Chapter 30 Teach Them a Lesson
"I've added your email address, Emiya."
"No problem, I see it. Thanks a lot, and good work out there."
Confirming that Sigma's contact info was in his address book, Shirou tucked his phone away. There were two reasons he wanted a way to reach Sigma.
The first was based on experience: Rin had happened to run into her Clock Tower classmate Flat (Berserker's Master), but because Flat didn't have a cell phone at all, Rin had lost contact with him the moment she rushed off to deal with Shirou's sudden emergency.
At least this time, the same thing wouldn't happen.
'Rin, really... she panics right along with me whenever I'm the problem. I wonder when she'll fix that 'dropping the ball at the critical moment' trait?'
The second reason was...
Sigma looked so small.
Shirou himself was more comfortable calling him a boy; he had no idea what Sigma's real age was. If he had truly started drifting through battlefields as a child, forced to fight for his life, he likely lacked the concept of "family" entirely. If he was actually older than he looked—it was likely a result of deliberate physical modification, a cruel proof of his history.
As Shirou said before, he simply couldn't leave this one alone.
"Is this really enough for you?"
"If I had to push it, I might want to ask you a lot more about people like Faldeus later. But for now, this is fine."
"Give me a break... I might have to hide a lot of things because of my confidentiality obligations."
"The guy who spilled information the moment we met is saying that now?"
Sigma looked either dead serious or like he was lying through his teeth.
But even if he did hide some things, it didn't matter. in this field, some intel was far better than none, and Shirou wouldn't blame Sigma for not emptying his pockets entirely. After all, if Sigma leaked everything, he might be the one to face retaliation. Shirou didn't want him to get hurt.
"Still, since you aren't going to press me for details face-to-face... does that mean you're leaving?"
"Yeah. If we stay here, reinforcements might show up. I've dealt with organizations that operate like that."
'Organizations?'
Sigma seemed to be fixated on certain words, falling back into his taciturn state.
"The two of us are going to withdraw first. My suggestion is that you should split up from us. That way, if there are other ambushes set up along the road, the group targeting us probably won't drag you into it."
Sigma was silent for a long time before giving a wordless nod. He tightened his gloves, his black trench coat swaying with the shadows.
Because Command Spells can appear on the hand, magi participating in a Holy Grail War often use gloves as a cover. When Shirou saw the gloves on the black-haired boy, he wondered if he was a Master... but he really didn't seem like one. Sigma lacked self-preservation abilities to the point where he couldn't handle snipers alone, nor could he summon a Servant to deal with them.
'If he were a Master, he would have used a Command Spell to call a Servant to his side the moment he faced a situation he couldn't handle.'
Making this judgment, Shirou temporarily discarded the "Sigma is a Master" theory and stepped forward. He tightened the muscles in his legs like springs.
"In that case, Emiya, what are you planning to do right now?"
Sigma initially looked toward Saber in surprise, but Saber didn't provide an answer; she just tilted her head, signaling him to ask Shirou himself.
Shirou's answer was very brief:
"Those guys need to be taught a lesson. It's pretty obvious, isn't it?"
Burst. The edge of the wall rushed toward him from below. Shirou landed and stood tall on the narrow rooftop, positioning himself to face the snipers head-on. Upon seeing Shirou emerge, the remaining snipers didn't fire a single shot; they all scrambled to hide behind cover and walls.
Since Shirou had ignored them for a moment, they seemed to think he couldn't touch an enemy he couldn't see.
'They don't honestly think I can't kill them just because I can't see them, do they?'
If Shirou didn't lack killing intent, their reckless behavior would have seen them dead hundreds of times over. They were far too thick-headed. Therefore... it was necessary for Shirou to make them understand that once you harbor the intent to kill, it is only natural to be killed in return. This is a basic concept humans should possess; otherwise, the heart gradually becomes an empty husk, unlike a human's.
"!"
Magic energy sparked like flint.
Sigma watched as thirteen red swords manifested around Shirou. These swords rotated around him as their axis, gradually elongating during the process into straight, arrow-like forms. There were thirteen combat-ready snipers left, so Shirou prepared the same number of projectiles.
As the bow frame manifested in his outstretched right hand, the first of the arrows met him as if offering itself. It looked as though he was about to draw the bow in a long, ritualistic fashion. However, with the explosive snap of a lightning-fast bowstring, Sigma barely had time to rub his eyes before realizing the arrows were all gone.
'The missing arrows... where did they fly?'
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Top of a Commercial Building, 2:35 PM
The leader of Faldeus's squad took evasive action the moment he noticed Shirou showing his face, hiding behind a massive three-dimensional steel frame structure on the roof.
"That brat..."
