Walking in the Question and Answer System of Heroic Spirits

Kirei Kotomine gazed at Shirou Emiya with amusement: "Shirou Emiya, may I ask you a question? Do you think you can defeat your own Servant?"

"Huh?"

Shirou Emiya was taken aback. What a strange question.

No matter how I think about it, I could never be a match for a Heroic Spirit.

"Even with Servants, it's difficult to defeat them. So what should we do? It's a very simple and obvious question, isn't it?"

Kirei Kotomine begins to manipulate Shirou Emiya, revealing a cruel truth to him.

"No matter how powerful a Servant is, once the Master is defeated, the Servant will disappear. In other words..."

As expected, Shirou Emiya immediately understood.

"Defeating the Master is clearly more efficient than defeating a Heroic Spirit."

At this moment, his heart became exceptionally heavy.

He recalled that Saber had also wanted to kill Rin Tohsaka outright.

Having experienced the Holy Grail War, Saber couldn't possibly be unaware of these unspoken rules.

Koles: "Won't saying these things at this time make Shirou Emiya feel afraid?"

Fujimura Taiga: "Shirou isn't such a coward!"

Red A: "Hmph, it might be a good thing if he really quits because he's afraid."

Feng Xi: "Hehe, do you really think so?"

Red A: "???"

Red A: "What do you mean?"

Feng Xi: "I'm just reminding you not to be so naive when it comes to things."

[Shirou Emiya: "So, what if the Servant is defeated first? Wouldn't a Master who loses their Servant be worthless?"]

[Kirei Kotomine: "No, as long as Master's Command Seals remain, Master's rights remain."]

Next, Kirei Kotomine briefly recounted the events of the previous four Holy Grail Wars to the other party.

Emiya Shirou was naturally very surprised upon hearing this.

This cruel ritual, which takes lives solely for one's own desires, has already been performed four times!

[Kirei Kotomine: "The Holy Grail Wars that have been repeated in the past have all been incredibly brutal. Masters, driven by their own desires, have engaged in indiscriminate killing."]

"Indiscriminate killing!? What if the person who obtains the Holy Grail is an utterly wicked individual?"

Emiya Shirou was stunned.

In other words, almost all the magicians who participated in the Holy Grail War had lives on their hands.

[Like myself, most ordinary people who accidentally stumbled upon a magicians' battle are probably...]

In an instant, Shirou Emiya felt a surge of anger welling up inside him.

[Anger towards magicians, anger towards the evil ritual of the Holy Grail War.]

Zabizi: "Isn't this just stirring things up?"

Blonde Rin: "Remove the 'ba' part, and you're just stirring things up."

Weber: "However, although Kirei Kotomine's motives were impure, what he said was all true."

Second Prince: "So, it's best to end this ridiculous competition completely."

Seeing that the situation had been sufficiently stirred up, Kirei Kotomine revealed his true intentions.

"We have no power to stop the Master chosen by the Holy Grail, after all, it's an all-powerful Grail that can grant any wish. If you don't want that to happen, Shirou Emiya, you just need to win it yourself."

"At least, if you get the Holy Grail, it won't fall into the hands of those who indiscriminately kill innocent people, right?"

The seeds of joy have been sown; now it's time to wait for them to bloom and be harvested.

"I...have no reason to fight."

Shirou Emiya's feelings were quite complicated at this moment.

[I hate those magicians who indiscriminately kill innocent people, I hate the Holy Grail War being held here, but should I let him join in and take the lives of strangers too?]

[To avoid making others cry, some people choose to cause their deaths...]

[Shirou Emiya is not mentally prepared for this yet.]

【"oh?"】

Kirei Kotomine was somewhat surprised.

[Since he's put it this way, a normal teenager shouldn't be so enraged as to say he can't stand idly by, right?]

It seems this kid isn't as easy to fool as I thought.

It's okay; the harder someone is to fool, the more delicious the pleasure will be in the end.

Kiritsugu Emiya: "...Not bad, at least he's not like those chuunibyou youths who, after being encouraged by a few words, think they can save everything."

Emiya Shirou: "(Oh no, I don't know what to say)"

He has always been a very rational person; being a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur) is a far cry from him.

Shinji, on the other hand, sometimes seems quite chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur).

["So who will get the Holy Grail, and what will the one who gets it do...?"]

Kirei Kotomine continued to tempt her, "Or perhaps the other party used the Holy Grail to cause some horrific catastrophe, you wouldn't be interested in that, would you?"

【"this..."】

[Shirou Emiya wavered, but he remained somewhat confused and unable to make a decision.]

"If there's no reason, that's fine too."

Kirei Kotomine turned around, deciding to unleash his ultimate weapon.

"You don't care about what happened ten years ago anymore?"

Rin Tohsaka: "This guy, he really is bringing this up."

Feng Xi: "After all, this is the only thing that can make Emiya Shirou make up his mind."

"Ten years ago!"

As expected, upon hearing this, Shirou Emiya completely changed, his eyes becoming sharp and serious.

[Kirei Kotomine: "That's right. Ten years ago, at the end of the last Holy Grail War, a Master unworthy of the Holy Grail touched it. We don't know what his wish was; all we know is that after that shocking disaster, everything was reduced to ruins."]

[Emiya Shirou: "Could that be...?"]

The fire that destroyed the city, initially thought to be of unknown cause, turned out to be a calamity left over from the Holy Grail War, a disaster caused by the magicians.

A magical ritual took so many lives, including their own parents.

Rin Tohsaka: "This guy is quite good at confusing concepts."

Waver: "Although it doesn't seem like he's lying, he's shifting all the blame onto Kiritsugu Emiya."

Fiore: "I can already guess what will happen next. At the crucial moment, she will tell Shirou Emiya that this Master is his father, Kiritsugu Emiya, thus sending him to hell."

Rin Tohsaka: "That's exactly the kind of thing that this pleasure-seeking monster would do."

[Kirei Kotomine: "Choose, Shirou Emiya! Decide now whether you will participate in this Holy Grail War."]

[Video paused.]

[Question: What choice will Shirou Emiya make?]

[A: Choose to join the Fifth Grail War and try to prevent potential destruction.]

[B: Choose to give up, relinquish your status as a master.]

[You have 1 minutes to answer the questions. Please begin now.]

Rin Tohsaka: "Do we even need to choose a question?"

Weber: "Strange, is this a bonus question for newcomers?"

Seeing how simple the question was, everyone in the group was at a loss for words.

Artoria: "Feng Xi, this question should be A, right?"

"..."

Feng Xi did not rush to make a choice, but instead fell into thought.

This question seems to be a trap.

Chapter 425 - A Moment's Mistake Leads to Death

This question is described as a multiple-choice question, but it doesn't seem to specify whether it's a single-choice or multiple-choice question.

Moreover, he remembered that there was indeed a bad ending in the game where Shirou Emiya gave up participating in the Holy Grail War.

After trying it out, Feng Xi found that he could choose both options, and he immediately felt more confident.

Good heavens, so that's what they were waiting for.