I mean, magical girls! Illya-chan's heart rate just shot up to 180!"
"Ruby! What nonsense are you spouting?!"
Illya, mortified and indignant, swung her small fists around, trying to snatch the errant staff.
"You're the one who suddenly blasted the thrusters everywhere and made me crash!"
"I just wanted to test the Love Jet at maximum output~"
Ruby deftly dodged Illya's grasp and zipped over to Steve, staring at him with its red gemstone eyes.
"By the way, Mr. Steve, that move where you caught Illya-chan just now… tsk, tsk, tsk, very practiced."
"Could it be that you have some sort of special experience when it comes to girls around that size?"
A very dangerous question.
If she had been dealing with an ordinary Servant, they might have gotten angry or flustered on the spot.
If she had teased someone in the Emiya household like that, the servants there would have fired back with a quip immediately.
But who was Steve?
He was a man who had survived countless battlefields and political struggles.
"I wouldn't call myself an expert."
Steve smiled, rested a hand on Illya's head before she could react, and gently ruffled her hair.
"But I have looked after a girl like you before…"
"She was a truly lovable child."
He recalled Caren from that other world, and the Illya before him, whose life experiences overlapped so strangely.
The warmth and longing in those eyes could not be faked.
"Mm…"
Illya still felt terribly embarrassed by Ruby's lewd joke. But as the warm hand on her head stroked her hair, and she felt the pure, accepting gaze he turned on her—devoid of any ill intent—her mind went blank.
This feeling… was so familiar.
Like… Kiritsugu as a father? No, warmer than Dad, somehow.
Or was it… like big brother Shirou?
"M-Mr. Steve…"
Face flushed, Illya rubbed her hands together nervously, then stammered out, "…Um… thank you for saving me."
"If it's not too much trouble… could you take a look at Ruby for me? She's been… leaking mana in weird spurts lately…"
"My pleasure."
Steve knelt on one knee so he could look her in the eye, then picked up Ruby's staff.
A faint blue light flashed through his pupils, as if he were seeing straight through every internal mechanism and structure.
"Let's see… the valve on the ether conversion circuit has loosened, and the magical conductivity here is a bit unstable."
As he spoke, he took a precision screwdriver from his four-dimensional pocket and began working.
His movements were elegant and exact, each minute adjustment possessed of its own kind of beauty.
Illya squatted beside him, propping her cheeks in her hands, watching him with sparkling eyes.
"Amazing… Even though it's a Mystery-based core, he's fixing it like it's just ordinary machinery…"
"The principles are all the same."
Steve finished his repairs, returned the staff to her, and lightly tapped her head.
"Alright. Try it now. It should be easier to handle this time."
"Thank you, big brother!"
Illya accepted it happily. Then—perhaps because she was simply overjoyed, or perhaps because of some unspoken fanservice rule for magical girls—she rose on tiptoe and gave Steve a quick kiss on the cheek.
"This is my thank-you present!"
With that, she hugged Ruby tight and ran off, blushing furiously.
"Ah, youth really is a wonderful thing."
Steve touched his own cheek and couldn't help but smile helplessly.
…
At the Same Time – In the Shadows at the Corner of the Corridor
Crack.
The electronic pen Sion had been using for data logging snapped cleanly in half.
She hadn't been able to work in peace in the control room.
More accurately, in her current emotionally unstable state, she simply couldn't work at all.
So, almost against her better judgment, she'd followed him out. She just wanted to see what the culprit behind her insomnia was doing.
And then… this happened.
The hero rescues a maiden in distress (even if that maiden was a very young girl).
He pats the little girl's head gently (even though she's only an elementary schooler).
He shows off his skills in a neat bit of repair work (even though it was just a magic staff).
And then… he lets himself be kissed?!
"No… this is absolutely ridiculous!"
Sion ground her teeth, eyes locked on Steve's back. The purple light in her eyes flickered restlessly, as if foretelling the imminent activation of some Atlas Institute killing device.
"That's my Servant! My Caster—well, Archer now, but still!"
"How can he… how can he go and do something so shameless with another girl in public, and she's an elementary schooler on top of it!"
"And… and those eyes of his…"
She remembered the gentle look in Steve's eyes when he had gazed at Illya just moments ago.
It was the same look she had seen in her dream, in that parallel world, when he'd looked at her.
"Why… why are you so kind to everyone?!"
The inescapable shame carried over from last night's dream tangled with a new, bitter emotion—jealousy—surging violently in her chest.
Reason tried to tell her that this was only Steve taking care of a child, the natural affection of an elder toward the younger generation.
Illya was a comrade, someone to be protected.
But her feelings were screaming:
He's flirting! He's spreading hormones everywhere! He's fixing things for another girl! He just let another girl kiss him!
Calculation result: Logical error detected.
[Emotion Module… Overload Imminent.]
Sion took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
But in the next instant, she saw Steve turn toward her, as though he had noticed something.
Crap!
She hurriedly tried to duck back, but in her panic she accidentally kicked the cleaning robot beside her.
Clang!
The loud crash echoed down the corridor.
Seeing the familiar purple ponytail poking out from around the corner, and the pale hand clinging desperately to the wall, Steve's smile deepened.
"Come out, Sion. I know you're there."
"…"
There was a brief three-second silence.
Then Sion slowly stepped out, her face a collage of conflicting expressions.
She tried to mimic the aloofness of a passerby, calm and indifferent—but her flushed cheeks and evasive eyes betrayed her completely.
"I-I was just… checking on the base's cleaning robots!"
She pointed stiffly at the robot she had kicked and forced herself to elaborate.
"The gyro in this unit… seems a bit off! Yes! That's right!"
"Is that so?"
Steve didn't call her out. He walked toward her slowly, leaned down a little, and met her eyes.
"So… have you finished your observations, Master?"
"N-not yet!"
Sion faltered under his gaze and instinctively took a step back—only to find her retreat cut off by Steve's arm as he braced it against the wall beside her.
"W-what are you doing…?"
"About Illya just now…"
Steve suddenly lowered his voice and leaned in close to her ear.
"You saw everything, didn't you?"
"E-even if I did, so what?!"
Sion exploded as if her tail had been stomped again. Her voice flew several octaves higher.
"As a Servant, you did something like that with an underage girl, in a public place no less… That's just… absolutely… shameless! Immoral! A serious breach of Chaldea's conduct regulations!"
"Oh? Are you jealous?"
"Wh—?! Who's jealous, who's jealous? I-I was just… managing my Servant's behavior as Master, that's all! This is… this is reasonable supervision!"
Looking at the stubborn yet soft-hearted girl in front of him, who was obviously jealous and yet desperately trying to justify herself, Steve's smile melted into something infinitely gentle.
"Don't worry."
He reached out and gently, but firmly, took her still-trembling hand. Their fingers interlaced.
"For Illya, that's just affection for a child."
"But…"
He lowered his head and gently pressed his forehead to Sion's.
Just like that instant in last night's dream, their breaths mingled.
"In this world, the only one I want to be this close to… is you, Sion."
Boom—!!!
Sion felt the last fragile thread labeled reason in her heart snap completely.
This time, it wasn't a dream.
This was reality.
..
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