Fate/Zero:Act 3 Part 1

162:26:39

Fuyuki city, Shinto―

The housing district at the East of the Miongawa is a new town reclaimed from a once empty wasteland; it is different from the history the Miyama town originally has, but it is being refined in a large-scale redevelopment project from the government to build a modern business district over the ancient site.

The buildings in the area planned as a business district are only 40% complete, but the maintenance of the park and shopping mall in front of the station is already done; the future plans are already done for the Shinto district to be clean and mineral, pompous and with no individuality. The city hall is also being moved piece by piece to Shinto, revived with modern iron, glass and mortar, stealing all central municipal functions from Miyama.

It is already crowded even during holidays. In the middle of the crowd going back and forth, cowering from the northern wind, Emiya Kiritsugu disappeared, colorless and odorless without attracting any attention.

His shirt and coat worn for a long time and his lack of baggage give him a slacking appearance that wouldn't make you think of someone who has immigrated. As a matter of fact, he has been like that since he walked in the country up to Shinto in Fuyuki, but Japan still remains his native country. Being used to coming and going, he still felt better in this country.

With a complex feeling, Kiritsugu looked down on the cigarette paper package he had just bought from a vending machine.

It's been 9 years he has stopped smoking. He hasn't been able to find his favorite brand in the far land of the Einsberns, but that was mainly in regard for the mother and child. Just as he came down at the Fuyuki station, prepared for battle, he had thrown a coin in the vending machine out of habit.

Since he has bought a disposable lighter from a convenience store to get back the sensation, he breaks open the cigarette pack. The white of the row of filters is dazzling.

He put one in his mouth and lit it. As if there wasn't a blank of 10 years, he was able to redo the movements naturally. The aroma flowing into his lungs, he got used to the taste as if he had been doing it just the day before.

"..."

Kiritsugu looks at the transformed scenery, completely different from the one he vividly remembers in his heart.

He visited Fuyuki in reconnaissance under cover three years earlier, but the face of Shinto has completely changed since then. This isn't unexpected, but this is beyond what he imagined. He needs to confirm the neighborhood again.

Despite the slight difficulty from the transformation of the area, Kiritsugu reached the hotel he wanted.

The lobby and the front have been arranged, but the interior is a fairly cheap business hotel. Families or wanderers, this hotel is a good harbor for quite a wide genre of users.

Acting as if he knew the place, Kiritsugu walks through the lobby up to the elevator, up to the seventh floor. This is where his faithful subordinate has been for three days, in room 73.

In the world of magi, his relation with Hisau Maiya would be that of a pupil and a teacher.

But to Kiritsugu who saw magecraft as a mere tool he has acquired knowledge in, and not as the object of his quest, there wasn't a single sense of master and pupil. What he has taught to Maiya is merely a "way to fight". This too is only for the purpose of counting her as a "tool". This is from a time when he went through countless desperate battles for an utopia that could never be fulfilled, when he didn't know about the existence of the Grail.

Hence his connection to Maiya is older than the one with Irisviel. Having fought at his side, Maiya knows of the blood-stained side of Kiritsugu that his wife has never seen.

As he knocked at a pre-arranged rhythm on the door of room 73, the door opened immediately as if he had been expected. Skipping unnecessary greetings with a mere glance at each other, Kiritsugu enters the room and closes the door.

Maiya has already been involved for a while. After Kiritsugu retreated, she has arranged the preparations for the Grail War according to the instructions given by Kiritsugu from oversea, and has been busy returning to the Einsbern castle many times.

Handsome, fair-skinned, she was a beauty who used neither eye-liner nor lipstick. Her long eyes and her gaze seem to be always scrutinizing suspiciously, but she deliberately leaves an impression of indifference. Her jet black, straight hair like silk, catch the glance of many men, but her cold, sharp look definitely makes any lady-killer give up.

