TYPE-MOON Universe, Earth, Japan, Fuyuki City.
After dealing with Hassan of the Cursed Arm, Tatsuo made his way up from the Matou Residence's basement and returned back to the yard where he left Sakura in his [Bounded Field].
{"Lici, I'm almost done here."} Tatsuo said over the telepathic link as he approached the [Bounded Field]. {"But Zouken ran away while I was dealing with is worm nest."}
{"That could be a problem."} Elicia replied. Then, after a moment to think, she continued. {"But I'm guessing you don't wanna leave Sakura there alone, right?"}
{"Yeah."} Tatsuo replied with a nod, even though Elicia could not see it. {"I'm not worried about someone kidnapping her while I chase that creepy guy, though."}
{"Then, what's the problem?"} Elicia asked with a note of confusion in her tone.
{"It's more like I don't wanna leave the Matou Residence alone while I chase after Zouken."} Tatsuo replied. {"The catalyst for summoning Medusa must be in here somewhere. And I'm afraid that Zouken's son might come back for it while I'm away."}
And that was a valid concern. Although Tatsuo was unsure what the catalyst the Matou Clan used to summon Medusa was, he was almost certain Byakuya, Zouken's eldest son and the current head of the Matou Clan, knew what it was.
{"Hmm… I doubt she would be a problem, even if Byakuya summoned her."} Elicia said after considering for a moment. {"From what I can remember, he had a low number of low-quality magic circuits. So, he wouldn't give her much of a boost."}
That was another detail that Tatsuo could not remember well. Although he was a big fan of the Fate anime in his past life, he did not look much into its lore. He just thought that the animation quality was really good, and the stories were great, if not super-convoluted. Though, that only applied to Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night [Unlimited Blade Works], and Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel. As for the original Fate/Stay Night anime made by Studio DEEN, he would rather not talk about that.
{"I guess you're right."} Tatsuo replied. {"Well then, I guess I'll leave Sakura here while I hunt down Zouken. After that, I'll come get her and head back to meet up with you at the church."}
{"Sounds good to me."} Elicia said cheerfully. {"Alright then, I'll see you back at the church."}
{"Alright, see you then."} Tatsuo replied. However, just before he cut off the telepathic link, he remembered something. He then continued while glancing at the [Bounded Field] where Sakura lay unconscious. {"Oh, and can you make some clothes for Sakura? She wasn't in the most… presentable… state when I found her."}
Luckily, Tatsuo had the foresight to cover her with a blanket before he rushed Sakura out of the mansion. Otherwise, he would be looking at her nearly naked, quite curvaceous body right now.
'*Sigh* I'm lucky I went through all that conditioning with DOATEC.' Tatsuo mused to himself as he turned away from Sakura. 'Seeing her like that, almost naked and so thirsty pushed my self-control to the limit.'
{"Got it."} Elicia replied energetically. {"I'll have something simple for her to change into by the time you get here. I can make some better clothes for her when we get back to the hotel."}
{"Huh?"} Tatsuo intoned in confusion. {"We're bringing her back to the hotel? But I thought we would just take her to see her sister and be done with this."}
{"Tatsuo, you're so cold."} Elicia said in a feigned tone of disappointment. {"How could you send her back to the sister she's been estranged from for ten years and not have her looking her best. For shame, Tatsuo. For shame."}
Hearing Elicia's playful, mock reprimanding tone, Tatsuo had the urge to roll his eyes. However, he had already started moving to follow Zouken's presence. So, he was able to push that urge down.
'I don't' want that creepy old man splitting himself into the worms.' Tatsuo thought to himself while moving through Fuyuki city to track Zouken. 'I guess I'll go in with stealth for this. Chasing each of those creepy little worms would be such a hassle.'
At the same, as Tatsuo rushed around to track down Zouken, a certain cab carrying a woman with short magenta hair pulled up to the Hyatt Hotel in Fuyuki. Then, after paying the driver, the magenta haired woman, Bazett, pulled her luggage towards the hotel's front entrance.
Meanwhile, unseen to anyone, her Servant, Lancer, followed closely in his astral form. Yet, when the two got to the hotel's reception desk, they were surprised when they were unable to get the suite on the top floor.
Actually, it did not surprise Bazett that the suite was already booked, as she had known that from the time she booked her reservation. Rather, the fact that she was unable to make the receptionist and the hotel's manager get the room's occupant to meet her so they could discuss switching rooms, despite the fact that she was using Magecraft to do so, was what surprised her the most.
Eventually, Bazett was forced to give up on getting the suite she wanted to use as her workshop. She then went to a suite two floors down and started setting up.
"Oh, come on, Bazett." Lancer, materializing from his astral form, said in a teasing tone while he watched Bazett take out the necessary materials to set up her temporary workshop from her luggage. "Not getting the suite on the top floor can't be enough to make you pout like that for so long, can it?"
Lancer was a relatively tall man, standing about 6'1" tall with blue hair tied into a rat tail that reached his back and red eyes. He wore a deep ultramarine colored bodysuit with silver shoulder pauldrons and a metallic waist guard of the same color. He also wore a pair of silver, ovoid-shaped earrings that were identical to the ones Bazett wore. He was currently wearing a teasing smirk on his face, as well.
"I'm not pouting." Bazett shot back, looking up from her materials for a moment. "I don't pout."
"Sure, whatever you say." Lancer replied, his smirk widening as he spoke. "You just keep telling yourself that."
Rolling her eyes, Bazett returned to organizing her materials. However, she did not remain silent for long.
"It's true that not getting that suite bothers me." Bazett said in a serious, no-nonsense tone. "But it's not the room itself that bothers me. Rather, it's the fact that my [Hypnosis] did not affect the hotel staff."
That actually concerned Lancer, as well. The only reason he was teasing her before was to lighten the mood. But when Bazett brought up her inability to influence the hotel staff, his teasing smirk disappeared, replaced by a serious expression.
"You know what that means, don't you, Lancer?" Bazett asked, her tone growing more solemn with every word.
"Yeah, I do." Lancer replied while nodding solemnly. "It means there's another Magus staying in this hotel."
"And they might be a Master here for the Grail War." Bazett said, finishing Lancer's thought. "Which means we have to get this workshop set up quickly. If they really are a Master like me, this hotel could become a battlefield if they recognize us."
"You're right." Lancer replied. "Then, I guess I can help with this instead of leaving it to you alone."
Hearing that, Bazett's eyes lit up. Then, she quickly turned to look at Lancer, who was conjuring [Runes] in the air in front of his fingertips. Then, once each [Rune] was formed, he would flick his fingers and send them flying towards certain parts of the room. However, not all of them stuck to the walls the two could see. Some of them sank through the walls and plastered themselves onto the outer walls of the suite.
"Exactly what are you doing, Lancer?" Bazett asked curiously, the will to learn shining in her eyes.
"Nothing special." Lancer replied with a shrug. "Just making it so that the suite won't leak any mana while you and I are in here. At the same time, the ambient mana in the room won't appear as though it were disturbed. That way, it won't alert any Magi staying in the hotel."
Hearing Lancer's explanation, Bazett started thinking of ways she could do the same with her own brand of Magecraft. Unfortunately, translating Lancer's [Runecraft] into the type of Magecraft she used would be difficult, as [Runecraft] was not a widely used form of Magecraft.
"You know, it's easy to forget how accomplished you are when it comes to [Runes]." Bazett said in a tone filled with admiration. "Especially because your skill with the spear tends to overshadow it in your legends."
"Yeah, I can see that." Lancer replied with another shrug. "But you know, I'm good enough to qualify as a Caster-Class Servant, too. Master would have never let me out of her tutelage if I wasn't well-rounded and excellent in all aspects, after all."
Knowing who Lancer's master was, Bazett could only nod her head in agreement. And based on the legends she had heard about that individual, she still found it amazing that he had survived her training. Though, because he did, there was no surprise about his strength in battle.
Like that, the two continued to prepare the temporary workshop, completely unaware that their positions had been tracked ever since the moment they got close to Fuyuki City. However, when Lancer finished with his [Runes], the ones tracking them, Tatsuo and Elicia, both turned their heads in the direction of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
"It looks like they're settling in nicely." Tatsuo muttered as he turned back to the [Bounded Field] he set up around Zouken after catching up to him. "Well, now it's just a matter of time before they head to the church. But the night will be over soon. I wonder if we'll have to wait at the church all day, or if we can go back to the hotel and explain everything to Sakura."
