"It's not that I have something, but rather this guy."
Waver nodded, then extended his hand to point to a corner of the living room—in the corner stood an ice sculpture, which was none other than Heroic Spirit EMIYA.
After being frozen by Sitonai earlier, this guy had been placed in the living room corner like a statue, with no one paying attention to him.
But now, looking at him, Zuke discovered that the ice around Heroic Spirit EMIYA's head had actually cracked open, allowing his head to finally move freely.
Sitonai's ice temperature was very low. As everyone knows, when temperature drops to a certain degree, everything's speed becomes slow.
If it reached absolute zero, it would cause object molecules to have no kinetic energy, bringing everything at that temperature to a standstill.
Although Sitonai's ice couldn't reach absolute zero, its low temperature also greatly restricted Heroic Spirit EMIYA's movements, making it difficult for him to use his abilities while in the frozen state.
After slowly spending an entire day, Heroic Spirit EMIYA had barely managed to gather some power and activate Projection Magecraft, forcibly shattering the ice around his head.
Waver had discovered that Heroic Spirit EMIYA's head had broken free and seemed to have something to say, which was why he called Zuke over.
"Oh? You actually broke free from the ice. I didn't expect you to still have the power to resist in that situation."
Zuke looked at Heroic Spirit EMIYA with some surprise—currently, the parts below his neck were still frozen, with even his magical energy circulation extremely slow.
"Do you have something you want to say?"
Heroic Spirit EMIYA glared at Zuke, his face full of anger. He shook his head back and forth for a long time, making "mmm mmm mmm" sounds, but ultimately couldn't squeeze out a single word.
Of course he couldn't speak—this guy's mouth was still sealed by Zuke's "Sticky Fingers" zipper. It would be strange if he could speak.
Waver wasn't a Stand user, so he couldn't see that Heroic Spirit EMIYA's mouth was sealed with a zipper, but he could clearly feel that something had been done to his mouth.
In Waver's view, Heroic Spirit EMIYA's lips seemed to be glued together, tightly closed. No matter how much he looked like he wanted to speak, he couldn't open his lips.
"Zuke-san, stop teasing him. After all, this guy is a Heroic Spirit from the Holy Grail War and might have intelligence we want."
Waver helplessly put his hand to his forehead. Having experienced many things, his personality had also become much more stable.
"Don't forget, we still haven't collected information on one group of participants."
The intelligence that Zuke and his group now had covered six groups of participants, but only Assassin's group of participants remained in an unknown state.
In the original work, the Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War was rather special, with two different sets of Heroic Spirits and Masters.
One was the "False Assassin" Sasaki Kojirou irregularly summoned by the original work's Caster Medea. Because it was an irregular summoning, an assassin who wasn't Hassan was summoned.
The other was the "True Assassin" Cursed Arm Hassan secretly summoned by Matou Zouken, a guy that Zuke had met once during the "Divine Round Table Territory" mission.
However, due to Zuke's influence in the "Fate/Zero" mission, the summoners for both of these Assassins were already gone.
Atrum Galliasta, who should have participated in this Holy Grail War, had his participation slot taken by Reines, also from the Mage's Association, so he had no chance to summon Medea.
As for Matou Zouken, he had been completely eliminated by Zuke during the last Holy Grail War. Otherwise, the Matou family wouldn't have sent out that waste Matou Zukeji to participate.
"Alright, then let's hear if this guy actually knows any intelligence."
Hearing this, Zuke stopped teasing Heroic Spirit EMIYA—after all, teasing a man really wasn't very interesting.
The chained Medusa had some teasing value—but that one was quite cooperative now and had been placed in a guest room by Sitonai, guarded by "Volumen Hydrargyrum" Trimmau.
Zuke walked in front of Heroic Spirit EMIYA, and "Black Bird Requiem" appeared behind him, reaching out to pull at Heroic Spirit EMIYA's mouth.
The zipper that had been binding Heroic Spirit EMIYA's mouth instantly disappeared, restoring his ability to speak.
"Cough cough...!!!"
Now able to open his mouth, Heroic Spirit EMIYA coughed violently, then suddenly raised his head, looking at Zuke with a gaze mixed with anger and confusion.
