Three nights and two days, and the Holy Grail War was nearing its end.
Ritsuka briefly packed her bags, locked the gates of the Emiya Residence, and placed a magecraft ward over the house to prevent thieves or intruders from slipping in.
The crystal dice tumbled between her fingertips. Standing at the entrance of the Fuyuki Church, Ritsuka casually tossed the crystal dice up and then caught it firmly in her palm.
The final moment was approaching. Before leaving, she decided to say goodbye to Kirei Kotomine.
Although this guy helped her for the sake of 'rejoicing' and was essentially a psychologically twisted pleasure-seeker, regardless, it was an unknown what would have happened to her if he hadn't saved her from the ruins.
In terms of both emotion and logic, it was only right to say farewell.
"Kotomine?"
Ritsuka pushed open the church doors and walked inside; the quiet environment felt somewhat empty.
Logically, at this time, it was only nine-thirty. That Father Mapo should definitely have woken up and be preparing to head to the ramen shop.
But there was no one here now... After searching around the church for a few laps, she still couldn't find Kirei Kotomine.
"Could something have happened?"
After a moment of hesitation, Ritsuka chose to head to the Mapo Ramen Shop.
For that priest who looked at mapo tofu with more affection than any other existence, she had also affectionately given him a nickname, 'Father Mapo'.
Maybe he woke up early today and went straight to the ramen shop?
Such thoughts flashed through her mind. Undoubtedly, the possibility was quite high.
Walking to the street where the ramen shop was located, Ritsuka suddenly stopped. In her hand, she projected her commonly used demon blade 'Murasame', and her attire changed into the servant battle suit.
Divine Qi surging from her belt poured into the blade as she walked toward the ramen shop step by step.
She felt a very strong magical energy.
Pushing open the door of the ramen shop, a pungent, spicy scent rushed toward her, and Ritsuka's expression changed subtly.
It wasn't because of the spiciness in the air—she currently couldn't perceive that very clearly anymore.
But rather because the figure sitting there with his head buried in a ramen bowl looked like that old man Kishua from before, no matter how she looked at it.
"Hey! Old man, are you okay?!"
Ritsuka went forward and gave him a few shoves, only to find that Kishua was like a dead dog, not making a single sound.
The shop was incredibly quiet. The 'corpse' of Kishua naturally couldn't make a sound, and the priest who should have made this bowl of ramen was nowhere to be found.
'It looks like he ate Kirei Kotomine's ramen, but... where is Kirei Kotomine?'
Looking around, Ritsuka even went to the yard behind the ramen shop, but she couldn't find any trace of Father Mapo.
In the end, she only found a knocked-over bottle of transparent liquid by Kishua's table. Suddenly, a scalp-numbing sensation made Ritsuka's eyes twitch slightly.
mapo water?
Clearly, Kishua's bowl of noodles wasn't that spicy red color; it looked like just an ordinary soy sauce ramen with little spice. Yet it still took down the super-strong Kishua. It seems this bottle of drink developed by Kirei Kotomine himself was the culprit.
The ingredients of this thing are unknown, and its effect is temporarily to multiply the spiciness of mapo noodles by an unknown amount. Kirei Kotomine hadn't taught her about this.
"Tsk, how long is he going to be unconscious? I can't just leave him here alone..."
To be honest, the magecraft society is quite complicated. Kirei Kotomine had given her a crash course on this.
Although she wasn't sure of Kishua's identity, in case he had enemies coming to his door, the chance of being killed in this 'corpse mode' would be too high. She was a bit worried about this guy's safety.
Even though it actually had nothing to do with her.
Lifting the unconscious Kishua, Ritsuka carried him out of the Mapo Ramen Shop and moved him to the warehouse in the back.
She prepared the bed that Kirei Kotomine used for temporary breaks, washed Kishua's face, settled him in the warehouse, and covered him with a blanket to prevent him from catching a cold.
There was still some time, so Ritsuka decided to make use of it. Perhaps the most difficult enemy was still waiting for her.
She now has some trump cards in her hand, which can be divided into two parts:
Alcides: 'Twelve Labors', 'Twelve Glories', 'Nine Lives', and 'Aura Theft'.
Emiya Shirou: 'Projection Magic', 'Phantasm Collapse', and 'Unlimited Reality Marble'.
