Epilogue II - Kiritsugu Emiya

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Kiritsugu watched silently as Lockhart's unconscious form dropped to the ground. Waiting a moment, he released a variety of stunning and sleeping spells at the prone man before lowering his wand.

At that point was he reasonably sure the man was unconscious and wouldn't be getting back up for a few days, minimum. Possibly overkill, considering that the man hadn't even tried to defend himself against the first spell. However, paranoia was a wizard's best friend when going against other wizards. There were few limits to magic, so it was generally better to cover as many bases as you could think of before claiming anything close to certainty.

Another swish of his wand and Lockhart's body straightened out from the heap it had fallen into. A flick of the wand rolled him onto his back. A more complicated set of motions followed, and by the end of it, Lockhart had been stripped to his skivvies and his clothes and belongings had been neatly stacked off to the side.

Now somewhat more certain that Lockhart wasn't faking it, Kiritsugu allowed himself to approach the fallen man and examine him.

At a brief glance, everything seemed to line up. The hair matched, the teeth matched, the burn scars from cursed fire matched what he had submitted to the Daily Prophet.

Letting out a sigh, Kiritsugu got down to work on what was the most tedious part of being a bounty hunter in the Magical World: making sure you had actually caught the right person.

Most of his targets over the years had been Dark Wizards or Witches of the worst kind. The kind of people who tended to have some gimmick that let them survive or escape from all sorts of circumstances. After all, there were a number of ways to preserve one's life or safety in the face of otherwise overwhelming circumstances. Jubstacheit's semi-phylactery situation being one, but there were plenty of other, less appetizing methods.

Of course, even if you were hard to kill, that didn't necessarily make you hard to capture. Therefore, the best way to avoid being taken by some bounty hunter was to simply not be there to take. In addition, it was easier, cheaper, and generally less painful to simply spell up a body-double than it was to achieve an actual semblance of immortality.

More than one wannabe Dark Lord had managed to gain a reputation as being unkillable or uncatchable simply by effective use of body-doubles or timely escapes rather than any sort of Dark ritual.

Lockhart hadn't shown any history of dealing with spells that might extend or protect his life. In fact, profiling indicated that he probably thought that, if he was careful, death wasn't something that could happen to him at all. Which had made stunning him rather easy, once he'd been tracked down.

That didn't mean he hadn't used a body double though.

The first step was rather simple. Kiritsugu spent several minutes casting a rather exhaustive list of spells for negating all kinds of disguises, including Transfigurations, active spells, and some kinds of plastic surgery.

When nothing came of that, he moved on.

He reached into his coat and extracted a small bottle of clear liquid. This specific concoction was a potion that negated most transformative potions. It wouldn't work against Polyjuice Potions, unfortunately, but anything else was fair game.

It was also fairly expensive, since some rather rare ingredients need to be put into it for it to be effective against the array of effects Kiritsugu needed it for.

His current relationship with the Einzberns meant that he didn't actually have to be stingy anymore. However, a drop of it could still be used to temporarily revert a small section of transformation and that was usually enough for what he needed to do.

He knelt down next to Lockhart's head, and with one hand, forced one of the unconscious man's eyes open. With his other hand, he uncapped the bottle and used an eyedropper to retrieve a single drop of the contents.

Keeping careful watch over the color and pattern of Lockhart's iris, he applied the drop to Lockhart's eye.

A minute passed and nothing changed. Nodding to himself, Kiritsugu released Lockhart's eyelid, letting it close.

All that remained now were the stronger variety of transformatives, all of which required him to wait out their effects. Usually something like that was made to last for a certain period of time hours, but there were also effects that lasted until the stroke of midnight or the first blush of dawn. The most used of this type was the Polyjuice Potion. A perfectly made dose of that would keep someone transformed for twelve hours.

Since it was already after noon, that meant that waiting for the Polyjuice to wear off would also cover any effects that ran until the stroke of midnight.

Most bounty hunters would have to set up camp and wait for a night to make sure they'd bagged the right target, but Kiritsugu was uniquely qualified to deal with this specific issue.

Reaching into his coat again, he drew out a golden pocket-watch with an elaborate emblem engraved on the front. Six elaborate clock hands with empty, diamond shaped tips, all pointed inward, where they met and created a star shape. The line-work was all done in a bold black that stood out against the gold case of the watch. It was the emblem the Emiya clan used to denote any of their tools that messed with time.

You wouldn't think that tools that manipulated the fabric of reality in such a crazy way would need to be individually marked. Certainly, such dangerous things would be kept under lock and key, at the minimum.

Unfortunately, his family's reputation for producing obsessively single-minded people was well earned, and no-one with the Emiya name could be trusted to properly consider other people while they were engrossed in their work. If their project was working, then they couldn't be bothered to take their eyes off of it to inform other people of how dangerous it could be. And if it wasn't working, their effort could be better spent on new projects rather than labelling or disposing of the failure.

It was only after some… incidents with rather important guests that they came up with the idea of stamping an emblem on anything time related and putting up signs around the main house, telling people not to touch anything with the mark on it.

This particular piece wasn't all that dangerous, and had a very contained field of effect, which is why he was even allowed to take it out of the Emiya family home.

Pressing the catch on the watch, the cover sprang open to reveal a clock face. It displayed the correct time for his location in France, though it had no second hand, and a small inset face showed the day-night cycle.

Pressing the catch again caused the clock face to open up, revealing a small, empty space where the mechanics of the clock should have been.

