Reborn in Type-Moon: Starting by Adopting Sakura - Chapter 53

Moonlight spilled across the land like liquid silver, washing everything in pale sheen.

The city kept pushing forward with its relentless march of progress, but this corner of the world had been left in the dust. Here, far from the bright lights and busy streets of downtown Shinto, an old factory sat forgotten in the shadow of a grass-covered hill. Steel beams and broken bricks scattered the grounds like the bones of some industrial giant.

Pale light filtered through the collapsed sections of roof as Serenity materialized from the shadows.

Her fitted pants hugged every curve as she moved, each footstep silent against the concrete. Those long legs of hers moved in a way that could make any red-blooded man stop and stare, not that Yuu would ever admit to such ungentlemanly thoughts, of course.

She reached their meeting spot and dropped to one knee before him. The fabric of her pants pulled tight across her thighs and calves, straining against the motion like it was barely holding together.

"Master, I have confirmed the presence of a Master-Servant pair." She kept her head bowed. "Class undetermined."

She held out the video camera with both hands, and he accepted it with a nod before pressing play. Serenity stepped back to give him space, melting into the background like smoke.

The footage played across the small screen, and Yuu's eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. "Well, I'll be damned. Waver?"

He'd heard through the grapevine that the kid had somehow gotten his hands on Kayneth's relic, but actually participating in the Holy Grail War? That was either incredibly brave or monumentally stupid. Probably both, knowing Waver.

The poor bastard had to be terrified out of his mind. If Yuu didn't know him personally—frankly, if he didn't have a soft spot for the earnest little fool—Waver would be face-down in a puddle of his own blood by tomorrow morning. A few drops of the right poison in his morning tea, and that would be the end of it.

After all, compared to taking down a Servant, eliminating a Master was child's play.

Serenity's body was a walking biological weapon. Her sweat, her saliva, even her breath carried enough concentrated toxin to drop a full-grown man in seconds. Yuu had been careful to collect samples over the past few days, sealing the deadly cocktail into ten small glass vials that now sat snug in his coat pocket.

The plan was elegantly simple, really. With his Nothingness and Night Veil, he could walk right up to Waver looking like any other university student. A casual conversation, maybe a friendly pat on the shoulder, and then just breathe in some of that toxin and exhale gently near the poor boy's face. No magus would see it coming—no Servant either, for that matter since the poison carried no magical signature whatsoever.

When it came to eliminating a third-rate magus like Waver, he could think of at least a hundred different approaches without breaking a sweat. The kid was sweet, but he was also completely out of his league.

But that was the thing—Waver was sweet. They'd shared enough conversations over tea and terrible cafeteria food back at the Clock Tower for Yuu to develop something resembling fondness for the earnest little scholar. So instead of putting the boy out of his misery, he'd settled on a more gentleman-like solution, crush his Servant instead.

What mattered most was recording the Servant's Saint Graph data. Every soul fragment that didn't make it to Irisviel was a victory in his book.

He scrolled forward through the camera footage until the scene shifted to the Matou residence.

"Any movement from the Matou family?" he asked.

The three founding families each held guaranteed spots in the Grail War, which made them priority targets for surveillance. Running into Waver had just been a lucky bonus.

"No Servant presence detected there." Serenity's voice stayed professional.

He kept fast-forwarding through the footage, his frown deepening with each empty frame. The Matou mansion sat there like a tomb, no signs of life coming or going. Not so much as a shadow moving behind those dark windows.

Matou Zouken... now there was a name that came with more questions than answers. The Association's files on the old man were disappointingly thin—just the basic family attribute, department, magus ranking, and a couple of papers. Either Zouken was incredibly good at keeping secrets, or he was exactly as unremarkable as his paperwork suggested.

Somehow, he doubted it was the latter.

He leaned back against a broken concrete pillar and ran through what he knew about the current roster. Time to take stock of this delightful little death match he'd stumbled into.

The confirmed participants were straightforward enough: himself with Serenity as his Assassin, and Irisviel von Einzbern paired with Artoria as her Lancer. Two down, five to go.

Then came the likely suspects. Tokiomi Tohsaka would almost certainly be involved—the man had been preparing for this war longer than some people planned their weddings. His Servant was probably Gilgamesh, and if he had to guess, the Servant would manifest as a Caster. The irony wasn't lost on him that he'd actually given Tokiomi advice about summoning rituals. Talk about good deeds coming back to bite him in the ass.

Waver was definitely in the mix now, probably with Iskandar. Poor kid was going to get himself killed, but at least he'd die fighting alongside a legend.

Kayneth was harder to pin down. The man had the relic stolen from under his nose, but someone with his pride and resources wouldn't just roll over and quit. He'd find another catalyst, another angle. The question was what Heroic Spirit he'd manage to summon on short notice.

The possible participants made things even murkier. Tokiomi's student—whoever that unfortunate soul might be, could be anywhere from completely green to surprisingly dangerous. And then there was the Matou wildcard, sitting in their creepy mansion like spiders waiting for flies.

Seven Masters, seven Servants, and a whole lot of ways for everything to go spectacularly wrong.

For now, all he could do was sit back and let Serenity work her magic. Information was power in this game, and patience was a virtue—even if it wasn't exactly his strong suit.