Chapter 23. Emiya Shirou vs. Fanatic II
He had successfully intercepted it, that much was true.
But the pressure of that brief moment was so immense that even Shirou lacked the energy to focus on anything else. It was only now that Shirou noticed the female Servant looking somewhat dazed, maintaining a combat stance of extreme tension.
"Did you truly believe that unleashing that single strike would be enough to kill me?"
She had held back during the first two exchanges, but not the third. Consequently, Shirou hadn't held back either.
Two backhand-gripped Yin-Yang swords reappeared in his hands. Shirou tossed out a sarcastic quip, but in truth, his heart was less steady than he cared to admit, so he quickly cut to the chase.
""Why?""
Both Shirou and the nameless assassin froze for a split second. Their words had overlapped perfectly in the air.
"Why were you able to intercept the ultimate technique of the Great Prophet so easily?"
Her words carried a trace of subtle indignation.
"No, I should be the one asking that. This isn't your first Noble Phantasm. Why? Also, that was supposed to be Hassan-i-Sabbah's Noble Phantasm, wasn't it? Why do you have it?"
"You have seen the Great Prophet!?"
This "Great Prophet" business was causing a subtle disconnect in their communication.
It only reinforced the impression of a "Fanatic," and based on the dialogue, the female Servant was clearly of the Hassan lineage.
"If you tell me exactly why you're attacking me, I'll tell you."
His hand was revealed. Assassin's agility was higher than Shirou's; she would absolutely never let him get close with that stone axe again, and running further wouldn't bring him to a range where his Noble Phantasms would be useful. That was why Shirou had simply thrown the stone axe at her and projected new weapons.
Lowering the two short swords, he reached to grip a bow—or so he intended.
"...[ Zabaniya- Dreamlike Marrow]..."
The murmured voice coincided exactly with Shirou's movement.
"!!"
Shirou clutched his forehead as his Magic Circuits began to overheat. Merely performing a single projection caused a stifling pain within his body, as if he were being scorched from the inside.
The scenery before his eyes spun. It felt like the sensation of standing up too fast after sitting in the dark for a long time and stepping into bright sunlight.
A buzzing rang in his ears. He could faintly sense something akin to a singing voice.
A Noble Phantasm that makes Magic Circuits run wild—Shirou realized that if he had been using an "attack spell" that "poured out a massive amount of prana," he might have literally burst into flames on the spot.
Fortunately, since Shirou rarely used any magecraft other than Projection, he wasn't actually killed by this Noble Phantasm.
However, beyond the haywire Magic Circuits, Shirou tried to open and close his palms only to find his body wouldn't move. The restrictive sensation of being glared at by a Petrifying Mystic Eye was being reproduced within him in a different sense.
[Dreamlike Marrow] was a dangerous Noble Phantasm that caused those using offensive magecraft to self-destruct, but few had ever experienced its other effect firsthand. When the singing voices are all concentrated on a single human, it can even forcibly control them to a certain extent.
"Infidel..."
The faint singing echoed. While the effect was still active, Assassin stopped her moving lips; only a single sentence was mixed into the song:
"I will crush this Holy Grail War. I don't care who you are... do not get in my way."
Assassin extended her right hand, her cloak flaring out to reveal a palm as white as porcelain.
The singing ceased, and the black-clad figure lunged toward Shirou. Yet the restraint had not yet broken.
Shirou exerted every ounce of his strength to force a burst of raw power, but for a moment, he still couldn't move properly, as if he had been filled with molten lead. A single strike from the black shadow could easily reach Shirou's forehead, which would mean dying to a frontal assassination.
—Provided it actually reached him.
What Assassin clearly hadn't noticed was that the pair of Kanshou and Bakuya discarded at his feet were acting up.
From an angle only Shirou could see, the pair of swords behind Assassin flew toward her from both sides like butterflies.
"!"
Having just noticed the anomaly behind her, Assassin ducked urgently to the side, but she neglected what was in front. The Kanshou and Bakuya at her feet rose from the ground, closing in on her vision with a spiral trajectory and speed equal to when they were first thrown.
The front two. The back two. Four blades of Kanshou and Bakuya, moving in completely different trajectories, forced Assassin into a danger zone.
In fact, in the instant Assassin noticed the situation in front and felt shocked, the white blade from behind had already pierced her right shoulder.
Then, just as she finally realized the true situation, the four short swords, attracted to one another, all slammed into her body.
"...[ Zabaniya - Severed Thought Body Heat]..."
Dust filled the air. Shirou shook his arm, having used brute force to break the restraint, and a silver bow appeared in his hand.
As the dust settled, Assassin appeared with her black clothes slightly torn. Crystalline skin was visible through the gaps in her garments. There were bloodstains only on her right shoulder.
Regrettably, the injury didn't look severe.
"You walked into a trap. If you use that control move on me again, you really will die."
In reality, this contained a element of bluffing on Shirou's part. It was a huge hassle for Shirou whenever that move made his circuits go out of control. However, the effect of the warning was almost laughably good; the disheveled Assassin glared at Shirou with a gaze she had never shown before.
It wasn't even resentment. It was a composite of doubt and bewilderment.
"[ Zabaniya- Unthinking Spirit Patrol]"
She made a teeth-grinding sound and released a new Noble Phantasm.
Shirou couldn't help but frown.
How many Noble Phantasms was this now?
Just how many did this girl have? Or was it like [Gate of Babylon], where a single one allowed for multiple Noble Phantasm techniques?
Shirou's shimmering eyes observed that mist was rising.
Fog began to permeate the area around Assassin. Then, the mist transformed into the shapes of various giant beasts.
They were variant spirits that surpassed ghosts and were even close to elementals.
Since they were transparent, they were things that didn't fundamentally exist in the physical world. Without a doubt, they belonged to the category of spirit bodies. Nevertheless, they were visible compared to full spirit-form; meaning, their nature sat exactly in the middle of void and reality.
The mist-beasts pounced toward Shirou with volumes dozens of times his own size. Shirou silently ran to the side, drawing his bowstring taut to release arrows woven from prana.
"Ha!"
A rain of blue light struck the mist rushing toward him. The giant beast slowed down.
Under the devastation of the prana explosions, parts of the giant beast were blown apart, turning back into scattered mist only to reform in an instant.
As long as it wasn't a spirit body that completely vanished—physical attacks were ignored, but there were ways to deal with attacks using a large amount of prana.
Shirou stopped his rapid fire after releasing a new volley of arrows.
The reason was that the output wasn't high enough. The giant beast was still closing in on Shirou; despite the outer shell collapsing, the arrowheads couldn't finish off the mist-spirit. Prana attacks were effective but limited.
Rather than wasting prana in a short-term stalemate like this, Shirou had a much better way to solve it.
A certain armament floated in the air, falling into Shirou's other hand following gravity. The famous sword twisted into the shape of an arrow in an instant.
The mist-spirit regained its form and lunged forward with a hiss. But Shirou's aim as he notched the arrow was precisely pointed at the Assassin who was trying to escape his sights. What he nocked on the bow wasn't an armament he usually used. After calculating the durability of the mist-spirit, Shirou had chosen a C+ rank Noble Phantasm.
"This body is made of infinite swords."
Simply because Shirou judged this prana output would be sufficient.
"[ Moderategale - Whirlwind of Restoration]"
The Noble Phantasm streaked through with a gale. The mist-spirit beast twisted its form and threw itself into the path from the side, opening its maw to try and swallow it.
Then it seemed to freeze for a beat.
A vortex overflowing with prana tore through its internal structure on the spot. Even the haze-like mist was ripped to shreds and scattered everywhere, with no sign of reforming.
The arrow tore through the mist without hesitation, flying straight toward the shoulder of the Assassin who couldn't dodge in time.
