Aozaki Aoko Case File

Aoko's words went unanswered—something she had entirely expected.

In her eyes, Kiritsugu Emiya was like a machine that never turned back once the bowstring had been drawn. Once he decided to carry something out, he would pursue it relentlessly, no matter what. After he decided to ambush her, no matter what Aoko said or did, Kiritsugu would never change his course.

In this regard, Aoko had a sliver of respect for him. It was, at the very least, marginally better than those two-faced schemers. But only just a little.

Even now, Aoko couldn't see Kiritsugu's figure with the naked eye. All she could see were the wounds floating in midair and the blood splattering on the ground. She guessed that Kiritsugu's ability to remain hidden from her sight was thanks to some special Mystic Code, likely something Semiramis crafted for him.

However, such methods held little significance for Aoko. If she wanted to find Kiritsugu, she had plenty of ways to do so. The reverse arrow she had just used was one such example.

She raised her right hand toward the location of the wound that was moving rapidly. Dozens of magical bullets materialized out of thin air, and a merciless bombardment followed.

"Time Alter—Triple Accel!"

In Kiritsugu's vision, the death net of magical bullets suddenly slowed down. What had been streaks of light moving too fast for the human eye to follow became attacks he could perceive clearly.

Wearing the invisibility Mystic Code gifted to him by Semiramis, Kiritsugu dodged Aoko's assault at full speed. Simultaneously, he shifted the wounds on his body to avoid aligning them with the holes torn in the Mystic Code, preventing further exposure. Suppressing his pain, he used reinforcement magecraft to tighten the muscles around the injuries and stop the bleeding.

In truth, if Aoko wanted to kill Kiritsugu, it would take only an instant—all she had to do was obliterate the entire area. The reason she was still toying with him here was simple: she didn't know where the original Lesser Grail, Irisviel von Einzbern, was. She couldn't risk destroying the Lesser Grail in the process.

"Is that a time-manipulating Reality Marble that only operates within your own body?" Aoko murmured to herself. "Quite the circus trick, but I'm getting bored of it."

As Aoko spoke, two fragmentation grenades were suddenly thrown at her feet and exploded violently.

To Aoko, this was nothing more than a repetition of the earlier claymore mine trap. She once again deployed a shielding spell to block the explosion and shrapnel. At the same time, she cast an acceleration spell on herself. She was ready to fight speed with speed, shattering Kiritsugu's confidence.

"Agi lius!"

With this short chant completed, Aoko's speed, already enhanced by Transfiguration, became even more absurd. Her long hair whipped through the air, leaving behind a crimson trail like fire.

Ordinarily, after using Transfiguration, Aoko wouldn't be able to cast spells or use enchanted items. But by employing the Fifth Magic, she superimposed her future self's state onto her current self, effectively cheating the system.

Kiritsugu, in his Triple Accel state, narrowed his eyes. None of the intelligence he had gathered suggested that Aoko was capable of such a dramatic speed boost. In his mind, Aoko had always been a firepower-heavy, brute-force magician.

But no matter. Kiritsugu thought to himself, I still have the advantage of remaining hidden. As long as I—

"Quod dico, face!"

While sprinting at high speed, Aoko pulled out a spellbook with one hand and activated a scroll of True Sight with a short chant, bypassing the need for complex gestures.

In an instant, Kiritsugu's figure, cloaked in a hooded mantle, was revealed to her. Aoko smiled faintly. Without even putting away the spellbook in her left hand, she veered sharply and swung her right fist in a hook, aiming at Kiritsugu.

Aoko's punches were not mere physical attacks. They were enhanced by her magic bullet, with three layers of acceleration magic applied to her entire right arm. Additionally, a spindle-shaped propulsion spell was attached to her elbow, making it a true rocket punch.

This attack was akin to the Spirit Gun technique from Yu Yu Hakusho, delivering a long-range punch at extreme speed, even in an accelerated state.

In his Triple Accel state, all Kiritsugu could see was the afterimage of her movement before he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

Like a ragdoll, Kiritsugu was slammed into the room wall and left unable to move. Aoko's punch had destroyed his invisibility Mystic Code, rendering him visible to everyone.

"Urgh—!"

Kiritsugu coughed up a mouthful of blood. For the first time in his life, he realized he had encountered an opponent far beyond his capabilities. This magician, whether in large-scale destructive power or close-quarters combat, was utterly overwhelming.

But he still had one last trump card. He was waiting for the moment she let her guard down.

Aoko's smile turned even more sadistic. To her, Kiritsugu was now little more than a toy to torment.

"Though I oppose necromancy," Aoko muttered, "that doesn't mean I forget what I've already learned."

"Peri!"

This was a second-circle necromancy spell: Wither Flesh. Its effect caused the target's skin and muscles to rapidly lose moisture, becoming dry, shriveled, and eventually rotting away.

The spell had a unique feature: it worked like a magically induced disease. It couldn't be dispelled with counterspells—it could only be cured with Remove Disease.

Kiritsugu was horrified to find his body weakening. His once-smooth, elastic skin shriveled, and his strong muscles began to atrophy.

He immediately understood that Aoko standing before him intended to torture him to death, slowly and painfully, rather than kill him outright. This was his last chance!

"Time Alter—Square Accel!"

In Kiritsugu's perception, time around him slowed once more. His speed increased to four times the normal rate.

Since Aoko's withering effect worsened over time, Kiritsugu had to act quickly before he became too weak to move. Enduring the excruciating pain caused by his accelerated internal time, he reached into the inner lining of his coat and pulled out a single-shot rifle known as The Contender.

Loaded in the chamber was a single Origin Bullet—the ultimate weapon against high-level magus.

No matter what kind of magical defenses the target had, none could stand against the conceptual power of the Origin Bullet, which severed and rewrote the connection between magic circuits and their origin.