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MMMS 39
🕑 Added 2025-04-27 00:30:17 +0000 UTCAlthough it wasn't unheard of for team members to lose contact during combat, this time Kiritsugu was particularly worried. After Maiya stopped responding, Kiritsugu's killer instincts put him on high alert. He glanced at the battlefield in the distance. His Servant Lancer and the enemy's Saber were locked in a stalemate, neither gaining the upper hand in the short term.
He should check what was happening with Maiya. Moving his right eye away from the scope, just as he was about to leave, a voice suddenly came through the quiet communicator. "Sorry, Kiritsugu, it's me. There seems to be a problem with the communicator and scope."
Both the communicator and scope malfunctioning at the same time? That's impossible, was Kiritsugu's immediate thought. The main difference between military and civilian equipment wasn't performance, but reliability. The odds of both communicator and scope breaking down in battle were about the same as getting hit by a meteorite while walking through Fuyuki City.
He asked uneasily, "Are you alright?"
"...I'm fine. But it looks like I won't be able to provide support tonight."
"I understand," he said, leaving it at that.
Although he had many questions, Maiya was someone he trusted completely. Always calm and composed, she was like a machine. Maiya always made correct and unchangeable decisions based on the situation. When he worked with her, he never felt bad about how he had to operate, and her cold approach didn't bother him either. Being on a mission with her put him at ease. Just like now - hearing her voice helped settle his racing heart.
"Alright, pull back for now," he decided. "I'll handle tonight on my own."
He would've preferred to go after Saber's Master together with Maiya. But he could manage alone - it was less than three hundred meters. With his skills, one bullet would be enough to finish the job.
"Understood," Maiya replied before the communicator went silent.
…
"Smart move not telling him about me," Ryuuto called out, sitting casually on a shipping container with his legs crossed. Below him, less than 10 meters away, the Fanatic had Maiya face-down on the ground with her foot pressed between her shoulder blades.
They'd found Maiya about three minutes ago and taken her down quickly. Ryuuto wasn't after Kiritsugu or Kayneth - he wanted Kiritsugu's assistant, this woman right here.
Feeling pretty pleased with himself, he remembered something he'd heard once. In other universes with different Holy Grail Wars, the Assassin class supposedly won more often than any other. He'd always thought that was ridiculous. How could assassins who only snuck around killing Masters possibly win against Servants who could shoot energy beams and level buildings?
But now he was starting to see the point. He was seriously tempted to scoop up his own Assassin and just shower her with praise.
"Alright, back to what we were discussing," he said, rubbing his chin as a nasty smile spread across his face. "Big sister, where were we? Oh right... we were talking about that son you abandoned all those years ago. The one who's having such a rough time somewhere out there."
…
Maiya was born in a desperately poor country where hope didn't exist and the future held nothing. People only survived by taking from others, and the constant fighting never stopped. Even after the money for organized armies ran out, the sides kept killing each other.
As the war dragged on, people realized something practical and terrible - it was cheaper to give guns to children than to train proper soldiers.
By the time Maiya was old enough to understand anything, she was already learning how to kill. She could shoot a gun before she could add two numbers together. To keep breathing, she had to keep pulling the trigger. That's what child soldiers did. Either you learned to kill, or you got killed by someone who had.
And that's how she became a living weapon. But her story wasn't just about death - she'd given life too, though she wished she could forget it.
More than ten years ago, before she met Kiritsugu, several male soldiers in her camp had forced themselves on her. She was pregnant before she even realized what had happened. Maiya had given birth to a son.
…
"Do you know him?" she asked flatly, still pinned to the ground. Only Kiritsugu knew this story. If someone else knew about it, they must know about her past.
He nodded. "Well, your son is working for a friend of mine right now."
"As a child soldier?" she asked.
"That's right. Pretty much what you went through, been holding a gun since he was five. Oh, and they also did some magical modifications to his body."
Maiya frowned when she heard "magical modifications."
"You know about those special forces that can use magecraft?" he continued. "Seems like they modified him to be part of a magical unit. Anyway, he's not on the battlefield anymore, he's someone's private soldier now. The guy he works for, my friend, is way worse than any warlord or bandit you've ever met. Takes one to know one, and I can tell you this guy has zero humanity. You might as well call him a demon."
A hint of pity showed in his eyes. "You know, he might've been better off staying on the battlefield."
Maiya's face darkened at his words. Why was he telling her this?
"What exactly do you want?" she asked through clenched teeth. "Why are you telling me all this?"
He stood up from the container and turned to survey the harbor area with his back to Maiya. He noticed Kiritsugu had put away his WA2000 - looks like he'd given up on sniping Kayneth. Was it because he'd spotted Kotomine Kirei's supposedly dead Servant lurking around the battlefield?
