On the street, the two Master-Servant pairs stopped at the same time, looking at one another with more than a little unease.
"I wasn't following you, Sister Jie. I just happened to be heading this way too, or something?"
Shirou Emiya pointed ahead, glanced at Anno, then looked back at Hinako Akuta.
"Hm? But we've both been out for a while now, haven't we? Walking down the same road for this long?"
Snap.
Hinako Akuta closed the book in her hands.
"You're going to find Caster?"
Whoosh—
Anno stepped between Shirou Emiya and Hinako Akuta.
".Sister Jie is going to find Caster too?"
Shirou Emiya's voice dropped as he frowned at Hinako Akuta, standing some distance away.
"What do you want with Mr. Caster, Sister Jie?"
He was going to see Caster to form an alliance—to borrow Adelson Falgao's strength and try to subdue the Berserker beside that girl, to try to communicate with her. But Hinako Akuta...
Knowing Sister Jie as well as he did, knowing Hinako Akuta's excessively clear-cut sense of love and hate, there was no way she was going to see Caster for something like an alliance.
And if that was the case, then only one answer remained.
"Don't ask such stupid questions. I have no interest in answering."
On the deserted street, Hinako Akuta narrowed her eyes and carefully put the book back into her bag. Then—
A blood-red dagger appeared in her hand.
"Hasn't the answer to something like this always been obvious?"
"I hadn't planned on making Saber withdraw this early, but since you've become an obstacle to me, not removing you would indeed cause quite a bit of trouble."
"Shirou, Saber is very strong. So you—do you truly have the resolve to keep fighting as a Master?"
"Huh?"
For a moment, Shirou