As the Guard Department surrounded the building, Shirou could clearly see the Lungmen citizens being held back outside by officers all pulling out their phones to record the scene.
As for those without phones, they kept standing on tiptoe trying to get a clearer look at what was happening. Some people had even gone into nearby shops, found good seats, ordered coffee, and settled in to watch the excitement.
"..."
Seeing how much everyone still loved watching drama unfold, Shirou honestly did not know what to say anymore.
Well, this was very much typical Lungmen behavior.
Because he was stationed rather far away, there was not much Shirou himself could do.
Chen, however, was a different matter. Through the communicator, Shirou could hear her loudly ordering other Guard Department officers to disperse the civilians.
The efficiency was remarkably high.
"Shirou, can you see us?"
After the surrounding onlookers had been cleared out, Chen asked through the communicator.
"My view is clear, and the communication is clear too."
The moment Chen asked that, Shirou understood she was signaling that the operation was about to begin.
This was something they had established back when he worked part-time with the Guard Department. Since Shirou was not an official member, Chen would deliberately ask that question first to avoid any misunderstandings and remind him to stay alert.
Being careful was always best. Every operation carried a certain degree of danger.
"Then we will leave the support to you."
After saying that, Chen entered the building together with Hoshiguma and numerous officers.
Meanwhile, Swire remained outside, directing drones around the perimeter of the building to monitor the situation, mainly covering the side Shirou could not see.
The division of labor was extremely clear.
Shirou was not merely standing idly on the rooftop watching. He continuously kept his bow drawn, ready to provide support fire at any moment. That way, if anything happened, he could deal with the danger immediately.
Of course, he was not pulling the bowstring all the way back, only halfway. Otherwise, his already limited stamina would drop even further.
Meanwhile, the four people crouching in the shade had also completely quieted down, afraid that they might disturb Shirou and cause him to accidentally release the arrow in his hand.
If that thing actually hit someone, it would not be like those toy suction-cup arrows that merely hurt a little. Anyone struck by Shirou's arrows would either die or suffer serious injury.
If Shirou had been holding a Caladbolg instead, they probably would not even have dared breathe too loudly.
Naturally, Shirou had no idea what they were thinking. Even if he did know, he probably would not care much. Minor noises simply did not affect him.
Once he concentrated, most of his attention focused entirely on the target. As long as external distractions were not excessive, they did not matter.
Of course, if he came under attack, he would still react immediately.
Golden light flickered in his eyes. Whenever the Guard Department team became obscured by the building itself, Shirou relied on Chen reporting their positions through the communicator and using that information to roughly determine where everyone was.
"All personnel, prepare for combat."
Listening to Chen's commands through the communicator, Shirou slowly tightened the bowstring further while aiming at the office hidden behind the drawn curtains.
The position Chen selected gave him a perfectly clear angle into the office interior.
Unfortunately, the enemy seemed to have already been wary of something. The curtains were shut tightly, making it impossible to see inside unless Shirou struck first.
However, he was not alone. When the time came, the Guard Department officers would help open up his line of sight for him, so there was no need for him to risk injuring his own allies by attacking blindly.
After all, blind sniping was fairly dangerous.
Still, if fighting broke out inside before that happened, Shirou would find a way to smash through those damned windows anyway.
Right now, he could only judge the internal situation through the communicator.
"Open up! Guard Department!"
A Guard Department officer could be heard pounding heavily on the door twice before shouting loudly.
From the moment the Guard Department entered the building, they had practically encountered nobody.
It was as if everyone inside the entire building had vanished.
If not for Yith and the Guard Department pulling surveillance footage that confirmed the target had entered the building earlier that morning, along with Swire spotting figures inside, Shirou would have suspected everyone had already escaped.
Listening to the repeated knocking through the communicator, Shirou's heart jumped with every knock.
Countless horrific possibilities flashed through his mind, causing him to tighten his grip on the bowstring.
Magic power unconsciously stirred by his tension poured out from Shirou's body, while even the natural wind around him began blowing his clothes.
