We open with a man drinking coffee in a café. To many, he would look like a normal patron. However, if one is well acquainted with the Moonlit world, one would recognize this man immediately.

  Kiritsugu Emiya, the Magus Killer. He is an infamous man known for his heretical use of modern weaponry and deadly skills. He was the Master of Saber in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

  One would wonder why he was in Germany, supposedly taking a break. On the contrary, Kiristugu is on the hardest mission of his life: saving his daughter.

  The stakes are higher than ever, and he has a major handicap. At the end of the Holy Grail War, Kiristugu learned of its true nature. Angra Mainyu corrupted it, and thus all wishes made from the Grail became twisted and destructive. Because of that, Kiristugu decided to destroy the Holy Grail with Saber.

  When he did that, the Grail exploded, spewing out the curse of Angra Mainyu. They infected Kiristugu, and it's slowly killing him. There is no saving him; he could only st longer.

  Kiristugu knew saving Illya would be difficult, but now it's impossible. He decided to take a break and go back to the drawing board. He was going back to his hotel room when Kiristugu noticed the newspaper for the week. That brings us here.

  “KID GENIUS'S TRAGIC PAST”

  “Last week, the world learned of the genius known as Shirou Emiya as he changed the scientific world.”

  "Recently, a book was written by him that reveals a shocking truth.”

  “In November of this year, a tragedy known as the Fuyuki Fire ravaged the city of Fuyuki.”

  “The lives lost and buildings destroyed were staggering.”

  “Many thought that nobody lived through this grievous event until now.”

  “Shirou recounts the events as ‘a true miracle.’”

  “‘I didn't think I would live. When I woke up in a hospital bed, I thought, ‘Is this real?’”

  “Many news outlets have wanted an interview with him, but he has politely refused.”

  "However, he has been going across Japan to colleges and universities to do public speaking.”

  Kiristugu closed the newspaper and put it aside. This raised some eyebrows. He knows the kid; that's his adopted son.

  So how did the boy obsessed with always doing a good deed become a genius and write a book?

  He should go back to Japan soon.

  (...)

  Kuzuki Souichirou is not a normal person. Anyone who's met or seen him would say that he seemed off. Nobody truly knows why or how far his abnormalities go.

  In truth, Kuzuki Souichirou is an assassin. He was trained from birth to be a killer and a tool. Even among his peers, he was strange. A ck of emotional expression and a quick understanding of the teachings made him stand above the rest.

  He did not have any friends. Most were dissuaded from even trying to talk to Kuzuki because of his tall and imposing figure, his bnk expression, and, though they did not know it, his unconscious intuition of a deadly threat.

  It was inevitable; the twenty-year-old assassin did not move like a human. Rather, he moved too humanly—exactly how a human should move. Incredible athletes have glimpses of this: an economy of movement, a deepness of breath, and a rexed, almost predatory gait. But only a glimpse.

  In the eastern region of the world, this is referred to as the technique of Breathing and Walking. Some sects of monks would spend their entire lives training to do what Kuzuki did naturally.

  It wasn't an inborn trait, at least not for him. It was a hard-earned talent gained after a childhood of training that any country worth its salt would call "barbaric" for its mortality rates of 20% if Kuzuki had to guess. Most weren't aware of its existence, of course. Not unless they utilized their agents.

  The Brotherhood would disapprove of fgrant publicity and would respond to leaks most unfavourably.

  Currently, he is on a long-term assignment. Kuzuki is acting as a college student to get close to a target.

  "Css, we'll be having a guest speaker today," the attractive thirty-something philosophy professor of this css announced excitedly. "A worldwide celebrity from our side of the world, I'm sure you've heard of him. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to today's guest speaker, published author and award-winning scientist Emiya Shirou!"

  A boy with bright red hair and fair skin steps onto the stage.

  ‘This is the speaker. He’s quite young.' Kuzuki thought to himself. It seems he isn't the only one, as he hears people murmuring about it.

  "...Emiya Shirou is speaking HERE, of all pces. He could go anywhere he wants, to Tokyo even..."

  "He lives in Fuyuki... I saw him shopping once; he was actually really nice, a bit cold though..."

