The next day
Shirou and Saber went to the throne room to talk to Hakuno Kishinami
Hakuno: Shirou, welcome back
Shirou: Im back, Hakuno, I want to continue the discussion we had two days ago
Hakuno: so you still want me to help earth huh?
Shirou: of course, I cannot just ignore the suffering they're feeling right now, I have to help them
Hakuno: hmm, so you're really a hero of justice huh? A person who saves everyone... it's a bit ironic if you ask me, but also, it's a beautiful dream, so sad it can't become a reality
Shirou: what do you mean?
Hakuno: Saving everyone is just impossible, you want to be a hero of justice, but justice is on itself cruel and unfair. If you want to save everyone, this also means saving the bad people, the people who cause problems to the world. If you are selective and just save the good people you set aside justice, and if you save even the bad people you're no longer a hero, you can see the contradiction
Shirou: I know that, but even if it's impossible, even so I need to try
Hakuno: hmm, thats a good determination you have there, you are decided to keep on living a dream you yourself know is impossible to achieve, it's kind of inspiring even, but even so I cannot help you
Shirou: why? Why is it so difficult? If you have the power shouldn't you use it for what is right? If you have so much power why not use it to save the people?
Hakuno: because I trust earth, I trust they can grow up again, more unified and strong than ever, that's why I limit myself to watch over seraph, that's my role
Shirou: I see, so you choose your kingdom over the people on earth, I can understand why, but there's one thing I don't get
Hakuno: hmm? What is it?
Shirou: aren't you from earth too?
In that moment Hakuno's eyes opened wide in shock, then he closed them, made a deep sigh and said
Hakuno: ...sadly, earth was never my home, unlike you I'm not human, and unlike my people I'm not npc, I'm just a glitch in the system that has been given the role to look after seraph and that's what I'm planning to do
Shirou: you...
Hakuno: well that took long enough, sorry but I can't help earth, I gotta go, I have things to do, but we can talk later, you can stay here any time you want so don't worry
Hakuno then left the room leaving Shirou and saber in the throne room, then a familiar face showed up
Nero: please watch your tongue outsider
Shirou: huh?
Nero: my praetor has been through a lot to be where he is right now, and you have no right to order him around, if you want to save earth that's good, but my praetor has no responsibility over what happens to earth
Shirou: ...
Nero: well if you want to talk with him he's in the back, he should tell you
Shirou went to the back room to find Hakuno sitting in a desk with a lot of green computer screens around him.
Shirou: Hakuno
Hakuno: hmm? Oh if it's Shirou again, do you need anything?
Shirou: please tell me, who are you? Or more importantly, what are you?
Hakuno: ...
Shirou: ...
Silence ruled until Hakuno spoke
Hakuno: ...999
Shirou: huh?
Hakuno: that was the number of masters in my holy grail war
Shirou: 999 masters? That's too much!
Hakuno: of course it was, from 999 masters, only two survived, one of them was Rin Tohsaka, and the other one was me
Shirou: ...
Hakuno: you were also sent to the holy grail war without giving you the choice, just like me, but tell me, how many masters did you kill?
Shirou: eh?
Hakuno: 7, I killed 7 masters in the holy grail war, I didn't have memories about my life on earth, I was sent here to fight a war and forced to kill other masters to survive
Hakuno told Shirou his story, a boy who had amnesia and entered the moon cell holy grail war with no memories about himself, forced to fight a war and kill to survive
He just wanted to live, even if he had no wish to ask to the grail, even if he had nothing to live for after the war, he wanted to survive, and so thanks to his servant saber he won the grail war after killing 7 people
After the war he found out about Twice H Pieceman and how he had been forcing war on earth using the moon cell, Twice told Hakuno about his true identity, a being that shouldn't exist, a remanent of a person that lived on earth long ago and now his soul wanders on the moon cell
Hakuno stopped Twice and saved earth from the wars that he started, and used his wish to stop future holy grail wars on the moon. And so how the moon cell chose him to save seraph from the umbral Star, and how he's now the ruler and sovereign, living in peace with his most precious people
Hakuno: ...and so here I am, that's the story of how I arrived here, it's nothing much but it's somehow important to me
Shirou: ...
