"What a pointless struggle. As Kiritsugu Emiya's assistant, you ought to have better judgment than this."
Roland spoke in a thoroughly self-satisfied tone as he watched Maiya Hisau produce another dagger from somewhere.
"You should know that if I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead. So why not cooperate? You could stretch out what little time you have left."
Maiya Hisau's expression darkened at his words, but she gritted her teeth and said nothing more.
Revealing that small amount of information earlier had already been her limit. Had she not been trying to turn his plan against him and use his contempt for her to buy time, she would never have done such a thing.
With an enemy possessing such a terrifying ability, any resistance here would only get her killed with ease. Maiya Hisau understood that.
Once he had dealt with her, he would surely work with his so-called second bomb to hunt down Kiritsugu. So she might as well try a little harder and buy as much time as possible for Kiritsugu to retreat.
Forcing Roland to kill her would be her final step in buying time.
He was right: not knowing this information was dangerous. But Maiya Hisau also knew what kind of man Kiritsugu Emiya was.
If she, the only person he could trust, died too, then even without a warning, he would treat everything around him with extreme caution. He might even summon his Heroic Spirit immediately, leaving Roland no opportunity to assassinate him.
"Tch... boring."
Roland curled his lip. "You're planning to trade your death for Kiritsugu Emiya's chance to live?"
"What remarkable loyalty. You're making me look like some villain despised by heaven and earth."
His voice dripped with sarcasm as he complained. Heaven knew he had merely been working, minding his own business and bothering no one, only to be abducted out of nowhere and then put in danger because someone coveted his Command Spells.
Without Killer Queen, he would probably have been a cold corpse by now.
Of course, such words would have no effect on Maiya Hisau. Outside of anything involving Kiritsugu Emiya, her coldness ran bone-deep.
"Not answering? How dull. Fine, since you were lucky enough to meet a kind soul like me, I'll grant your wish and take your life."
Roland shook his head and walked toward the ashen-faced Maiya Hisau, ready to extinguish her last hope.
Kiritsugu Emiya advanced cautiously, his footsteps inconspicuous even in the dead of night.
A short while ago, Maiya Hisau had used a code over the radio to summon him to a nearby safe house.
The Holy Grail War had not yet begun, so there should have been no danger, nor any need to report the situation in code.
After all, Maiya Hisau had only gone out to buy a pack of cigarettes tonight. Information about her had never been exposed, either, so no one should have targeted her.
But Kiritsugu Emiya said nothing. Though he had many questions, he could only assume that Maiya Hisau had run into some emergency.
Kiritsugu Emiya trusted Maiya Hisau unconditionally and regarded her as his most powerful weapon.
Able to remain calm at any time, she could make judgments even better than his own. That was precisely why Maiya Hisau had handled all the preparations for the Holy Grail War while Kiritsugu was at Einzbern Castle.
She was also a woman who put Kiritsugu completely at ease. At her side, he had never felt ashamed of his own depravity, nor had he ever hated her coldness.
If there was still somewhere in this world where Kiritsugu Emiya belonged, it was undoubtedly with her.
When he was only two streets away from the safe house, Kiritsugu Emiya lightly tapped his radio and called Maiya Hisau.
"..."
There was no response from the radio, only a monotonous sound.
"?"
Kiritsugu Emiya frowned warily. Maiya Hisau was not someone who would let him down. She was an excellent soldier he had trained himself.
That left only one possibility: something had happened.
The moment he realized this, Kiritsugu Emiya reacted decisively. Fortunately, since he had planned to set up safe houses today, he was carrying his weapons case.
He swiftly took out his usual weapon and readied it to fire at any moment, then concealed his gun hand beneath his loose black trench coat as he slowly approached the safe house.
But contrary to his expectations, he encountered no traps or obstacles.
This was far too strange.
Though Maiya Hisau was only a low-level mage, she was a first-rate assassin. With those two skill sets combined, ordinary mages could not even put up a fight against her.
Has information about me not been exposed yet? I can't dismiss that possibility, but I mustn't let my guard down.
With every step, the intense unease in Kiritsugu Emiya's heart grew stronger.
There was no one around and not a sound, yet the instincts he had honed over years on the battlefield still made Kiritsugu Emiya stop.
He took out a special Mystic Code and hurled it hard at the ground. Though he normally used modern weapons, the possibility of fighting a magecraft battle this time had led Kiritsugu Emiya to request several special Mystic Codes from the Einzbern, who were renowned for their alchemy.
He might be able to handle physical attacks, but dealing with enemies who commanded evil spirits was not Kiritsugu Emiya's forte.
After the Mystic Code burst, invisible dust spread outward in a ring. It served both as a barrier capable of harming evil spirits and as a means of exposing their whereabouts.
Then a previously invisible set of wheel tracks appeared in the glittering dust, tracing an unnervingly regular path straight toward Kiritsugu Emiya.
The tracks were not very far apart, and whatever made them moved only as fast as a remote-controlled car. But with his suspicions confirmed, Kiritsugu Emiya dared not relax in the slightest.
The tracks were already less than two body lengths away from him.
"Bastard!"
Spitting out the terse curse, Kiritsugu Emiya instinctively opened fire while pulling a vial of blue potion from his pocket and pouring it into his mouth.
He had acquired it in his youth, after returning to Japan for a job. It was an experimental product leaked from a local family. After testing its effects, Kiritsugu Emiya had bought the small available supply without hesitation.
Though every use gave him a splitting headache, the potion's effects could compensate for Kiritsugu Emiya's greatest weakness when facing spiritual entities.
For a short time, it granted the user the ability of the Mystic Eyes known as Pure Eyes: the power to see "things that should not exist."
Despite having prepared himself, Kiritsugu Emiya still looked astonished when he saw that the approaching object was a little toy-like car.
But he had no time to dwell on that now. During the brief moment he had spent retreating and making preparations, the little car had already covered the few body lengths between them.
Now the toy-like car had reached Kiritsugu Emiya's feet.
But something even stranger happened. With veins bulging around his eyes, Kiritsugu Emiya stared at the little car before him, and his normally cold expression finally cracked.
As the jawbone of the skull atop the little car opened and closed, Kiritsugu Emiya realized he could hear its voice.
In flawless Japanese, it said, "-Look over here!"
The next instant, a thunderous explosion erupted.