Chapter 9. Case Files of the Sealed Garden
"Rule Breaker."
A flash of azure magical energy sparked. In his hand appeared the ceremonial dagger with its jagged, distorted edge.
Shirou lunged, driving the blade into the murky, darkened wall beside him. As expected, however, no significant change occurred.
It was not a contract based on magical energy, nor was it a lifeform birthed from it.
The boundary of the Bounded Field, which took on the appearance of a corroded wall, had indeed been reinforced with magical energy; upon contact, it dimmed considerably, splattering pale light, but a certain "foundation" remained intact.
It was merely weakened, creating a thin node in the field. But shattering this node would only allow one to exit—it would not dismantle the entire Bounded Field.
This field could not trap Shirou, but it could trap everyone except Shirou.
After a single probing strike, Shirou concluded that he could not cause this field to collapse on its own. Furthermore, with humans slumped everywhere, using the violent release of a Noble Phantasm to break it was out of the question.
"Sakura, I'm opening the door."
"No, Senpai, let me do it."
Unexpectedly, the tea bar door could be opened. But it was still unclear what lay beyond.
Shirou gripped the handle, but as he was about to open it, Sakura stubbornly persisted.
"At a time like this, I should be the one... Hey, wait, Sakura!?"
While his attention was focused on her, a black ribbon swept in from an unexpected angle, gently but firmly pushing Shirou aside.
The moment Shirou stepped back from the entrance, another ribbon coiled around the handle and twisted. The door swung open.
Before Shirou could rush to shield her, Sakura stood in front of him, her lips pressed thin as she took a stance to activate Imaginary Element magecraft.
As it turned out, both had overthought it. The act of "opening the door" triggered no defensive measures.
The scene on the other side laid itself out before them. However, it was certainly not a sidewalk or greenery.
It was the interior of another shop.
"Opening a door from a tea bar leads into a grocery store?"
The tea shop behind them, the grocery store in front—the actual physical locations formed a crisscrossing corridor, lying beneath Shirou's feet in an impossible configuration. At the end of the corridor within sight, there was another new door belonging to the grocery store.
The entire space seemed to be chained together. Naturally, there was no way out. Opening the back door of the grocery store would likely lead to a cafe; if his guess was correct, this mechanism would extend indefinitely.
It was chaotic, like a malicious labyrinth. The intricate corridors formed a singular entity.
"This space has already been transformed into another world," Sakura, the magus, evaluated with her hand to her forehead.
Even without knowing the magical principles behind it, Shirou successfully understood its nature.
Furthermore, he understood one more thing—these were all spaces that had originally existed in reality.
No matter which shop it was, there were ordinary people lying on the ground in various postures. There was no doubt that up until the moment they fainted, they had been going about their business without any inkling of abnormality.
The number of people was... terrifying. For a moment, he had the illusion of seeing a field strewn with corpses.
Why specifically choose a high-traffic commercial district? What was the goal of gathering so many ordinary people into an isolated space?
He didn't need to think twice. Shirou had seen this all too often.
"Most likely, the location was chosen specifically to prepare for a sacrifice."
Magi do not possess normal moral standards. However, this act had absolutely crossed Emiya Shirou's line.
To be honest, Shirou felt he had to be grateful that he had been pulled into this field as well.
But the fact that even Sakura had been dragged in... a loathsome feeling stirred in his chest. Before his personal emotions could cloud his judgment, Shirou immediately closed his eyes and burned away the intrusive thoughts.
Crouching down, Shirou touched a victim's chest. The flow of their life force seemed slow; for some unknown reason, the perpetrator didn't seem to intend to execute these ordinary people with full force just yet.
In other words, there was still a little time.
Meanwhile, Sakura, who had been quiet until now, moved silently in Shirou's stead, observing the room's layout.
"Senpai, look."
After opening another door, Sakura pointed to the scene behind it.
"This clothing store is one we passed earlier."
The arrangement of the clothes, the shop sign—Shirou remembered them.
But that shop was at least a kilometer away from the tea bar.
"Someone has linked these spaces together, turning them into adjacent structures in a magical sense. If even shops this far apart are linked, the reach of this Bounded Field might exceed three to four kilometers."
"...Is that so?"
The girl's shining brilliance allowed Shirou to let out a warm, quiet breath.
Sakura was dazzling.
In this dim environment, facing a considerably difficult situation, Sakura showed not a hint of hesitation.
She didn't shrink back and held no fear. She had braced herself to face it head-on, and her analytical skills were swifter than Shirou's, who was not well-versed in magecraft. That figure of hers could only be described as "growth."
