"Gilgamesh, the person Illya was talking about... was that you?!"
Once Illya finished describing the man she had fought, Professor El-Melloi II hesitated for a moment before staring at Gilgamesh in astonishment.
As someone who had once fought against Gilgamesh during the Holy Grail War, there was absolutely no way he could ever forget those unmistakable golden ripples that appeared in the air and endlessly launched weapons.
There might have been countless strange Noble Phantasms in the world, but that particular method of attack was far too distinctive to mistake for anything else.
"Wait, wait. If that's true..." Iskandar clutched his head as though the amount of thinking required was physically painful.
"Does that mean you stayed behind in that world all this time?"
Gilgamesh said nothing.
He merely remained silent, but in a sense, that silence was already an answer.
Both Iskandar and El-Melloi II were utterly stunned.
Neither of them had ever imagined that after the Holy Grail War ended, Gilgamesh had somehow remained in the modern world for another ten years.
"How... did you manage that?" El-Melloi II eventually asked.
Gilgamesh drew in a faint breath before giving a dismissive snort.
"The Holy Grail. Nothing more."
He offered no further explanation.
Hearing those words, Iskandar and El-Melloi II immediately thought they understood.
The Holy Grail was, after all, supposed to be a wish-granting device capable of realizing virtually any desire, so from their perspective it was perfectly reasonable to assume Gilgamesh had used it to wish for the ability to remain in the modern world.
Of course, that assumption was still wrong.
Gilgamesh had no intention of correcting them.
That particular misunderstanding suited him perfectly well.
"So the reason you want to go there this time..." El-Melloi II slowly connected the remaining pieces and looked toward him with renewed understanding.
"Is because you want to meet the version of yourself from that world?"
The moment he said it, everyone else understood as well.
"So that person actually... is the same person?" Illya asked, sounding slightly dazed.
Rin looked equally stunned. "The previous Holy Grail War happened ten years ago... So the Gilgamesh in our world stayed in the modern era for another ten years after the previous Grail War ended?!"
Gilgamesh drew in a deep breath.
At this point, there was little reason to keep hiding it.
"Correct. That is indeed this king's intention."
He calmly nodded and admitted the truth.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
"So this would be... the future version of someone meeting his past self..." El-Melloi II murmured, immediately sinking into thought.
Iskandar's reaction was considerably simpler.
"Heh. So the 'you' who defeated me back then is still in that world, right?"
A carefree grin spread across the King of Conquerors' face.
Gilgamesh glanced sideways at him and immediately understood what he was thinking.
"Having another ridiculous daydream, are you? No matter how many times you challenge this king, you will remain a defeated opponent. There is no possibility of victory for you."
Iskandar merely laughed with his usual bold confidence.
"Ahahahaha! If a few defeats were enough to make me stop challenging what lies ahead, then I wouldn't deserve the title of King of Conquerors!"
He swept one arm outward, making the cloak behind him billow dramatically. For that brief instant, the peerless spirit of a conqueror was unmistakable.
"When are you planning to go?" El-Melloi II asked.
Gilgamesh's expression changed immediately.
"This king is not bringing either of you. Abandon the idea!"
His answer came with absolute determination.
Taking Enkidu was already more than enough.
There would be no one else.
"Illya, may I visit your world?"
El-Melloi II completely ignored Gilgamesh and turned directly toward the little girl.
Strictly speaking, although he and the two girls came from the same general world, they did not belong to the same point in its timeline.
In El-Melloi II's timeline, the Holy Grail War involving Illya and Rin had already ended long ago, while in the girls' world, that very war was happening right now.
That enormous difference in time effectively made their realities separate worlds.
"Mm!"
Illya smiled and nodded without hesitation.
El-Melloi II nodded in return before glancing calmly toward Gilgamesh.
The look in his eyes practically said everything.
'Since when do I need your permission to visit Illya's world?'
Gilgamesh was furious.
...
"Whew~ It's gotten a little quieter now~"
Yukari gently blew across the surface of the black tea Yuto had just poured for her.
A few strands of golden hair rested softly against her cheeks, making her already striking appearance look even more radiant beneath the restaurant lights.
She glanced toward Yuto, an elegant and captivating smile curling across her lips.
Yuto released a small, helpless breath.
Gilgamesh, Illya, Iskandar, El-Melloi II, Rin, and the others had already left.
Gilgamesh had spent the past several days thinking about traveling to another world anyway, and although everything that happened earlier had thoroughly irritated him, it had not changed his original plan.
If anything, his embarrassment had only made him want to get the entire matter over with as quickly as possible.
So once everything had been settled, he had simply followed Illya directly into her world.
The only real problem was that he had ended up taking considerably more people with him than he originally intended.
"Still, their world sounds pretty interesting." Marisa rested her chin on one hand, her eyes practically sparkling with curiosity.
"You can actually meet another version of yourself there. If I met another me, I wonder what we'd even talk about?"
Reimu gave an irritated snort beside her.
"If there were two Marisas, Gensokyo would probably never know peace again~"
That immediately offended the witch.
"Hey! Reimu!"
With that single shout, the two of them began bickering all over again.
Yuto watched them with a helpless smile before glancing toward Yukari.
She had literally just said things were finally quieter.
And now...
