Chapter 25: Illya: Thank you for the gift of nature!
Knock-knock-knock.
In an apartment building in Fuyuki City, a figure in a black windbreaker knocked on the door of room 703 according to the pre-agreed code. After the code matched, the door quickly opened a crack, revealing an indifferent and calm eye. After confirming the identity of the person at the door, he opened the door and let her in.
"The entire set of equipment has arrived, Madam and the others have already arrived at Fuyuki and started the operation. This way, the other Masters will think that Madam is Saber's Master."
The facilities in the room are simple, with only a neat bed, a desk, and a sofa against the wall.
The calm woman with short hair reported the situation to the man who came in while taking out a suitcase full of guns and weapons from under the bed and taking out the weapons inside.
"Last night, there was movement in the Tohsaka family's mansion. Caster sneaked into the manor and attacked Tohsaka Tokiomi, and had a head-on conflict with Archer. The entire villa in Toyama Town was wiped out, and landslides broke out around it. It seems that both sides have released their Noble Phantasms. It is speculated that Caster's Master and Archer's Master have a personal grudge."
"What's the result? Who's out? Who has the advantage?" The expressionless man in the black windbreaker lit a cigarette, picked up the weapon parts from the suitcase, and began to assemble them.
It is not common for a conflict to break out at the very beginning of the Holy Grail War. After all, this is a cruel ritual of seven magi fighting each other. In the early stage, anyone with a normal mind would know that they should collect information. Blindly rushing forward will only cause both sides to suffer losses and eventually lead to being picked up by other onlookers.
Furthermore, the Holy Grail War can only officially begin after seven Servants are summoned and gathered. There is no point in hunting down other Masters in advance. It may even cause bugs in the rules of the Holy Grail War, which is not worth the cost in terms of both moral and legal aspects.
Based on these speculations, it is not surprising that Caster's Master and Archer's Master have a personal grudge. No normal magus would be so violent and reckless.
"Caster left, and Archer left too. Judging from the results, the two were evenly matched in their fight, but the noise was too loud, and the supervisor stopped the matter."
The capable woman with short hair took out a videotape and started playing it on the cube-shaped TV. Other magicians used familiars to monitor the villa in Toyama Town, but there was a high possibility that the flow of mana would be sensed, so in most cases, they used more concealed cameras.
Looking at the devastated scene on TV, the man in black exhaled a puff of white mist:
"You only took these pictures? Are there any other methods of fighting or Noble Phantasm?"
"Yes, but the cameras were destroyed. Archer and Caster both seem to have the means to launch large-scale attacks. Caster is even more bizarre. He seems to have a curse that makes others lose their memory of him. That night, I used a sniper scope to observe and seemed to see something like air conditioning and something else, but when I tried to record it in the middle of the night, nothing was left in my mind."
'A cursed skill that distorts other people's impressions and even memories?'
'This is a bit outrageous. This kind of mental attack mechanism is almost invincible in intelligence warfare, right?'
The man in black was slightly startled. He was not afraid of any Servants who could cause large-scale destruction. After all, his Servants also had powerful Noble Phantasm.
But Caster's curse skill that distorts other people's cognition is completely different because no information means unknown, and unknown means danger and means falling behind others. Imagine that you and someone have finished fighting, both sides have revealed all their cards, and both sides' moves and information are known to the other party, but as soon as the other party leaves, you and the spectators turn around and forget all the information about the other party.
Let's not talk about the information you lost. Just the fact that those spectators only know your information and not the opponent's information means that those spectators in secret will inevitably target you, the enemy who is already in the open.
"Find Caster's Master as soon as possible. This ability is more dangerous to the Master than Assassin." The man in black put out his cigarette calmly.
'No, that's not right. If I can't remember anything, its job description might be wrong...'
"Maiya, how did you confirm its job? If it has a curse that distorts memory, you shouldn't be able to remember its job, right?"
"Its job is my guess. The Caster had a strong mana reaction, which made him look like a Caster with a lot of magical power. Of course, I'm not completely sure, but it doesn't matter. When other Servants slowly show up, excluding the class that has already appeared, the only one left is this one."
The class is not that important because no matter what the class of the Servant who looked like Caster last night was, the series of difficult problems are still there.
"We can only hope that Assassin's Master will recognize the threat of Caster, and quickly have Assassin attack and kill the opponent's Master, so that this weird guy can leave the scene." The man in black let out a long breath and nodded, looking at the sky outside the window while wearing several assembled guns.
This mechanism is due to the existence of Caster, who poses the greatest threat to him among all the Masters. After all, once the information is not obtained equally, his advantage of having Irisviel disguised as Saber's Master will disappear, and she may even be exposed in advance.
So for him, if there is a chance, Caster must be killed.
Killing Caster is a much higher priority than other combinations.
You can have numbers and you can have mechanisms, but your mechanisms cannot be so outrageous that they don't reveal even a little bit of information. Even the strategy team needs to figure out the information when fighting monsters.
