Author: me
Type-Moon (Nasuverse)
Chapter 9: Emiya Kiritsugu
"Deciding to save someone means deciding not to save someone else. Whatever your intentions, you can only save those on your side. That is the definition of a Hero of Justice." - Emiya Kiritsugu
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It is said that a man has a premonition of his death. Kiritsugu, as someone who has walked the road of bones and blood, killing or just seeing death every day, did not believe this. But now, now Kiritsugu could clearly feel the old woman's breath on the back of his neck. He knew he did not have much left, the curse was consuming him.
As a man determined to save himself through redemption, he did not fear death and even wished for it. He had always thought he would meet his death calmly and quietly, but when he realized his impending demise, he became nervous. Truly, the Magus Killer became nervous. Aware of his regrets, he couldn't find his place.
Thoughts of his daughter, whom he had lost, kept returning to his mind. After all these years, knowing where she was, he never got to see her, the weakness that overcame him preventing him from meeting Elijah. The feeling of losing his child was something that corroded him from the inside, even more than a curse. But now this obsession to try again was keeping Kiritsugu busy.
Besides, Sora is his son. The boy has a talent for Magic that he has never seen, even in the descendants of noble Mage families. In the beginning, Kiritsugu wanted an ordinary life for the boy, but seeing his tenacity and unusualness, he realized the clearness of his attempts to cut him off from the Lunar World, in addition, Sora was already a part of this madness. As a child, he faced the Evil of this world, almost dying in that fire, but Kiritsugu saved him, and now that the "Mage Killer" is passing away, Sora will have to face this cruel world, built on the bodies of many mages and simple innocents, face to face, all alone.
Pondering the fate of his children, Kritzugu decided.
"If I'm going to die soon, I should at least try to help them, even if it's just for the last time."
And so Kiritsugu began to do what he did best: kill. Since he himself was about to die, he could spare himself and give his "last" mission his all.
His decision at the end of the Fourth Grail War to destroy the Holy Grail instead of returning the Third True Magic was seen by the Ainzbern family as a betrayal. Because of this, the head of the family, Jubastheit, prevented Kiritsug from taking his daughter, refusing to open the protective barrier around his castle. In the aftermath, the Mage Killer made several more attempts to take Ilia, but he was never able to find a way through the barrier.
Now that he had nothing to lose, he decided to give his life if necessary, in his attempt to meet his daughter. Having made his decision, he began to prepare for his "last" mission. For such a savvy mercenary, he had no trouble finding all the necessary, additional equipment. What was more difficult was to tell Sora that he was leaving and may not return. So hard, in fact, that he could never do it. Remembering his son, Kiritsugu never dared to face him one last time, for it might have caused him to give up on Elijah.
As it became clear, among the two, his children, he chose his daughter. Who knows if that was right? Probably no one, not even Kiritsugu himself.
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Evening.
Dusting off the Thompson Contender, Kritzugu said farewell to his partner with a kind of nostalgia and warmth. A piece of equipment that cannot be bought and replaced, a partner who had saved him more than once. It is not an ordinary weapon like any other in his arsenal, it is the symbol of Kiritsugu as a mage, the Mystic Code, with which he can use magic against other mages in battle.
A Mystic Code is a weapon or item of support that an adult mage carries as a magical artifact. Used to perform sorcery, which greatly increases the owner's magical energy and enhances his spells, the Mystic Code is an integral part of a Mage's life.
One might even say that the Mystic Code is the only thing a Mage can trust a hundred percent. And Kiritsugu completely agrees. For a loner like the Mage Killer, it's no surprise that in the past, this weapon was his closest friend.
"The Thompson Contender. It is 44.4 cm long and weighs 1.7 kg. The handle is made of walnut wood, resembling the shape of a dagger in a scabbard. The only visible mechanical parts are the trigger and the trigger, but without the barrel, which makes it similar to late medieval handguns with percussion lock. The absence of complicated parts between the barrel and the trigger ensures high accuracy.
This powerful weapon with unusually powerful bullets has incredible destructive power, capable of piercing armor and killing large animals with a single shot.
It's not just a gun, it's a man's romance.