While thinking aloud, Tatsuo was completely ignoring Zouken's screams, who was being cooked alive inside the [Bounded Field] that had the Proin Radiorum] spell cast inside it.
"Hey, shut up, would you?" Tatsuo asked in an annoyed tone once Zouken's screaming got too ear-piercing. "Can't you see I'm trying to think over here?"
However, Zouken did not respond. Instead, he only continued to shriek, his sounds becoming more and more inhuman as his body, which was made up completely of Crest Worms, was destroyed.
"Fine, I guess I should let you have your last words." Tatsuo said, shrugging off his annoyed feeling. "It's much more than a worm like you deserves. Hehe… Get it? Worm? You know, because of the Crest Worms?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tatsuo cringed.
"You know what, forget I said anything." Tatsuo said in a pleading tone while he looked at Zouken, who was not even paying attention to him, with puppy dog eyes. "No one needs to know just how bad that joke was, deal?"
In response, Zouken only screeched even louder.
"Good." Tatsuo replied, pretending that Zouken was actually responding to his request, while wiping an imaginary bead of cold sweat off his forehead. "I'm glad we're on the same page."
About a minute later, Zouken's dying whimpers finally died out. Even so, Tatsuo did not release his [bounded Field]. Although he could no longer feel Zouken's life force coming from the inside of the [Bounded Field], he wanted to make completely sure that the old man was dead. And what better way to do that than to cook his remains to ash?
After another five minutes, Tatsuo lowered the [Bounded Field]. As he did, the ashes that were once Matou Zouken were blown away by a breeze. Seeing that, Tatsuo nodded in satisfaction with his work.
"Alright, now it's time to get back to the Matou Residence and get Sakura." Tatsuo said to himself as he turned around. "I should probably look for the catalyst used to summon Medusa, too. We're still gonna need a full cast to start the war. And I'd rather not have it somehow fall into Caster's hands."
With that said, Tatsuo entered his astral form before heading back to the Matou Residence. And with is speed, it did not take long for him to arrive.
"Good, she's still asleep." Tatsuo said as he laid eyes on the [Bounded Field] he set up and the young woman sleeping inside of it. "Well then, I guess I'll wake her up. She should have a better idea of what the catalyst looks like than I do."
{"Hey, Tatsuo."} Elicia's voice rang out in Tatsuo's mind. {"Gilgamesh is back. And I don't know where he did his shopping at this time of the night, but he's carrying a bunch of shopping bags. Looks like he got a pretty good haul. I can feel it."}
{"Oh, the Golden Boy is back."} Tatsuo replied with a slight frown on his face. {"Bazett and Lancer haven't come by yet, though, huh?"}
{"Nope."} Elicia said in a carefree tone. {"They're probably setting up a whole workshop. Not like us who only set up presence concealment."}
{"Like me, you mean, right?"} Tatsuo asked. {"I did set up the whole thing by myself, after all."}
{"same difference."} Elicia replied while dismissively waving her hand, though Tatsuo had no way of knowing that. {"Anyway, I doubt they'll be coming over here tonight. So, what do you wanna do?"}
{"I guess we should just keep an eye on whenever they leave the hotel."} Tatsuo said after thinking for a moment. {"Until then, we can just relax. We'll need to explain things to Sakura, too. Oh, and we'll need to make time to send her back to her sister., as well."}
{"Sounds good to me."} Elicia replied. {"Then, I'll head back for now. I've already got some clothes for Sakura to change into. I'll start working on more when I get back."}
{"You know, I could get her clothes from the mansion while I'm here."} Tatsuo said.
{"Where's the fun in that?"} Elicia said cheerfully. {"This is what I do. My passion, Tatsuo. So, don't take this away from me."}
{"If you say so."} Tatsuo replied with a shrug. {"Well then, I'll see you back at the room. *Sigh* It will be a good chance to see if [Maiestas Divina] works when I'm in contact with other people, too."}
'I doubt it will, though.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'It probably would if I weren't limited to these Skills as a Servant. But what can ya do?'
With their plans set, Tatsuo and Elicia ended the telepathic communications. And while Elicia started heading towards the Grand Hyatt, Tatsuo lowered the [Bounded Field] around Sakura, intending to wake her up so they could ransack the Matou Residence and find the catalyst for summoning Medusa.