Anyway, they have known each other for over 10 years. She was still a young girl when they met, but since she isn't a child anymore, she sharpened her sagacity as a characteristic; when with that type of beauty, normal people tire easily, but Kiritsugu was the opposite. She is a woman who constantly saw the reality, and could sometime give out an accurate judgment, more merciless than Kiritsugu. With her, Kiritsugu didn't have to be ashamed of his foul plays or detest his cruelty. This could put him to some sort of rest.

"The Tōsaka mansion moved last night."

Maiya started by jumping straight to the point.

"Please watch the records of it. Also, all the equipment has arrived."

"Understood. First, the situation."

Nodding, Maiya switches the decoder of the unpacked television.

Amongst the magecraft Kiritsugu had taught her, Maiya was particularly capable in the management of regular familiars, and Kiritsugu often entrusted her with scouting or reconnaissance missions. This time again, Kiritsugu has assigned her to the surveillance of the Matō and Tōsaka mansions.

The familiars Maiya has pride in are bats, but unlike other magi, her bats have a miniature CCD camera tied on the abdomen. Of course, this is an idea of Kiritsugu. The illusions and camouflage bounded fields of magi are often based on using suggestion on an observer, but that sort of things often forget about electronic-based counter measures. Video records are also helpful for re watching, so even considering it slows down the familiar, the joint use of cameras is a viable solution.

The whole scene of the previous night is replayed on the 13 inch CTR. The blurred image is enough to understand the whole event. Without raising an eyebrow, Kiritsugu watches the Servant with a skull mask being unable to escape annihilation from the golden Servant.

The white mask of the defeated Servant is without a doubt of the Assassin class.

"What do you make of it?"

"I think it is going too well."

Maiya replied immediately to Kiritsugu's question.

"The time lag between Assassin's materialization and the attack of Tōsaka's Servant is too short. He was waiting for him. I could accept he might have detected an intruder in spirit form, but his opponent is an Assassin with the presence concealment ability. ... I wonder if Tōsaka wasn't aware of the invasion prior to it."

Kiritsugu nodded. Having been trained by him, Maiya's conclusion was the same as Kiritsugu's.

"The more I think of it, the more it seems like an arrangement. Why did Tōsaka expose his Servant like that if he had such a margin?"

The Tōsaka family has obviously accumulated experience from the second and third Grail fights. There is no way they don't know the other Masters would be observing the Tōsaka mansion.

The Holy Grail War is a confrontation between heroes who have gained fame. And the legend of these heroes include a lot of informations on their fighting patterns, their strong and weak points. This means it is natural that the skills and weaknesses of the heroic spirits are known from the beginning.

And so, it has become an ironclad rule to hide the true identity of the heroic spirits in the war between Servants. In light of this, heroic spirits are all called by their class to avoid revealing their true name.

Last night, Tōsaka has left two clues to the other Masters, being what his Servant looks like, as well as showing a method that looks like a Noble Phantasm. Neither were enough to definitely identify the Servant, but that was a risk that should have been easy to avoid. If he was to bring down Assassin, he could have done so outside of plain view.

"Showing us something he didn't have to show us― that means he wanted to show it to us."

Kiritsugu nods again at Maiya's conclusion.

"Possibly. If there is any merit in doing that, then the explanation is obvious. ... Maiya, what happened to the Master of Assassin?"

"He went to the Church last night and has requested the supervisor's protection. It is the man called Kotomine Kirei."

Hearing that name, the Kiritsugu's eye lit with a cold ghastliness.

"Maiya, send a familiar to the Fuyuki Church. One will be fine for now."

"... Is it alright? The church is an area where aggressions between Masters are prohibited."

"Unless the priest supervisor doesn't find out. Stay at a reasonable distance. Don't overdo it. He doesn't have to know."

Maiya frowned at Kiritsugu’s incomprehensible instructions.

"Must I not observe the Church?"

"You can just make it a 'regular patrolling'. What you must concentrate on is being absolutely not discovered."

"... Yes, understood."

Maiya couldn't understand what Kiritsugu had in mind, but didn't question him. She picks at once one of the three bats observing the Tōsaka mansion and sent it the thought of going to the Fuyuki church at the end of Shinto.

