Starting in Type-Moon, but as an A Certain Magical Index Magician

As he spoke, tremendous power gathered at the tip of his spear, turning the entire weapon into a crimson meteor that tore through the night sky!

At that moment, the dagger in Mephistopheles's hand also flashed with an icy gleam. Like a meteor, it sliced through the night and collided with the spear.

"Boom!"

With just one blow, the ground beneath their feet collapsed. Cracks spread outward, and almost at the same instant, both of them pushed off the ground, shifted positions again, and clashed once more at blinding speed.

This was not an all-out battle. Both sides were clearly holding back, but even so, the blue lancer was still somewhat shocked.

He could naturally tell that the guy opposite him was deliberately concealing his identity. Even so, he could tell that his opponent was an Archer. Yet this Archer was now holding a sword and fighting him in close combat—and was even keeping up with him!

At that thought, the blue lancer increased the flow of mana through his body. His speed began skyrocketing at an incredible rate!

In less than half a second, his speed had surged from supersonic to beyond supersonic!

The air erupted with a thunderous boom. The spear in his hand shot out even faster than his body, all his strength concentrated into its shaft. This had already reached the limit of what he could achieve without using his Noble Phantasm!

His Agility was A. His short-range explosive power was exceptionally strong!

But his attack was intercepted. It was as though his opponent had casually raised the dagger; his strike simply hit the dagger's blade. That thin blade did not deform in the slightest beneath what was practically his full-powered normal attack!

His opponent's reaction speed surpassed his own and had even made a defense far beyond anything he had expected!

And he had yet to use his power as an Archer!

The blue lancer took a deep breath. He knew that if they kept fighting like this, he would inevitably have to reveal his Noble Phantasm. He immediately leaped backward, opening the distance between them.

"I'm done fighting. My Master is a very timid guy. If I reveal my Noble Phantasm now, he'll definitely nag me like crazy."

As he spoke, the blue lancer waved at Mephistopheles. "Don't die before I do. If you die first, I'll be very disappointed!"

With that, the blue lancer concealed himself and vanished into the air.

Only then did Rin Tohsaka step forward. "Why didn't you kill him?"

"I didn't have the time to open up the distance just now."

Rin Tohsaka wanted to say something in response to Mephistopheles's answer, but in the end, she held it back.

"What? You think my speed was fast enough just now that opening up the distance and relying on the Archer class's abilities to kill him wouldn't have been a problem?"

Seeing that Mephistopheles had guessed her thoughts, Rin Tohsaka stopped hesitating and nodded at once. "Yes, that's exactly what I thought. So, can you give me a reason?"

"Because I thought of something. Since I know who he is, I should be able to figure out where he's hiding."

"Divination?" Rin Tohsaka nodded, but the moment she did, she sensed something wrong. "Wait, you already know who he is?!"

"Yeah. I recognized him right away." Mephistopheles spoke as he unhesitatingly exposed the poor lancer's true identity.

"The Child of Light of Ireland, Cú Chulainn. The spear in his hand is Gáe Bolg, the Spear of Cruelty. It would be a little troublesome if he released it, so it'd be better not to force him to unleash his Noble Phantasm for now."

Watching Mephistopheles recite the other side's identity as though he were reading backend data, Rin Tohsaka opened her mouth before finally sighing. "So you didn't say it outright just now because you were afraid that, if you did, he'd weigh the pros and cons and go all out immediately?"

"That's right. Unlike Master, who only has to consider whether to fight or not, I have lots of things to think about!"

Rin Tohsaka had already gotten used to Mephistopheles's way of speaking. The fact that she was not angry at all made Mephistopheles curl his lips.

"You're not even getting angry anymore. That's kind of boring. Have you developed resistance?"

Afterward, Mephistopheles began repairing the school field. He filled the cracks with earth, then used magic to patch them up. Only after confirming that he had not missed a single corner did he conceal himself.

"Actually, if you left it alone, someone would handle it later."

"So taxpayers' money isn't money, then?"

Rin Tohsaka immediately fell silent. She realized she simply could not argue with this guy!

The People in the Church

Inside a church in Fuyuki City, a priest who appeared devout to outsiders was holding a scripture book, seemingly reading its passages.

Then a figure appeared inside the church. As the figure arrived, the priest merely raised his head to look at him and asked, "How did it go?"

The man who entered was the lancer in blue bodysuit—Cú Chulainn.

Cú Chulainn casually sat down in a chair and said to the priest of Fuyuki City's church, the man called Kirei Kotomine, "He's strong. An Archer who can go toe-to-toe with me."

