"You know, those rations are pretty hard to swallow without water."
Just as Shirou was lost in thought, slowly chewing on his dry ration, he first felt a wave of cold and then heard a woman's voice from nearby.
Looking up, he turned toward the source of the voice.
It was the white-haired Cautus, the "Big Sister Frostnova" the crossbowman had mentioned earlier.
This could barely be considered their first proper meeting.
Even though she was standing some distance away, Shirou could still feel the chill radiating from her.
He looked at Frostnova, then glanced at the heavily bundled people around her.
Yes, they were clearly part of the same squad.
"Cough... cough... I know that now."
The moment Shirou opened his mouth to respond, he nearly choked on the ration he had not finished swallowing.
All right.
Originally, he had thought the problem was simply that it tasted dry.
Now he understood that this stuff was meant to be eaten with water.
Seeing his miserable state, Frostnova found it somewhat amusing. Nevertheless, she turned to the crossbowman standing guard nearby.
"Go get him some water. I will watch things here."
The crossbowman did not question the order.
He relaxed the string on his crossbow, set it aside, and jogged off.
"That is really not necessary. I can still swallow it."
After chewing for quite a while longer, Shirou finally managed to force down the small bite of ration.
Then he quietly put away the half-eaten piece.
The taste was perhaps only slightly better than Hibiscus's nutritional meals.
The real problem was how difficult it was to swallow.
Fortunately, he had only taken a small bite.
He originally had water with him as well, but he had distributed it to refugees during his rescue efforts.
His plan had been to refill his supply once he found a suitable water source along the way.
Unfortunately, he had not found one.
He certainly was not about to drink rainwater from a Catastrophe without treatment.
Still, with the cold weather, strong winds, and heavy rain, dehydration had not become an urgent issue, so he had simply ignored it.
More importantly, he knew that clean drinking water was an extremely valuable strategic resource in a situation like this.
He did not feel comfortable asking anyone for it.
"Do not worry. The school's water supply has not been cut off yet. We filled plenty of containers earlier."
Seeing Shirou's reluctance, Frostnova more or less guessed what he was worried about and explained where their water came from.
At the same time, she took the opportunity to examine him more carefully.
At first glance, she had only found him vaguely familiar.
Now that she had a chance to look closely, she realized it was merely a resemblance.
This person's personality was not as unpleasant as that man's.
Or perhaps not as forceful.
Though he still looked rather unfriendly.
Most of that impression came from the fact that he was covered in blood, making him look quite intimidating.
Sasha and Eno had claimed he was a very kind and gentle person.
Where exactly was the "gentle" part?
That said, it made little difference to her.
She had seen far scarier people before.
The Ursus military and the Emperor's Blades were far more frightening than the blood-covered young man standing before her.
"Then... thank you."
After hearing her explanation, Shirou stopped refusing.
He accepted the water the crossbowman had brought back and drank it in one go.
Almost immediately, he felt refreshed.
The dryness in his throat disappeared as well.
As expected, drinking water was good for both body and mind.
"I already understand why you came here. As you can see, the situation in this school is not very good."
After seeing some color return to his face, Frostnova got straight to the point.
"Because of the actions of those rioters, the students upstairs do not trust us at all. The Yeti Squadron and the other Reunion members are in a very awkward position right now. That is why I cannot allow you to go upstairs and interact with the students."
"I can understand that... What about the people downstairs?"
Shirou nodded.
He had already noticed similar problems during his rescue efforts.
Most of the time, he simply ignored whether people were frightened or not and forcibly carried them to safety.
The current situation did not require his involvement, so he had no intention of barging upstairs and frightening people further.
Besides, the people downstairs were his main reason for coming here.
"Although we have been clearing out the rioters on the lower floors, we still have not found their actual base inside the school. We have no idea how many of them remain."
Frostnova briefly explained the current situation.
"The only thing we know for certain is that this school is one of their main strongholds. We spent quite a bit of effort capturing this floor because it contained supplies."