If the other Servants stayed the same as before, Iskandar and Gilgamesh would probably show up next. Without Lancelot going berserk and causing chaos, he wondered how tonight's battle would play out. Then again, knowing how careful Tohsaka Tokiomi was with everything, he'd definitely order Archer to retreat no matter how intense things got tonight.
"Tsk... boring," Ryuuto muttered. Not that he planned to reveal himself too early tonight either. He turned back around, looking down at the woman still pinned beneath Fanatic's foot.
"Miss Hisau, let's make a deal.”
"A deal?" Suspicion crept into Maiya's eyes.
"That's right. If you agree to my conditions, once the Fourth Holy Grail War is over, I'll give your son his freedom. Let him live a normal life."
"I'm not interested in your offer. I'd never betray Kiritsugu," the black-haired woman said calmly. "Kill me."
Part of why Maiya kept this from Kiritsugu and didn't report what was happening was because hearing about her son did spark something in her. But mostly, she was stalling to give Kiritsugu more time.
The enemy had incredible night detection abilities. If she fought back now, they'd kill her easily, then go after Kiritsugu. Better to waste time here while Kiritsugu got away.
She secretly activated the recorder in her pocket, trying to drag this out as long as possible. Getting herself killed was the last step in her plan, her death would buy Kiritsugu enough time to escape.
"Such loyalty," Ryuuto said mockingly. "I guess the man you see every day matters more than a son you haven't seen in over a decade."
Maiya didn't react to his jab. "Kill me," she repeated firmly.
But he had expected this response.
"Don't be so quick to die, Miss Hisau. I'm not asking you to betray Kiritsugu."
"You're not asking me to betray Kiritsugu?" She looked up at him suspiciously.
"That's right," he said. "What I want is simple - forget tonight happened. Don't tell anyone about meeting me or learning your son is still alive somewhere. Do that, and after the Grail War ends, I'll set your son free."
Maiya looked shocked. That's it?
"That's it," he said, like he'd read her mind. "Very simple, right? You could hardly call that betraying Kiritsugu."
If she really thought about it, hiding tonight from Kiritsugu was definitely a betrayal. But people always hoped for the best, and even Maiya couldn't resist that urge.
"I agree," she said after ten seconds of silence, biting her lower lip. "I won't tell anyone about tonight."
"Perfect," he said, clapping his hands cheerfully. "Let her go."
"But Master, this woman has already... eep!" He shot Fanatic an annoyed look, and she quickly stepped back from Maiya's body.
She knelt on the ground shaking, her fingers laced together as she whispered over and over. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry... Please forgive me, Master."
God, she was adorable like this. Fighting the urge to pat Fanatic's head, he walked over to Maiya. He took out a piece of parchment from his pocket and tossed it in the air. The mana-infused scroll drifted down like a jellyfish, settling on the ground in front of Maiya.
"What the..." She recognized the weird patterns and text layout instantly. She'd seen it plenty of times working with Kiritsugu. It was a Geass - one of the contract curses magi used when they needed an absolutely unbreakable agreement.
In the original story, Kiritsugu had used this exact type of contract to trick Kayneth into dropping out of the Grail War. Once bound by your own Magic Crest, you couldn't remove this curse no matter what you tried. It was a dangerous magecraft.
Ryuuto had picked up this knowledge after consuming Zouken. Actually, Zouken had some even more powerful binding contracts in his arsenal, but he figured this Geass would do the job just fine. After all, Maiya had helped Kiritsugu pull off plenty of schemes with these things. Pretty ironic that now she had to sign one with the enemy.
On her end, Maiya's face went pale. She knew this thing had to be rigged somehow. But what choice did she have now? If she agreed, she lost nothing. If she refused, she'd just get herself killed and cause problems for Kiritsugu down the line. And maybe, just maybe, this way her kid could have a normal life.
With that mix of bitter irony and tiny hope pushing her forward, she bit her thumb and let her blood drip onto the parchment.
"All-powerful Master... I don't get it," Fanatic said, pressing her forehead against the cold container as she asked fearfully. "Why'd we let her go so easily? We could've asked for better terms. Like making her kill the enemy leader or—"
"Fanatic, you really don't understand how people work," Ryuuto said as he walked over to her, lifting her chin to make her look up.
"Master, I'm sorry... I'm pretty stupid."
"Well, whatever. That's part of what makes you useful as a toy."
Her eyes lit up at his words. "Thank you for the compliment!"
He wasn't complimenting her, but whatever. "Look, you need to understand not everyone's as honest as you are. With them, what I just did is enough."
The seed was planted – doubt would start growing between those two. Now he just had to sit back and watch it happen. As Maiya disappeared into the darkness, Ryuuto squinted into the night.
"Oh, by the way, Fanatic."
"Yes, Master? What is it?"
"I don't feel like walking. Carry me back."
