"You are such a nice person."
This is Kiritsugu's evaluation of Natalia.
Because of this sentence, Kiritsugu stayed by Natalia's side for the rest of the time.
Of course, she didn't adopt orphans and treat them as ordinary children. Natalia didn't have the time or love to do that. Kiritsugu's comment was a joke to her.
Good person? She is no longer one, or never was.
Her profession is a bounty hunter or mercenary. She does not belong to any organization and only hunts prey for reward. And her methods are definitely not glorious.
Her most common method was to keep an eye on the executors of the Magic Association, and when they found a target and set out, she would snatch the prey before them, and then resell it to the Magic Association at a high price.
This despicable behavior made many people in the Magic Association hate it, but because Natalia did not violate any rules and always acted within the rules, she was strong and very useful as a sword, and the Magic Association was not short of money, so they let it go.
After Kiritsugu joined, her actions became more efficient.
Kiritsugu stayed by Natalia's side as an assistant, being ordered around by her and receiving training from her.
This also means that he is embarking on the same path as Natalia, the path of a hunter.
He did not regret it. Natalia had never forced him. Everything was his own choice. Because of this, he never changed his opinion. He always thought she was a good person.
After leaving the closed southern island and coming to the outside world, Kiritsugu soon discovered that the tragedy he had experienced was not a rare exception. Such stupid things happened repeatedly in the dark side of this world like daily life. It was only because the two major organizations, the Magic Association and the Holy Church, manipulated the intelligence to conceal it, so it did not cause any social impact.
Magicians who are so obsessed with the pursuit of truth that they are willing to spread disasters everywhere.
There are two organizations that will do anything to get rid of magicians in secret. Fights involving mysteries and hidden secrets often happen everywhere, so often that Natalia can live a lavish life with this job.
Something in Kiritsugu's heart was ignited.
In order to make up for his mistake, he killed his father with his own hands.
But this was not enough. The act of killing the magus Emiya Norikawa was too far from the determination to prevent the tragedy from happening again - it was like a drop of water in the ocean, which could basically be ignored.
If he really wanted to make amends for his mistake and find a reason for killing his father, then he could only achieve true redemption by hunting down all heretical magicians like his father.
Seal the designated executor.
The boy, who was hunting the hounds of the magic outside the rules, embarked on this inhuman and bloody road without hesitation, and for this he agreed to the conditions of the association and accepted the 20% mark of his father Juxian in order to practice magic.
For Kiritsugu, magic is not his life's work, but just a means to achieve his goals. In fact, magic is just one of the several "means" that the boy learned from the female hunter.
Tracking techniques, assassination techniques, the use of various weapons - the hound has more than one "fang". In order to hunt and kill prey in various environments and conditions, it is necessary to learn a variety of techniques and knowledge one by one.
In order to learn these things, Kiritsugu devoted his most precious youth. The years filled with blood and smoke left a mark of vicissitudes on the young man, and also made him gradually stand out in the dark world and gain considerable fame.
Although he was a little too mature for his age, Kiritsugu was very satisfied with his current state.
Although his methods were mean and dirty, and his hands were stained, he was on the road to his ideal and redemption. Life with Natalia was also good, maybe not as carefree as with Xia Lei, but with a different kind of warmth.
I will probably spend my whole life like this, with her—Kiritsugu, who had already left his youth, thought so.
At this time, he did not know how much this inhuman and bloody road would cost him, nor how heavy the sin that was so lofty that it was almost stupid would make him bear.
On this day, Kiritsugu's teacher and companion was facing the most dangerous crisis of his life.
As if it was a fateful reincarnation, this time the incident was also related to magicians and vampires.
The "Magic Bee Envoy" Ode Bozak is the target of their mission this time.
Although not completely, this magus successfully transformed into a Dead Apostle, and increased the number of ghouls under his command by using the poisonous needles of his bee familiars, making him a very dangerous existence.
Unlike those ostentatious Dead Apostles, Bozak was very cautious. He changed his appearance, disguised himself as an ordinary person, and disappeared. It was not until four days ago that intelligence came out that he, who had been missing for a long time, would take an Airbus A300 passenger plane from Paris to New York.
In order not to miss this golden opportunity, the master and the apprentice divided the work and cooperated. Natalia entered the plane alone and carried out a very difficult "hunting operation" to find a target whose face and pseudonym were unknown among the 287 passengers. Kiritsugu did not take the same flight. He was commissioned to go to New York first to find clues to see through Bozak's disguise.
In this way, the master and the disciple kept in close contact in the sky and on the ground, and gradually searched for the location of the prey quietly and accurately in the enclosed space.
The assassination went unexpectedly smoothly and the mission was completed just three hours after the plane took off.
However, this was just the beginning of the tragedy.
No one thought that Bozak would sneak past customs and bring his "Death Apostle Bees" on the plane, and no one would have thought that these "Death Apostle Bees" would go berserk and crazily attack the passengers on the plane after their owner was killed.
Before long, the cockpit of the jumbo jet turned into a bloody hell with corpses everywhere.
The enclosed environment, the huge number of "Dead Apostle Bees" and corpses, even for the experienced Natalia, the situation was quite desperate.
Kiritsugu could do nothing about it. Natalia was in a closed space three thousand feet in the air. Unless he had the ability to reach the sky, he could only wait in agony on the ground.
However, even in such a dire situation, he still firmly believed that the battle-hardened female hunter could survive, because that was the principle she had repeatedly emphasized and taught him countless times - "do whatever it takes to survive."