  "...Can you imagine what it must be like to be a millionaire at that age? He's probably stuck up..."

  "...he is so CUTE!" One female cssmate squealed at her friends.

  Kuzuki thought what would be said wouldn't be important, so he started pnning what to do next. That was until his instincts went off.

  His eyes immediately went to the source of danger: the boy on the stage. Shirou was giving the professor what seemed to be a sincere smile.

  "Thank you for letting me speak in front of your css, Fujitaka-san. I am humbled by the opportunities I receive to pass down the knowledge I have," the boy said.

  Meanwhile, Kuzuki's mind was going haywire. His instincts flew out of control with Shirou's every movement. The way he reached out to shake the older woman's hand was innocent. It was like a fox pying with a dog before the pack attacked it.

  The assassin had to restrain himself. Nevertheless, his grip left imprints on the wooden desk. His heart beat so loudly in his ear that he was sure the killer could hear from the other end of the room. Panic started to cloud his mind before Kuzuki calmed himself.

  'How can none of them notice?' He wondered almost furiously. That was a stupid question and ridiculous to contempte.

  These people are soft and ignorant of the shadows that leered out at them from beyond their carefully sequestered worlds. Still, their untrained instincts should at least understand the warning Kuzuki had given through his body nguage. Could they not also feel the aura of death he brought into the room upon his entry?

  His gaze quickly darted across the room with experience. The focus could only belong to that of an assassin. But from where? Is he from the Brotherhood too? Or another organization?

  He looks short, even mounted on a box behind the podium that the professor had set up.

  The boy's silver eyes quickly scanned the faces before him, and Kuzuki felt them pause on him.

  Surprise.

  Worry.

  Expectance.

  Familiarity.

  Was he shown a picture? Of course, they had. The procedure had to be followed.

  "Hello everyone," Emiya began, his voice carrying an authority and depth Kuzuki hadn't expected in a boy so young. Neither had the rest of the audience, because he felt them sit up straighter.

  "I doubt I'm what you expected as a guest speaker. You probably expect someone whose feet don't hang out in the air when they sit on a chair." Some chuckles are had as the boy shakes one of his legs out to highlight his point. "But I promise you all that I'm qualified, at least to talk about today's subject. The wonderful Miss Fujitaka informed me you're currently on existentialism for this quarter. Is that right?"

  A few overexcited girls said yes far too loudly to be appropriate.

  "I'll take that as confirmation then. Some of you might already know this, but I recently published an autobiography." Some ughter from students interrupted him. A slow nod showed that he understood the sentiment. "Ridiculous, I know. I have yet to hit double digits. Regardless, I believe that there is just as much wisdom to be learned from the young as from the old. Some people experience more in twenty years than others would in seventy, and some experiences demand to be told,” the ughter stopped. There was practically no sound other than Shirou’s voice.

  “The name of my book is ‘Through the Fire: Finding Purpose In Tragedy’. I’m sure you've all heard of the Fuyuki Fire. The entire Shinto district was destroyed, and out of the hundreds dead, I was the only survivor.” Everyone’s face shifted. The atmosphere became serious and sombre.

  Emiya continued, his eyes both distant and not. Kuzuki knew that while whatever would come out of the boy’s mouth would be true, it would not be the whole truth.

  “Shortly after I woke up, I was diagnosed with amnesia, which, if you don’t know, is a mental condition that makes the afflicted lose part of or all of their episodic memory through physical or emotional trauma. Put simply, I had and still have no memory of the life I once led. I didn't lose my ability to function, though. I could speak, read, write, and sing Donguri Korokoro. But without a parent or st name to call my own, my identity was left empty. I know of my biological father, but that's only because I attended his funeral after getting a blood test. The doctors are unsure if my memories are suppressed or damaged irreparably. Either way, I don't think I'll be getting them back anytime soon.” This was not said with sadness but instead almost nostalgic and wistful for a time he couldn’t remember.

  "I was very lost and crushed by what I now recognize as a terrible case of survivor's guilt. Which is understandable because how could I survive when everyone else died? Was it because I was lucky? Because of fate? It's absurd. There's nothing special about me. I'm not strong or a better person. Despite that, I'm alive. I'm alive, and everyone else is dead. Because when I walked through the chorus of screams and pleas for help, I did nothing. I walked on. They died, and I went on." As Emiya went on, his breath became more and more shaky.

