Saber had been there the whole time.
She had heard their entire conversation.
She watched Shirou's pained expression, the look of a man on the verge of collapse.
And she listened to Seiji's "twisted logic," calm to the point of cruelty yet so convincing.
She felt her own heart torn in two.
One half belonged to the noble glory of a knight.
The other half belonged to cold reality.
Her unbreakable ideal, in this moment, crumbled too.
...
...
As the "fake Assassin" incident kept festering, every faction in Fuyuki City grew unusually cautious, falling into a strange standoff.
And Seiji used this rare calm to extend his claws toward the girl he'd brought under the "protection" of the Emiya Residence: Sakura Matou.
After school that day.
Shirou had student council business and needed to come home a little later.
And Seiji "happened" to "run into" Sakura at the school gate, just as she was about to head home alone.
"Sakura, walking home by yourself?" A gentle smile crossed his face.
"Ah... Mr. Fujiwara." The moment she saw him, a relieved look came over her face. "Yes, senpai, he..."
"I know, he has student council work." Seiji took her schoolbag from her hands naturally. "I'm heading back to the Emiya Residence too, let's walk together."
"Okay." Sakura nodded obediently.
The two walked side by side along the evening street.
The setting sun stretched their shadows long.
"How have you been feeling lately?" Seiji asked, as if in passing.
"Mm... good." Sakura answered quietly. "Since I came to senpai's house, I... haven't had nightmares at night anymore."
"That's good." Seiji smiled.
But his system was coldly analyzing the girl's state.
[Target: Sakura Matou.]
[Mental state analysis: dependence on Host has reached 78%. Her feelings for Shirou Emiya are blurring cognitively with her reverence for the Host.]
[Physical state analysis: activity of the Crest Worms has been deeply suppressed. But their resonance with Angra Mainyu is growing more active due to the Host's mental guidance.]
[Conclusion: the vessel is preliminarily complete. It only awaits a suitable trigger to bloom fully.]
Just as they were about to reach the block where the Emiya Residence stood.
An ominous red mist, thick with the smell of blood, suddenly billowed toward them from the direction of the school ahead.
"This is..."
Seiji's pupils contracted sharply.
[Warning! Large-scale life-force absorption bounded field detected!]
[Field name: Blood Fort Andromeda!]
"This is bad!"
He immediately seized Sakura's wrist. "Move! Get out of here!"
But it was already too late.
The red mist enveloped the whole area at terrifying speed.
The scenery around them began to warp.
Ordinary passersby slumped to the ground one after another, losing consciousness.
A boy in a navy-blue sailor uniform that clashed with Homurahara Academy's dress code stood smugly atop a streetlamp not far off.
His face wore a sickly excitement and a twisted pleasure.
It was Shinji Matou.
"Hey, if it isn't my dear little sister, Sakura." He looked down at the two of them, his tone full of mockery. "And... some small-fry who crawled out of who knows where."
"Brother..." The moment Sakura saw him, her body began to tremble beyond her control.
"Don't be afraid." Seiji shielded her behind him and looked up coldly at Shinji.
"So you're Rider's Master?"
"Hmph, at least you've got some eyes." Shinji laughed in self-satisfaction. "That's right! I am the Master chosen by the Holy Grail!"
"Rider!" he shouted. "Come out and deal with this eyesore! As for Sakura... heh heh, capture her alive. I've got plenty of interesting things to slowly play with her on."
As his words fell.
A tall figure in a black bodysuit, with long purple hair and her eyes bound by a strip of black cloth, appeared soundlessly at Shinji's side.
In her hands she gripped two oddly shaped daggers fastened to long chains.
Rider. Medusa.
"What a... boring order." Rider's tone carried a trace of languor and impatience. But she still faithfully carried out her Master's command.
Her figure vanished from the streetlamp in an instant.
The next second she appeared before Seiji like a phantom.
The chains in her hands stabbed straight at his heart like a viper striking.
Fast.
Fast to the absolute limit.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, it was an unanswerable, lethal blow.
