Emiya Shirou was an honest and righteous person.
Due to the teachings of his adoptive father during his childhood, he developed a strong desire to help others, genuinely wishing for everyone to be happy.
Just moments ago, while Rin Tohsaka was engaged in a confrontation with Lancer, Shirou was busy cleaning up the archery club. Naturally, it wasn't his duty, but when others came asking for his help, Shirou couldn't refuse.
However, the sound of the cannon blast was too overwhelming. The entire school shook as if it was experiencing an earthquake, and Shirou heard the noise clearly. Thinking it might be an earthquake, he rushed out from the archery range, only to be stunned by the sight before him.
The field had completely disappeared.
In its place was a large crater, still smoking.
Shocked, Shirou quickly realized this wasn't an earthquake. Instinctively, he ran toward the field to see what had happened. But as he approached, he saw a figure, bloodied from head to toe. It was a man dressed in a strange blue bodysuit. His appearance was odd, and he was leaning heavily on a long red spear. Without the spear, he probably wouldn't have been able to stand.
Yes, this man was none other than Lancer, who had narrowly survived Fang Mo's cannon blast.
As mentioned before, in the Holy Grail War, each of the seven summoned Servants had distinct characteristics. For instance, Saber's overall strength was the highest, and Archer specialized in long-range attacks.
Lancer, as one of the three knight classes, excelled in agility.
In short, Lancer's defining trait was his incredible speed.
Fang Mo's cannon attack was indeed devastating, but to be honest, the shell's speed wasn't particularly fast.
Faced with the threat of death, Lancer tapped into an unprecedented burst of speed, narrowly escaping the blast zone before the shell hit. Though he was still affected by the explosion's shockwave, his strong Servant body allowed him to survive, albeit barely.
"Are you okay!?" Shirou, unaware of the situation, rushed over upon seeing Lancer's severe injuries. "You're hurt so badly, hold on! I'll go find help right away!"
This moment reflected one of Shirou's peculiar traits.
Anyone else in his position, encountering a bloodied stranger in a strange bodysuit on the school grounds late at night, would instinctively run away and call the police to handle it. But Shirou, having been raised with the strong desire to become a hero of justice, had an almost instinctive urge to help people, completely ignoring any suspicious circumstances.
"A… normal human?"
Lancer frowned as he looked at Shirou.
Before being dispatched, Lancer had received orders from his Master: if discovered by any ordinary person, they were to be killed immediately to prevent any knowledge of the Holy Grail War from leaking.
With this in mind, Lancer's expression turned cold.
It didn't matter if the boy wanted to help him—he had to die here tonight.
In the next moment, Lancer raised his spear and aimed directly at Shirou's heart, intending to finish him off in one swift strike. However, in his weakened state, his attack missed its mark.
With a sickening squelch, the red spear pierced Shirou's left shoulder instead of his heart.
"Argh!"
Pain surged through Shirou, causing him to cry out in agony. "W-What are you doing!?"
"Damn it."
Lancer quickly realized his mistake. He tried to follow up with another attack, but the moment he pulled his spear out, a wave of weakness overcame him.
Meanwhile, Shirou, jolted awake by the intense pain, began to panic.
His heart raced as he recalled a recent news report about a serial killer in Fuyuki City, with multiple victims already. Could it be that this man was the killer?
It was only now that fear finally set in for Shirou.
Desperate not to die, he turned and bolted.
Up on the rooftop, Rin Tohsaka had witnessed Shirou's desperate escape. However, due to the dark night and the smoke obscuring the area, she couldn't clearly see who it was—just a person in a school uniform fleeing for their life.
At first, Rin's mind immediately jumped to speculation about the fleeing person's identity.
After all, just moments ago, she and Fang Mo had been investigating the magical barrier around the school. The barrier was complex, more so than what an ordinary mage would create. It seemed more like something set up by a Servant.
After school, Rin had managed to locate a few of the barrier's anchors.
While she hadn't been able to completely dismantle the barrier, she had significantly weakened it. What caught her attention was how cleverly hidden the anchors were, leading her to suspect that whoever set it up knew the school very well—perhaps even a classmate of hers.
Much of her suspicion was influenced by Fang Mo, of course.
Rin was naturally quite talented and usually remained calm and decisive in such situations.
However, Fang Mo's antics had completely thrown her off. His expertise in causing chaos was unparalleled, as proven in countless other scenarios.
That cannon shot from earlier?
It made the entire school feel like it was going to collapse.
Rin had been so flustered, her mind racing with thoughts about how to fix the situation, that she failed to assess the situation properly.
She assumed that Fang Mo's attack had forced the enemy out, and that the person running away was making a tactical retreat.
"Could that be Lancer's Master?" Rin's expression darkened, her thoughts racing. She hadn't expected that the one responsible for the barrier could actually be a classmate. With their current state, she had to find out the truth.
With that in mind, Rin quickly scanned her surroundings.
She spotted a low fence and rushed over, preparing to jump down. "Archer, I'll leave the landing to you."
Without hesitation, she leaped over the railing, but in the same instant, a large hand grabbed the back of her collar, lifting her back up like a small animal.
"Huh?"
Rin blinked in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"That guy doesn't seem to be Lancer's Master," Fang Mo pointed out. "I just saw Lancer stab him with his spear. Do Masters and Servants usually turn on each other?"
"...What?!"
Rin was stunned. Could her judgment have been wrong?
"Don't believe me?"
Fang Mo casually pulled out a pair of binoculars from somewhere and handed them to her. "See for yourself."
