Hero Simulator in Type-Moon, Chapter 43

"Kirei, you don't think those two are going to wreck Fuyuki City's ley lines, do you?"

Tohsaka Rin sounded a bit worried.

A battle between a Grand and a Magician—forget the ley lines, it could wipe Fuyuki City off the map entirely. How could Rin not be concerned?

"That's unlikely. Those two didn't start fighting the moment they met, which clearly means they have no intention of a deathmatch. Even if something like that did happen..."

Kirei Kotomine paused there. Did this Church executioner's agent have some kind of trump card up his sleeve?

"Then we'd have no choice but to leave our homeland. The Church won't meddle in Magician affairs."

"You could at least be useful, Kirei."

Rin felt that ever since she started hanging around that guy Fujimaru Kyoya, she'd been drifting toward a role as a straight man.

Was her future character tag going to be some kind of comic relief girl?

A future like that—no thanks.

"But rather than worrying about that, why not worry about your disciple? If he carelessly stumbles into those two's duel, he'll absolutely be killed without a second thought."

Although the Aozaki Sisters weren't the type to kill indiscriminately, this matter still involved the most important inheritance of legitimacy for the Aozaki Family.

The two sisters had been holding a grudge for all these years, and at this point, no amount of persuasion would work.

"No need. That guy has strong Magic Resistance, but we can roughly deduce where the Aozaki Sisters will fight."

Rin glanced at a map of Fuyuki City and marked four ley line locations on it.

"Aozaki Touko may have reached the Grand rank, but in the Clock Tower, Grand is more a symbol of magecraft mastery—it doesn't equate to combat power. To beat a Magician... even one who doesn't use magic isn't easy. She'll have to rely on the ley lines."

Using the terrain to close the gap between herself and a Magician—that wasn't exactly a brilliant strategy. The key was what kind of "Otherworld" Aozaki Touko could create.

"That's not a place you can enter just by relying on Magic Resistance. Mount Enzou is remote, and the Aozaki Sisters' fight should be at night when no one's around. If he still manages to barge into a place like that, it's just bad luck."

To keep Fujimaru Kyoya from letting his curiosity get him killed, Rin deliberately didn't tell him that Mount Enzou was highly likely to be the sisters' battleground. She only told him not to go out at night.

After all, Rin could no longer get a read on her own disciple.

"True. As long as he doesn't go out at night, he won't run into those two. That's one way to handle it."

Kirei Kotomine wasn't worried either. With Gilgamesh protecting him, even if he ran into a Magician, he should be able to retreat unscathed.

He just didn't know how much trouble that kid would court this time.

Kirei had a feeling that Fujimaru Kyoya would definitely get dragged into some inexplicable mess—and that would be... most delightful.

Fujimaru Kyoya certainly wasn't someone who went looking for death. Even with a cheat, he wasn't about to charge at a boss before leaving the newbie zone. At least... let me grind the "Sword God" skill on Ten Mile Slope first.

The sky gradually darkened. Fujimaru Kyoya was absolutely certain he hadn't gotten lost, so why hadn't he reached the foot of the mountain yet?

"I can't see the way back anymore."

Kyoya looked back at the path he'd come from, as if he'd stepped into a different world at some inexplicable moment.

Or perhaps this night-shrouded Mount Enzou had transformed into another Otherworld. Just a few steps' distance, and Kyoya had undergone a "crossing."

"Rika's waiting for me to come home and cook."

Kyoya muttered to himself. He'd prepared a bento, but letting a kid eat a boxed lunch wasn't exactly nutritious.

No matter the reason, he had to go back.

Thump~

A dull sound rang out, like the footsteps of some giant beast. But the source of the sound wasn't around him—it was...

"Beneath me?"

The moment Kyoya confirmed it, the solid ground beneath him suddenly cracked open, causing the once-flat surface to collapse entirely.

What the hell?

Though he'd lost his footing, Kyoya hadn't forgotten the techniques he'd learned in simulations. Even if he fell from a ten-thousand-foot cliff, as long as he shattered the dangerous sharp edges, with his body control, he could land safely without a scratch... right?

"Aoko, is this your hired help?"

