(Ritsuka's POV {MC})
The Throne of Heroes was supposed to be a place of rest. A liminal space outside time, where spirits awaited a call, a purpose, a contract.
But for me?
It was a goddamn waiting room with no vending machines.
I sat alone, cross legged in the void, resting my chin in my palm. Countless stars spun beyond the horizonless dark, each one pulsing with the weight of another world teetering on destruction.
"Another world-ending crisis, another me summoned, another harem built," I muttered, sighing. "Is it a cosmic rule that every version of me gets married and attracts a crowd of dangerously beautiful women?"
Somewhere, a version of me was probably being dragged into bed by both Artoria and Morgan again. I didn't even want to know what was going on in the ones with Kama and BB…
I leaned back in the emptiness, arms spread.
"If someone's planning to summon me again, I hope they know I charge overtime now—"
And then I felt it.
A stabbing, sudden pressure. My body....no, my spirit....twisted in pain.
My limbs turned heavy. My vision trembled.
"What the hell...?" I choked out. A weight unlike anything I'd ever known slammed into me like gravity had tripled. My consciousness cracked, light vanished, and
...
Pain.
My eyelids fluttered open, slow like stone doors grinding apart. Everything was hazy. Bleached white. Cold.
Then I heard it.
"My baby..."
A woman's voice. Shaky. Weak. Loving.
Something in it pulled at my very core...deep, instinctive. Her voice hit me like a divine curse. I tried to move, to speak, but nothing worked.
I finally opened my eyes fully....and what I saw froze me.
A woman. Covered in blood. Japanese features. Long hair matted with sweat and crimson. She looked so much like... my mother.
"Impossible..." I thought in my mind. I'm a Heroic Spirit. I'm dead. That woman should be long gone.
But there she was.
Bleeding out.
Smiling through tears.
"I love you, Ritsuka. My baby... Your father and I love you... I'm sorry for leaving you alone in this world..."
No. No no no....
"Your father... was an honest man... His only flaw was that he was too honest. They killed him for it... They killed him...!"
Blood bubbled from her lips. She cradled me....my body... small, fragile. Weak.
Wait I'm....A newborn?
My breath caught. My eyes scanned the world around us: monochrome. Gray corpses. Rubble. Fire, frozen in silent agony.
And in her final breath, she whispered
"Please... escape from Chae Joochul... and Kim Sukho... Never meet them.... I'm sure you don't.... understand but God ... I beg you please protect my bady... Protect him from them ...."
Her eyes dimmed.
Her body slumped.
And I, Ritsuka Fujimaru, summoned Heroic Spirit... realized the impossible.
I was reborn. In another parallel world. As a newborn baby of myself in this parallel world.
And my mother...this world's mother...was killed right in front of me.
I wanted to scream. To cry. To thrash.
But I couldn't. My lungs were weak. My voice was airless. I couldn't even raise a hand.
So all I could do...
...was grieve in silence.
'I just came to this new world... and I watched my mom die again.'
My thoughts faded. Darkness swirled in again. My body was too small. Too cold. Too alone.
Hours Later
Cold.
That was the first thing I felt.
Then came pain.
Not the pain of battle. Not the sharp blade of loss. But the soft, slow pain of freezing to death as a child.
I blinked against the frost, the world still black and white.
I had been dumped on a doorstep.
An orphanage?
I was barely breathing.
'At least... someone didn't throw me in the garbage.'
I thought of giving up.
Even a Servant reborn couldn't survive this body. I was meant to die.
But I remember my dead mom words.
'No, I can't give up now. I won't die'
"Master... don't die."
That voice.
Familiar.
"Master... I don't have mana to manifest. I used what little was left in your soul. I'm in your mind... using my Avenger Saint Graph to keep you warm with my mana."
Dantes.
He always had a flair for revenge, even when saving lives.
"Don't give up. I'll rage in your place if I must."
I smiled inwardly.
'Thanks, Dantes... I won't give up.'
Not for him.
Not for the names my mom gave me.
But for the promise. To live .
I will not fall in revenge path but I will live no matter what.
Chae Joochul. Kim Sukho. I will remember them.
I felt sleep take me again.
Then....creak.
The door opened.
An elderly man stepped out. His eyes widened. A gasp.
He picked up my body with trembling hands.
"A newborn...? Who would...?"
He carried me inside, wrapping me in warmth.
And that was the beginning.
A Heroic Spirit without a Master.
A baby born of blood and vengeance.
In a world that was not his.
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Title Card - THE NOVEL'S EXTRA - RETURNED HERO
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Note: This is my remake of old fanfiction but a different take this time. I worte this because I'm tried a little after writing Marvel FF. I appreciate if you liked this.