After hearing the explanation, Shirou gained a rough understanding of the situation.
The lower floors were occupied primarily by the rioters.
However, nobody knew exactly where their headquarters was hidden, forcing the Reunion members to maintain defensive positions on the upper floors.
Above them were the students from this school, along with refugees from other schools and ordinary civilians.
Unfortunately, things seemed rather chaotic up there as well.
Just thinking about all of it made Shirou's head ache.
Fortunately, Frostnova was handling the students and civilians.
He did not need to concern himself with that side of things.
Once that issue was removed from the equation, the remaining problem could be solved through force.
And for Shirou, any problem that could be solved through force was not really a problem at all.
"...I understand."
Having grasped the overall situation, Shirou immediately took responsibility for the matter.
"I will deal with the people downstairs."
If those individuals had been willing to stay quiet while the Catastrophe raged outside, Shirou would not have minded letting them continue hiding.
However, based on what Frostnova had described and what he himself had observed earlier, it seemed they intended to use the Catastrophe as an opportunity to reclaim the stronghold.
In that case, there was only one option left.
He would send them on their way.
"By yourself? How exactly are you planning to find them in a situation like this? Search every room one by one?"
Frostnova frowned after hearing Shirou's proposal.
She had expected him to offer some useful suggestion, or perhaps propose working together.
Instead, he had simply declared that he would handle everything himself.
Did he seriously think this was some tiny school?
"I have my methods. Do not worry."
In response to her doubts, Shirou shook his head and signaled for her not to be concerned.
Then he placed a hand against the wall behind him.
"Trace, on—"
As he murmured the incantation, Magic Circuits spread from his hand into the wall and rapidly extended throughout the surrounding structure.
Anyone who had seen Shirou use Structural Analysis before would immediately notice that the spread was much faster this time.
The main reason was that he wanted to conserve magical energy.
He only analyzed the necessary areas at maximum speed.
The feedback from the current floor and the one above was the strongest.
The floor below them was empty.
However, on the first floor, inside a classroom tucked away in a remote corner, there was considerable activity being relayed back to him.
"Found them. They are on the first floor. Around fifty people."
Once he confirmed the location, Shirou immediately ended the spell.
Practice made perfect.
After using Structural Analysis so many times, he had become quite proficient with it.
Combined with narrowing the scope of what he analyzed, he could now examine most of the school with relatively low energy consumption.
The old Shirou would probably have collapsed from exhaustion after analyzing only three floors.
That did not mean he was in good shape.
In just a few hours, he had already gone through multiple battles and rescue operations.
Fortunately, he was still within his limits.
"...No matter how many times I see it, it is ridiculous."
After watching him work, Frostnova realized her earlier question had been unnecessary.
She had seen this ability several times before while surveying terrain in the Ursus mines.
Its tactical value was extraordinarily high.
Without sending personnel or drones, it could investigate an area and provide remarkably accurate information.
She had originally thought it was a unique ability belonging to that person.
Yet Shirou could use it too?
It seemed the relationship between the two of them was even closer than she had imagined.
Were they trained by the same teacher?
No, no...
Were they actually brothers?
If that man had not explicitly stated that he did not possess a normal human body, Frostnova might even have considered the possibility of them being father and son.
After all, Shirou looked genuinely young.
Meanwhile, Shirou, who was busy planning his next move while nibbling on his ration:
"...?"
Why did Frostnova keep looking at him so strangely?
It was probably his imagination.
Structural Analysis looked rather intimidating, and he had activated it quite quickly.
Maybe she had simply been startled.
Or...
At that thought, Shirou glanced down at the ration in his hand.
Surely not.
He had seen people upstairs making hot soup earlier.
There was no way she was eyeing his emergency ration, right?
In an instant, countless scenes from the television dramas Exusiai and Croissant loved to watch flashed through his mind.