He gnashed his teeth as he dragged his sniper rifle into the shadows of the cover, yet he also felt an absurdity: Why do I feel the need to run the moment I lock eyes with this person?
"Lord Faldeus clearly said, and proved, that magi are just a type of existence you can kill simply by finding a loophole..."
In that case, what exactly was this man?
The squad leader couldn't find a loophole in him. Every move he made looked casual, yet whenever the leader tried to attack using that perceived carelessness, the strike was easily neutralized by a "perfect defense" that forced his heart to admit defeat.
If it were pre-prepared magecraft, that would be one thing. Whether it was a jewel barrier or a spectral fortress, there would eventually be a limit to its reserves—space to maneuver. But this did not rely on magecraft. It was pure "power" on a completely different level of existence.
The squad leader had never seen such an existence. It was like a hallucination of pressure piercing through the air—an ultimate state that shouldn't be felt from a human. A fantasy that surpassed humanity, unbound by magecraft, as if to slay gods.
The squad leader had never seen a Heroic Spirit before this.
'How on earth are we supposed to defeat a guy like that!?'
He clawed at his messy hair, finally coming to the internal conclusion: It's impossible for people like us.
The sneak attack with the highest probability of victory had been parried by a blade surface casually extended behind the man's back without him even turning his head. After that, there was only collapse; how it played out was merely a matter of time.
The squad leader had already admitted his defeat. All that remained wasn't a refusal to lose, but a simple, ugly anger born from recognizing a reality he didn't want to accept. If not for that, he wouldn't have fired out of rage, only to hide behind cover the moment the red-haired youth's gaze fell upon him.
The only good news was... it was still safe here. No one can shoot a target they cannot see.
The squad leader focused all his energy on making sure his position wasn't exposed, his breathing stilled for concealment—when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red line flash.
"?"
His body, shoved by an unknown force, stumbled and slammed into the steel frame, leaving behind a comical sound like a drunkard hitting a telephone pole. Pain receptors flared, heat surged through his body, burning his unsuspecting eyeballs which didn't have time to react.
"Hiss... IT HURTS—!!!!?"
Finally, he curled up and hit the ground. Before his eyes lay a red arrow radiating a cold glint, parallel to the floor.
'Why isn't the arrow falling to the ground?'
The squad leader traced the arrow back to its source, only then realizing—the arrow was lodged in his own chest.
His body froze in despair at the information his eyes provided, but adrenaline kept his mind working. He managed to suppress the urge to scream in pain, taking in every detail down to the fibers of his clothing. He discovered that the arrow had stopped exactly one centimeter into his flesh.
It had torn through muscle tissue and fat, but "just barely" missed his internal organs.
The arrow finally fell, bouncing twice on the ground before dissolving into particles of light.
His stiff body, which had just relaxed upon the realization that he "wasn't killed," went limp with exhaustion. The squad leader lay on the ground, clutching his bleeding chest with one hand and his forehead with the other.
'People can die so easily.'
The squad leader had been reassigned here because of his gifted marksmanship from units that sniped criminals and stopped hostage situations. After being transferred here, even though this mission was his first time personally handling dirty work, everything had changed.
I see. The squad leader felt he should thank the man below. A morbid buildup that hadn't stopped since he arrived was slapped across the face; the fever dream shattered. Though it was painful, it felt cleaner than a moment ago.
'When I get back, I'm applying for a transfer to a desk job.'
And...
'As far away from that clown-bastard Faldeus as possible.'
Announcement!
Hello everyone, I'm VarieTL 😊
I'm happy to announce that I have posted 2 new Fanfiction!
You can find them in my second account VarieTL02(an account can only have a max of 20 fanfiction it seems)
Hikigaya and the Witches' Romantic Comedy
Hikigaya Hachiman, a high school student and staunch believer in celibacy, lives by the motto "Loneliness is freedom."
That's how it should be.
However, on his first day of high school, this motto is shattered.
A gyaru who transferred for him, an incredibly cute pink-haired girl sitting next to him who's always secretly watching him, a perfect superhero with long, straight black hair and an overflowing sense of justice, a childhood friend who always smiles and approaches him in a kimono, and that lone wolf with no boundaries…
Hikigaya Hachiman's daily life is completely disrupted.
Even more absurdly, all these girls are witches.
Crossover Oregairu/Manosoba (Magical Girl Witch Trials)
The Trash Returned from Warhammer
Shinji Ikari awakens in Neo Tokyo-2 with his memories and iron will as a Space Marine Librarian who served the Imperium for a century.
When a letter arrives from his estranged father, Gendo Ikari, summoning him to Neo Tokyo-3, Shinji ignores his past traumas. Instead, he interprets the summons as a holy mission from the God-Emperor. The former Astartes sets out to defend humanity once more, treating the events of Evangelion as his next theater of war.
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting