Chapter 70 Early Morning, A Battle Lacking Heroic Spirits
What is he here for?
The Chief knew this was a foolish question. The Police Department's identity had been exposed; the Chief should have realized that as early as their last meeting.
He had to admit he had been harboring a sense of wishful thinking.
However, what the Chief truly could not fathom even if he racked his brain... was that this man would actually be solitary to a deliberate degree, coming to the police station with the "innocent" face of an ordinary resident.
'Bastard, what kind of "ordinary resident" ignores magical boundaries?! I'd at least credit you for trying if you showed a hint of an attempt at a stealthy infiltration!'
The Chief gritted his teeth.
After a near-instantaneous moment of paralysis, the Chief reached narrowly for a special communication device in the corner of his office—one normally left unused—and immediately pressed the transmission switch.
"Give him a false location."
"Eh? EEEH?"
Crunch. He cut the connection.
On the monitor, the receptionist nearly dropped her receiver, her bewilderment palpable. Ignoring the innocent receptionist who had no idea who was standing before her, the Chief immediately drew a small flare gun from his side.
He absolutely could not tell him the real location of the Chief's office.
He couldn't be certain if Emiya Shirou was friend or foe, but the disparity in their strength was too vast. If he allowed him to burst directly into the office, he would be hard-pressed to defend himself if the man harbored even a shred of killing intent.
The Chief had to assemble Clan Calatin before Shirou found him; only then would there be a chance to resist. This was a race against time.
The Chief applied a silencing magecraft to ensure the sound wouldn't be heard by those downstairs, then immediately fired a shot into the floor. This shot was an emergency signal. Clan Calatin would arrive in moments.
If he utilized the defense systems and the pre-prepared Phantasmal Beasts, he should be able to stall him for a while—but there were civilians on the first floor, so those couldn't be activated yet.
"We can't act alone now. John, I want you to face him with me. The rest of Clan Calatin are on their way."
"......I understand."
The Chief watched the screen intently as Emiya Shirou began walking into the depths of the first floor. He likely knew the receptionist had spoken to the higher-ups, but theoretically, he shouldn't be able to confirm the truth of the directions. Hopefully, that would buy some time...
Just as the Chief thought this, the image on the screen made his brow furrow.
Emiya Shirou stopped. Then, he reached out a single hand and touched the wall.
—What is he doing now?
The question had barely surfaced before it turned into stunned silence.
Blue, vein-like circuits appeared on the wall. These lines began to extend in all directions with incredible speed. They grew sparser the further they went, but several main trunks vanished into the very ends of the building's structure.
—The effect of this magecraft is...
The Chief had just begun to feel an ominous premonition when he noticed something flickering in his peripheral vision. He stepped back and turned around, coming face-to-face with the object.
It was a pulsing, blue-white circuit. Nothing special. Except for the fact that it was located right on the wall of the Chief's office...
On the monitor, Emiya Shirou opened his eyes. His hand left the wall, and all the blue-white textures extinguished simultaneously. He looked up, speaking calmly and gently.
"You're... watching... right? I'm... coming... to you... now."
The Chief broke into a cold sweat and immediately fired another shot into the floor. This shot triggered the defense systems other than the Phantasmal Beast attacks—the beasts weren't intelligent and showed no mercy, making them unsuitable for initiating combat against someone whose alignment was unknown.
"John, leave the office! This place has been found. We need to relocate while we can still stall him!"
"Please wait! His figure has vanished from the screen!"
At John's warning, the Chief noticed that the red hair previously on the monitor had indeed disappeared. He couldn't be found by physical surveillance or familiar-based monitoring.
......Even with the defense systems activating, he had vanished right before their eyes at high speed.
There were stairs leading to the ninth floor on both the left and right sides. To avoid a head-on collision during the evacuation, the Chief had to confirm which path he was taking. His pupils
scanned the myriad surveillance feeds for two seconds before finally catching a shadow flashing through the fifth-floor stairwell on the right side.
"To the left!"
Swept up by a massive sense of pressure, the Chief abandoned the surveillance system and turned to sprint out with John.
The silhouette that had flashed by just now held two short swords in his hands. A pair of twin blades, magnificent and overflowing with mystery—their exquisite craftsmanship was in no way inferior to Caster's Noble Phantasms.
As if he didn't intend to point the blades at anyone, he held them in a reverse grip. With just that, most magical restraints lost their effect on him. Only once, while ascending the stairs, did he let the frost-like blossoms of one blade's edge flash, striking a seemingly transparent space. With that single stroke, there were no more obstacles ahead.
The Chief pushed the absurd sight—absurd even by the standards of the magical world—to the back of his mind, racing forward to save every second.
He was almost out of time.
The Chief pressed one hand to his sword hilt and sprinted outward with his subordinate. After stepping out of the inner office, there was a wide foyer within the Chief's suite—the place where Clan Calatin usually assembled.
This distance was far too long. The white hall was as vast as a round-table conference room or the stage of the Snowfield Opera House.
Sensing the sound of equally rapid footsteps, the Chief stopped out of necessity and tightened his grip on his sword hilt. John swallowed hard, clutching the still-unopened sword box in his hands.
Naturally, there was no longer a chance to get out.
Emiya Shirou appeared amidst the white light of the early morning pouring through the doorway; the twin swords dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
He stood at the entrance, giving a somewhat troubled, wry smile: "Sorry for the intrusion."
"......You could at least knock," the Chief replied after a moment of silence, wiping away sweat and forcing a smirk.
The youth nodded, dutifully knocked twice on the wide-open door beside him, and then walked in. Facing the Chief and his man, Emiya Shirou showed a well-meaning expression: "Should I say... it's our formal first meeting?"
Behind him, the thunderous sound of footsteps grew louder. Emiya Shirou wasn't surprised; on the contrary, he stood calmly in the middle of the hall, leaving space for them.
Crowds of people in uniform rushed in, quickly fanning out and surrounding Emiya Shirou's rear with practiced discipline. The weapons they drew included warhammers, greatswords, pistols, bows, shields, halberds, and sabers—a collection of all manner of armaments.
The common point was that every single one of these weapons was a Noble Phantasm. Held by brave humans, the flowing magical energy of these blades and spears saturated the white hall.
With maximum respect and vigilance, twenty-seven Noble Phantasms were pointed at a single, empty-handed man.
Yet, even so, Emiya Shirou showed no signs of nervousness. Facing the Chief, whose heart was a whirlwind of complex emotions, the visitor stated his objective as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"This is just my own arbitrary decision... but I'd like to talk with you," Shirou said.
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