He believed she could do it, just as she trusted his abilities.
She lived up to his trust and survived. Even though all the crew members and passengers on the plane turned into zombies, she managed to survive and ensured that all the dead bodies were kept out of the cockpit, and flew the plane to New York Airport by herself.
This was also the worst and most likely situation Kiritsugu had anticipated.
The two of them alone could not eliminate so many corpses. Once the plane landed, if these corpses, which were only hungry for flesh and blood, were left to wreak havoc, who knew how many more people would die - but if doing so could help her survive, Natalia would definitely do it. Her obsession with life was stronger than anyone else's, and so was her ability to survive.
To stop all this, this iron cage must be crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. If Natalie fails to do it, he will do it—those who should die are eliminated, and those who should not die are saved. This is justice! And he is a partner of justice.
What an irony.
Events related to the monster hidden in the shadow of human nature took away the woman he loved most in his youth, and now it is taking away his only remaining family.
For the sake of justice, he once again has to make a cruel choice.
Moreover, in order to prevent Natalia from noticing his thoughts, he had to keep the radio communication open, pretending that he was still in the hotel, and reassuring her by chatting with her.
Perhaps because she was bored, or perhaps because she didn't want to focus on the annoying corpses outside, Natalia was particularly talkative today and said a lot of things that she would never say normally.
"When you said you wanted to help me with my business, I was really troubled. Because even if I talked you out of it, it seemed like you wouldn't give up."
...
"You are such a great kid. You are totally unaffected by your emotions when you're doing something. It takes most killers years to develop this awareness. But you had it from the beginning. It's a remarkable quality."
...
"But choosing a career based on one's own qualities does not necessarily mean happiness. Once talent crosses a certain line, it will set aside the thoughts and feelings of the person involved and directly determine the path of life. Once a person reaches this point, it's over. If you don't think about 'what you want to do', but only think about 'what you should do'... that kind of person is just a machine, a phenomenon, and it's not the way a person should live at all."
...
"In your case, I was the one who took away that opportunity. How should I put it... I feel a little guilty about it, although I had no other way to teach you at that time."
...
"For a long time I was alone in my bloody life. So long that I forgot I was alone. So... Hehe, this is also quite funny, the feeling of being with someone who is like a family."
...
"Maybe I'm old and useless now."
...
"Maybe I made this mistake because I relaxed while playing house. If that's the case, it's time to retire..."
...
With every word, Kiritsugu felt a little colder.
Yes, I am well-educated, so I can calmly aim the "Stinger" at the plane in the sky while going crazy with heartache, to kill my teacher, who will become my adoptive mother.
In order to cope with the "miracle" that the woman he loved could survive, he actually calculated step by step how to actually kill her.
To this end, he ran around New York late at night, tried all the channels, and finally got the Blowpipe portable surface-to-air missile that had leaked to the black market.
Then he rented a speedboat and rushed to the sea near New York International Airport at the fastest speed. Now, Kiritsugu was sitting on the speedboat floating on the sea, waiting for the plane that Natalia was on to appear in front of him. This place was right below the channel, and when the plane approached New York International Airport, it would lower its altitude and enter the range that the missile could barely reach.
What kind of bastard am I!!!
But no matter how he blamed himself or cursed himself, time still passed little by little, and that beautiful silver wing appeared on the horizon in the dawn light, within the range of "Blowpipe" - 1,500 meters, it would definitely hit.
At this time, the woman finally uttered her last words.
"If I lose my job... I will really only be able to play the role of a mother."
"You... are my real family."
He could only press the launch button while crying and roaring in a low and hoarse voice.
Just like last time, memories related to her flashed through his mind quickly, accompanied by the explosion of explosives.
The iron block that lost its aerodynamic properties twisted and broke as if it was cut, and turned into fragments that fell quietly into the ocean in the early morning. The falling metal fragments sparkled in the morning light and gradually sank to the bottom of the sea, just like Kiritsugu's shattered heart.
The first rays of dawn shone from the other side of the horizon. Bathed in the sunlight of today that Natalia could not see, Kiritsugu cried alone, suppressing his voice.
Without anyone knowing, Kiritsugu saved a crowd he didn't even know.
What kind of person does Kelly want to be when she grows up
I want to be a partner in justice.
Did you see it? Xia Lei...
I killed someone again this time. Just like I killed my father, I killed someone again. I didn't make the same mistake you did last time. I saved many people...
If Kiritsugu's actions and intentions were known to the public, would they feel grateful? Would those people at the airport who were finally spared from facing the horrific corpses call Kiritsugu a hero
"What a joke... What a joke! Asshole!!"
Holding tightly onto the missile launcher that had already begun to cool, Kiritsugu roared wildly at the sky that was gradually getting brighter.
He didn't want fame or thanks from others. He just wanted to see Natalia again and wait for the day when he could call her "Mom" in person.
On this day...
PS: Let me say a few more words here. This is a mistake in the plot design of Urobuchi. In fact, there is a solution to the situation at that time. The corpses have no ability to break through the hatch, and naturally they have no ability to break through the cabin. Even if they land, as long as they are informed in advance, it will not have any impact if the door is not opened. Then they can get Natalia out. Although there is no hatch in the cockpit, they can cut it from the outside. Although it is troublesome, it is better than bombing the plane. The only thing worth worrying about is probably the impact caused by the spread of this matter. However, bombing the plane is not much better. It can only be said that Kiritsugu's mind is not flexible enough.