Chapter 17 Handling Idiots and Snipers
Shirou withdrew his gaze from the distance. A silent wind carried away the gunpowder smoke from the bullet casing.
"There are snipers, stay sharp, Saber!"
The first thing Shirou did was immediately alert Saber, signaling that he was unharmed. No sooner had he finished the sentence than time seemed to resume its frantic pace.
From a 360-degree radius, a massive number of objects approached at high speed. Countless inconspicuous small points pierced the air, leaving all sound behind them. Uniformly ignoring the quiet blonde girl, their target—was entirely Shirou alone.
They flew.
Sneak attacks capable of dealing thirty times the lethal dose of damage to an ordinary person were concentrated on one specific spot, intending to pierce, puncture, and complete the kill of a single target. Naturally, such an act could only be the work of humans.
In Shirou's other hand, light coalesced into form as the sharp blade of the other half of the married swords began to appear.
However, the girl was one step faster than Shirou.
Radiance swirled around Saber's body. Caught in the corner of Shirou's vision was the pure silver of her armored skirt as she closed her eyes with a look of regret. Her body vanished from his peripheral vision; by the time Shirou captured her again, she had already appeared in front of him.
At her original position, a smallish object was drifting upward like a falling leaf.
Then, the silver battle-skirt in front of him vanished once more. What remained was a violent storm; an invisible sword swept the entire area, engaging in a gallant one-versus-thirty battle without a word.
Like a lingering phantom, her figure appeared almost simultaneously in front, above, behind, to the left, and to the right of Shirou. The sound of clashing metal rang out in a nearly continuous drone, and Shirou's other "crane wing" fully materialized.
She wordlessly became a protective shield, sealing off all harm directed at Shirou, leaving behind a steady expression that put him at ease. Her flowing golden hair was beautiful enough to make one forget the current situation—save for the object flying in the sky, which reached its zenith and began to descend in slow motion toward the hard ground.
—Descending!?
"Whoa!?"
Shirou was quick-handed; imitating her, he tossed one of his swords upward and snatched the object that, until a moment ago, had been quite important, barely rescuing it before it hit the ground.
"Saber, your plushie was going to break!?" Shirou couldn't help but shout, finally understanding where the regret in Saber's eyes had come from.
The item Shirou had managed to save was that lion toy.
Saber seemed slightly shaken; her body wavered for an instant. When her posture slowed by just a fraction, a bullet leaked through the defensive net, only to be sliced down by Shirou himself with a single blade.
Saber's expression carried an obvious flash of anger, as if she were asking, "Why ask such an obvious thing?" It was as if the one in the wrong wasn't Saber for disregarding her own feelings to protect Shirou, but Shirou himself!
"Are you an idiot!?"
Saber had charged forward without a second thought. In that moment of lunging, she had suppressed all her personal feelings just to block attacks that Shirou was perfectly capable of handling himself.
"You are the idiot, Shirou!" Saber rebuked him.
"While it is currently only about thirty bullets—not something difficult to defend against—who can guarantee there aren't far more people in ambush, waiting for a lapse in focus to strike? You are their sole target. If even one shot were to truly hit you, how do you intend to take responsibility?"
Saber's voice grew a notch louder and more dignified.
"Are you asking me to value an object more than you in such a situation?"
He was speechless, but Shirou still couldn't quite accept it. While Shirou would have done the exact same thing in Saber's position, the fact that Saber prioritized sacrificing her own feelings was undoubtedly "wrong" to him.
"I shall apologize specifically to you later for trampling on your sentiments. Please concentrate and do not let these attacks wound you."
She even turned around to apologize to Shirou, a knight continuing to intercept projectiles that should have been his to handle.
Though Shirou didn't quite like it... equally, he could not insult her heart. If Shirou were to lose himself in an argument rather than sharing Saber's burden, he would have no right to criticize her. Thus... with a complex expression, Shirou silently placed the lion securely on the ground.
Regardless, he would come back for it later.
Saber had acted to reduce Shirou's burden, and Shirou made the best choice to reduce Saber's. Shirou swung his arm, intercepting a few bullets that had leaked through during their brief argument, and stood tall.
"Understood."
Shirou extended his free hand, and the white blade automatically flew back from nearby, gripped firmly in his palm. The second thing Shirou did was slash directly toward the space in front of Saber.
He met something. Feeling his arm swerve by about 4 degrees, Shirou hesitated for a breath.
'The force of the two shots is different?'
Both were sniper shots, but the power of this one was on a completely different level compared to the first. White smoke drifted from the blade's edge; of course, being a Noble Phantasm, there was no damage or dulling, but it served as indirect proof of the immense power behind that shot. It could likely have punched through three or four layers of steel plate as if they were nothing.
Behind Shirou, the silver silhouette swung her longsword with one hand, cleaving a ray directed at Shirou and completing the handoff. Shirou took the opportunity to reverse-calculate the positions in his mind. There was more than one sniper. Of the two shots Shirou had handled (the first and the most recent), one originated from the 3 o'clock direction and the other from 11 o'clock; the trajectories had fully exposed their locations.
The distances were over 900 meters and over 2,000 meters away. The one Saber just struck down was at 4 o'clock, 800 meters.
Calculating the situation, Shirou formed a plan. Facing Saber's questioning gaze, he spoke while parrying the bullets flying wildly through the alley:
"Let's move forward first. Ignore them for now and observe if there are any more reinforcements waiting to strike. Meanwhile, we'll find a position that makes them feel 'the mission will fail if I stay hidden.' I'm going to confirm everyone's locations, then settle this all at once."
Two lines of blades, carrying explosive flashes, drifted through the air without interfering with one another. Faster than bullets, their slashes belonged to the realm of divine skill. Every unidentified object on their path disintegrated upon touching the blades. Simultaneously, Shirou utilized the inertia of his strikes to shift his body away from the lines of sight focused on him.
In those spots, miniature shockwaves pierced through, hitting the walls behind and turning the obstructing concrete into dust.
Gunfire began to ring out again in the distance. For some reason, many of the gazes cast toward Shirou and the others carried a hint of stubbornness alongside the killing intent.
Shirou gave a helpless, wry smile. Under the watchful eyes of many, the two of them broke into a run, transforming into a pair of binary stars moving through the world without hindrance.
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