Rin said nothing as she accepted the military-grade binoculars from Fang Mo. Through the lenses, the darkness and smoke on the battlefield seemed to clear away, giving her a clear view of the scene below.
"E-Emiya… Shirou!?"
Rin's face filled with disbelief.
"You know him?"
Fang Mo asked, feigning ignorance.
"He's… a friend of my sister's," Rin quickly realized her mistake. "Damn it… I was wrong. Lancer's Master must have ordered him to kill any witnesses. The Holy Grail War is meant to be a secret, so anyone who sees it has to be eliminated."
"Got it."
Fang Mo nodded thoughtfully. "I'll keep that in mind for next time."
"What do you mean, next time?"
Rin asked, confused.
"I won't use a giant cannon next time—it's too flashy," Fang Mo said matter-of-factly. "I'll just use a bomber to carpet-bomb the area instead. That way, I can kill both the Servant and any witnesses in one go."
"Stop that right now!"
Rin snapped, exasperated. "Do you realize how hard it's going to be to clean up the mess you made with that cannon!?"
"You're saying this is hard to clean up?" Fang Mo shrugged. "Come on, this isn't even the biggest cannon in my arsenal. Have you heard of the Gustav Rail Cannon? The Black Sun Project? Or the biological experiments we've been secretly working on? One of my majors even defeated the Vampire King—"
"I…"
Rin felt her head about to explode.
But before she could unleash her fury, Fang Mo suddenly interrupted, "Your classmate seems to be gone. Aren't you worried?"
"What!?"
Rin snapped back to reality. Damn it, Fang Mo had distracted her so much that she'd completely forgotten about rescuing Shirou.
Without another word, she leaped over the railing again, calling out, "Catch me!"
Rin's bravery was commendable. Jumping from several stories without hesitation showed her courage. And perhaps, deep down, she trusted Fang Mo.
Unfortunately, Fang Mo wasn't exactly the trustworthy type.
Instead of catching her, Rin found herself landing awkwardly on something. The impact left her rear aching.
"What is this…"
Looking down, she saw that she had landed on an old army-green motorcycle.
It was a military bike, the same one she had seen earlier, complete with a sidecar. Sitting comfortably in the sidecar was Fang Mo, looking as relaxed as ever. He waved at her nonchalantly. "Let's go."
"...What?"
Rin was utterly dumbfounded.
"Come on, start the bike." Fang Mo gestured again. "Aren't you going to save your classmate?"
"But I…"
Rin was too stunned to argue and could only admit, "I don't know how to ride this thing. Can't you drive?"
"Have you ever seen a leader drive himself?"
Fang Mo asked.
"Then get your informant… uh, that guy… to drive," Rin suggested.
"He's still scouting the enemy and hasn't come back yet."
Fang Mo shook his head. "At most, I could switch to a different vehicle. How about a Tiger tank? Or maybe a BF-109 fighter jet?"
"Can you give me a normal option for once?"
Rin was desperate. "Lancer is chasing down my classmate, can't you just stop messing around? Let's just go after him on foot!"
"Sorry, but I can't keep up with Lancer."
Fang Mo spread his hands dramatically. "You want an Archer to chase down a Lancer on foot? Who's really causing trouble here, me or you?"
"Ugh…"
Rin was suddenly at a loss for words.
He had a point. As strong as her Archer was, he likely had some weaknesses—like being slower than Lancer, whose agility was unmatched.
Under normal circumstances, Rin would have accepted this.
But with Shirou being hunted by Lancer, she was on edge. Shirou was close to her sister, Sakura Matou. If something happened to him, how could she face her sister the next day?
She was genuinely at a loss for what to do.
Meanwhile, Fang Mo was having a hard time holding back his laughter.
If he had wanted to, he could have easily killed Lancer the moment they met. Even while maintaining his Führer persona, Fang Mo could've handled the situation with ease. But the truth was, he was stalling.
Not because he wouldn't help Shirou, but because he needed to delay things just a bit.
According to the timeline of the Fifth Grail War, the war hadn't officially started yet. The seventh Servant and Master had yet to appear.
The boy who had just fled—Emiya Shirou—was destined to become the seventh Master.
Of course, the identity of the Master wasn't too important. The Holy Grail War didn't impose many restrictions, and even a Caster-class Servant could summon another Servant to assist in battle. If Fang Mo wanted, he could become the seventh Master himself and summon a Servant.
But what Fang Mo was really after was the Servant Shirou would summon.
That Servant was none other than Artoria Pendragon, the immensely popular Saber with the signature ahoge.
She was the kind of straightforward and earnest character that Fang Mo found irresistibly fun to tease. But she was difficult to summon unless specific conditions were met.
In the Fourth War, Kiritsugu Emiya had used the scabbard of Excalibur to summon Artoria as Saber. And now, that same scabbard was inside Shirou, making him the only one who could summon her.
That's why Fang Mo was stalling.
Of course, he didn't delay for too long. Once he judged the timing was right, he called back his subordinate, Hayakawa Aki, and began tracking Shirou using the map.
But unexpectedly, after just a few minutes on the motorcycle, they came across a body lying under a streetlamp in the distance.
The corpse was dressed in the school uniform of Homurahara Academy, and there was a gaping wound through its back, with blood pooling on the ground.
It was clearly Emiya Shirou, but unlike in the original story, this time he hadn't escaped and had been fatally struck down.
"Damn it!"
Fang Mo couldn't help but curse when he saw the sight.