Therefore, Shirou believed that even if he didn't rush to point out the small things Sakura hadn't noticed yet, she could discover and solve them herself.
"A Bounded Field that absorbs magical energy like this must have a central point. The flow of mana follows a pattern. If we follow that flow, the space will naturally lead us to the mastermind. —Senpai, that is my deduction."
If this were a Case File-style mystery, this was the solution to the infinite corridor.
It was effortless.
With an expertness that was surprising, Sakura turned her head to look at Shirou. Before he had even intervened, the problem was essentially solved.
"Structural Analysis."
Shirou's fingers lightly tapped the wall.
Emiya Shirou was not talented in magecraft. Naturally, he was not good at sensing mana flows with millimeter precision.
However, there was a way to bypass that limitation.
Green-glowing circuits appeared on the wall. The moment he synchronized with this space, the traces of the mana flow passing over them became clearly visible.
"The flow is toward..."
"The door on the left. Senpai, I happen to be quite good at this. Please don't feel like you need to do anything; just leave it to me."
...Sometimes, Shirou felt that Sakura's subtle growth had gone a bit too far.
A bird whose magical talent was being correctly utilized, having been released into a sky where she could fly freely, had begun to coddle him—a ground-dwelling creature.
The fact that she wasn't even aware she was coddling him was the scariest part.
"Left."
"Right." "Front-right."
"Forward." "Left." "Left." "Behind"—...
Cutting out even the gaps for breathing, they passed through twenty-four doors in a row. Leaving the various types of doors behind, the scenery they stepped into changed. Spaces they had never visited began to replace those they had, like walking into an unfamiliar alleyway.
At this distance, even Shirou could sense with his physical body the life force of the victims flowing toward a central location.
That guy was close.
Together with Sakura, he pushed open the thirtieth door. What was revealed in the dim light was—
—An anomalous space bearing the sign "Oasis Cafe." And the final moment of a middle-aged man crushing a magus's head.
Human tissue split open like a watermelon, spilling onto the ground. As the body fell, there were now two corpses lying in gruesome states on the floor.
One of the magi, whose face remained intact, had an expression of disbelief frozen forever.
In this completely isolated space, the first true blood sacrifice had appeared.
.
.
.
"You've finally arrived, magi. Welcome to my Temple."
This man had been waiting at the final destination from the start. His murky gaze swept over them with the same mindset one would use to look at bait.
"Pardon me. I am Shindenow Giva."
Sakura's expression darkened. This time, Shirou did not have time to wait for her to recover her spirits.
Shirou took a step forward, shielding Sakura.
Then a second step, a third, walking straight toward the magus calling himself Giva.
"Emiya Shirou. That is my name. They were magi, weren't they? Why did you kill them?"
"? Oh, this ritual requires the elimination of redundant magical fluctuations. Don't misunderstand; setting up a Bounded Field like this wasn't for catching magi. Though I actually managed to catch four... the proportion of magi in this city is unnaturally high."
Not only did he view normal society as sustenance, but regarding fratricide, he spoke as if he were discussing a minor matter like picking out pests. He continued:
"But I won't let you leave. I won't allow you to contact the Magus' Association."
A faint, cold light flashed in his eyes. To Shirou, the man seemed to be speaking, but in reality, he was immersed in his own affairs; even communication was impossible.
—It was because of this that Shirou detested this sort of magus.
"Does it not matter to you that because we stay, you yourself won't be able to leave this field?"
Even Shirou felt that the sound of his own voice was terrifyingly calm. In his outstretched hand, the Yang sword Kanshou manifested. The Yin sword Bakuya appeared to match.
His heart beat vigorously and steadily.
"Young brat, say whatever you like."
Giva narrowed his eyes disdainfully.
"Goodbye."
From somewhere, a snap of fingers rang out. If one reacted in time, they would know it was a gesture made by Giva's hand behind his back.
It truly just appeared out of nowhere—
A wave of flame from the side engulfed the youth, drowning his figure.
Rushing, galloping, soaring. A giant maw of fire, several times his height, precisely encapsulated his form; there could be no error.
The red-haired youth's gaze—the one that looked at him like he was trash—also vanished within the inferno.
"Did you fail to hear me? Welcome to my 'Temple.' Within the Age of Gods domain that I, Shindenow Giva, have spent my life recreating, any disrespectful person will receive punishment and be reduced to ash."
At least for these few seconds, the magus was in high spirits.