Kiritsugu turns of the TV, then resumes inspecting the equipment Maiya prepared.

In the various tools lined up on the sheet of the bed, awaiting Kiritsugu's check-up, there was not one a magus could find interesting. Not a single ritualistic catalyst like a dagger, cup, talisman, elixir or spiritual container. They were state-of-art and highly efficient, but apart from that, they were nothing but conventional weapons. Nothing that could store prana.

That was the heresy that earned the magus Emiya Kiritsugu the nickname of "magus killer".

The weak point of the people called magi was usually negligence from arrogance. They believe in their own mysteries and knowledge. They never doubt that the only threat to them beside God cannot be anything other than a magus like them.

That is why, in battle, they are sensitive to nothing but traces of magecraft. To detect any kind of trivial skill. Hence they train their perception of magecraft, and think of counter-measures against those skills as decisive― That's a theory no magus strays from.

As a result, they ignore any attack that is purely physical and void of magecraft as secondary menace. They have no fear of the sharpest knife, the strongest bullet, until the instant they actually pierce the flesh of a magus. And before that happens, the strength of magecraft grants illusions, paralysis methods, or defensive bounded fields, able to completely negate any vulgar attack.

But they despise technology. What a human who doesn't rely on magecraft can do― a lot of magi cannot recognize that.

The attack the enemy doesn't expect is a shortcut for all battle. Kiritsugu has reached a conclusion from a large number of battle to the death between magi. That is, magi are weak to non magical attacks.

Applying that conclusion to the circumstances of the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki, Maiya has prepared a set of equipment. Among them, the rifle lying on the sheet is what gives out the strongest smell of gun oil. That was a work of art that was the crystallization of the newest electronic techniques along with a ferocious shape.

The base is a Walter WA2000 semi-automatic sniper rifle. A rifle with a total length a little above 90 centimeters, in a compact size; the bullpup structure with a gas-operated magazine gives the gun barrel a length of 65 centimeters. The .300 Winchester Magnum shell has an effective range of 1000 meters. In the modern world, this is a rifle of the highest class, with the highest performance. The high cost of $12,000 is due to how it was one of the only 154 units produced for this phantom gun.

Instead of the standard sighting device made by Smith & Bender, Kiritsugu had simultaneously installed a pair of lined-up devices as a special scope mount, above the barrel and on the left flank, both extra-large optic devices fixed in parallel.

On the main side was the latest night vision scope, the best of the US armed force, an AN/PVS04. The equipment, some sort of super high sensitive video camera, is a simple light electrical amplifier with a lens, raising and displaying a perfect brightness. It is a real electronic "owl eye" that multiplies the field of vision by 3.6, 600 yards under the moonlight or 400 yards in starlight. Essentially, it is the latest equipment used by the US armed force, banned from exportation to prevent technology leaking.

Furthermore, in addition is installed a specter IR heat detector scope as a sideways support. This one is also electronically equipped for night vision, although the image display isn't an intensity amplifier, but displays the heat patterns of the subject. It can perceive temperature variations from -5 to 60°C up to 200 meters with an 1.8 magnification.

Having discovered that the operation of Magic Circuits changed the temperature of the practitioner, Kiritsugu had studied and trained so much that he was now able to read, through the thermal output, the current status of the Magic Circuits by viewing the heat distribution. Viewing the clear difference between an ordinary person and a magus, it is possible to seize an opportunity after the release of prana. The joint use of both bulky night vision devices is not justfor nighttime battle, but also a configuration to specifically face against a magus.

Despite the steady progress on miniaturization, year after year, of the non-magical innovations, a night vision device roughly remains at the size of a plastic bottle, and is too bulky to be compared to regular optic devices. On top of the rash, compact design of the gun barrel, the enormous pair of scopes gives a clumsy air of unbalance. The total weight of the gun exceeds 10 kilos. It is already a weapon worthy for a support fire squad more than a snipping weapon. The main equipment was already hindering practical use, but that was a challenge Kiritsugu had calculated at best.

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