Running past a sign that says, Fuyuki woods, Sonic races into the forest, using the woods to try and evade his pursuer. He keeps doing this until he arrives near a clearing where the man suddenly appears about to slam him down with a lariat.

"He can use chaos control!" Sonic exclaims before jumping over the man's attack.

"This... chaos control... is this what you call the 2nd magic?"

Sonic does a backflip before firing a barrage of kicks that shoot blue energy in the shape of jagged spears.

"Sorry, no freebies."

"Shame." The man proceeds to fire a rainbow arc of mana which quickly overpowers Sonic's kick projectiles. He quickly changes tactics and adopts a new position wherein he fires a multitude of X-shaped beams at the man from his hands while orbiting around his target. Said target would proceed to vanish into another portal and smack Sonic away with a kick to the back.

Sonic grits his teeth before turning into a ball. He then performs a homing attack towards the man. In response, his opponent creates a see through barrier. However, it was just as he planned. Using the momentum from that failed attempt, he bounces across the trees until he appears somewhere else, landing another homing attack from another side. This gets blocked again, but he once more uses it to build further momentum.

By this point, due to his speed, his enemy's barrier had become a full dome, covered in blue light due to Sonic's efforts only leaving the energetic trail. If his enemy were to drop the barrier at any point, Sonic's attack would land an incapacitating blow, possibly even a killing blow. This freed him to build its kinetic damage for a solid five seconds, short enough that his opponent should have no real way to counter. After 5 seconds have passed, he deems it as sufficient kinetic energy. Sonic proceeds to launch from a tree and delivers one final kick which pops the barrier.

However, instead of his attack landing, he notices how his body was currently frozen in dilated time.

"Phew... You're a tough one." The old vampire says as he fixes himself up, quite ruffled by Sonic's latest attack. He then proceeds to kick Sonic with a front kick covered in circuit-like patterns.

"How..." Sonic grunts out while he leans his elbows on the dirt below.

"Quite simple, really. You may be undoubtably faster than me, but I'm old. You're not the first speedster I faced."

With that, the man knocks Sonic out with a punch to the face.

He gasps awake, once more in the house of the red head. Looking down, Sonic notices the rope wrapped around himself.

Looking up, he sees the girl looking at him curiously, and the old man smiling next to her.

"Calm down. Those rope will come off when you've answered all my questions."

Sonic continues to glare at the old man who proceeds to lay the, now dormant Chaos Emeralds below his feet.

"Consider this a sign of trust."

Seeing no malice in either of the two, Sonic sighs and reluctantly complies. It wouldn't end well for him if he pisses off the guy who gave him as hard a time as Giganto did, he might not be able to return. Furthermore, this guy can Chaos control using that crystal sword of his. Could he be the person that the voice told him of? Chaldea?

"So... ask away then."

"Alright then... first things first, let's introduce ourselves."

The old man's sudden call to a polite introduction got Sonic thrown out for a loop. The old man seems to be able to do that easily.

"Um... well... Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

The old man raises an eyebrow.

"What?"

The red haired girl then speaks.

"Hedge... hog? You're... a hedgehog."

"Uh... yeah? Why?"

"Nothing, it's just... hedgehogs are..."

"Oh brother... this again... look, if it keeps you up at night, just look at me like an alien hedgehog thing kay?"

"Moving on..." the old man speaks up. "My name Kischur Sweinorg Zelrech, magician of the third magic, but you may refer to me using by my last name."

The two men then look to the single female in the room, awaiting for her reply.

"O-oh! Right! I'm Fujimura Gudako! Nice to meet you t-two!"

"With introductions out of the way, let us... converse."

The three would proceed to engage into a long conversation. The talk went from random topics like what the difference is between Sonic and a 'normal' hedgehog, to favorite food, to just general knowledge of this world. The way the conversation was structured wasn't lost on Sonic. The reason why they started with such trivial information was so that Zelrech could ease Sonic into the more hard-hitting questions. Seeing as how the old man did not seem to have any truly malicious intent, the he decides to go along with it.

However, soon comes the most important questions...

"So, why are you here exactly?"

"Do you want the long story or short version?"

Zelrech's suddenly turns to Gudako, and in turn so does Sonic.

"That depends on our hostess here."

"M-me?"

"Well... yeah. This is your house after all. You even brought us snacks when you really did not need to." Sonic says dropping the rope which neither seem to mind.

"I... well... I mean I guess... after all, my job interview for Chaldea is still in two days after all."

Sonic's eyes widen hearing this.

"Wait, wait, wait. Back track for a bit. Chaldea? So I DID hear you guys correctly last time."

"Hm? You know of that organization?"

"Not really, no. But before I woke up, some... voices in my head told me to look for 'Chaldea'."

"Voices?" The old man asks as he euphorically consumes one of the lovely cookies that Gudako baked specifically for this little talk of theirs. Even Sonic was chomping on a few from how good they were.