The abilities of the remaining enemy are unknown. It might be the person who threw many weapons to attack her on the day Miyu was taken, meaning that having many Noble Phantasms is a prerequisite.
After all, the King of Heroes sounds like a rather wealthy guy.
Twelve Labors can provide a high margin for error. Even if the opponent is stronger, she has eleven extra chances to fight.
Nine Lives is very useful.
Twelve Glories offers variety. Even though many of the animal-type summoning Noble Phantasms inside are unpresentable and aren't enough of a threat to powerful servants, some individual Noble Phantasms are terrifying when taken on their own.
Like the one from the Eleventh Labor, an exaggerated Noble Phantasm related to the golden apple... Two of them, Projection Magic and Aura Theft, are actually quite eccentric. With these two in hand, she can come up with a solution no matter what type of opponent she faces.
If all else fails, she can pull them into the Unlimited Reality Marble. With the suppression of Noble Phantasm quantity plus Aura Theft, she can forcibly take the opponent's Noble Phantasms and throw them back in their face.
There's just one thing that's unclear: can the Noble Phantasms plundered by Aura Theft use Phantasm Collapse?
Ritsuka began to study it in detail.
———
———
"Ugh, my butt hurts so much."
At dusk, Kishua, who had already woken up, was sent to the Anorectal Hospital by Ritsuka and had just had his stomach pumped.
Even with a non-human body, after enduring such immense torture, he ultimately couldn't hold out. Kishua's screams were quite terrifying.
Lying on the hospital bed with his rear up, the handsome old man kept groaning.
"Kishua, are you saying you threw the guy who poisoned you into a parallel world?"
Ritsuka's head was filled with question marks.
First, regarding Kirei Kotomine, after Ritsuka asked about Father Mapo's whereabouts, Kishua stated that the bastard had been thrown into another world in a moment of impulse.
Second, Kishua's strength left Ritsuka quite shocked.
Being able to manipulate parallel worlds—such power was truly unimaginable, exceeding the upper limit of her understanding.
"That guy is a devil..."
Kishua gritted his teeth whenever he thought about that bottle of mapo water that looked perfectly fine when it was handed to him while he was eating happily.
Dammit! You idiot!
"Parallel world, that's quite an exaggerated term... Parallel world..."
Pouring a glass of water for Kishua, Ritsuka suddenly froze; she thought of something.
Possessing the Holy Grail, winning this Holy Grail War would allow her to save Miyu through a wish, but she hadn't thought carefully about how to use it.
But what if she chose to use the power of the Holy Grail to send Miyu out of this world that was doomed to perish?
Restarting this world might not necessarily succeed, but if it was just to send one person away, could that wish be realized? After all, the Holy Grail seemingly only grants one wish.
"Right, Kishua, can I ask you..."
"You want me to send your sister out of this world?" Kishua, resting on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes. "I can't. After sending that devil away, my magical energy is temporarily unusable. Are you planning to save the Holy Grail's power to resurrect Matou Sakura?"
Ritsuka fell silent.
She suddenly wanted to grab Kirei Kotomine by the collar and give him a hard punch.
What was that bastard doing? He made the person who could replace the wish-granting function only able to groan on a bed in the Anorectal Department!
However, all of this was still because of her. If Sakura hadn't been involved with her, she might not have been killed. She could have just given up on the Holy Grail War and left Fuyuki City from the start... "Kishua, do you know where Miyu is?"
"...I do know that. Are you really prepared... to stand against all of humanity in this world?"
Miyu was the only possibility for the continuation of humanity.
Saving Miyu meant choosing between one person and everyone else. Kishua stared at the silent Ritsuka.
"There's no choice. Even if Kiritsugu were here, I would punch him down to save Miyu."
"You've really decided, then. Fine... your final destination is halfway up Mount Enzou."
Having learned the target location, Ritsuka rose from her chair and walked toward the door.
After stepping out, Ritsuka turned and bowed to Kishua. "Thank you, Kishua."
Leaving the hospital quickly and rushing at full speed toward Mount Enzou, which she had bombarded not long ago, Ritsuka failed to notice this time.
Sighing slightly, Kishua sat up from the hospital bed, rubbed his rear with a grimace, and then vanished on the spot.
As if he had never appeared in this world..