Twisted Demonic Eye

"Hah—I'm full, I'm full, that was amazing!"

"Tch! You bastard, this is the first time I've ever lost to anyone when it comes to eating!" Watching Shirou's refreshed expression, Touko was annoyed.

She originally thought she was the only one in Japan with such an appetite, with at most Aoko Aozaki matching her. Who would have thought that Emiya Shirou would pop out of nowhere! And that amount—twenty-plus kilograms, more than half his own body weight, right? Did he really have a fourth-dimensional stomach?

"You should say, 'In the realm of eating, no one among those I've met surpasses you. I hereby crown you the strongest.'" Shirou crossed his hands behind his head, tilted his face up at a forty-five-degree angle toward the sky, glanced at Touko, and then said, "Wouldn't it be way cooler if I put it like that?"

"Don't forget what I do for a living. Compared to efficiency, looking cool doesn't mean a damn thing. Isn't that right, Mr. Magus Killer?" Touko shifted the topic, turning her gaze to the Emiya family head standing in the background—Emiya Kiritsugu.

Caught in the crossfire even while lying low, Kiritsugu gave a wry smile and said, "Don't tease me, Ms. Aozaki. I've already retired from that line of work. Now I'm just a rich man who wants to live peacefully with his family."

"Who are you trying to fool?" Touko was clearly unsatisfied with Kiritsugu's answer. "What ordinary person carries multiple firearms on them at all times?"

"Oh, caught me!" Exposed, Kiritsugu admitted it generously instead. Even if he no longer took contracts, Kiritsugu always carried weapons with him—it was something like an occupational hazard.

"That's pretty lame, old man. If it were me, I'd never admit it even if I died."

"If you stubbornly denied it, that would just prove you have something to hide!"

"So what? Humans can't possibly have x-ray vision, right!"

"That's not necessarily true." Touko denied Shirou's claim. "Listen, kid, I can see you're going to become a magus. Since you broke that guy's record, I'll give you a little lesson—about Mystic Eyes."

That's what he was waiting for!

Shirou's understanding of Mystic Eyes was far too shallow—he only knew they existed as a concept. But Shirou also knew that across the entire Nasuverse, Aozaki Touko was one of the top experts on Mystic Eyes.

Just now, Shirou had deliberately steered the topic toward vision, hoping Touko would take pity on him and explain. Now it seemed his goal was achieved.

"Listen up, kid. Mystic Eyes are a single-action magecraft.

They transform your eyeballs into Magic Circuits using a method similar to a Magic Crest, converting the passive function of receiving external information into an active ability to influence the outside world.

In other words, all targets within your line of sight are affected by the magecraft; if the target looks directly into the Mystic Eyes, the effect skyrockets. Since Mystic Eyes cannot be looked at directly, and anyone seen by them falls under the user's magecraft, plus it's hard to tell from appearance whether someone has them, they're virtually impossible to guard against. That's why possessing Mystic Eyes is proof of a first-rate magus."

"Amazing! Since Mystic Eyes are a type of magecraft, there must be a lot of magi who have them, right?" Shirou asked his question. If Mystic Eyes of Death Perception could be mass-produced, that would be terrifying. Just imagining a squad of Shiki clones... terrifying.

Hearing Shirou's words, Touko rolled her eyes, thinking the kid looked sharp but asked such a stupid question.

Despite that thought, Touko still answered Shirou's dumb question: "Impossible. Artificial Mystic Eyes are at best capable of things like fascination or suggestion. Binding, Compulsion, Contract, Flame, Illusion, Misfortune, Petrification, Death Perception—these are all special cases among Mystic Eyes. These powerful Mystic Eyes are limited to innate abilities—'superpowers' that even magecraft cannot replicate."

"Mystic Eyes are graded by color: ordinary ones emit red or green light, powerful ones are gold, and Mystic Eyes at the divine level even shimmer with rainbow light like jewels."

Shirou listened very seriously. He had already pulled out a small notebook and was jotting down Touko's words verbatim.

"You've been eavesdropping for a while now. Time to come out, you sneaky bastard." Closing his notebook, Shirou's gaze sharpened as he spoke.

...No response.

"I'll say it again. Come out! Or I'll have to drag you out myself!" This time, Shirou released his aura. Dust on the ground was kicked up, and even the hems of the group's clothes rustled.

...Still no response.

"Still not coming out?" Shirou's eyes narrowed slightly. He was about to act.

"Hey, kid, what's gotten into you?"

Shirou ignored Touko, reached into his pocket, pulled out a coin, and with a flick of his wrist, sent it whistling through the air.

"Kid, what are you—" Touko's words were cut off mid-sentence by a scream, "—doing?"

Everyone followed the sound and saw a little girl with long purple hair lying on the ground, staring at Shirou's group with a panicked look.

"What's this, just a little girl. Kid, you're way too paranoid!" Touko was the first to relax.

To be honest, she had been the most tense just now. She was on the Sealed Designation list—it wouldn't be strange for an executor from the Mage's Association to show up at any time.

"That one looks familiar..." Shirou muttered in a voice only he could hear. Just as he was wondering where he had seen her before, something unexpected happened!

The space around Shirou suddenly twisted. The hairs on his body stood on end. His nerves, his instincts, his sixth sense—all screamed the same message: Danger!

Driven by survival instinct, Shirou leaped to the right, escaping the area. But it was too late—his left arm was torn clean off!

"Shirou (Kid)!"

"Tch! A step too late?" Shirou looked at his severed left arm. It hurt like hell, sure, but something felt missing.

"Shirou, are you okay? Are you alright?" Kiritsugu asked with concern, only to get a grimace from Shirou.

"Isn't it obvious? Left arm's gone, that's all. Which means I'm far from okay! Trace on!" With that, Shirou projected a short sword and cut off his entire left arm—the twisted break at the stump was interfering with High-Speed Regeneration.

Then, Shirou's left arm grew back. Yes, grew back...

Hey, hey! Don't do something so inhuman while wearing a human form! If there were people around right now, you'd be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper, you know that?