"Little one, can you write? Your name and your big sister's, I mean. The registration for this room doesn't seem to match up—could you fill in your information for us?"
The young hotel attendant held out a lollipop to Yimi.
"Okay."
Information?
Ritsuka, having caught the exchange, scrambled out of bed with no regard for appearances and ran barefoot to the door—only to find Yimi clutching a ballpoint pen awkwardly in her tiny hand and, in sloppy Japanese, printing "御主"—the word for "Master"—onto the register as her signature.
"..."
Has she really not memorized my name the whole time?
"Apologies—we're checking out of this room. Would you mind helping with that?"
The attendant's eyes glazed over, and he wandered into the room to begin tidying up under his own power.
Ritsuka exhaled, shoved her shoes on, and, holding Yimi's lollipop-clutching hand, headed out.
She wasn't much of a magus. Most of the spells she could pull off had been made possible by Mystic Codes built with help from da Vinci and the Chaldea support team. If someone else had already planted suggestion on their target, she'd likely have no way to detect it.
Better safe than sorry. Ritsuka hadn't forgotten that the Masters in this War included one fellow who, back in the original world, had personally blown up a whole skyscraper to secure victory.
"Which is exactly why, if you really have no alternative, it's still better to hypnotize a civilian family and lodge with them than to stay somewhere like a hotel. Too many exposure vectors." Lord El-Melloi just had to play Monday-morning quarterback at the strangest moments.
Granted, in 1995, hotel registration procedures were inevitably going to be a bit of a hassle. They really shouldn't have picked this sort of place.
"Here." Yimi raised a paper bag of cream bread in the hand Ritsuka wasn't gripping.
"You went out? Thanks." Ritsuka didn't stand on ceremony—she took the bread and started eating.
The kitty twitched her brows and waved a hand at her. "Lower your head."
"Hm?"
Yimi patted Ritsuka's head.
Master Cat really had no concept of decorum.
"..."
"With Fujimaru suddenly being the focus of this Holy Grail War, I'm afraid the others are probably scrambling to investigate her. Worst case, they may already be negotiating alliances to target you." Lord El-Melloi said it wearily.
"Cat won't lose." Yimi patted Ritsuka's arm.
"That's true enough. Why don't we just go take them out one by one tonight?" Ritsuka bumped her fists together—never once in her life had she fought a battle with such confidence.
"You wait right there. Do not forget the nature of the Grail itself!" El-Melloi snapped. "Your single biggest problem is that you don't have a capable magus on hand who could dismantle the Greater Grail. Until you do, avoid further casualties if at all possible."
Roman chuckled. "Although, dismantling the Greater Grail wouldn't exactly be an easy job in the first place, would it? If the local host were willing to cooperate, that would help. And isn't that exactly why Ruler appeared—"
Lord El-Melloi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dr. Roman, please don't interrupt. I believe I can claim rather more authority than you on questions of magecraft."
Roman sulkily turned his face away and fell silent.
El-Melloi exhaled, softening his tone. "I know perfectly well what a Servant capable of last night's power means. But when Fujimaru asked her directly, she didn't give a definitive answer either, did she? It's deeply unwise to bet the parallel world and Fujimaru's safety on a probably. Still, my recommendation is to have Ruler go and take a look—just a quick look—"
What he meant was: have Yimi take a look at the Greater Grail. You couldn't know if a thing could be dealt with until you'd seen the real article. But of course, the signal cut out precisely at that moment.
"Hello? Professor Kongming?"
Yimi reached up and patted her with a little paw. "Master. Who are we stabbing today?"
"Not stabbing anyone. Though based on what's supposed to happen next..." Ritsuka flipped through her notebook.
"Originally, Saber's Master is supposed to hit Lancer's Master, right? In the original timeline, Lancer used his Noble Phantasm to wound Saber's left hand so she couldn't heal. That's what pushed that unscrupulous Magus Killer to extremes."
But Yimi had knocked Diarmuid back with one thrust of the spear, which meant Saber hadn't been wounded.
Kayneth's full name was Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald. From that alone you could guess he and Lord El-Melloi were probably relatives, and there had been a faint shift in Lord El-Melloi's tone when Kayneth came up. He'd even made a point of putting Kayneth on the "keep alive" list.
Lord El-Melloi's proposed survivor list was: Conqueror King, King Arthur, Diarmuid.
Really, as long as Caster—a complete menace—was gone, the priority shifted to protecting the remaining contestants and keeping them from slaughtering each other. That said, once Yimi had put her power on display, they'd probably move to form an alliance first?
"I don't think Professor Kongming told me where the Greater Grail is kept... Never mind. How about tonight we go take out Berserker first?"
Professor Kongming didn't have much to say about that particular pair, but compared to the other knights, Berserker was the least predictable—because the man acting as his Master had no real ability to control his behavior, and had apparently obtained Master status through some irregular means. Even in alliance-making, he wouldn't be a priority. If left alone and killed off by someone else, that would also be unfortunate.
The Matou household. Not hard to find.
...
Kariya was in an excellent mood. Maybe Heaven had finally opened its eyes, because that old worm had just kicked the bucket right in front of him.
He'd died in excruciating agony. That calmed Kariya enormously.
"Sakura, look what I've brought you—taiyaki. Oh, right—I don't think I've given you this pendant yet, have I? Your sister has one just like it..." Kariya laid the items down, dragging his mangled features into the gentlest smile he could manage.
The purple-haired girl didn't so much as twitch. She met his eyes with cold detachment.
"It's almost over. You'll get to see Rin and Mom again soon. Look—this old man is as dead as anyone's ever going to be."
At those words, a flicker of light finally returned to the small girl's eyes.
"Ahrrrrrr—"
His Servant suddenly roared, seemingly reacting to a surge of provocative prana from outside.
Right. The Servant. Now that Sakura had been saved, the only purpose left for this Servant was to exact vengeance against Tokiomi.
Worms writhed under Kariya's skin as Berserker—only barely answering to his will—charged out to meet the intruder.
His order had been for Berserker to be somewhat gentle. But at his skill level, that kind of precise instruction was clearly beyond him—and so Lancelot cleaved straight through the front gate and hurtled out.
Kariya stared down at the shattered door on the ground, his expression flickering between dark extremes.
Damn you, Tokiomi Tohsaka.