"Move aside."
After several knocks received no response, Chen stepped forward herself. At the same time, Shirou heard the sound of a sword scraping against its sheath and instantly understood what she intended to do.
First came the sound of blades being drawn, followed immediately by an explosive boom. At that moment, Shirou truly appreciated technological progress. If the Guard Department communicator had not included a volume reduction function, his ears definitely would have been ringing from that blast.
For Guard Department assault squads, breaching techniques were practically mandatory skills. Some used ordinary impact breaches, while more advanced teams even used explosives.
As for Chen, she relied on the sword in her hand.
Thankfully, it was not Chi Xiao. Otherwise, the door probably would have been blasted straight through the windows and flown outside.
Still, the condition inside the office did not seem very good either. The force of Chen's breach caused the curtains inside to billow open briefly.
Within that short instant, Shirou saw the Forte inside the office dressed in a suit, calmly sitting at his desk while drinking hot coffee.
Judging by his relaxed appearance, it almost seemed as though the Guard Department officers kicking down the door were merely guests arriving to greet him.
"That is... Chen! Be careful of the object on his right side!"
Although he only saw it for a split second, Shirou still noticed something beside the man's hand that resembled a remote control. He immediately sensed that it was definitely dangerous.
So he instantly reported it to Chen through the communicator, hoping she could suppress the man before he acted, while simultaneously pulling his bowstring taut and firing an arrow.
Unfortunately, things always tended to develop in the worst possible direction.
Although Chen immediately rushed toward the target with both her standard sword and Chi Xiao in hand, she was delayed by traps the enemy had prepared beforehand.
As for Shirou's arrow, it was intercepted midway by several drones.
They were the type of drones Exusiai hated the most. Shirou had not noticed them at all earlier. Clearly, these people understood his combat style very well. They had remained hidden behind cover and outside his field of vision, only deploying the drones the moment he attacked.
If he had known in advance, Shirou definitely would have used magical energy to alter the trajectory of his arrow.
But reality did not contain "what ifs." It only contained results.
And the reality was that, in order to strike the enemy as quickly as possible, he chose a direct attack path and was blocked.
Nor was the outside situation much better.
From the moment Shirou fired his first arrow, drones had continuously begun rising into the air.
Faced with that situation, Shirou had no choice but to destroy them all as quickly as possible. But those few seconds were already enough time for the Forte in the office, Ironbull himself, to grab the remote control beside him.
Shirou had no good choice.
Within those few seconds, he had to decide.
If he chose to attack the person in the office, those drones might launch indiscriminate attacks throughout Lungmen's city districts, leading to massive casualties.
But if he chose to destroy the drones, then the person in the office would successfully seize the mysterious remote control.
Without visual confirmation of the room, Shirou did not dare gamble and instead chose the most conservative option.
At this point, he could only trust that Chen, Hoshiguma, and the others would resolve the situation inside.
"We are moving!"
Seeing the situation unfold, the Penguin Logistics crew immediately understood what they needed to do.
The four of them rushed downstairs at once.
Unlike Shirou, they did not possess long-range attack capabilities. Their only option was to charge directly into the fight themselves.
That was the only thing they could do.
"Hmph. Annoying things."
Shirou focused all his attention on the drones. Every pull of the bowstring released countless arrows streaking forward with glowing trails behind them.
The suppressive effect was obvious. Shirou attacked faster than the drones could even appear. Combined with the Guard Department personnel arranged by Swire and the support from Penguin Logistics, all the operators launching drones were quickly captured.
Worth mentioning was that several Lungmen civilians even joined the effort. Shirou even spotted Waai Fu, who was acquainted with Aak, sending people flying with punches and kicks.
It could only be said that those troublemakers were incredibly unlucky to pick a university district as the place to start chaos.
Only after no more drones appeared did Shirou finally let out a small sigh of relief, though he quickly refocused on the office.
Ever since earlier, no sounds had been coming from the communicator regarding what was happening inside the office.