"Who exactly are you!? In this Holy Grail War... you shouldn't exist!"
As a Heroic Spirit who had come from the "future" to a certain degree, Heroic Spirit EMIYA knew who the participants in the Fifth Holy Grail War were supposed to be.
Of course, the "Fifth Holy Grail War" he knew wasn't any good ending—that "Emiya Shirou" left everyone behind, practicing justice alone, and ultimately became the current "Heroic Spirit EMIYA."
But in any case, the Holy Grail War he knew shouldn't have Zuke, this Heroic Spirit... and even many places had undergone unbelievable changes.
"Don't get it wrong, EMIYA. Now isn't the time for you to be asking questions."
However, his doubts weren't answered. Zuke narrowed his eyes looking at him, and "Black Bird Requiem" behind him extended its hand, grabbing his neck, immediately causing a feeling of suffocation to surge in his chest.
"Next, answer my questions obediently. If you answer well, perhaps I'll reward you with a quick death afterward."
Being swallowed by "Black Bird Requiem" had different methods—if swallowed bit by bit, it would bring extreme pain to the one being swallowed, just like with Gawain in the "Divine Round Table Territory."
A flash of fear passed through Heroic Spirit EMIYA's eyes. He rarely experienced this kind of feeling.
But this time, he couldn't even see how Zuke attacked—he couldn't see Stands, so he had no idea he was being choked by an invisible hand.
This feeling forced him to submit and obediently listen to Zuke's words.
"Regarding this Holy Grail War's Assassin, how much do you know?"
Zuke had "Black Bird Requiem" release its hand, then asked the question Waver had brought up earlier.
This was also the only participant in this Holy Grail War whose identity still hadn't been clarified.
However, considering Heroic Spirit EMIYA's special nature, Zuke specifically added a sentence:
"Not the Assassin from the 'Fifth Holy Grail War' you experienced. I want intelligence on this Holy Grail War's Assassin."
Hearing this sentence, Heroic Spirit EMIYA immediately felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Not the chill from Sitonai's ice, but the terrifying feeling that everything had been seen through by the person before him.
Chapter 557: It's the Same Type of Stand as Mine
Which was Hassan-i-Sabbah.
"I've already said, I have absolutely no intention of competing for that Holy Grail thing... and I don't want to kill people either."
And sitting in the room was the Master, an utterly ordinary high school student—Ryuudou Issei.
As the youngest son of the Ryuudou Temple, fundamentally a普通 male high school student who would become a monk in the future, Ryuudou Issei had inadvertently triggered a strange magic circle left at Ryuudou Temple when he went there to help a few days ago.
Ryuudou Issei didn't know that the bottom of Ryuudou Temple was a ley line. Inadvertently, through that magic circle, he summoned the Heroic Spirit named Hassan-i-Sabbah.
Hassan-i-Sabbah told Ryuudou Issei about his origins and common knowledge about the Holy Grail War, but unfortunately, Ryuudou Issei seemed to have no intention of fighting at all.
This guy, who appeared in the original work as Emiya Shirou's friend, only wanted to study hard. Summoning Hassan-i-Sabbah was completely beyond his expectations.
After all, he was the student council president at school. How could he possibly do this kind of brutal fighting?
"...This is really troublesome."
Hassan-i-Sabbah also had a headache, probably never expecting that the one who summoned him would be such an ordinary high school student with no fighting spirit.
Ryuudou Issei clearly had some magical aptitude, otherwise, he couldn't have possibly summoned a Heroic Spirit—but the fact was that Ryuudou Issei seemed to know absolutely nothing about magecraft.
"Master, although you don't seem to want to fight, battles will come looking for you."
"Why?"
Ryuudou Issei looked at Hassan-i-Sabbah with a somewhat puzzled gaze.
"Didn't you say that as Assassin, you have an ability called 'Presence Concealment' and won't be noticed by others at all? As long as you don't attack, who could actively discover us?"
Although clearly completely uninterested in the Holy Grail War, he had remembered his abilities crystal clear... Hassan-i-Sabbah was momentarily speechless.
