After dinner, he went out to play with Sakura. She hopped happily ahead, glancing back at him with a smile. But his mind was swirling with ideas on how to escape this dream.
They passed by the seaside park near the pier warehouse - the first battle site of the Holy Grail War. But with the war over, it had turned into a public park filled with food stalls due to the bad economy.
As he went to buy some takoyaki, a hoarse female voice spoke from the side.
"Want your fortune told?"
Glancing over reflexively, he saw an old woman in a black dress and tall black hat behind a red cloth table, with a crystal ball on top.
"No thanks," Shirou declined with a shake of his head. He didn't have time to waste.
The woman laughed. "My fortunes are very accurate."
Observing her closely, he saw that her large hat obscured her face. But she seemed rather old, with long silver hair bundled up, an air of mystery about her.
A common trick for magi. He chuckled to himself. This scene didn't happen in reality. Maybe just a quirk of this dream?
After a moment, he sat down. "How much?"
"I just set up a shop today in Fuyuki, so it's free." The woman gave an eerie chuckle.
Free? Nothing was ever really free! Shirou scoffed to himself. But hey, since this was just a dream, why not.
"You're not from around here, right?" he asked.
"I'm from Mifune."
"Mifune?" He raised an eyebrow. That was the main setting in Kara no Kyoukai. "Since you're from Mifune, do you know a girl named Shiki Ryougi?"
"That's not really relevant for our fortune telling session. But yes, that child did come to me once for a reading."
The fortune teller placed some black cards on the table and gestured for Shirou to pick one. "Go ahead—"
Under the flickering streetlights, the cards looked mysteriously dim and bright.
"These Tarot cards?"
"My own fortune telling cards," she replied.
He randomly picked one. "I'll take this."
The fortune teller nodded and flipped it over. The card showed a doctor in a white coat holding a scalpel.
"The Doctor," she announced the name softly.
"Any special meaning?"
These weren't Tarot but the fortune teller's original cards after all.
"No, just the general one. Your life and destiny are tightly tied to the profession of 'doctor.'" She started gathering the cards as she spoke.
"Why do you say that? Does your Precognition see my future career, Madam Fortune Teller, or should I say Mother of Mifune?" Having realized her identity from Kara no Kyoukai and her association with Shiki Ryougi, he asked.
But she showed no surprise at being recognized. Of course, she had already foreseen this with her precognition. What she couldn't see was what caused this weird dream he was having.
She didn't answer his question but just kept packing up.
"Done with fortunes for today?" Shirou asked.
"This city's market doesn't suit me. I'll head back to Mifune."
He frowned slightly.
After gathering her stuff, Mother of Mifune turned to leave but not before giving him one last piece of advice:
"A doctor saves others yet can't save himself. Pushing others into the light while staying in darkness - that's a doctor's fate."
A clue to escape this dream?
He watched her heading off into the distance, the bright city lights ahead and encroaching darkness behind him.
"Big brother?" Sakura pulled his sleeve worriedly from the unlit side.
Shirou snapped out of it and smiled at her. "It's nothing, Sakura. Let's head home."
"Okay!"
After a good night's sleep, it was back to school as usual. Thinking taking out Wallachia was key to waking from this weird dream, he told Scathach about Dead Apostle Ancestors possibly targeting the remnant of the Grail.
While not naming Wallachia specifically, it still piqued her interest. "How'd you get that info?"
"Just some thinking," he laughed it off.
"You always were a sharp one," she smiled and pinched his nose teasingly much to his annoyance.
Why'd dream-Scathach have this nose-pinching habit?!
Well, having mighty Queen patrol around the Grail was good insurance just in case.
But he knew chances were slim of Wallachia actually showing up, as Wallachia targeting the Grail in reality was due to Shirou stirring things up with his mass resurrection in Fuyuki.
With the Fourth Holy Grail War ending peacefully here...the causal link should've been broken. So logically, Wallachia should have no reason to be in Fuyuki. Yet to his shock, there was actually a Dead Apostle Ancestor near the Grail!