Yukari smiled, then released a soft sigh of her own.
Apparently, even she was helpless.
"Another version of myself, huh..."
Saitama sat off to the side, still thinking about the conversation Gilgamesh and the others had been having earlier.
If there really were another version of himself somewhere out there...
That actually sounded pretty good.
Fighting himself might even be interesting.
The possibility alone was enough to make Saitama seriously consider it.
At that moment, the restaurant door slid open with a soft sound.
Another customer had arrived.
Yuto looked up, and his expression became slightly surprised when he recognized the newcomer.
It was Esdeath.
The last time she had left the restaurant...
Yuuka had...
And now, once again, Yuuka was already sitting inside.
The proud general was still dressed in her fitted military uniform, the fabric clinging closely to her figure.
Combined with her striking beauty and commanding presence, there were very few men who could have resisted looking at her at least once.
Esdeath had originally intended to greet Yuto when she entered.
Then her gaze landed on Yuuka.
Even from behind, there was no possibility of mistaking her.
A cruel smile slowly spread across Esdeath's lips, filled with the untamed savagery of a predator finally catching sight of the prey it had pursued for far too long.
"Since you're already here, you've saved me the trouble of looking for you."
Her voice was low.
Her eyes remained fixed on Yuuka's back, burning with an intensity that seemed almost feverish.
Ferocity and madness mingled together within that gaze.
She had returned!
She had come back after endless slaughter and repeated brushes with death, pushing herself through one battlefield after another for a single purpose.
Kazami Yuuka.
Yuuka calmly turned around.
Although she remained seated, the look she gave Esdeath was incomparably haughty, like a queen looking down upon something far beneath her.
She did not say a word, merely observing the general with detached contempt, as though the woman standing before her were nothing more than an insect that had somehow crawled back into view.
That expression instantly enraged Esdeath.
A crushing sense of humiliation surged through her heart.
Aside from Yuuka, nobody had ever dared look at her like that.
Even the emperor she nominally served would tremble when facing her directly.
"Kazami Yuuka... I've returned from the abyss."
Esdeath forcibly suppressed the emotions surging inside her and tried to speak calmly, but the corners of her mouth were already spreading into an uncontrollable grin, while her breathing gradually became heavier.
"Oh?"
A contemptuous smile appeared on Yuuka's lips.
She raised her pale chin slightly and looked at Esdeath with precisely the same disdain as before.
Nothing had changed.
"Come on! Fight me again!" Esdeath stepped forward, her expression becoming increasingly feverish.
"This time, I'll return the humiliation you gave me last time a hundredfold—a thousandfold!"
When it came to battle and killing, Esdeath had never been the sort of person capable of remaining calm for long.
She remembered the humiliation of her previous defeat with perfect clarity.
Proud as she was, every moment since then had been filled with thoughts of returning everything Yuuka had inflicted upon her.
And now the person she had spent all that time pursuing was standing directly in front of her.
The anger and resentment Esdeath had suppressed for so long finally erupted.
How could she possibly remain calm?
The Gensokyo group watched her with expressions ranging from anticipation and amusement to outright excitement.
Not one of them looked worried.
"You truly believe that?"
Yuuka spoke calmly as she rose from her seat.
No aura erupted from her body.
No overwhelming pressure flooded the room.
She simply stood and looked at Esdeath with the same composed expression she might have worn while discussing something completely trivial.
"How pitifully foolish. It seems you truly are incapable of learning your lesson."
Yuuka slowly walked toward her.
When she reached Esdeath's side, she leaned slightly closer and spoke directly beside the general's ear.
"Not inside the restaurant. Come outside with me."
Yuuka had no intention of continuing the confrontation here.
Doing so might damage the image Yuto had of her.
For now, she was restraining herself.
Once they were outside...
She would have no such reason to continue.
The quiet woman sitting peacefully in the restaurant was only one side of her.
The other was the youkai tyrant who had slaughtered countless beings with her own hands.
"Yuto, I'm taking her to the flower field."
Yuuka turned toward him and spoke so naturally that she almost sounded like the lady of the restaurant informing him that she was stepping out for a while.
Yuto looked at Esdeath, then at Yuuka.
In the end, he helplessly shrugged and nodded.
And just like that, Yuuka and Esdeath left together.
Yuto breathed out quietly.
The same thing had happened last time.
Yuuka and Esdeath had left together in private, and although nothing serious seemed to have happened afterward, Esdeath had certainly looked absolutely terrible when she returned.
"Didn't Yuuka teach her enough of a lesson last time?"
"Maybe... this is what people call an M?"
"Ew—don't suddenly say something like that! That sounds really weird..."
The Gensokyo group immediately began gossiping among themselves.
Yuto's attention, however, had already drifted elsewhere.
Originally, he had planned to accompany Gilgamesh to Illya's world.
He was also curious to see those legendary Heroic Spirits for himself, and as an ordinary human being, it was only natural to feel fascinated by figures whose names had been passed down throughout history for centuries or even millennia.
Unfortunately, the restaurant had plenty of customers tonight, and both Erina and Hisako had taken leave.
There was simply no way he could spare the time.
'Wonder how things are going over there... I really wish I could've gone to see it myself.'
Yuto quietly thought to himself.
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