Chapter 037 [Inverted V] 37

"...In short, we need to hurry up and summarize all the information we have so far."

At Fujimaru Ritsuka's suggestion, Abe Haruaki set up a barrier to block the outside world's perception for everyone, to reduce the possibility of them being discovered by the person in the center of the crossroads as much as possible - as for leaving here to discuss it... this proposal will be rejected by everyone. Of course, they can't just leave this guy behind and prioritize finding the Holy Grail.

"First, let's start with the report from Emiya." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at Emiya and took a deep breath. "I need to combine the information obtained by Emiya to determine whether my speculation is correct. If my speculation is correct, then we may not be able to successfully contact Chaldea before we get the Holy Grail."

"Understood. I'll start then." Emiya glanced at the bloody figure behind him and summarized the information he had collected from the crowd to Fujimaru Ritsuka. "First of all, everyone in Shibuya is repeating the same name - Gojo Satoru."

Emiya recalled what he had seen and heard in the crowd before, and relayed what happened at the edge of the special point to Fujimaru Ritsuka.

People were crowded together, countless hands pounded on the invisible barrier; crying, cursing, and screaming mixed together; however, no matter how chaotic the edge of Shibuya was, everyone kept shouting the same person's name - Gojo Satoru.

——Gojo Satoru! Let Gojo Satoru come over!!!

——Hurry up and find Gojo Satoru!!!

——Who is Gojo?

——I don’t know! But someone said we can’t get out unless we find him!!!

——Hurry up and get Gojo Satoru over here!!!

——Gojo Satoru, Gojo Satoru, Gojo Satoru…Gojo Satoru!!!

"Hmm... a scene like this... there must be some barrier that has trapped them in Shibuya." Fujimaru Ritsuka touched his chin and turned to look at Abe Haruaki. "It looks like there is indeed something threatening them here, so they want to leave here at all costs - no, combined with what I saw, perhaps most of the people in Shibuya are already dead."

"Not most of them - except for the Master, there is no other living person on the ground." Abe Haruaki shook his head, pointing at the blood that was gradually flowing across the zebra crossing and toward the crowd, "The people we saw in front of us, if nothing unexpected happens, should all be puppets made by someone using corpses -"

"These puppets, together with the changes that the Holy Grail has brought to the environment of the singularity, have restored Shibuya to the way it was before everything happened."

As Abe Haruaki finished speaking, everyone saw threads of magic connecting each piece of shattered flesh and blood - and the source of these threads was deep underground.

"Should we go directly underground, or should we deal with the guy on the ground first, Master?" Abe Haruaki opened his folding fan and held it in front of him. He half-closed his eyes and smiled to ask for Fujimaru Ritsuka's opinion. "I think there will be an 'old guy' in the underground waiting for us to visit her - of course, this person is the culprit who holds the Holy Grail and created the entire anomaly."

"I can be sure of this - because according to the clues brought back by Emiya, what prevents people from leaving Shibuya is undoubtedly a boundary barrier set up by someone." Abe Haruaki's eyes revealed an inhuman cold look, and he looked straight at the place where the magic threads gathered downward. "This special point must have a guy who has been active since the Heian period."

Ritsuka Fujimaru withdrew her gaze, closed her eyes, and felt the Shibuya Anomaly that had completely turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood - she remembered the building she had seen before, the interior of which was almost covered in blood.

The emergency passage was almost completely covered with dried dark brown bloodstains - however, Fujimaru Ritsuka could still distinguish various distinct traces from these bloodstains.

——That's a footprint, that's a palm print... Ah, someone must have been injured, there's dripping blood here, and there's what looks like a splash of blood after an artery injury. Not only did the blood stains reappear after drying, but someone also walked by before it dried... Or rather, there was fresh blood covering the half-dried blood stains.

"I have a guess." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at her servants and elaborated on her guess about the anomaly. "I think there is a cycle inside this anomaly - the cycle will not change the real material changes. For example, humans will not be resurrected after death. Even if the dead are not injured in the new cycle, they will turn back into corpses when a certain time point arrives."

"Just like Shibuya at this moment, in front of us, it has finally changed from a normal state to a sea of ​​blood and corpses."

"...It has something to do with time." Abe Haruaki looked at the blood moon in the night sky and switched his spirit base to the final stage. "The condition for this anomaly to trigger a cycle is related to time. Regardless of the other clues collected before, at least the change in the anomaly started with the commotion among the crowd - then, Emiya, I want to ask you, what did you notice in the area where the commotion first occurred?"

"Or, did you see anything?"

When Wei Gong rushed back to the crossroads, he deliberately chose a route that passed through the area where the commotion first occurred - but when he arrived at the scene, there were only broken limbs scattered all over the ground, and blood was flowing on the ground, painting the already dried dark brown bloodstains with a fresher and more brilliant color.

