Did they bring me to Tsukihime's set?

Shirou Emiya actually managed to answer correctly by borrowing the templates from the Clock Tower, the Jewel Mage, and Brisan.

Little did he know, they were completely talking past each other.

So Charlotte was still thinking of probing further—whether Shirou Emiya was from the Yaqi Eight Families, a Japanese mixed-blood family.

But just as she was halfway through typing, she was startled to find that Shirou had sent a message saying something urgent came up and he had to go, then logged off.

Gone again!?

Staring at the already grayed-out avatar of a lone figure, the young lady Charlotte couldn't help puffing out her cheeks, stomping her foot in frustration.

Hmph, even if I haven't inherited the school board position yet and my influence is limited, I'll dig out your secrets sooner or later.

--

Having dodged the young lady's pestering, Shirou Emiya let out a long sigh.

Phew... an alchemy noble family... Mentioning that always brought to mind Gordolf, the fat director from FGO, whose specialty in alchemy was "turning rotten meat into marbled beef," hailing from the Clock Tower's Department of Law.

But his impression of the Clock Tower—that massive yet bloated structure of the Mage's Association—was so poor he didn't want to discuss it. In the FGO timeline where the Humanity Crisis occurred, the other two major organizations of the Mage's Association each showed their prowess, while only the Clock Tower fell short.

Moreover, the Clock Tower would issue "Sealing Designations" for "rare talents," dispatching Sealing Designation Enforcers to capture and "reclaim" them.

What counted as a rare talent?

In the future, when Shirou Emiya honed Projection Magic to its peak and, as a human, manifested the Reality Marble Unlimited Blade Works, that would fall into this category—no, perhaps even when he could project Noble Phantasms, he'd already be marked for a Sealing Designation.

Thus, even though the Clock Tower established schools and set up branches worldwide to recruit disciples, he could hardly feel any fondness for them. If anything, he had to view those Western factions as hypothetical enemies.

But Shirou Emiya's hasty logout wasn't entirely an excuse to escape.

Because he'd received an encrypted call from his Bounty Hunter teammate, Old Tang.

"Old Tang?"

"Haha, it's me. Brother Emiya, I've got news on that ancient sword 'Ganzhiang and Moxie' you were looking for!"

The voice on the other end was pure American English with an eager tone, and the image of a man with drooping eyebrows and a cheerful face immediately became clear in Shirou's mind.

Old Tang's full name was Ronald Tang, apparently a Chinese-American. He'd dropped out of high school and lived in the Brooklyn slums, usually taking Bounty Hunter jobs to make a living.

Old Tang claimed he wasn't strong, but had great luck on his side. Even on dangerous tomb-raiding expeditions, others would come back battered or wiped out.

But he, a total directionless wanderer, would somehow fumble his way through with incredible moves, dig up ancient treasures, and stroll out unscathed, earning him the nickname "born with dogshit luck" from his peers.

Shirou Emiya had met Old Tang on a previous mission. Seeing Shirou casually craft alchemical tools with his bare hands, Old Tang was awestruck and cheerfully said, "Hand those junk antiques over to you, bro, and we'll flip them for a sale—package them as 'masterpieces from some famous artisan unearthed at a historic site'... and we'll rake in a fortune lying down."

Then he clapped his hands and laughed, saying, "From now on, I'll dig up the goods, and you, Emiya, can fake them. Once your output picks up, I'll find some connections in the hunter circle, set up an agency, bring in a few more brothers, and we'll take on these jobs together—everyone makes money."

"You bring the people, I bring the effort. Digging for treasure, opening coffins for riches—each goes his own way, and we all have a bright future."

Old Tang sure knew how to paint a rosy picture. Shirou responded with a polite, "Impressive, impressive. Mutual encouragement. And by the way, 'each goes his own way' doesn't mean that—you used that Chinese proverb wrong."

At that, Old Tang exclaimed, "Bro, you know Chinese?"

Shirou Emiya rolled his eyes, thinking, In my past life, I was a proper Chinese native. What he found strange was that Old Tang, a fake Chinese raised in the beautiful country, had suddenly started throwing around Chinese phrases.

Old Tang waved it off, saying he'd recently made a friend online with an IP in China and an ID called "Mingming," a StarCraft player who was pretty good with the Zerg for his age, seemingly on par with him. He figured they could bond, so he was practicing Chinese typing to chat. Later, when the company grew big, they could expand into China and open branches—learning Chinese had many benefits.

Shirou didn't really want to hear Old Tang brag about being "a lonely master in StarCraft," because Shirou didn't play StarCraft at all.

"Alright, get to the point."

"Got it. The info on 'Ganzhiang and Moxie' depends on this mission. It's you and me teaming up again. Lucky I've been single for years and snagged two spots fast, haha... Actually, I pulled some strings too. The mission's in a southeastern city in China, rumored to be a Chu Kingdom Ruins from the pre-Qin era, very likely the 'Tomb of the Three Kings.'"

The twin swords Ganzhiang and Moxie—Red Archer's most iconic weapons and the first Noble Phantasm Shirou decided to project. Legend had it they had the properties of mutual attraction and extreme sharpness, forged by a Wu couple using the five mountain essences, six metal essences, and human lives as materials, ultimately used to assassinate the King of Chu. The assassin and the king were both buried in the Tomb of the Three Kings.

Then Old Tang mumbled a few more things on the phone, saying he'd set up a chat group to introduce the employer—or mission agent—he'd connected with through his network.

Soon, Shirou found himself pulled into a... newly created StarCraft chat channel. The channel had only three people: besides Shirou and Old Tang, there was someone with the ID "Wa Lord."

"?"

So your network means gaming contacts!

"What's wrong with gaming? Being able to network through this is a skill too!" Old Tang argued, unabashed and self-righteous.

"See that 'Wa Lord' in the channel? She's the top boss for this mission. Organizing a team of hundreds is as easy as a word from her. She's also a master at playing the Protoss—even I have to bow down!"

Anyone listening would think Old Tang was planning to form a team to make it to the StarCraft IEM finals.

Shirou Emiya couldn't find any angle to play along, so he dryly recited, "Oh, oh, that's really something! What about that 'Mingming' you mentioned earlier? How good is he?"

"Ah, Mingming's still young, a bit lacking—barely third place under me, with plenty of room to grow." Old Tang's tone was smug, as if he were gesturing a "fingertip universe."

Next, Old Tang introduced his "good brother Emiya" to Wa Lord, showering him with praise, determined to hype him up as a once-in-a-century prodigy...

Wa Lord just watched the messages without responding, then after a while typed a line:

"An alchemy talent with self-awakened bloodline? Which Mixed-Blood Family's disciple?"

"Mixed-Blood Family?" Old Tang was dumbfounded, not knowing how to respond. He was only half an "Underworld Person" himself, unaware of the truth about the Dragon World.

"She means the Non-Human Race, I think. In the distant past, descendants of unions between humans and non-human races were called 'mixed-bloods.' These Bloodline Descendants often have physical stats beyond normal humans and possess special abilities."

Shirou quickly explained, but his mood was complicated.

The last time he'd heard the term "mixed-blood" was in his past life... when playing "Tsukihime." The Tohno Family, which adopted the protagonist Shiki Tohno, was a Mixed-Blood Family of humans and the Oni Race.

Which world line is this? How did I end up in the Tsukihime setting?