  Here he smiled bitterly. “The sad truth about life is that it isn’t the brave ones that live on. Being a good person does not entitle one to anything. In reality, the ones who survive are the selfish ones, the ones who’ll steal bread from a cellmate to stave off death in a concentration camp, the ones who’ll eat another human being trapped underground.” A breath. “The ones who’ll watch others burn alive to extend their miserable existence to another second." After that, the already shaky body of Shirou now looked like a stiff breeze could knock him over.

  That was enough to snap everyone out of their reprieve as the students and Ms. Fujitaka noticed what was happening with the boy. The tter was taking action because of it. Kuzuki was fully aware of what was going on.

  'To be able to put everyone in a trance-like state is an ability I was not aware of. Was the canceltion of that intentional or not?' Kuzuki wondered. 'He has also been somewhat genuine throughout the presentation. Whenever Emiya-san looked at me, it was defensive, like he was preparing himself for if I made a move. Could he possibly not be after me?'

  Ms. Fujitaka grabbed Shirou and whispered into his ear. He waved her off and said, "I'm fine."

  "Sorry about that; I didn't realize how much the fire still affected me," the boy said, addressing the crowd. "I assure you all that I am fine enough to continue."

  "After the fire, I isoted myself. I didn't py with anyone. Not when I could hear their horrified screams in my sleep. Those weren’t the only problems I had: anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, sleep disturbances, and mood swings." Emiya listed the symptoms as if he were reading off a chart, clinically with little inflection.

  “The only thing that kept me going was a memory. When my father rescued me from the Fire, I thought his smile would be the st thing I saw. His happiness came from saving one person. It was the smile of a hero.“

  He continued once more, now with certainty in his voice. That proved unnecessary, as the room was already his captive audience. Their ears hung on the edge of his lips, on the rhythm of his speech, on the painfully honest ring of his story. They were all trapped on this ride with him, and they could not escape it until they could stop the beating of their hearts.

  “It’s the job of every human to give meaning to their own lives. No greater entity will make your life worth living. Nothing is absolute. Morality has been bent and broken as an idea and concept. If you don’t decide what makes you human after everything becomes ash and the sun explodes, then you will have values assigned to you. You’ll fall through life. Your body may stand straight, but your spirit will always be drowning at the mercy of the swell and crash of powers beyond your control."

  The boy's eyes were filled with a raging fire. His voice held the groan of machinery, the sound of cshing bdes, and the roar of a beast. With that, the css leaned forward.

  "You are the creator of your reality. The world you live in is the result of your perceptions, an illusion created by your mind to connect with the world. You are the master of these perceptions and, thus, your world. You decide what has value and what doesn't. You decide what's worth achieving and what's a waste of time. You get one life; what do you do with that? That is your sole purview."

  Emiya takes a breath, and the sounds are gone. The silence was deafening.

  "The world is an absurd pce. Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and most absurd of all, good or bad doesn't exist outside of your skull. That's what makes humans exceptional. We can see the world as it should be instead of what it is. We aren’t bound by reality. The grey area between human nature and the terrible silence of the world makes us who we are. The human mind's goal isn’t to model itself after the natural world; instead, it seeks to model the natural world after itself."

  “Do not forget: your dreams, ideals, and values can change the world. The road to the ideal self is not a one-way road. So go out and find yourself and ugh as the world groans against you. But know that it is unforgiving and brutal, so be proud as you witness it bend itself in your image,” Shirou finished with a soft smile.

  The boy stepped down from the ptform. No one cpped. In the silence, you could have heard a pin drop.

  “I’m sorry, but I have an appointment to attend to. Unfortunately, there's no time to ask questions. If you're interested in learning more about my philosophy or want help developing your own, please buy my book. All proceeds go towards disaster relief around the world."

  As he exited the room, the css broke into cheers, cps, and whistles.

  Kuzuki watched the door sm shut, feeling acutely the emptiness inside his soul.

  This will not be the st time he meets Emiya Shirou. Of that, he was certain.