Fate/Zero:Act 9 Part 2

-95:28:46

Inadvertently glancing out the window, he found that it was already dawn outside.

Gazing at the steadily rising morning sun, Emiya Kiritsugu did not have any deep emotion, and continued to carry out the work of sorting out information.

The hotel in front of the city station where he had met Maiya three days ago was now being used as one of the hidden headquarters. Firstly he suspended all the hotel room services, then he put up blank maps of the entire region of Fuyuki City all over the walls and labelled and marked on the map the information related to the various locations, missing none.

The searching routes and time spent in these several days, information sent by the familiars, the variance of leylines, intelligence on missing persons obtained from tapping the police radio, locations of points of surveillance --- these icons, indicating nocturnal happenings in Fuyuki City regardless of magnitude showed up, mosaic-like, a situation of utter chaos.

While Emiya Kiritsugu's right hand silently continued marking, his left hand senselessly shoved the nutritional supplements he had bought on his way while investigating-- fast-food hamburgers-- mechanically into his mouth, then chewing repeatedly. To Emiya Kiritsugu, who had dined at the borderline royal table of the Einzberns for nine years and had long become tired of it, this fast food filled with the sense of slaughter was more suited to his tastes. No matter how one puts it, the ability to eat under the premise of not interrupting one's work or thoughts is better than anything.

Kiritsugu sorted out the overall content when all markings on the maps were done, and re-determined the direction of the Heaven's Feel.

Archer-- there was no movement in the Tōsaka house. Ever since defeating Assassin on the first day Tokiomi had, like a hibernating bear, closed his doors with an unfathomable silence and didn’t come out.

Berserker-- the figure that looked like a Master that entered the Matō house. Although familiars had been sent out many times and the man looked as if completely defenseless and could be attacked at discretion, Berserker's mysterious special ability could contend with Archer, who held an exceptionally powerful Noble Phantasm. For the sake of restricting Tōsaka on some level, should he leave Berserker alone or not?

Lancer-- replacing the gravely injured Lord El-Melloi, his fiancé Sola-Ui Nuade-Re Sophia-Ri had begun to act. She was probably the one controlling Lancer now. Was she temporarily taking on the responsibilities of Master through the Book of the False Attendant, or had she seized the Command Seals and formed a new contract with Lancer…? If it was the former, even killing Sola-Ui could not cut off Lancer's prana supply, and could not make Lancer unable to fight. In that case, whether to attack Sola looked as if it would still require observation for now.

Caster-- the previous night, there had again been a number of children missed from the city. It looked as if he cared absolutely nothing for the warrant of his arrest that had been issued by the authorities, and was still continuing his inhuman acts unbridled.

Rider-- no clues at all. Because he always moves about together with his Master in his flying Noble Phantasm, tracking them would be difficult. Appearing to be openhearted at first, a formidable enemy without any flaws.

Regarding Rider and Archer—in the Einsbern castle Maiya Hisau had awakened a little while back, and she had relayed by telephone the majority of the information from Irisviel.

It seemed that things had progressed in an unexpected direction so Rider, who had no other choices, could only use his Noble Phantasm to wipe out Assassin.

Rider's Noble Phantasm, named "Ionian Hetairoi", was very much a cause of concern. But what Kiritsugu cared more about was the fate of Assassin.

Though Assassin was a Servant that could multiply infinitely, what exactly was the underlying intent of all this? And, the Assassin troops that had attacked the Einsbern castle last night must have mobilized their entire combat force. If not then they, individually weak in combat, would not have been able to constitute strength in numbers. This sequence of events was completely different from the farce at the Tōsaka mansion last time; this time, it may be considered that Assassin had already been completely eradicated.

Then--what about their Master?

Kiritsugu sighed deeply, lighting the first cigarette of the day. In the end, it was still this in which anticipation remained.

Kotomine Kirei. The greatest "heresy" in existence in the Fourth Heaven's Feel—

Kiritsugu still could not understand at all what the exact purpose for which this man entered this war was.

At the time of discovering Assassin in the chaotic battle at the warehouse street, Kiritsugu had then already realized that the Master of Assassin was Tōsaka Tokiomi's puppet, only responsible for the task of scouting. But Kotomine Kirei, after this, had repeatedly taken many actions that Kiritsugu was unable to understand.

Kotomine Kirei, hiding for an ambush at the scene of the construction of the central building during the attack on Kayneth at the Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel --

Kotomine Kirei, sneaking into the castle from the completely opposite direction during the siege of the Einsberns --

No matter which event was being considered, only when supposing his target was Emiya Kiritsugu, could all this be explained.

Firstly staging a farce of pretending to withdraw, then fleeing to the Fuyuki Church to request protection while continuing to dispatch large numbers of Assassin to spy. To make this tactic even more perfect, Kirei should obviously have been hiding in the Fuyuki Church all this while, not setting one foot out of doors. But his current actions completely exposed himself.