Shirou was at a loss for words, he had a beautiful dream because he was saved by his father Emiya Kiritsugu and could live peacefully on earth after that, but when Hakuno was in trouble, nobody saved him, there was nobody there for him, and so he almost died, alone, nobody gave him the chance to live peacefully or to have dreams
And when arriving at the moon cell he was forced to kill or die, he didn't have a dream, his only wish was to live, to survive, to see another day, and after all of that he was finally able to live peacefully in the moon
Shirou: I get it, you went through a lot to be here, finally able to choose your own destiny
Hakuno: that's right, every master that I fought in the war taught me something, I'm who I am right now thanks to them, but I was also the one that killed all of them
Shirou: I see, sorry, I insulted you before, I shouldn't have pressed on, I'm sorry
Hakuno: it's alright, I don't feel insulted at all, more importantly...
Shirou: hmm?
Hakuno: how is Rin doing right now? It's been a while since I last saw her
Shirou: well, she's as energetic as ever, she entered the clock tower school on magic and mage craft, so she's doing fine
Hakuno: oh, I see, man, I kinda miss her by now, she helped me a lot in the grail war and I wanted to thank her properly
Shirou: well that would be difficult, but I'm sure she'll come here sometime
Hakuno: yeah, I hope so as well
Hakuno and Shirou talked for about an hour, Shirou told Hakuno about earth, Hakuno told Shirou about the moon cell, they both illustrated the other in the world the other doesn't know. Everything was fine until...
*pum* *door opens*
Nero: praetor, this is bad!
Hakuno and Shirou went to the throne room to find Cu Chulainn and Gawain standing there, both heavily wounded
Hakuno: what happened? Are you two ok?
Lancer: ah, he got us good, I didn't expect such brute strength
Gawain: I agree, he was a formidable opponent
Nero: you two, please explain the situation
Lancer: you see, we were patrolling the zero dark area for a while, until we found something we hadn't seen for a while, enemy programs
Hakuno: enemy programs...? But velber shouldn't be around here anymore...
Gawain: that's not all, enemy programs always have a general, we were able to find the general of the troops that we found
Hakuno: he's the one who did this to you?
Lancer: exactly, he was big, he must be a powerful heroic spirit, we fought him for a while, and with my spear I was actually able to kill him
Gawain: but that wasn't enough, even after dying he came back to life, I used Galatine to kill him again but the same happened. After that, none of our attacks worked again on him
Hakuno: dammit, if such a servant came here without notice...
Shirou: wait... came back to life...? Was he using a giant stone sword?
Lancer: hmm? He indeed was. Wait, do you know something about this boy?
Shirou: if my supposition is correct, he's berserker, the berserker I fought in my holy grail war
Hakuno: what...?
Shirou: his true name is Heracles, he has the ability god hand, that allows him to have 13 lives, once he gets killed he can come back to life and develop a resistance to the weapon he was killed with
Hakuno: now that's broken, we should use someone with a variety of weapons... is archer available?
Nero: he must be, should I call him?
Hakuno: please do, we need as much power as we can get. Shirou, how did your berserker die?
Shirou: Saber and I killed him taking various lives at once, but archer took the others
Hakuno: good, if he can be killed then there shouldn't be a problem, the problem is the cause
Nero: you're thinking what I'm thinking?
Hakuno: Yeah, the moon cell is completely united after the last incident, we don't have wars and the only one with the regalia is me, so that only leaves us with one other possibility
Nero: Velber
Shirou: Velber? The umbral Star you told me about?
Hakuno: yeah, Velber assimilates the moon cell system and creates void cells that consume the moon cell from the inside, this can create enemy programs, the servant invocation is new though...
Nero: I actually have a theory, maybe the fact that Shirou Emiya is here may be the trigger to Velber's reactivation
Hakuno: that might be correct, Velber could've copied the memories of Shirou and use them to summon servants and control them, it's concerning that only the remnants of the umbral Star can do this, but it's our best bet
Nero: umu, but even though we don't know the cause something here is for sure
Hakuno: yeah... the umbral star's back
The room felt in silence and tension, as the servants that already fought the forces of the umbral Star had a serious look
Hakuno: Altera should stay here, we shouldn't take her to the zero dark, and so we need the strongest servants we can get
Nero: umu, I agree
Hakuno: but first we need to go see "her"
Nero: eh? Praetor, you're not talking about...
Hakuno: yeah, the more the better, if she helps us then we should have a good advantage
Nero: ggghhh, even though I don't agree you do have a point
Shirou: hmm? Who are you talking about?
Hakuno: we're talking about the ruler of the Millenium capital and my second servant, caster, true name, Tamamo no Mae
To be continued...