"Yeah... there were two of them. One sounded like a load of people talking in unison and another that sounded like how you would think the weather talking would sound like."

This sudden bombshell made the old man drop his cookie.

"You... spoke to Gaia and Alaya?"

"Oh yeah. Gaia. One of the voices did imply they were Gaia. And I guess the other voice was Alaya. I know Gaia's the voice of Earth and all since... I've met my world's version. His name was Chip. But who's Alaya?"

"The collective voice of humanity..."

"Huh... neat..."

Zelretch looks at the two before saying, "you two seem to be taking this quite well."

Sonic shrugs before saying, "this is more or less just a Tuesday for me." Gudako fidgets before saying, "w-well my perception of magecraft mostly comes from dad since mom was always busy. And since dad was mostly focused on swords, I just assume being able to converse with the voice of all humanity was a normal thing for you guys."

Sonic proceeds to realign the talk to the original topic.

"Now... since you guys want the long version of why I'm here... here's what happened..."

Sonic begins to narrate.

"It was another nice day in my version of Earth or... Mobius as some call it. I was just doing my daily jogs when suddenly my bestest friend Tails told me that Robotnik, my arch-nemesis, was seen being suspicious again up in space.

So, I decided to pay his Egg carrier a visit. Lo and behold, he was. So, we duke it out like the hundred other times we did. And just like every other time, he had something up his sleeves. Turns out, he found a way to open multiversal rips through reality using the Chaos emeralds. I was baited in and he managed to absorb their energy off of me. He then proceeds to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to fire this big beam which begins to tear through reality."

Zelretch interjects, asking, "and I presume these are Chaos Emeralds?" while gesturing to the inert gems below Sonic.

Sonic nods which makes the dimension-hopping vampire chuckle and mutter, "truly... how modernly human it is to wield the third magic using a technology-based instrument."

"So anyways... I grabbed the Emeralds and used their power to fly towards the rift to try and close it. After all, if it can make a rift, surely it can close it. So I went and tried it out... and, it worked."

Gudako furrows her brows.

"Wait, if it worked... then how are you..."

Sonic chuckles and continues. "Ah, you see that's the thing. So the thing about the Chaos Emeralds is that they turn thoughts into power. Meaning whatever you want to do requires you to think about it. However, something that I've only recently found out is that the crazier what I want to do is, the worse the mental strain is."

"Wait!" Zelretch shouts with shock in his voice.

"So you're telling me those things just... let you do anything you want?"

"Yeah pretty much. So long as you can survive the mental strain I guess."

"That... those objects consist of multiple true magics..."

"Yeah, that's why we have a whole secret island we hide it in and stuff. And don't even get me started on the MASTER Emerald. It's like these things but bigger and stronger."

Zelretch looks like he's on the verge of a stroke hearing this.

"Zelretch-san, a-are you ok?" Gudako asks, scared that the old man would suddenly just keel over.

"I'll be fine. This was just... sobering..." while normally, Zelretch would have honest grounds for doubting this, the very fact that it created a portal that he himself could sense to be deeper than any he himself could make through the rift between worlds only proves this fact to him.

"Should I... continue or..."

"No, no, continue. Please. This might be something that will need my intervention..."

"Right... so where were we? Ah right... so while closing the rift, I got sucked in right as I was about to finish. The mental strain was too much and I passed out. Thankfully, I DID manage to fully close it. When I woke up, I was in a white space... like a... rift in between universes. A backroom to reality if you will...

So after recovering a bit, I surmised that maybe if I can use the Chaos Emeralds to come in... i can also use it to break out... so, doing the same thing I did last time, I used the Chaos Emeralds to reopen the gate but as I was about to get out, I was intercepted by the Phantom Ruby.

It is basically like... an evil(?) Chaos Emerald. It summoned an enemy from my past to stop me, but I defeated it easily... but if its plan was to derail me from my dimension and into this one... then I guess it did its job. By that point, I was already super weak... and well... that's when you found me.

While I was conked out, I conversed with Alaya and Gaia. I don't remember much about the convo... but what I did remember was that... one, Gaia specifically told me it'd 'crush' the Emeralds until they accept it and... that humanity will soon get incinerated and the world ravaged."

This gets Gudako's attention.

"Incinerate... ravaged?"

"Yeah, they told me to go to Chaldea for help after... and that leads us to now..."

Gudako balked at this. "I-I thought Chaldea was just a humanitarian organization made up of mages..."

Zelretch chuckles before saying, "that is only a front but technically it is the truth. They are humanitarian. However, they do so by protecting all of humanity from complete incineration. The boxes and 'relief efforts' are merely mystic codes and such..."

Hearing this, Gudako's gaze is cast down.

"Oh..." was all she could say as she goes into a contemplative stance.