"I wish I could take you with me; you would certainly come in handy. But as a weapon that has protected me and punished my enemies, I hope you can protect my son as well." - Realizing that this might be the last time he would ever see his weapon, he mentally bid it farewell and somehow fatherly admonished it about protecting Sora.
◊◊◊
12:43/Germany.
A white minivan was parked by the side of the dirt road, next to the woods. Leaning against the door, a man in a black coat was smoking a cigarette. His gaze was directed toward the forest, but he wasn't admiring nature, as if looking through the rows of aspen trees, he saw something that the average person couldn't.
In the distance, five kilometers away, a Renaissance castle towered on a mountain, shrouded in a misty haze, as if it were hovering above the ground. Everything around it was wrapped in snow, creating a fairy-tale picture that should not exist in the ordinary world. The castle itself, because of the enveloping snow, seemed carved out of marble, this gave it an even more mystical aura.
After smoking, Kiritsugu opened the trunk of the car, taking out a couple of pistols, a rifle, a grenade belt, an rpg, and a dozen sticks of dynamite. In addition, he had recently met up with an old acquaintance who had sold him magic reagents and potions, which were now in a bag on his belt. To any other man, all these things would have been of no help in storming a castle with magical defenses, but Kiritsugu was not all. As one of the best mercenaries in the world, he was nicknamed "The Mage Killer" for a reason; besides the danger of his Source Bullets, which destroyed Magical Chains, he was a master strategist who could get a Mage anywhere. The tactics of using the environment were carved in his bones.
Just as he was about to close the trunk door, someone knocked from inside the suitcase, which he had taken to disguise itself as an ordinary tourist, as if to ask him to open it and welcome a guest.
Grabbing his pistol from behind his bosom, he quietly approached the suitcase. Slowly opening it, he prayed, to see the enemy there. When he opened the case fully, his fear was confirmed; there, curled up in a roll, lay Sora.
- Oh, no.
- Hell, man, you could have just said you were going to save your sister, and then I wouldn't have had to fly more than six hours in a German pretzel position.
Climbing out of the suitcase, Sora reached out. Stretching his wooden body from being in one position for hours, his spine and neck gave a joyful crunch of release.
- What are you doing here?
- What a stupid question. Of course I'm here to help you.
- You... what are you thinking? I'm not going to spar with Tyga, and I'm going to a place full of magical traps. Besides, the man who is there has his own army, and he himself is one of the strongest Alchemists of our time. Going there is a death sentence.
- Well, you're going. All the more reason to deny that I won't be useful. I'm sorry, but as a Mage, I'm already stronger than you. And as for me being a child, imagine me as an angry snow leopard, tearing apart your enemies.
- ...no. You stay here. - Without letting Sora answer, Kiritsugu continued. - You, you will sit in the car. Do you understand me?
Seeing how serious Kiritsugu was and that dangerous glint in his eyes, Sora decided to agree with him for now.
- I hope you'll be here when I come back.
- I hope you will be back.
Taking all his gear, Kiritsugu turned and walked toward the forest before Sora called out to him.
- The other way. Nine kilometers to the northwest, the barrier is weaker...
- Still no.
Staring at the back of the departing Kiritsugu, Sora did not know what to think about the whole situation. On the one hand, he wanted to save his sister too, in all the stories Kiritsugu told, she was a little angel and as the man his father loved so much, he wanted only good for her. But on the other hand, when he realized that Kiritsugu had chosen Elijah over him, he felt a discomfort in his chest that he suppressed almost immediately with Synergy.
"It doesn't matter now. The curse is ingrained in almost all of the old man's Magical Chains, except for the withering Chains, his life energy is being absorbed at a simply insane rate. In that case, Kiritsugu has less than a week. Why doesn't he use Avalon?" - Chasing away unnecessary thoughts, Sora thought about Kiritsugu's situation. His father, stubbornly refused to use the magical scabbard to save his life.
But the sound of an explosion took him out of his thoughts. Looking in that direction, he saw a black cloud of dust, and the magic barrier covering the castle rippled.
"Well, let's see what I'm capable of in this World." - Strengthening his legs, Sora dashed forward like a shadow through the forest.