Either there was equipment interfering with communications, or the enemy was threatening everyone using the remote control.
Shirou leaned more toward the latter possibility. After all, if the enemy used equipment capable of disrupting communicators, it would likely disable the remote control in his hand as well.
Though it was also possible the enemy possessed technology advanced enough to keep the remote operational regardless.
"What is the situation now?"
Staring at the tightly drawn curtains, Shirou directly asked Swire for an update.
"Is it not obvious? I hold the lives of everyone in this district in my hands!"
The one who answered Shirou was not Swire, but an unfamiliar voice.
From what the man said, it could be determined that he was the very person the Guard Department had come to arrest during this operation: the boss of Ironbull Logistics.
"..."
After realizing that the person on the other end of the communicator was not from the Guard Department, Shirou decisively chose to remain silent.
Taking a deep breath, Shirou forced himself to calm down.
The old him might have questioned why the man was doing this, but things were different now.
He clearly understood that this was not the time to provoke the other party or destabilize his emotions.
After all, the man himself had already said that he held the lives of everyone in this district in his hands. That meant the remote control in his possession was genuinely dangerous.
"How calm. Just like Gennady described. So, what should I call you? Mister Red Evil? Archer? Or perhaps Shirou? Maybe even Emiya Shirou?"
The man's tone was extremely confident, as though he believed he completely controlled the situation and could manipulate everyone at will.
Shirou had nothing he wanted to say to this person. He was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, a Lungmen curse would come flying out and anger the man.
"If you do not answer, I am going to press it, you know? Mister Archer."
After waiting so long without receiving a response, the man's tone clearly became impatient.
"I am not Archer. You have the wrong person."
At this point, Shirou had no choice but to speak.
"Heh. Those kinds of excuses might fool other people, but how are you going to explain your almost identical Originium Arts? Are you going to claim you inherited them from the same source?"
Faced with Shirou's truthful statement, the man clearly did not believe him at all.
Similar Originium Arts were not unheard of, but something as complicated and impossible to analyze as the nearly identical Arts used by Shirou and Archer... that was rather thought-provoking.
Similar Arts existed.
But black-and-white twin blades and a black longbow of the exact same style? Across all of Terra, only those two possessed them.
"What I said is the truth. I am not Archer. In a sense, he and I should actually be considered enemies."
Judging from Ironbull's tone, the man seemed to harbor some resentment toward Archer, so Shirou deliberately steered the conversation in that direction.
And what he said was also technically true.
"Oh? You and him are enemies?"
Hearing that, Ironbull immediately became interested.
Back in Ursus, seeing Archer's self-righteous attitude had irritated him immensely. Yet he also had to admit that the man was frighteningly powerful. On those wide-open snowy plains, once Archer set his sights on someone, they were basically doomed.
Because of that, many people back then did not dare step out of line at all. They could only obediently hunt and work.
And he himself had been one of them.
"Yeah. In his eyes, I am practically a villain. He has always been looking for a chance to eliminate me."
Seeing the man take the bait, Shirou continued feeding him fragments drawn from his memories of Archer.
At the same time, he deliberately exaggerated certain parts slightly so that some inconsistencies would not stand out too much.
It was true that Archer wanted to eliminate Emiya Shirou.
But what Archer truly wanted to destroy was the Emiya Shirou who still clung to the overly naïve ideal of becoming a "hero of justice."
Because Archer knew what future awaited Emiya Shirou if he continued pursuing that ideal, he wanted to erase him.
At the time, perhaps Archer even considered that form of idealism itself to be a kind of evil.
A person who constantly offered kindness without caring about others' opinions or asking for anything in return...
That really was rather terrifying in its own way.
While steering the conversation in that direction, Shirou also switched into his mystic code and continuously leapt across the rooftops.
The conversation itself was fake.
Stalling for time while getting closer to the target as quickly as possible was his true objective.
The enemy had informants outside, so he needed to move fast...
There was absolutely no way he would allow the man's schemes to succeed.