Chapter 2: A Completely Different World
At first, Emiya Shirou thought his senses might have slightly malfunctioned during the process of exhaustion, fainting, and waking up.
He distinctly felt an underlying malicious intent coming straight for his body and mind from behind, yet when he turned his head, he couldn't see anything, nor did he sense any flow of magical power.
But holding to the assumption that an enemy might be very good at concealing their presence, Emiya Shirou still projected a weapon without hesitation and attacked his rear.
To a true warrior, the senses channeled through a weapon must be even sharper than those of the body alone. He clearly felt the blade seem to strike an object, yet the sensation was only marginally heavier than air.
However, the malicious feeling did indeed vanish afterward, leading Emiya Shirou to mistakenly think that the unseen observer behind him had simply looked away after being discovered.
But when he turned back around, he realized a black-haired girl was standing not far away, her eyes filled with an unusual fear as she looked at him.
Is she a normal person?
Indeed, there is a strict rule in the Magecraft World that common people must never witness the use of magecraft. This is because the continuation of magecraft mostly relies on a form of "Mystery"—simply put, the fewer people who know about it, the higher the magecraft's power will be.
If the principle of a line of magecraft is completely made public, then even the most miraculous magecraft will eventually be reduced to a level of near nothingness.
As a half-baked magus, the former Emiya Shirou had always adhered to this principle under Kiritsugu's instruction. However, his main purpose wasn't to protect "Mystery," but to prevent ordinary people from getting involved in danger.
A magus is a creature that can ruthlessly abandon even family in pursuit of the Root; they might not bother with the effort of erasing a common person's memories, and might instead use a simpler method—killing them.
So, Emiya subconsciously wanted to explain that the weapons in his hands were merely magical tools that could be hidden, but then the girl across from him suddenly bowed her head.
"I'm sorry, I actually didn't see anything at all!!!"
"...Huh?"
What's going on? This feels like being caught at the scene of a murder, and the witness is pleading with the killer not to kill her.
"What are you talking about?"
Emiya Shirou could see the girl's terror, but he couldn't understand the source of this emotion.
"You... you... don't notice it?"
"What?"
"The evil spirit..."
Perhaps it was because the most powerful individual among them had just suffered a brutal slaughter, and the nearby wandering ghosts had completely vanished, which gave Yotsuya Miko the courage to say that word.
"Evil spirit?"
Emiya Shirou nodded slightly and fell into thought.
This sounds like a monster described in some supernatural fiction, composed of human vengeful spirits. But based on the theories of modern magecraft, souls simply cannot exist in the current world.
This is because, with the advancement of technology and civilization, the "Mystery" is increasingly fading in the modern era, and a spiritual body—which inherently possesses a high degree of Mystery—has no basis for its continued existence.
But all of this is assuming Emiya Shirou is still in his original Magecraft World, and he hasn't even fully figured out where he is right now.
That unique ability to see spirits that others cannot see... is it called Yin-Yang Eyes?
"What kind of scene are you seeing through your eyes?"
"Eh?"
Yotsuya Miko was stunned, not expecting the exorcist in front of her to turn around and ask her that.
However, after realizing that the person was not as fierce as she had imagined, but was engaging in a very normal conversation with her, her fear lessened a bit. She started trying to figure out how to accurately describe the scene she had witnessed.
"Well, I just saw an evil spirit behind you that looked like a fox but had dozens of heads. It was about to attack you when it realized you could see it, but you cut it into four pieces with your swords..."
Yotsuya Miko pointed to the ground nearby; the collapsed body still hadn't completely dissipated. But when Emiya Shirou looked in that direction, he still couldn't see anything.
Even when he tried using his meager remaining magical power to reinforce his eyes, the effect was the same.
Could it truly be an evil spirit that he couldn't see?
But why was it so easily destroyed by him... Wait.
Emiya Shirou raised his hands and looked at the two weapons, one black and one white, before him.
Kanshou and Bakuya, famous swords passed down from ancient times.
These swords, based on the Yin-Yang principle of Yin and Yang, are a male and female pair: the black one is the Yang sword Kanshou, and the white one is the Yin sword Bakuya. They are also the close-combat armaments that Archer EMIYA most likes to project.
However, as a reproduction of that Heroic Spirit, Emiya Shirou understood very well that this projected weapon was not strictly based on the original artifact. Instead, it was projected based on Archer EMIYA's understanding after reading the legends related to the original artifact.
In a sense, this could also be called 'forging'.
And even though Kanshou and Bakuya are not considered powerful as Noble Phantasms due to the significant difference from the original artifact, Archer EMIYA, out of some mentality, preserved the Exorcism Incantation on them, allowing them to inherit the original Kanshou and Bakuya's powerful Anti-Demon Property.
An entity like an evil spirit happens to fall into the category of a demon or monster.
Seeing this, Yotsuya Miko finally realized something and tentatively asked Emiya Shirou, "So, you actually can't see them?"
"That's right. If this weapon didn't have a strong counter-effect against things like evil spirits, I might have been in trouble too."
Regardless of the actual power disparity, an enemy one cannot see is always quite troublesome. Especially when the opponent is not humanoid, you can't guess from what angle or in what way they will launch an attack.
Most importantly, Emiya Shirou could clearly feel that his current physical condition was far from good.
After all, he had not only experienced a body swap with Archer EMIYA due to the excessive use of the Class Card, but he had also relentlessly pushed his body and magical power in battle after battle, meaning his body had already reached its limit.
No matter what, the so-called Magic Circuits are merely one type of organ in the body.