However, Emiya did not find any possible cause of the disturbance there.

“…No, I didn’t see anything.” Emiya answered Abe Haruaki’s question.

"If it's about time, I think the time inside the anomaly would be a better basis." Fujimaru Ritsuka raised his hand and pointed to the screen showing the time not far away. "The time when the riot occurred in Shibuya was 20:31. Regardless of whether this time can be used as an anchor point, it is definitely an important node."

"Master, since we have confirmed that a loop has occurred in the anomaly—" Okita Souji looked at the figure with four arms at the center of the intersection behind him and asked Fujimaru Ritsuka for his opinion on the next move, "Then... what should we do next?"

"Since it is a cycle of time, there must be a representative ending that connects to the initial time point." Fujimaru Ritsuka retracted his gaze and began to seriously think about countermeasures. "However, this cycle will affect our memory - and we have to come up with the most effective solution within a limited time..."

"The memory must be preserved." Abe Haruaki took over the unfinished words of Fujimaru Ritsuka, and gathered a magical glow in his hands, "The guy at the center of the intersection must be dealt with, right, Master? And in this cycle, even if it becomes as if nothing has ever happened at the beginning..."

"But the dead will not truly resurrect." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the bloody figure with a determined look, "Lord Haruaki, we need to prepare a magic that can preserve memories in a loop - if there is a trigger condition, let me think... How about using the number of Command Spells as the trigger condition for the hint magic?"

"I don't recommend choosing something related to magic as the triggering condition." Abe Haruaki rejected Fujimaru Ritsuka's suggestion with an ugly face, and tapped his eye sockets with his folding fan. "My eyes are the Thousand-eyed Eyes that can see everything in the present, but before the abnormality occurred, even it was blinded by the Holy Grail of this special point."

"I think that this special Holy Grail may also disguise the Command Seals as their original form after the cycle begins."

"Then, let's use this intersection as the trigger condition." Fujimaru Ritsuka closed his eyes and signaled Abe Haruaki to remove the magic of hiding the crowd. "It's just that the concept of 'Shibuya Crossroads' is used as the condition for triggering the magic of suggestion. No matter what it was before the abnormality or what it is now, as long as it is still 'Shibuya Crossroads', it can trigger the magic of suggestion."

As the magic was lifted, the figure at the center of the intersection walked towards the crowd without a doubt - as if attracted by the breath of the only living person standing here, it stepped over the piles of corpses and blood with a clear goal and walked towards the crowd.

"May Hades protect you."

Ritsuka Fujimaru turned out a black rune stone and blessed Okita Souji with a brief immortality - long before that bloody figure arrived in front of everyone, Ritsuka Fujimaru had already stacked strengthening blessings on the cherry-haired Saber, and used a Command Spell to provide Saber with enough magic power to directly activate the Noble Phantasm.

"Ms. Okita, the treasure is released!!!"

"Leave it to me, Master!!!"

Souji Okita took a deep breath, calmed himself, spread his legs, held the sword tightly in his hand, and made the opening move of his fatal sword technique towards the enemy - at the same time, Abe Haruaki was setting up a suggestion magic for Fujimaru Ritsuka to counter the Holy Grail's cyclic memory retention; Emiya was guarding beside the two of them to prevent any accidents from happening.

"This is something that must not be forgotten—" The Great Onmyoji cast a hint of magic on the Lord of the Underworld's body, "Hurry up and obey the command!!!"

"Hu...Hu...It's okay. I can do it."

Wearing a light green haori, Okita Souji calmly closed her eyes, sensing everything around her, and transformed this information into the basis for swinging her sword to release her Noble Phantasm. People's impression of her is mainly that of a genius swordsman who was sickly and died young, and sometimes even the impression of her being sickly is more deeply rooted in people's minds than the impression of her being a genius.

——But it’s okay. I am now a heroic spirit. Even if my illness still troubles me, I can no longer confine myself to my sickbed like I did in the past.

——As long as the Master can still issue orders, as long as the spirit core is not completely destroyed, as long as I can still mobilize this body...

——That’s enough.

——I will always swing the sword in my hand for the Master, as the Master's Servant.

Okita Souji opened her eyes, and in her amber vertical pupils was the same cold and sharp murderous intent as when she was a Mibu Wolf in her previous life. As the spell to release the Noble Phantasm's True Name rang out in her mouth, the silver-glowing blade of Kikuichimonji Norimune also sank deeply into the heart of the bloody figure.

"One step beyond the sound, two steps without gaps, three steps to the ultimate sword!... Three steps of Wuming's attack!!"