Chapter 6: Please, Be My Eyes
On the other side, not long ago, Emiya chose not to stick close behind the suspicious office worker but maintained a safe distance of about a hundred meters, keeping his guard up.
Since he already knew the person had definitely killed someone, it would be foolish to rashly expose himself to the dark side of this world before confirming whether they were good or bad.
His father, Kiritsugu, had taught him that tracking from such a distance made him harder to detect, and with his eyesight enhanced by Reinforcement Magecraft, he wouldn't easily lose sight of the target from that range.
Within a few minutes, however, Emiya saw the figure stop at the entrance of a large shopping center.
The person clearly hadn't impulsively decided to buy fast food but had simply chosen a convenient and quick place to eat near their destination.
Seeing the man pause briefly at the entrance before stepping inside, Emiya was about to follow when he was suddenly tugged on the arm by Yotsuya Miko.
"Emiya-kun, look over there, there's something..."
Yotsuya Miko's finger pointed toward the sky, but when Emiya looked in that direction, he couldn't see anything.
Undoubtedly, it was another sight visible only to the Yin-Yang Eye.
"What did you see?"
"Well, a pitch-black barrier came down from the sky and covered the shopping center and the nearby streets... right about there?"
Yotsuya Miko pointed again toward a street lamp not far in front of Emiya, but Emiya, turning to look, still couldn't see anything. It didn't even seem to be affecting the ordinary people... Wait?
With the fixed coordinate point as a reference, Emiya finally realized something.
Although people were still moving freely in and out of the area where the black hood had descended, noticeably fewer people were going in than were coming out.
This was likely a barrier technique similar to the Magecraft used in the Sorcery World to disperse the uninitiated. However, its effect was much more subtle, only discernible to those who "can see."
So, was something about to happen inside that shopping center?
"Quick, Yotsuya, let's go over there!"
Realizing that the prepared individual was likely not alone, Emiya decided against following directly into the shopping center. Instead, he found a building that was also encompassed by the barrier and climbed to its rooftop.
Excluding high-risk areas for teenage romance like schools, few people ever venture onto a building's rooftop other than suicidal office workers. This empty high ground was more convenient for Emiya to observe the activity inside the shopping center.
Thanks to the mall's design, which featured mostly glass walls, Emiya could successfully observe something, despite the high reflectivity.
Ignoring all other potential abnormalities, he focused entirely on locating the office worker's figure.
First floor, no... second floor, no... third, fourth, fifth floors...
Finally, focusing his sight on the very top floor, Emiya acutely caught sight of the target. The person was moving at an unimaginable speed across the empty top floor, reaching a speed that was difficult for Emiya to lock onto through the hazy glass wall.
"As expected, this is definitely no ordinary person..."
Emiya's suspicion was further confirmed, but Yotsuya Miko, who couldn't see anything clearly, was bewildered.
"What? What is it?"
She felt like she was already behind the times after just one night. She hadn't encountered a situation like this in the month or so since awakening her Yin-Yang Eyes.
Hearing Yotsuya Miko's confusion, Emiya subconsciously wanted to explain. But before he could fully organize his words, the situation inside the mall suddenly reversed—
The office worker, who had traversed the entire top floor of the mall, finally reached the rooftop. It was then that Emiya abruptly noticed a few ordinary people were actually on that rooftop.
In Emiya's field of vision, the moment the Exorcist arrived on the rooftop, the people suddenly floated up. Their whole demeanor didn't suggest they possessed special abilities but rather that they were being held and lifted by something.
Undoubtedly, it was another evil spirit whose form Emiya couldn't see.
But even more terrifying was the evil spirit's action: it clearly possessed considerable intelligence and was using the hostages to threaten the man.
"Look closely at the rooftop of that shopping center, Miko... What's happening over there?"
"Eh?"
Yotsuya Miko instinctively looked over and then her eyes snapped open wide.
"It looks like—it looks like an octopus-like evil spirit! It's wrapped its tentacles around those people!"
She had never seen a scene like this before. Weren't evil spirits supposed to only harbor resentment and lack reason?
Why did this evil spirit look like it was... threatening that man with hostages?!
What would he do? Choose to give up the attack and protect the hostages, or disregard the hostages' safety and eliminate the evil spirit first to prevent greater casualties?
Would he choose to risk protecting these few individuals, or sacrifice a small number of people for greater stability?
Under the gaze of both Emiya and Yotsuya Miko, the office worker was seen slowly placing his weapon down, indicating that he was indeed being threatened, and signaling the evil spirit not to cause any more harm to the hostages.
But an evil spirit is an evil spirit; how could it, born from human negative emotions, think like a human?
"No, this will only make things worse!"
"Trace... Gah?!"
Emiya raised his hands, subconsciously wanting to use Projection Magecraft. However, deep blue lines visibly climbed onto his arm, followed immediately by an unbearable and unimaginable stinging pain.
Clearly, a single night was not enough time for his Magic Circuits to fully cool down, and rash use could easily worsen the situation. But Emiya couldn't worry about that anymore.
"Trace... ON!!"
Suppressing the throbbing pain coming from his arm, Emiya projected a black longbow into his hand. Then, with his other hand, he fitted a longsword onto the bowstring as an arrow, aiming it at the shopping center's rooftop.
Before fully synchronizing with Archer EMIYA, Emiya didn't actually know much professional swordsmanship; archery was his true strength.
But... even with that, it was completely useless; he couldn't lock onto the evil spirit's true position.
Even though he could determine the evil spirit's general location based on the hostages floating in mid-air, its form was not a conventional human shape, making it impossible for Emiya to lock onto it using those references.
He only had one chance. If he missed, the evil spirit would likely kill the hostages immediately in a fit of rage.
So...
"Miko, tell me the evil spirit's position. I can't aim."
"But... me?"
Yotsuya Miko was noticeably hesitant. Things were happening too fast; her brain hadn't fully caught up.
She had never done anything like this, and she didn't know how to describe the evil spirit's position accurately. What if an accident occurred because of her direction? That would be disastrous.
Even though he knew Yotsuya Miko needed time to adapt, Emiya didn't have time to comfort her and could only try to calm himself down and speak seriously:
"Please, Miko.
Be my eyes."
"..."
"Okay!"
Looking at Emiya's side profile—firmly resolute despite the obvious pain he was enduring—Yotsuya Miko realized that being overly delicate now would truly get people killed.
She quickly looked at the opposite rooftop to assess the situation and quickly came up with an answer—
"The person being held furthest forward by the evil spirit's tentacles, its main body is about five meters behind him!"
"Understood!"
Without any hesitation, Emiya chose to trust Yotsuya Miko unconditionally. He immediately aimed at that location and released the fingers clenched around the bowstring.
The sword-arrow transformed into a streak of light and sped forth, instantly arriving at the shopping center's rooftop.
Boom—!