Oh Lily (Fate/Stay Night X Fate/Grand Order)

4 - Queen of All Britania

Youth.

We often talk about youth being nothing but a positive thing. Being young means being healthy and energetic, and it means having time to live your life however you want.

However, in serious situations, being young is nothing but a detriment; to be young is to be inexperienced, and to be inexperienced likely means death. By building yourself up and using all your youth, you will become exhausted, at the cost of your health, energy, and time.

Being old and being young are each more complicated than being a positive or negative thing.

But in a war, being young makes you nothing but a burden

Shirou's eyelids flickered, as he struggled to wake himself up, he was beaten, with cuts and bruised as physical proof of his pain, yet-

If only for a split second, he saw it—the Ever-Distant Utopia. Avalon, a grassy plain field, with a sky as blue as could be and no clouds in sight at all, was a beautiful paradise, something comparable to the very Garden of Eden, but as soon as Shirou reached for it,

He came back to his senses and realized he was reaching for Saber Lily's cheek.

"Oh...Lily...?"

He titled his head slightly, and as the fellow Lily Servant smiled at him, he began to fluster as he realized he was lying on her lap.

"Welcome back, Shirou."

She said it with a soft smile.

"Oh, did I lose?"

He said with a small groan that it was a rhetorical question, but considering his own condition, he felt like he had lost.

"No, you were amazing."

Saber Lily commented, her smile starting to falter as she recalled his battle with Mordred.

"It was nothing big; I got lucky."

"You don't get it!"

Someone's comment struck a nerve within Saber Lily; her smile completely faltered and turned into a jealous sneer.

"You were incredible! Brave! Smart! We're not supposed to

She seemed to struggle to find the right words.

"Lily..."

Shirou said lowly, as he felt tears roll down his face, not his own tears however, but the tears that were dripping from Saber Lily's face began to drip down Shirou's.

"We're not supposed to be strong! we're nothing but regrets personified! mistakes that haven't been made yet! we're just inferior lessar versions of our futures..."

As she recalled his impressive display against Mordred once more, her mind went to his suddenly adopted the same look Archer would whenever he got serious, if he was inferior, why'd he win? it was something Saber Lily simply couldn't understand.

Shirou on the other hand felt a sense of guilt, Saber Lily had been struggling with comparing herself to...Saber...Shirou wasn't too knowledgable on how Lily Servants worked, just that he was one, and that they were based on legends at the begining of their journey.

"Why..."

His full attention returned to the crying woman in front of her.

"Why are you so strong, but i'm still so weak...?"

She wept, as she felt her shame rise to the highest level, she was pathetic, pathetically weak, someone with no worth here in Chaldea.

Shirou, however, finally began to understand. He wasn't exactly aware of what his future self would look like, but he was sure that the true heroic spirit of Emiya Shirou was far stronger than his.