"An Archer?" Kirei Kotomine spoke as he looked to the side. There sat a man in a suit, looking like a modern person.

Yet even so, his red eyes, golden hair, and arrogant expression—especially the earring hanging from his ear—gave him the feeling of someone who did not belong to this era.

"An Archer? You'll suffer badly if you relax just because your opponent is an Archer." The blond man spoke, then the corners of his mouth rose slightly. "Of course, that's mainly because you're too weak. If you had encountered me, those mongrels would have had no way to deal with me."

Cú Chulainn directly ignored the blond man's disdainful words and concealed himself instead.

The blond man glanced at Kirei Kotomine. "What do you plan to do in this Holy Grail War?"

"Of course, I will follow my own plan."

The blond man's lips curved faintly. "Your plan? Then let me see it. Let's see what you turn this Holy Grail War into. Don't bore me, or you'll regret it."

Kirei Kotomine's expression did not change at all. He seemed either accustomed to the other's way of speaking or simply indifferent to his words, continuing to read his scripture book.

After living together for so many years, they had long understood each other's habits. None of this counted as unusual behavior.

Mephistopheles had originally planned to send Rin Tohsaka home, but she shook her head and refused.

"We can't go back yet. We'd better take this chance to look around. Other Servants might come out to investigate the battle just now, and we might be able to use this opportunity to find those people hiding in the dark!"

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Mephistopheles shrugged and scooped the girl into his arms. Rin Tohsaka was very light. Even using only human strength, he did not find it difficult to carry her.

Then he sprang upward, leaping several meters into the air. After a few jumps, he had reached a high point.

"There aren't any hidden Servants nearby." Mephistopheles carefully scanned the surroundings and spoke to Rin Tohsaka.

"You can find other people's traces?"

"Yeah. My eyes are special. Not much can avoid their scrutiny." As Mephistopheles spoke, his eyes seemed to be covered in a layer of silver light. Rin Tohsaka carefully stared into them and found them as beautiful as though they were shrouded in moonlight.

"This is..."

"You can try synchronizing with me. You'll be able to borrow part of this ability's effects." At Mephistopheles's words, Rin Tohsaka immediately shifted her focus to her own eyes. As she synchronized with Mephistopheles's mana, she felt everything before her change.

It was not like a telescope pulling distant objects closer.

Or rather, it did not merely pull distant things closer. Like an analyzer, it analyzed everything within her field of vision, marking mana residue, tracks left by movement, and more.

"This, this is just like..."

"Like the interface of a sci-fi shooter game, right?" Mephistopheles smiled and said what Rin Tohsaka wanted to say but did not know how to put into words.

This was Artemis's blessing: divine power that allowed one to see through everything and strike without fail. Or rather, it was one aspect of that divine power.

Perhaps because Artemis had originally been a Machine God, a highly futuristic starship, the ability Artemis gave Mephistopheles also felt thoroughly sci-fi when used.

Some old relics might find it difficult to get used to, but Mephistopheles was extremely comfortable with it. This ability to mark all data and analyze it quickly was simply wonderful.

"This ability is..."

"A gift from Artemis. The ability to hit without fail and see through everything." Mephistopheles casually explained, then carried Rin Tohsaka and flew into the distance.

Or rather, jumped into the distance.

He had not undone his physical enhancement. If necessary, his current body could still achieve supersonic movement.

Feeling the night wind, Rin Tohsaka let him carry her through the air.

Flying through the sky like this made her heart stir with excitement, and she could not help imagining herself flying through the air.

"Do you want to learn a flight spell?" Mephistopheles suddenly asked.

"N-No!" Rin Tohsaka shouted, then lowered her voice. "It's not like I want to that badly. I only thought about it a little..."

"So you were still thinking about it."

As Mephistopheles spoke, he slightly altered the magical formula he was using. Immediately, his jumps became actual flight.

Rin Tohsaka hesitated. "But flying is difficult, isn't it? As far as I know, there are very few magecraft spells that can fly. Even among Servants, very few can fly. It's the same even in legends. Like the owner of the Golden Fleece—the original golden ram could fly, but it was made by the gods."

"Pegasus can fly too."

"That was born from Medusa's body. Some accounts say its father was Poseidon, so it was still descended from a god." Rin Tohsaka continued.

As the child of a magecraft family, Mephistopheles naturally knew that flight was a rare ability. Using mana to briefly levitate was not particularly difficult, but the hardest part was sustaining flight in the air.