Looking at the clock, Sonic then says, "it's... 8 pm already... I don't want to overstay my welcome, so if you two need me, I'm going to find a tree to sleep in or something."

Zelretch nods, saying, "I wouldn't want to intrude further. Besides, I have much to introspect upon. Good day, miss Emiya."

Seeing the two about to leave, Gudako quickly grows panicked. She suddenly shouts, "w-wait!," stopping the two.

With a deep red face, she then embarrasedly confesses.

"I-I don't know if it's t-the norms for either o-of you b-but you t-two are the first p-people to have stayed in my house for an e-extended amount of time! S-so you two are the closes thing I-i have to friends... A-and it's g-getting a bit late... s-so... h-how would you two like to sleep over for the night..?"

She then quickly tacks on, "I'll even cook for breakfast!"

Zelretch smiles warmly, hearing this, before muttering, "my dear apprentice, you've raised her well..." before shrugging. "If I am being invited, who am I to turn it down?"

Sonic looks down to think and shrugs.

"Well... a bed IS better than just some branch in the forest. Sure, I'll take you up on that offer."

Gudako's eyes sparkle at their answers and quickly hops off, saying, "ok, ok! I'll go get the beds!"

"Do not bring a bed for me, young Emiya. I have specific tastes."

Soon, the three were set up. Zelretch goes to set up at the room labelled Rin Tohsaka before the homeowner could stop him, leaving Gudako and Sonic to sleep in the living room.

As the midnight draws nearer, the talk earlier haunts the red-haired girl and she stays too restless to sleep. Instead, she tosses and turns in her futon bed.

"Can't sleep huh?" Sonic suddenly says, making her turn to him.

"Huh?"

"I may not be as keen as dogs, but even I can hear you twisting around. Not to mention the smell. It doesn't take a dog to smell your stress."

"S-sorry..."

"So... what's up?" Sonic says as he crawls out of his futon to squat. Gudako looks up at the ceiling, unsure if she should acquiesce this to the blue hedgehog.

"I've poured out my story to you. It's only fair that you do the same as well, right?"

Hearing this, Gudako chuckles before sighing. "I guess it's only fair..."

She then grows solemn as she looks back up at the ceiling.

"All my life... I've looked up to my mother and father... my mother was a genius, my father commanded respect... when they... died... they left me no instructions... just a legacy to protect..."

She chuckles at the reference she made to ease the awkwardness in vain... she then stands up and walks over to show Sonic a picture of her with her parents.

"My... mother... was a mage of mages... rumors have it that she was one of the few to have been selected by Mr. Zelretch himself, and the only other person save for his first apprentice to survive his tutelage... My father... he was a... formidable fighter... deemed the closest to achieving the First True Magic... But that's not why I looked up to him... his strongest trait was that he was selfless and kind. He'd help anyone in the neighborhood at any time... he was also humble. Despite being seen once as Fuyuki's most reliable man... He'd never once brag or boast...

Growing up, I've... always wanted to be like them. I looked up to them like paragons... and by joining Chaldea's humanitarian efforts... I felt like I could make them proud... but that could never be... then I find out that Chaldea gives me the chance to achieve that specific wish? I... I don't know if I could even join anymore..."

"So... why don't you?" Sonic suggests making Gudako shout reflexively.

"It's not that easy!"

She then curls up, muttering, "sorry... but... it's not that easy..."

She proceeds to explain.

"You see... I was born with no mana circuits... because of that, I cannot do magecraft on even a basic level... If I go there and they realize I have zero aptitude for magecraft... I'll... I'll get kicked out... I'm only related to my mom and dad by blood... I'm... I'm not them..."

"Hm..." Sonic begins to think. "Yeah, you're right."

This affirmation catches the girl off guard. "Wh-wha? I was expecting you to not be the type to sugarcoat but come on. Laying it on me kinda harshly huh?"

"No, no. That's not what I mean. I mean, you're not them. You're you. You're neither a copy of either parent nor just a mere sum of their parts. What... or rather, WHO you become is up to you."

Hearing this, Gudako could only chuckle. "Man... you really have this whole speech thing nailed to a tee huh?"

Sonic rubs his nose cockily, saying, "yeah well... when you're one of the leaders of a resistance against a global dictator you pick up a thing or two."

Both of them find this amusing and so laugh some more.

"But seriously. There's surely something you can do that they can't. You just gotta find it."

After quieting down again, Sonic then says, "You know? I never got to thank you."

"Thank me? If you mean for my food, then I've received plenty."

"No. For saving me."

"Huh?"

"Come on, don't be so modest. I can smell lake water on your clothes. I know you jumped into the lake to rescue me. Besides..." he then walks over to her and plucks a piece of kelp still in her hair.

Gudako turns red, embarrassed at that gesture before squeaking, "n-no problem!"

She then slaps her face.

"I think your dad's already proud of you. Now good night."