But there wasn't the slightest panic on Seiji's face.
In the instant that chain was about to pierce his chest.
His body bent backward at an angle that defied human biomechanics.
At the same time, a runic card glowing with silver light had appeared in his hand at some point.
[System command: deploy defensive Mystic Code, Aegis Shield (degraded conceptual projection version)!]
A crisp, ringing crash, like metal striking metal.
A semi-transparent round shield engraved with the image of a gorgon's head materialized out of nothing before him, blocking Rider's fatal strike with precision.
"What?!"
This time it was Rider's turn to cry out in surprise.
She could feel her attack slamming into an immovable wall.
And the aura radiating from that shield... it stirred in her a familiarity and a loathing rooted in the Age of Myth.
"You... what exactly are you?" Her tone turned grave.
Seiji slowly straightened up and withdrew the shield.
A smile spread across his face, one that sent a chill through Rider.
"Just... someone who understands you better than you imagine."
"Medusa."
When her true name was so easily called out by this mysterious man.
Beneath the black blindfold, shock spread across Rider's stunning face.
The sudden turn left everyone momentarily frozen.
On the streetlamp, the smug look on Shinji's face stiffened in an instant.
"How... how is that possible?! What the hell did you do?!"
Rider quickly retreated as well, opening distance from Seiji and assuming a wary stance. The chains in her hands coiled at her sides like two vipers poised to strike.
That brief exchange had made her understand: this man, who seemed to give off no mana fluctuation at all, was absolutely no "small-fry."
That shield that appeared from nothing, and that familiar aura that made her very soul tremble...
"Who are you?" she asked again, her voice now carrying undisguised killing intent.
"I'm only someone passing through."
The gentle smile still hung on Seiji's face. But those fathomless eyes were sizing Rider up from head to toe with an almost greedy gaze.
Like the most brilliant connoisseur appreciating a perfect work of art.
[System command: perform deep data analysis on target Rider (Medusa).]
[Analysis beginning...]
[True Name: Medusa]
[Class: Rider]
[Alignment: Chaotic Good]
[Strength: B]
[Endurance: D]
[Agility: A]
[Mana: B]
[Luck: E]
[Noble Phantasm: A+]
[Skills: Mystic Eyes A+, Independent Action C, Monstrous Strength B, Riding A+...]
[Noble Phantasms: Breaker Gorgon, Bellerophon, Blood Fort Andromeda...]
"What a... perfect stat panel."
Seiji marveled inwardly.
"A pity she's stuck with the worst possible Master. She can't bring out even thirty percent of all that power."
"Rider! What are you standing there dazed for?!" On the streetlamp, Shinji shrieked in a frenzy. "Hurry up and finish him! And don't forget, your hostage is still in my hands!"
He seemed to be using something to threaten Rider.
And at the word "hostage," Rider's body visibly stiffened.
Seiji noticed the detail.
Hostage? Does he mean... Sakura? He sneered inwardly. What a stupid threat.
"It seems you have many things you can't bring yourself to say, beautiful Rider."
Seiji looked at Rider and spoke slowly, in a tone brimming with sympathy and understanding.
"Treated as an outlet for a worthless man's frustrations, forced to carry out orders you don't want to obey at all, and even forced to watch the person you truly want to protect being used as a bargaining chip against you."
"That feeling must be agonizing, isn't it?"
His words were like knives, stabbing precisely into Rider's heart.
Rider's body began to tremble faintly.
"...Shut up!"
"What would you know!"
She let out a low growl that suppressed boundless pain and launched her attack again.
This time her chains were no longer a simple thrust, but became a vast iron net descending over Seiji and the Sakura he shielded behind him.
"Bring it on."
A glint flashed in Seiji's eyes.
He didn't use that conceptual shield again.
Instead he made a move no one expected.
He suddenly shoved Sakura out in front of him!
"Sakura!"
The sudden sight stunned both Rider and Shinji.
Rider especially. Her chains, about to close in, halted in midair by force of will.