If flying were truly that simple, then Greece's heroes would not have needed to travel aboard the Argo. They could have simply flown there and spared themselves a great deal of trouble along the way.

In other words, with attack ranges restricted, a mage who could fly could suppress one who could not—unless the grounded mage came up with something like anti-aircraft artillery.

Of course, this was the Type-Moon World.

In the world of A Certain Magical Index, flight spells were not particularly difficult. Calling them commonplace would be an exaggeration, but they were more or less everywhere.

As far as Mephistopheles knew, any random knight or witch from Britain could use a flight spell.

Yet even with flight spells being so widespread, the magicians of the A Certain Magical Index world still obediently relied on airplanes for long-distance travel.

It was not that they did not want to fly themselves. Aside from airplanes being more convenient and less tiring, there was another serious reason: Christianity's spell that covered the entire world, known as the Shoot-Down Spell. Once someone flew using magic without belonging to Christianity, they would automatically be shot down by the spell.

That was why, although Mephistopheles knew flight spells in the A Certain Magical Index world, he had hardly ever used them. He did not want to die for no clear reason under the Shoot-Down Spell's attack.

But this was the Type-Moon World, so there was naturally no such restriction.

Thus, after Mephistopheles had flown for quite some time and changed direction several times in midair, Rin Tohsaka finally realized what was happening.

"Y-You're not jumping far. You're flying!"

Mephistopheles smiled. "So, do you want to learn?"

"I-I can learn?"

"Of course. But you'll need to master the basics first. There won't be any tools like Moonstones helping you with this. It depends entirely on your own magical foundation. If you don't learn it properly, then get ready to crash."

The temptation of flight and new magical knowledge immediately filled Rin Tohsaka with interest. She quickly said, "I'm very talented, so of course it won't be a problem!"

As she spoke, she curiously looked in the direction they were heading. "Where are we going?"

"The New City. Didn't you say we should investigate? We were in the old city just now, so let's take a look at the New City. We might find something." As Mephistopheles spoke, he flew toward Shirou Emiya's home.

Tonight's developments had already diverged completely from the original Fifth Holy Grail War. Because Shinji Matou was absent, Shirou Emiya had not stayed behind and naturally would not encounter Cú Chulainn.

Without Cú Chulainn, Shirou Emiya would not be gravely injured and would not need Rin Tohsaka's help. This directly meant that the gem Rin Tohsaka would originally have wasted remained intact, and it could not become the catalyst for summoning the future Shirou Emiya.

As for Shirou Emiya, who had not encountered danger—although he had always been practicing magecraft, he was ultimately only half-trained. Without danger forcing him, whether he would summon a Servant was also unknown.

Perhaps this Fifth War will be missing some Servants. Shirou Emiya is very likely to miss this battle, and I've already gone to Ryuudou Temple several times over the past few days. I haven't found Medusa anywhere, nor have I found Sasaki Kojirou...

Could this Holy Grail War end up losing two Servants at once? If Servants are missing, then they won't be able to fight at all...

Mephistopheles silently thought as he accelerated.

But when he arrived near Shirou Emiya's home, he saw a cold gleam flash from the courtyard and shoot toward him!

He was under attack!

And charging toward him was an armored woman!

Persuasion (Threat)

As usual, Shirou Emiya was studying his magecraft in his storage shed.

This was something his adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya, had taught him. It was also the secret he had kept all this time.

With this mysterious magecraft, he could smoothly repair all kinds of damaged tools. It was not because he was skilled with electronics, but because he directly used magecraft to repair the damaged areas. It was practically cheating.

Although his adoptive father had told him to be careful not to reveal these skills in front of others, Shirou Emiya was still happy that he could use this ability to help people in need.

He picked up a metal rod. The rod was hollow and not particularly sturdy.

Shirou Emiya touched the rod and softly spoke words that sounded like an incantation.

"Synchronization, begin!"

This was not actually an incantation. It was merely a form of self-suggestion, like a hypnotic command. Through that suggestion, he could enter that special state, refine his mana at the fastest speed, and cast that unique magecraft.

Touching the metal rod in his hand, although he had done this many times already, Shirou Emiya continued his mechanical work as always—or rather, repeated the process, deepening his understanding of the only magecraft he knew.

Material analysis, complete.

Reinforcement, begin.

Mana began flowing through the metal rod, reinforcing it bit by bit, making its material stronger and more durable, gradually surpassing the limits of an ordinary metal rod.