"Do you think I need help? I'd say he's yours, wouldn't you?"

Two sharp, confrontational voices rang out. Kyoya silently cursed his bad luck. Running into these two in a place like this—this wasn't just misfortune anymore.

"What if I said I got here by accident?"

Kyoya tested the waters.

"Then you're incredibly unlucky."

Yeah, incredibly unlucky.

Chapter 76: Magus Egg 9/28

Aozaki Touko was once a prodigy who drew everyone's attention.

Of course, that wasn't to say she wasn't one now. Aozaki Touko was still a genius, and she had even earned the title of Grand. But for someone once called the "Magus Egg," what a bitter irony that title was.

"Aoko, we used to have a good relationship, remember?"

Aozaki Touko fiddled with the box beside her, not even turning her head as she asked.

After meeting with Matou Shinji, she began setting up the underground cavern beneath Mount Enzou. This was her world—she knew every intruder who set foot inside.

Even if that intruder was a Magus.

"I remember back then, when I was still an ordinary person, I'd often come up the mountain to visit you. I'd talk about what happened at school, and you'd talk about your training on the mountain. All for the sake of inheriting the position of Magus. Your eyesight started failing around that time too—I saw it all."

Aozaki Aoko didn't bother hiding. In this small world where only the two of them existed, words that would normally be hard to say could now be spoken without restraint.

Her sister had poured so much effort into inheriting the position of Magus—Aozaki Aoko had seen it all clearly.

If that incident hadn't happened back then, the two sisters probably could have remained on good terms forever.

"As expected, it would have been better to let Aoko inherit the Aozaki Family."

An aged voice came from Aozaki Touko's mouth. It was the voice that had changed both their fates. It was a voice neither of them would ever forget.

It was a voice Aozaki Touko had imitated. It was their grandfather's voice.

"Aoko, my feelings toward you are not jealousy. You should understand that."

Jealousy?

If the original candidate for "Magus Egg" had been her younger sister Aoko, then Aozaki Touko would have simply offered her blessings. She would never have stooped to such a lowly emotion as jealousy.

"I understand."

Aozaki Aoko understood. She knew how much expectation had been placed on her sister since childhood. She had been presented to all kinds of people as the "Magus Egg." Back then, almost everyone knew that the eldest daughter of the Aozaki Family would inherit the magic known as "Blue."

And what was the final result?

The magic was passed to the younger sister. The elder sister shouldered the infamy of killing their grandfather and fled to the Clock Tower. She took on countless debts just to make a living. Worse still, without a Magic Crest, she was looked down upon by all kinds of people.

What kind of torment was that for the proud Aozaki Touko?

"But it's fine now. Everything will end today. The matters between us will be settled after today. Everything... wiped clean."

The boxes lying beside Aozaki Touko began to tremble. A surge of powerful mana erupted from the leyline. Even though the underground cavern had been modified and reinforced by Aozaki Touko, it still shook violently from the force of this mana.

Kirei Kotomine had misjudged one thing.

He had correctly inferred from the sisters' previous behavior that this was not a duel to the death. But that did not mean the two sisters wouldn't go all out.

Aozaki Aoko, now the user of the Fifth Magic, possessed the "Blue" magic. She was not someone who would die so easily.

Aozaki Touko, the Grand Puppeteer, possessed the supreme technique of creating bodies identical to her own and could even copy her memories. Once she died, a "backup" stored somewhere in the world would awaken and live on as the new Touko.

In a sense, both of them had achieved "immortality." This meant that from the very beginning, aside from the restriction of not using magic, their duel had almost no limits at all.

"So this is what you prepared? As I thought, that rumor about the Stone Tablet was just a lie."

Aozaki Aoko couldn't understand why her sister would spread such an unreliable rumor. It couldn't be that she just wanted to annoy someone on a whim.

Still, she couldn't let her guard down. The last time they met, this woman had created a Fantasy Species that had lived for two thousand years. Who knew what she would cook up this time.

"Aoko, answer me one question. Can you defeat a Servant?"

A Servant was a degraded version of a Heroic Spirit—a familiar that a Magus could drive through special means. But if anyone truly treated those who had left their names in history as mere familiars, their end would not be pretty.