However, he still seriously explained the reason:
"Although if I don't actively attack, people indeed won't come looking for me... but unfortunately, when I went to scout for intelligence two days ago, I was discovered by a white-haired Heroic Spirit wielding twin swords."
He didn't know that the one who discovered him was precisely Heroic Spirit EMIYA. As a Heroic Spirit not skilled in frontal combat, Hassan-i-Sabbah had fled after discovering Heroic Spirit EMIYA.
But he knew very clearly that the other party should be able to find this place soon, and at that time, a battle would be unavoidable—he had to let his Master understand the danger of the situation in advance.
"What!? This happened?"
Ryuudou Issei immediately panicked. He couldn't even read the textbook in his hands anymore and quickly stood up from the desk.
"Then... then what should we do!?"
Unlike other Masters, Ryuudou Issei had absolutely no independent ideas about this kind of thing, since he had never planned to participate in the Holy Grail War in the first place.
This was quite similar to Emiya Shirou in the original work—however, the original Emiya Shirou had Tohsaka Rin as a guide, while Ryuudou Issei didn't.
Although he and Tohsaka Rin were from the same school, his relationship with Tohsaka Rin wasn't very good, and he hadn't had a chance encounter with other Masters like the original Emiya Shirou had.
The diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah's eyes flashed with brilliance, opening his mouth to speak his plan.
But before his words could come out, they were directly interrupted by another voice from behind:
"If you don't want to participate, just hand this guy over to me, and then we can act like nothing happened."
This voice sounded somewhat lazy, as if one could hear the speaker's exasperated mood.
Ryuudou Issei was stunned, then looked behind Hassan-i-Sabbah, and Hassan-i-Sabbah also turned to look.
Only then did the two discover that Zuke had somehow already appeared in the room, and by the looks of it, had been standing there for quite a while... but neither of them had noticed at all!
Presence Concealment!
The diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah's pupils constricted, instantly thinking of what skill this situation came from.
But he couldn't understand—"Presence Concealment" should be Assassin's class skill. Why would this guy behind him also have it?
And how did he find himself? He should have only been exposed to that white-haired Heroic Spirit wielding twin swords...
No time to think further, the diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah flashed, attempting to retreat while suddenly extending his hand toward Zuke's shoulder.
Every person who could be given the name Hassan-i-Sabbah possessed their own unique assassination technique—he was no exception.
This diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah's Noble Phantasm was "Delusional Heartbeat."
The Noble Phantasm's effect was very simple: by touching the enemy's body with his left hand, he could turn the enemy's head into gunpowder, blowing away their upper body along with it.
As an assassination Noble Phantasm, this ability's main strength was catching people off guard—ordinary people would probably find it hard to imagine that just from being touched once, their life would be forfeit here.
The diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah was very confident in his Noble Phantasm's ability, and he also saw that when his left hand reached toward Zuke's shoulder, Zuke didn't seem to have any intention of blocking.
Just as he thought his Noble Phantasm was about to activate successfully, Zuke suddenly simply raised his hand and, in an unbelievable manner, caught his left wrist before his attack could land.
"I was wondering which Assassin would be summoned this time, but I didn't expect it to be you."
After casually catching the diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah's left hand, Zuke also smiled.
This guy was quite an obscure Heroic Spirit in the Type-Moon world—Zuke remembered he appeared in the "Grail War of the Night."
Originally, Zuke hadn't thought of it, but seeing this guy reach out with his left hand to grab him, he suddenly recalled.
"Turning the enemy's brain into gunpowder through touch? Quite an interesting ability."
Zuke grinned, but his smile made the diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah suddenly feel a chill down his spine.
"What a coincidence, I also have an ability very similar to yours—Killer Queen!"
The next moment, the diminutive Hassan-i-Sabbah's left hand exploded with a boom—like a detonated explosive pack, it instantly shattered into fragments of flesh and blood, gradually dissipating into the air.
Turning touched objects into bombs and detonating them—Zuke's "Black Bird Requiem: Killer Queen" could also do this.
And it did it much more precisely than this guy's "Delusional Heartbeat"—Killer Queen didn't just blow up heads; it could blow up any part it touched.
To be continued...