In Caster's case, he doesn't give you any information at all. It's like as long as you don't kill the BOSS in one wave, the opponent will frantically obtain your information and intelligence to quickly grow and target you, while you can only stay where you are.
If you can't kill the opponent in one wave, then you will never be able to kill the opponent again in the future.
"Let's go. Iri and Saber have already arrived at the commercial street. Even though it's daytime, we still have to be on guard against other Masters and Servants."
As soon as he finished speaking, Emiya Kiritsugu, who had already assembled his weapons, put an ancient revolver from the box into his waist, and then rushed out of the door quickly.
Caster, who couldn't defeat a single wave or a single pop, had already raised his alertness to the highest level, and he was no longer in the mood to comfort and vent with his assistant.
The scene changes to the commercial street of Fuyuki City.
Irisviel's shopping trip with the blonde girl in a suit was coming to an end.
They were not simply wandering around but just wanted to attract the attention of other magi as much as possible and confirm the possibility that the white girl was the master of the blonde suited girl. Otherwise, Kiritsugu Emiya's plan would encounter considerable resistance. Just as Miss Illyasviel guessed, their mission was essentially fishing; the only difference was that they were just bait for others to see.
"Saber, let's go over there and take a look."
The girl in white was as curious as a little kid. She seemed like a fool who had completely forgotten that it was the Holy Grail War period and was just simply strolling around for fun.
"Iri, it's the Holy Grail War now, we can look at these later..." the blonde girl in a suit gave advice.
As Saber, the strongest of the three knights, she is confident that she can protect the white girl from any Servant, but she will not be lacking in appropriate advice.
"Later? Now, Saber, you can accompany me for a while."
Irisviel smiled gently.
This smile is very comfortable. The ahoge girl can feel that the white girl in front of her really wants to see more of the scenery here and also enjoys the fun of walking around.
The ahoge girl, who remembered her identity as the white girl, spoke with a slightly apologetic expression: "Sorry, Iri..."
The white girl in front of her had been imprisoned in the castle since she was created and had never come out to see the beautiful scenery of this world, like a captive canary.
We'll see what happens later. After the seven-day Holy Grail War is over, even if the white girl survives, she will probably return to the birdcage...
"It's okay, Saber." Still smiling gently, the white girl took the arm of the blonde girl in the suit: "Now can you continue to accompany me shopping?"
"At your service, my princess."
The blonde girl in a suit answered seriously like a knight, her clean eyes looking at the pure girl in white. Even though she knew that this was a little inappropriate and they had already revealed enough today, she still responded to the princess's request.
The sun gradually began to set. The afterglow of the sunset was peaceful and warm. The flow of people on the commercial street also increased. Office workers who were tired after a day's work could be seen everywhere drinking in the oden shops on the street.
The two of them admired the beautiful scenery along the way of the bustling city. After a while, they came to the bay area where many people stopped. They walked around the corner and looked from afar.
The sea breeze and scenery in the distance can't help but make people feel relaxed and happy, with an inexplicable sense of tranquility.
"Hmm?" However, just at this corner, the blonde girl in a suit's ahoge suddenly moved again.
Intuition A's skill made her feel something strange, which was a special intuitive reminder, even though she didn't feel any flow of mana at all.
"Mom, Mom, where are you? Excuse me, uncle, have you seen my mom?"
"Sister, sister, have you seen my mother?"
Not far from the corner, a small white figure with tearful eyes and red rims was sobbing in panic, pulling up the sleeve of a passerby.
The long silver hair and some dust made her little face a little dirty, her eyes were red, and her white dress and black socks were stained with some mud. It was obvious that she fell down due to the heavy flow of people and got separated from her parents.
After the passers-by waved their hands and said they had never seen her, the little girl wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and squatted on the ground with a lost look, as if she was afraid and crying.
"Something's not right, but there's no sign of mana flowing..." The blonde girl in a suit couldn't help but frown slightly.
Her intuition pointed to the poor cute little girl, but from her perception, she was indeed just an ordinary little girl, with that appearance and hair color.
It reminded her of a little princess she had met in Germany, and they looked about 70% similar.
"Iri, be careful. I feel like there's something wrong with that little girl over there. Let's... eh? Iri? Iri?!"
Just when the blonde girl in a suit wanted to remind someone, she turned around and saw that the original figure of the white girl was gone. She was stunned at first and then turned her head away again.
She saw Iri actually hugged the little girl not far away into her arms.
She couldn't help but be stunned.
"Hello, big sister, you are so beautiful, you look like my mother, have you seen my mother...eh?"
"Hey, my dear daughter, my dear daughter, did you come here especially to see me~"
Before Miss Illyasviel finished her prepared lines, she suddenly felt a black screen in front of her eyes.
By the time she came to her senses, the girl in white was already holding her tightly in her arms with a gentle, silly smile.
And she kept rubbing her cheek against her cute little face which had been carefully made up.
"?"
Miss Illyasviel also blinked in confusion.
'Oh my god'
'When did my skill become so powerful?'
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