"If I use magic, I should be able to win."

Aozaki Aoko thought seriously about the question before giving her answer.

"Then without using magic, the outcome is uncertain, isn't it?"

"True. But can you even summon one?"

Aozaki Aoko was no longer the apprentice Magus she once was. Even the Holy Grail War required sixty years of preparation to summon a Servant, let alone controlling one after summoning.

There was no way Aozaki Touko could complete a Servant summoning in such a short time.

"I can't. But I can make a degraded product."

Mercury surged from the boxes, and a clear Holy Sword slowly rose from among them. These things looked strangely familiar to Aozaki Aoko.

"That thing from the El-Melloi family?"

"Moon Dew Liquid. A rather amusing little toy. I didn't fully replicate the El-Melloi family's technique, but the properties of mercury are still enough for me to make good use of."

The mercury formed into the shape of a towering Knight before Aozaki Touko. It gripped the Holy Sword in its hand, as if a Knight from ancient times had once again stood upon this world.

Everything that has existed leaves traces.

This Holy Sword had once been wielded by the "Blade of Vortigern." In that final rainy night, after a battle that pushed power, technique, and will beyond their limits, Lloyd's "traces" had inevitably been left upon this blade.

"A thousand years, and that sliver of will on the blade has yet to fully dissipate. I wonder who used what method to preserve this sword. But I managed to extract it and create a Pseudo-Personality—a degraded version of a Servant Fragment."

No self-awareness. Unable to unleash Noble Phantasms. Affected by the terrain.

These factors combined meant it couldn't even be called a Servant. But for Aozaki Touko at this moment, it was more than enough.

No self-awareness meant easy control. Unable to unleash Noble Phantasms meant its destructive power was within manageable limits. As for not being able to leave this cavern?

If Aozaki Aoko ran away, that would mean Touko's victory. If she wanted to flee, Aozaki Touko wouldn't stop her—she'd just laugh at her little sister.

"So, Aoko, are you ready?"

One Mystic Code after another was devoured into the "Knight's" body. Its aura rose further. For this battle, Aozaki Touko had staked everything she had.

And Aozaki Aoko?

She said nothing. The surging, restless mana was answer enough—they had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Chapter 77: Cat and Mouse 10/28

A body forged from mercury, using the fluidity of liquid to mitigate the wear and tear on the puppet, thereby unleashing the full combat techniques of the Holy Sword—this was the puppet Aozaki Touko had prepared: Moon Blade Edge.

"I never thought you'd still have so many assets after having your Sealing Designation lifted. Those Mystic Codes from earlier must have cost a fortune."

Aozaki Aoko grew serious as well. The things that had been drawn into the puppet moments ago were all extremely expensive Mystic Codes. These would grant this puppet, which only knew how to cut people down, some special functions—such as... spatial adaptability.

In the blink of an eye, Moon Blade Edge appeared behind Aozaki Aoko, its Holy Sword slashing toward the back of her neck. If that strike landed, this young Magus would have met her end right then and there.

"Bang~"

The Magic Bullet she had already readied fired. Array after array manifested along Aozaki Aoko's arm, and with their reinforcement, that single blow sent Moon Blade Edge flying backward.

Aozaki Aoko was not a traditional magus—she was a "brawler-type" magus.

Close-quarters combat was never her weakness, and once the distance opened, her signature Magic Bullets would blast the enemy away, not to mention the magic she had at her disposal.

"Still attacking from behind? After all these years, you didn't think I'd made no progress at all, did you?"

Memories began to surface in Aozaki Aoko's mind—the battle between the two sisters in the Mirror House.

Back then, Aozaki Aoko, still an apprentice magus, had been chased like a rat by one of Aozaki Touko's puppets, her Magic Circuits disrupted by the most rudimentary of techniques.

That battle had practically held Aozaki Aoko's immaturity up for mockery.

"Back in the Mirror House, I chose the battlefield. So this time, I'll leave the choice to you. Let me see how much you've changed over the years."

The light in Aozaki Aoko's hand took on a hue of annihilation. With a casual strike, she blasted the ground beneath Aozaki Touko to pieces—but that alone was not enough to kill her.