She could never have imagined that this man would use an unarmed girl as his shield!
And in that one-thousandth of a second of hesitation.
Seiji's figure appeared at her flank as if by teleportation.
In his hand, at some point, was an oddly shaped short sword crackling with purple lightning.
It was a replica of the alchemical armament he had forged for himself using knowledge "learned" from the Clock Tower, designed specifically to paralyze and destroy Magic Circuits: Rule Breaker.
"Game over."
His voice sounded by Rider's ear like a death god's sentence.
The short sword in his hand stabbed mercilessly toward Rider's unguarded back.
In this moment, Rider had no way left to dodge.
She had even closed her eyes, ready to meet her second "death."
And yet.
The expected searing pain never came.
A wet sound of a blade entering flesh.
But the one wounded was not her.
Rider's eyes snapped open and she looked back.
There stood the frail girl Seiji had shoved out, Sakura, who at some point had thrown herself in front of Rider.
That short sword crackling with purple lightning was buried deep in the girl's shoulder.
Blood instantly stained her spotless school uniform red.
"...Sakura?!"
Rider was utterly stunned.
She couldn't understand it.
Why... why would this girl come to save her?
And Seiji, looking at his short sword lodged in Sakura's shoulder, wore an expression "just right" for the moment, a mix of shock and remorse.
"Sakura! You... why did you..."
"Don't... hurt... Rider..."
Sakura's face was drained of all color from the searing pain. But she gripped Seiji's wrist with all her strength, refusing to let him advance another inch.
What flowed from her eyes was a plea.
This dramatic scene threw everyone present into chaos.
And Seiji, watching it all, felt only a cold, according-to-plan satisfaction in his heart.
He had deliberately struck off the mark just now, of course.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
This was how he would plant in Rider's heart a seed called "guilt" and "wavering."
"...Get out of here!"
Seiji suddenly let out a low shout at Rider.
"Take Sakura and go! Get away from here!"
His face wore an expression of urgency and resolve.
"Shinji Matou's target is Sakura! If you stay here, you'll only doom her!"
Rider looked at him, then at the Sakura in her arms slowly losing consciousness from blood loss, her eyes full of complicated emotions.
In the end she gritted her teeth, scooped up Sakura, and vanished into the night as a streak of purple.
"Damn it! Rider! You traitor!"
On the streetlamp, Shinji let out a frenzied roar.
And Seiji, as if his strength had given out, dropped to one knee on the ground, gasping in great heaving breaths.
A tragic melodrama he had directed had come to a perfect close.
...
...
The news that Rider had defected, carrying the wounded Sakura, fell like a heavy bomb and threw Fuyuki City's situation into turmoil once more.
And Seiji, with the "heroic" image of having fought Rider to protect Sakura, draining his mana and suffering grave injuries in the process, successfully won an even greater degree of trust and sympathy from Shirou, Rin, and the others.
After dumping the resulting "mess" on Waver and Rin to handle.
Seiji, on the pretext of needing to report this malicious assault to the Overseer, came alone once more to that church atop the hill.
He needed to see a certain someone.
To see that interesting "kindred spirit," the only one who could see through his disguise.
Kirei Kotomine.
The church was as vast and deathly silent as ever.
Kirei sat in the first row of the confessional, a thick Bible held in his hands, seemingly absorbed in reading.
Hearing the footsteps, he didn't even lift his head.
"You've come."
His voice was as flat as ever, without a ripple. As if he'd known all along that the man would come.
"Father Kotomine."
Seiji didn't walk over. He only stood at the church entrance, regarding him from across the distance.
"Rider attacked ordinary people, and her Master, Shinji Matou, has clearly violated the Holy Grail War's secrecy agreement. As the Overseer, do you not intend to do something?"
"That is a matter between you magi." Kirei slowly closed the Bible. "My duty is only to observe, not to intervene."
"Is that so?" Seiji smiled. "And here I thought you'd quite enjoy a chaotic situation like this."