"[ Zabaniya - Severed Thought Body Heat]!"
Assassin, pushing the same Noble Phantasm from before to maximum power, crossed her arms to cover her head as fast as she could. She was blown away by the arrow, crashing into and damaging the sand storage warehouse behind her.
...The mist vanished. When she "switched" to her crystalline state, the mist-spirit was nowhere to be found. Assassin stumbled out of the sand-filled air; the crystals on her body showed cracks, and some parts had already shattered.
Just as Shirou was about to speak, she made a desperate leap with completely undampened spirit, hiding in the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings.
"Tch."
Something was moving through the shadows. But his perception became blurred; it was [Presence Concealment]. Shirou couldn't confirm her exact location.
So, Shirou chose to walk to the point furthest from any shadows on the ground and spoke:
"Is that the limit of your defensive Noble Phantasm?"
No answer.
"Assassin, I don't care what you're thinking, but I've already realized it. You have an interval when you switch between different Noble Phantasms, don't you? There's no point in continuing this fight. I want to talk to you. You're attacking others because you won't accept the Holy Grail War, right?"
Shirou stated the facts plainly, but the only response was silence. At a calculated moment intended to make one lower their guard, a violent presence suddenly erupted from behind.
From the shadow on the ceiling behind him, the direction hardest to notice—
"Clang."
The sound rang out again. Clinging to the warehouse roof, Assassin leapt down with the force of a cannonball.
As she reached out her hand, she suddenly thought: Why did those two sounds overlap just now?
As her arm was easily dodged, she found the answer. Her hair stood on end, and she began to turn desperately.
It was just too late. Sidestepping Assassin's touch and letting the palm graze his collar, Shirou had already whipped something out before she could recover and turn.
The thing that had made a sound at the same time as her presence appeared wasn't just her, but an armament Shirou had hidden in his clothes.
Borrowing a certain someone's technique for a moment.
"Ugh!"
A stake pierced the palm of the female assassin. Presumably because she was still in the cooldown period from her last Noble Phantasm, the crystallization didn't appear, and it hit home cleanly.
If Assassin had used this move right at the start of the fight, Shirou couldn't say for sure he wouldn't have panicked during the sudden raid.
But Shirou had already begun to adapt. He was used to her way of thinking, used to her habits, used to her abilities, and most importantly, he had set a lure.
This girl truly believed that "Shirou only noticed the shadows on the ground and didn't realize the shadows on the ceiling and beams."
A frontal duel was a major taboo for an Assassin. If all the trump cards are exposed, the enemy will adapt to the pattern. The current Shirou understood the meaning of those words.
Basing everything on the experience gained so far, predicting the opponent's movements and breaking the situation—that is exactly what combat is.
"[Zaba)]... —!!"
Before she could shout the Noble Phantasm's name, Shirou flipped his arm first.
Rotating with his wrist as the axis, the chains pulled the light, black-clad Servant. With a contorted expression, the female Servant was lifted off the ground by the linkage of ring upon ring.
The black robes fluttered as if she were about to fly into the air, but before she could adjust her posture, his muscles tensed, and he began to whip the chains like he was handling a snake.
"Hiss—!"
The tightening chains suddenly yanked the airborne Assassin back toward the corner of the wall!
Her eyes widening, Assassin was pulled by doubled gravity and slammed into the thickest part of the warehouse's outer wall.
At the same time, several armaments that hadn't existed a moment ago flew like lightning, piercing through Assassin's hands in rapid succession. Her hands, which were still trying to break free, were once again pinned completely to the wall.
It was over.
At least, looking at the current situation.
The assassin could still use her Noble Phantasms, so it wasn't enough. Shirou gripped a formed Kanshou in the void. He gave a silent flick forward.
"Projection·Reinforcement (Overedge)"
The blade elongated. Its tip pierced into the wall beside Assassin's face like it was cutting through cheese.
Finally, it froze just a few millimeters away from the woman's throat.