Fate/Magus Path

71 Perfect Compensation

A dream, still a dream.

What kind of hellish scene is this again?

Shiki Ryougi couldn't help but wonder.

What surprised her, however, was that the scene presented this time was not hellish like before, and she was no longer the protagonist of the dream.

In the next moment, her mind suddenly became much clearer, and the memories suppressed before flooded back to her.

"Roy..."

The figure of that man overlapped with the ghostly face in the dream.

Before she could think much more, the enormous water mirror before she began to play out the life of Shiki Ryougi, which, according to Roy's words, should be... Kara no Kyoukai.

Familiar faces, familiar figures.

The girl named Shiki Ryougi lived a life identical to her own.

Whether it was her grandfather's last words or another Shiki Ryougi, this version of Shiki Ryougi had everything the same as hers.

She had a calm and indifferent temperament, began practicing swordsmanship at a young age, then went to school, and life continued as usual. If it weren't for the subtle differences between them, Shiki would even feel that this was her own life flashing before her eyes just before she died.

However, a change finally occurred at some point in that unchanging life.

This was also the divergence point of her fate.

Although their past lives were the same, this Shiki Ryougi did not encounter the strange guy named Roy that day after school.

She continued to live a two-point-one-line life just like before.

Until not long after...

In a downpour, another Shiki Ryougi found herself before the decapitated corpse of herself, drowning in deep self-doubt.

Everything was just as presented in that earlier dream; this Shiki also believed that SHIKI had seemingly committed murder...

So she began to evade and flee until she met the magus named Touko Aozaki, as well as a boy named Mikiya Kokutou.

Things were developing smoothly, but the figure of Roy did not exist in this world.

Because Shiki always felt that if that guy were around, he would effortlessly resolve these matters.

In truth, when these events unfolded before her, Shiki did not feel particularly moved; she was merely an observer watching another version of her life.

You might empathize with certain scenes and moments in a movie, but you absolutely cannot feel it personally, because you are just a bystander; these are ultimately not your experiences.

Until...

SHIKI's death!!

When she saw the scene of SHIKI dying for her sake, it felt as if countless blades had pierced her heart, a sharp, intense pain lingering in her mind.

She tried to call out to her SHIKI, desperately wanting to confirm that her SHIKI was not dead, but SHIKI did not respond.

Like the SHIKI in the water mirror, she left quietly and silently without Shiki's knowledge.

But it was not that SHIKI did not want to respond to her, or rather, she was unable to respond.

Because a beautiful figure, with the same appearance as hers and stepping lightly through the spring snow, was already standing before her.