Just as the heart feels uncontrollable pain after strenuous exercise, so too do the Magic Circuits, and there's even a possibility of necrosis from overuse.
Fortunately, Kiritsugu had taught him about such situations during his magecraft training in his youth. As long as he stops using his Magic Circuits for a very long period, this special bodily organ will gradually toughen up enough to barely withstand that level of magical power.
Humans are the type of creatures that can continuously adapt in order to survive. Perhaps only then can he truly use the power belonging to Archer EMIYA.
However, Emiya Shirou himself did not know how long this adaptation would take.
Waving his hand to make Kanshou and Bakuya dissipate into blue particles, Emiya Shirou began to try and approach her.
Yotsuya Miko subconsciously wanted to keep her distance, but when she remembered that this was the first person she had met who could eliminate a powerful evil spirit, she immediately stopped and instead asked with curiosity, "So, are you an exorcist?"
"An exorcist? No, if I had to say, my profession should be a magus practitioner, which shouldn't be related to anything like exorcism, right?" Since the truth had already been seen by the other party, Emiya Shirou chose not to conceal it.
"Magus practitioner... like a wizard who uses fire magic?"
"Kamen Rider Wizard?"
Yotsuya Miko thought of a tokusatsu show she had once watched.
"No, it has absolutely nothing to do with that... If I had to say, Magi are old hermits who stay at home researching knowledge, and a so-called magus practitioner is someone who goes against their ideals and uses magecraft to make money or achieve various goals."
In the eyes of ancient magus families, magus practitioners are all rebels who ought to be purged. But when they are needed, these families still don't hesitate to hire a magus practitioner.
All in all, Magi are just a bunch of guys who don't necessarily deserve much reverence.
In fact, the reason most of them wanted to restore the Greater Grail was not to save the world, but because they wouldn't be able to pursue the Root anymore if they died—a ridiculous logic.
As an ordinary person who has no special abilities other than seeing evil spirits, Yotsuya Miko couldn't immediately accept the worldview Emiya Shirou described, but she keenly noticed the key part—
"So, you, also a magus practitioner, will take on exorcism tasks for money, just like an exorcist, right!"
"Well, if you absolutely have to put it that way, then I suppose..."
"Right? Right!"
The eyes that had just been crying were now filled with anticipation, and under a strange gleam, those golden-yellow pupils shone even brighter.
Even though Emiya Shirou considered himself a man who had been abandoned by the ideal of justice and deserved to go to hell, he seemed to have some trouble resisting a sincere request.
A regular girl like her, who can see evil spirits but has no other special ability, would indeed easily run into uncontrollable accidents.
Thinking of this, Emiya Shirou finally relented and sighed, saying, "Then, let's just say that's the case."
"Thank you! But those evil spirits are actually everywhere, and of course, I can't force you to stay by my side as a bodyguard all the time.
It's just that sometimes, an evil spirit will fixate on a person and won't leave. When that happens, I'll rely on you, and I promise I'll pay you well!"
Yotsuya Miko put her hands together in front of her and even bowed deeply to Emiya Shirou.
After discovering that the person was actually quite easy to talk to, her state of mind finally relaxed a lot. Of course, she would absolutely never default on payment; even though she was a high school student without a job, she clearly knew which was more important: money or her life!
"However, I have a question I want to ask you..."
Emiya Shirou knew that he was very likely no longer in his original world, but he still wanted to ask.
"Have you heard of the city of Fuyuki?"
Before Yotsuya Miko could fully speak, Emiya Shirou could still entertain some hope, but that hope was quickly shattered.
"Fuyuki City? Where is that? Is it a city in Japan too?"
Seeing the confused look on Yotsuya Miko's face, Emiya Shirou already knew the answer.
"No, it's fine... I just suddenly wanted to ask."
Even if this was no longer the world he knew, at least the Holy Grail had successfully answered his wish and successfully sent Miyu to a world where she could be happy.
Although it was inevitably sad that he, her older brother, couldn't grow up with Miyu, Emiya Shirou was content as long as she could live happily and healthily.
Moreover, since he was able to come to this world, there must still be a way to go back or to find Miyu.
The simplest deduction is: since there are evil spirits here, does that mean there are people like exorcists or Onmyoji, and are there existences like the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch (Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg) that can travel to another world?
As long as everyone is still alive, and as long as hope remains, Emiya Shirou has no reason to give up.
"You... you look a little unhappy?"
"It's fine, I was just thinking about something."
Sensing that Emiya Shirou shook his head and didn't want to discuss it, Yotsuya Miko immediately changed the subject and told him, "Oh, by the way, my name is Yotsuya Miko, a second-year student at Teitan High School. What about you?"
"Shirou, Emiya Shirou. Currently..."
At this point, Emiya Shirou paused to think about the original site of his school, which was now just a massive crater after the explosion.
"I guess you could say I've dropped out."
.
.
.
After Yotsuya Miko and Emiya Shirou left the meeting point and entered the Tokyo metropolitan area, a sedan driving on the now-empty road precisely stopped nearby.
Two men in black suits walked to the spot where Emiya Shirou had exterminated the evil spirit and carefully examined the surroundings.
"The sensation of residual curse is strong; the cursed spirit must have died recently. Grade 3... maybe even a Grade 2 level."
"But there are no signs of a struggle at the scene, and Headquarters hasn't received any notification."
"So, it's likely an unregistered Grade 2 Sorcerer?"
"Most likely. The residual curse here might attract other cursed spirits. Let's leave for now and report this truthfully to Headquarters."
"Understood."