Kiritsugu, originally hiding under the cover of Irisviel and Saber, had only been exposed during the confrontation of Lord El-Melloi, so up till the day before yesterday there should not have been anyone who knew his true identity. Even if Tōsaka's intelligence network had truly discovered that it was Kiritsugu taking action in secret, it would not have reached the point at which it could be concluded from this that in truth it was Kiritsugu who had made the contract with Saber. And excluding these, from the perspective of the overall war, what is the objective of targeting Kiritsugu for pursuit?

Though it could also possibly be because of a completely unreasonable personal grudge, but this sort of probability is extremely low. In the process of investigating all of Kotomine Kirei's experiences, there were close to no instances of his crossing paths with Emiya Kiritsugu. Even within the magi who had been assassinated by Kiritsugu and the extrapolated associated people who had been sacrificed, there were no friends or relations of Kotomine Kirei's acquaintance.

In any case, it could surely be said-- even having lost Assassin, Kotomine Kirei will definitely stand in front of Emiya Kiritsugu and block his way. No matter what are the conditions of this man's actions, they have already exceeded the domain of the Heaven's Feel. Even after losing his Servant, he will not quietly withdraw.

While he pondered exasperatedly Kiritsugu, with a sigh, exhaled a mouthful of dark hazy cigarette smoke.

It is as if he has been imprisoned in bottomless darkness whenever he thought of anything related to Kotomine Kirei, and can only feel waves of dread.

Kiritsugu's tactics are to 'confuse the opponent's psyche' from the beginning to the end. As long as it is possible to first see through the opponent's actions, where the enemy is preparing to attack and what the enemy's objective is, one will then be able to discover the opponent's blind spot and weakness.In addition, a magus usually possesses greater 'awareness of purpose' than normal people. It is only precisely because of this that Kiritsugu, while 'hunting', has never missed.

Yet now. An enemy like Kotomine, that one is 'completely unable to fathom, whether superficially or intrinsically', is precisely Kiritsugu's greatest threat. And before this type of powerful enemy, the Kiritsugu now was yet helpless.

It was virtually like a tracker who can read his mind and see through all his actions. This time Kiritsugu does not stand in the position of the hunter but in the position of the prey. This exactly is the singular, unforeseen key factor—

"... ...Who, exactly, are you?"

At last, Kiritsugu inadvertently murmured in his mouth. The more he thought about problems related to Kotomine Kirei, the further away from him the answer became. Therefore he could only grow even more impatient.

Exactly what is interesting about this sort of pursuit-and-kill? It looked as if it would still be necessary to continue fighting under the risk of receiving unexpected attacks at any time.

Kiritsugu rented a garage in the nearby town, and hid inside it an altered gas tank that could be remote-controlled over long distances. This civil weapon, called 'low-cost cruise missile' by the urban guerrillas, was originally the trump card prepared for use during siege by Matō or Tōsaka. If one were to run this into the Fuyuki Church in which Kotomine Kirei was lying low, even that Executor would probably not be able to prevail...

"... Bastard, that’s enough..."

While reminding himself, Kiritsugu snuffed out the cigarette in the ashtray in a mess.

Now in front of him there were still many enemies that required prioritized eradication. What he had to gain victory in was the Heaven's Feel. And from the perspective of the Heaven's Feel, Kotomine Kirei was only a defeated Master. Even without knowing the intention for which he is attacking Kiritsugu, to be constrained within this problem and thus neglect the important battle, is truly too uncalled-for.

The state of him being caught in impatience irritated him. This is probably the sign of his judgment starting to dull. There is a need to reset.

It was approximately more than seventy hours since the last time he had slept. Though under the influence of amphetamines he did not in fact feel sleepy, but the sense of fatigue was truly accumulating and as a result his focus and concentration were both deteriorating.

There was approximately still some time before today's daytime meeting with Maiya; he should take this bit of time to ease the fatigue.

Kiritsugu perceived himself as an automated mechanical device, and therefore cared absolutely nothing for his physical health. His management of his health is the same as how he organizes his large number of weapons: only sustaining his body in a working condition of being able to operate at full capacity.

After going to the toilet, Kiritsugu lay down on the bed, then used a self-hypnosis spell to disperse his consciousness. This is a crude way of eliminating mental stress-- the disintegration and cleansing of the psyche.

Although self-hypnosis was not some high-level thaumaturgy, but at release would cause one to experience a certain lack and dislocation of self-consciousness, so many people were not willing to use this sort of thaumaturgy. But to Emiya Kiritsugu, as long as it was the most efficient method of rest it was the best, so he used this method extremely frequently.

Approximately two hours later, the originally scattered consciousness will be restored, and the hypnotized person will naturally wake. In this period of time, the physical body of the hypnotized person is in a walking-corpse state of complete unconsciousness-- but using it at this hidden place should be safe.

Kiritsugu, relaxed, after dispelling the image of his enemy from his consciousness, fell into a deep sleep.

While facing the risen sun, the streets outside the window began a new day.

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