Gáe Bolg in hand, Scathach charged ahead. "Reveal yourself!"
"Oh?"
The man turned and Shirou's eyebrows shot up. It was the Night of Wallachia! Having met him twice in reality, Shirou instantly recognized him.
Impossible! Without the proper causality, why would he be here? Could the dream setting dictate his appearance? Or had he secretly had his eye on the Grail's potential from the start? Shirou didn't know, but Scathach engaged him in combat as soon as she sensed his nature.
Despite Wallachia's formidable abilities as a Dead Apostle Ancestor, Scathach quickly overwhelmed him. Without landing a single hit, Wallachia was speared dead in mere moments.
Shirou moved to stop her but it happened too fast. He had barely opened his mouth before she quickly culled Wallachia.
Flicking the blood off Gáe Bolg, she opened the Gate of Skye and obliterated his remains. Turning to beam at Shirou, she said: "There! All taken care of. Let's head home."
Shirou was speechless at her nonchalance.
She probably had no idea she just ruined Wallachia's carefully crafted master plan and at the same time, ruined Shirou's chance of becoming Eternal King.
What about paradoxes or causal contradictions? As an intellectual, such glaring problems instinctively popped up in Shirou's mind. But well, this was just a dream, no need to overthink it.
Still... Wallachia meeting an early end here was straying from his experiences...and more importantly, how could he break out of this dream now?!
What exactly had to happen for him to escape this dream?
Shirou furrowed his brows, lost in thought.
Scathach took his hand and led him back to Shinto town.
Although some Dead Apostles still lingered in Fuyuki, it wasn't as bad as in reality. As a result, demon hunter families like the Ryougis didn't appear and things were relatively peaceful.
Since Wallachia still showed up in this dream setting, what about the Forest of Einnashe?
Would that Ancestor appear too?
If it did, defeating it - was that the key to escaping this dream?
"What's worrying you again?" Scathach crouched down, her slender fingers smoothing his furrowed brows. She gave a gentle smile. "If something's bothering you, tell your Shishou."
Ah... this woman still hasn't realized that she just destroyed any chance of him becoming Eternal King.
Shirou nodded on the surface but couldn't help thinking silently.
The chance to become Eternal King was killed by Scathach with one spear thrust. However, according to his later research, the legend of the Eternal King was already circulating in this world.
In other words, there was a serious logical/causal bug in this dream world that appeared out of nowhere!
Shirou guessed he might be able to use that bug to escape the dream. Actions spoke louder than words, so he tried revealing his identity to Scathach.
But unfortunately...the dream didn't seem to allow it.
Shirou tried, directly and indirectly...but no matter what, he couldn't tell Scathach or anyone else that he was Eternal King, or anything that happened in reality. Clearly this was a special restriction of the dream. With no other options left, he could only take it one step at a time.
Over the next few days, while Shirou lived a peaceful daily life, he was taken by Scathach to sweep away Dead Apostles in Fuyuki. At the same time, he silently observed his surroundings, looking for any dream bugs.
Of course, there was also an energetic little girl called Taiga following him around.
Taiga was bursting with energy. Her endless "Big Brother, Big Brother!" was giving him a headache.
Of course, that wasn't the main point. The point was he was getting impatient.
His real body lay not far from the Devil's Bodhisattva. Though he knew dreams and reality likely had vastly different time flows—maybe a thousand years could pass here but only a fleeting second there—he understood the longer he was trapped, the greater his danger grew.
With a "cha" Scathach's spear flashed, killing another Dead Apostle that had blended into the crowd.
She used a Primordial Rune, destroying the corpse and eliminating all traces before smiling at him. "That was the last one."
Thanks to her efforts, all infiltrating Dead Apostles in Fuyuki had been killed off over this time. And there was no sign of the Forest of Einnashe in the process either.
Additionally, Scathach and Shirou had interrogated some Dead Apostles and learned why they'd entered Fuyuki. It wasn't for anything else - it was purely because Wallachia had come, so they had come as well.