First Meeting

The Emiya Family parked in front of an abandoned, half-finished commercial building.

"Is this the place? Compared to the Einzbern place last time, this doesn't look like the home of an accomplished mage at all!" Although he had known beforehand, Shirou still could not help commenting.

The entire building looked like a piece of junk: its concrete surfaces were completely exposed to the air, the outer walls were concrete, the inner walls were concrete, and even the floors were concrete. Oh, my concrete, this building had practically given up on treatment!

"Ah, yes. This is the place," Kiritsugu confirmed.

After all, not every mage family was as well-off as the Einzberns. Mages were never beings that could be judged by common sense. It was just a run-down building; Kiritsugu had seen far worse.

"Is that so? Then let's go in."

"!!!" The moment Shirou stepped into the abandoned building, he suddenly felt something off. It was like suddenly realizing he had forgotten to turn off the gas at home.

"Old man."

"Hmm? You felt it too, Shirou?"

"A suggestion spell? A ward to drive away idle people?" Shirou looked again at the utterly unaffected Illya and could not help sighing.

"Ah~ This is the only time I envy Einzbern homunculi. They have twice a human's resistance to magecraft."

"Hehe!"

On the third floor of the abandoned building, Shirou and Kiritsugu finally met the person they had come to see.

She was a young woman with long fiery-red hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a white office-style shirt, and then there was orange.

Orange nail polish, orange earrings, an orange necklace, even her handbag and coat were orange.

How much did this woman like orange? Was she obsessive? Shirou silently complained.

"Oh my, visitors. And very 'special' visitors at that!" Aozaki Touko naturally had no idea what Shirou was thinking. At the moment, her attention was focused on Kiritsugu.

Kiritsugu had worked as a bounty hunter for the Mage's Association for several years. It was during that period that he gained the title of Mage Killer. Though he was an oddity, he rarely failed a job, and Touko knew a little about him—only his appearance and name.

As for Aozaki Touko herself, she was on the list for a Sealed Designation. People like her normally would not be targeted by bounty hunters, but if one brought someone with a Sealed Designation to the Mage's Association, the Association would gladly pay them.

"Um..."

"May I ask what the famed 'Mage Killer' wants from me at Garan no Dou?" Touko spoke first.

"Looks like your reputation among your peers really isn't very good, old man. She's already on guard against you!" Seeing Touko's tense stance, Shirou teased Kiritsugu.

"Hm? And you are...?" Shirou's words successfully drew Touko's attention.

"Oh! My name is Emiya Shirou. It's a pleasure to meet you," Shirou answered politely.

Anyone who did not get to know him deeply could easily be fooled by that courtesy. Shirou was very good at putting on a front; if one's contact with him remained superficial, most people would think he was a polite, well-behaved boy.

"Is that so? The pleasure is mine," Touko replied with a smile. Though she did not know their purpose, she would still observe the proper courtesies.

"As you can see, Ms. Aozaki, Shirou is my adopted son. We're not here to cause trouble." Kiritsugu seized the opening, as if assuring Touko: I brought my son with me, so what do you still have to worry about?

"Oh? Even if you say so, I still find it hard to trust you." Touko clearly did not buy it. She removed her glasses and looked at Emiya Kiritsugu with icy eyes, her voice equally cold.

"After all, you are the Mage Killer. They say you'll do anything to achieve your goals. Who knows whether this is just some trick to lower my guard?"

Emiya Kiritsugu felt a little awkward. He had done too many bad things, and now there was no way to turn back. He pulled out a cigarette, hoping to ease the awkwardness with a smoke, but the moment he lit it and took a puff, Shirou snatched it away and crushed it beneath his foot. Kiritsugu looked at Shirou, only to receive a cold stare in return. Shirou had always disliked Kiritsugu's smoking habit. At the very least, he should not smoke in front of him.

Kiritsugu scratched his head in distress and signaled to Sella behind him. She immediately understood and handed him a sheet of parchment.

"Surely you'll believe me now, Ms. Aozaki!" Kiritsugu fully unfolded the parchment, revealing its true form.

"A Self-Geas Scroll? You really are serious, Emiya... Kiritsugu."

A Self-Geas Scroll was a spell contract used by mages in the Type-Moon world when entering into an agreement that absolutely could not be broken.

There was no trust between mages. A Self-Geas Scroll was the most absolute guarantee mages made to prevent either party from breaking an agreement. The contract was generally written on parchment and included the binding formula, the bound target, the formal terms of the oath, the conditions for fulfilling the oath, and the signatories' names.

It used the functions of one's own Magic Crest to impose a "compulsory" curse upon the caster herself or himself. In principle, its effects could not be removed by any means. Once a mage signed the scroll and fulfilled the conditions that activated it, even if the oathmaker died, as long as the Magic Crest was inherited by the next generation, even their soul after death would remain bound.

"However, there's a loophole in your scroll!"

"Yes, there's a loophole."

Shirou and Aozaki Touko met each other's eyes again. "I was wondering what you were like before, but now that I see you, you're quite interesting, boy named Shirou."

"I'm honored, Ms. Aozaki."

"Could you tell me why you say Emiya Kiritsugu's scroll has a loophole? Isn't he your adoptive father?" Aozaki Touko asked with interest.

"Have you ever seen an adoptive father who leaves all the housework to his son? Have you ever seen an adoptive father who makes his son prepare breakfast while he sleeps in? And besides, have you seen him?" At the end, Shirou pointed at Kiritsugu beside him. There was no need to explain what he meant.

After hearing Shirou's words, the two adults reacted differently. Sella and Lizelotte were less than a year old.

Emiya Kiritsugu had had his dirty laundry exposed, and his face turned the color of liver. If Aozaki Touko had not been present, he probably would have performed a full-on defeated bow. He looked at Shirou with utter resentment, but the person in question had a thick enough skin that it did not matter.

Meanwhile, Touko had already burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Interesting, interesting, truly too interesting! I really like you. If you weren't one of Emiya Kiritsugu's people, I might even try to poach you."

After saying "interesting" three times in a row, Aozaki Touko's face practically had two words written across it: pure delight.

"All right, for the sake of this interesting boy, I can't leave you standing in this unfinished shell of a building. Come upstairs with me. You're here to make a request, aren't you?"

Aozaki Touko put her glasses back on, restoring her earlier intellectual air, and led the group of five upstairs.

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