For example, stories where supplies were running low, and the leader refused to eat anything, giving all the food to everyone else.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed entirely possible.
There were still a lot of people upstairs to feed.
The more Shirou considered it, the more his opinion of Frostnova improved.
Without hesitation, he pulled out another unopened ration pack and placed it into her hands.
At the same time, he projected a large coat and draped it over her shoulders.
"Do not go hungry. And make sure to stay warm. Look at you, your whole face is pale from the cold."
Frostnova, who had been busy contemplating the relationship between Shirou and Archer: "...?"
This familiar feeling...
Just as she thought.
The two of them really were alike.
"If there is nothing else, I will get going. Also, you can move the barricades down a floor. The level below is completely empty."
After helping her into the projected coat, Shirou nodded in satisfaction and dusted off his hands.
Then he took several steps backward.
Although the confusion on Frostnova's face had only deepened, Shirou paid it no mind.
He had also noticed something.
The cold radiating from Frostnova was much more intense than he had expected.
For him, it merely felt a little chilly.
Back in the Ursus village, he had already noticed this phenomenon.
At the time, he had simply assumed it was because his body was gradually becoming closer to that of an ordinary magus.
"Ah? Oh... all right."
Still holding the ration pack that had been shoved into her hands and wearing the coat that had suddenly appeared on her shoulders, Frostnova had not even fully processed what had happened.
She could only watch as Shirou waved goodbye, vaulted over the barricade, and headed downstairs.
Only after his figure disappeared from sight did she finally snap back to reality.
Then she turned around—
And discovered that practically everyone in the corridor was staring in her direction.
"Did you not hear him? The floor below is empty! Move the barricades immediately! The Yeti Squadron is coming with me!"
Seeing everyone standing around in a daze, Frostnova quickly put away the items Shirou had given her and began assigning people to relocate the barricades.
At the same time, she ordered her own squad, the Yeti Squadron to prepare to move out with her.
She had fought those people before.
They were not easy opponents.
There was no way she could let Shirou deal with them alone.
Furthermore, judging from what he had said, he intended to leave the school and head back into the Catastrophe once he finished dealing with them.
That gave her even more reason not to leave him on his own.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Shirou had already located the people hiding in the remote corner.
"...There are a lot of Ursus people here."
Moving through the dark corridors, he observed the situation.
The room they occupied was some distance from the main entrance and hidden within a blind spot.
When Shirou had first entered the building, he had rushed straight to the second floor in search of people, so he had completely missed this area.
Without Structural Analysis, finding such an isolated location would likely have taken quite a while.
Maybe all that overtime work with the Guard Department had indirectly trained his magecraft after all.
Leaning against the wall, Shirou began considering how to deal with the group.
From their conversations, it seemed they were still discussing ways to seize the supplies stored on the upper floors.
"Maybe I should just blow them up with one shot."
Listening to them talk made Shirou want to launch a particularly explosive "firework" into the room.
Fortunately, reason quickly prevailed.
If he detonated something here, the resulting breach would allow the storm winds to pour directly into the school.
As the rain continued to intensify, the already cold temperatures of Chernobog were becoming even harsher.
Without adequate winter clothing, the people sheltering above would not need enemies to kill them.
The cold would do the job instead.
"I think I understand why he preferred using guns."
After considering the options, Shirou concluded that in a confined environment like this, dual pistols were simply more practical.
Gripping the black-and-white gunblades in his hands, he took a deep breath.
Then he focused all of his attention.
Every bit of concentration was devoted to listening to the movements of the people inside.
"Haa..."
Exhaling slowly, Shirou raised one of his weapons and fired the first shot toward the room.
The gunshot startled everyone inside.
Almost the instant it rang out, every person instinctively turned toward the source of the sound.
Meanwhile, Shirou remained pressed against the wall.
Two seconds after firing, he activated the magical energy embedded within the round.
It was not an ordinary bullet.
It was a flashbang.