With a swish of his wand, Kiritsugu cut a small chunk of hair from Lockhart's head and floated half of it into the clock's hidden compartment. The rest of it was left out for later comparison. Another press on the catch snapped the clock face back into position. Finally, he pulled the crown of the clock out slightly and watched as the minute hand began to jump forward, clicking ahead every five seconds, rather than every sixty.

He closed the cover and placed the watch back in his pocket. In one hour, real time, the time inside the watch will have moved forward by twelve hours. That would be enough time for any Polyjuice effect on the hair to wear off, allowing him to compare it against the other clippings he prepared. It would also make the local time inside the clock move past midnight, dealing with any spells that were set to end then as well.

With that set up, he sat down on a nearby fallen tree and began to page through the notebook that had been in Lockhart's belongings. The first few sections were incredibly detailed plans for his comeback to the UK, including potential times and dates of press conferences, which periodicals to invite, which journalist of each of those to request, and even lists of who he could bribe to get the best results of each event. It was astonishingly thorough. Then again, there were also periodic reminders to himself to "be meticulous so that the Hogwarts situation doesn't happen again."

After skimming through the notebook, he finally reached a section about more pertinent plans. The part he had reached covered the events in a small village in eastern France, where a hag had been taking children.

The notebook detailed Lockhart's activities in that village, who he met, what disguise he used, and how he had manipulated the bounty and publicity around defeating the hag.

It was a strategy that Kiritsugu was vaguely familiar with from his days as a bounty hunter and mercenary. Artificially propping up the bounty could give it some momentum that would cause it to accumulate even more value. Raising awareness of the bounty could also boost the value, as people completely unrelated would toss money at it out of sympathy.

Neither strategy was unheard of, but they were rather hard to actually pull off.

Propping up a bounty required that you had money beforehand. You were also increasing the bounty, which would draw in other hunters who could snag the bounty before you, walking off with a good chunk of your money.

Spreading awareness to increase the bounty required that you had connections with people who could do that. In this case, Lockhart had enough connections with the journalism industry in France to do a decent job of manipulating the stories he wanted to share. Once again though, spreading awareness and increasing the bounty only made it more likely that another hunter would come around and snag the bounty out from under you.

Lockhart had done it twice already in France. Similar things had happened in Britain as well, though people had come to the conclusion that the increased awareness of the problem had led Lockhart to resolve the issues. Instead, it seemed that the opposite had happened and Lockhart had artificially raised awareness about issues he was about to solve, probably to milk them for more fame. Either way, it was a pattern that Kiritsugu could track and take advantage of.

That had been the reason that Kiritsugu had loudly announced his intentions when he arrived in town. Lockhart had put a decent amount of work and money into raising up Pox as a villain for him to take down. He figured that the threat of someone else snatching the glory was likely to draw him out.

And draw him out it did, though it took much longer than Kiritsugu had expected. Long enough that he'd decided to take Pox out of the picture while waiting for his real prey to arrive. Long enough that he'd actually started to walk back towards town to see if something was delaying his target.

Kiritsugu continued to page through the notebook until, finally, he reached the portion that detailed the actual fight with the hag.

He began to scan over the notes on the fight, only to come to a sudden stop before even finishing the first paragraph. He went back and read it again, this time with all of his attention. After finishing the first paragraph, he stopped and looked up at the unconscious form of Lockhart, sprawled on the ground.

Clicking his tongue, Kiritsugu continued to read Lockhart's notes on someone else's battle with the hag. Reaching the end, there was even a note with the name of the person who Lockhart had stolen the credit from, as well as details of what kind of false memory he had implanted in the man's mind.

"Hermione did mention that he was going to 'make them forget about the incident'," Kiritsugu murmured to himself.

He glanced at Lockhart's body again before going back to the notebook. The next section began detailing Lockhart's endeavors in a similar village in northern France. Kiritsugu skipped past the logistics sections and began reading about the battle in that village. The monster at the time was an ogre, and once again, Lockhart's notes described someone else's battle, capped at the end with the fate of the poor man whom Lockhart had stolen the credit from.

The next pages described the village they were currently in, with the exception of a page that was just full of terrible one-liners. Kiritsugu scanned through the rest before closing the book.

He leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand as he glared at Lockhart's unconscious form. Inconsistencies and incorrect information in Lockhart's books, which he had originally written off as embellishments for the sake of narrative were suddenly cast in a much more sinister light.

"I thought he was surprisingly amiable to me, despite the fact that I'd just snatched the bounty out from under him." He tapped his finger against his chin. "So he was planning to get the story from me, Obliviate me, and take the credit anyway." He tapped his chin a few more times and hummed. "I didn't feel bad about taking him down, but now the situation just seems downright humorous."

They'd both walked right into traps set for each other. Kiritsugu had just happened to spring his first.

He sat and continued to read through the notebook, taking note of the names that Lockhart mentioned as being his allies or easily bribable. He didn't have any specific uses in mind for the information, but he still needed to wait for the hour to pass so he could check the hair sample.

Kiritsugu suspected that the hair wouldn't have changed. The Lockhart in front of him was most likely the real deal.

In fact, what the notebook had revealed had caused Kiritsugu's evaluation of Lockhart to change drastically. He'd originally pegged him as someone who was clever and capable. He couldn't teach worth a damn, but that didn't necessarily indicate anything. Snape was arguably a worse teacher, with far more injuries happening during his class, but he was at least known to be capable of brewing potions. Now though, Lockhart was probably far less capable in combat than Kiritsugu had first expected, but he was also far more cunning than his persona had let on.

This was a man who had stolen people's achievements, published it to the world, and gotten away with it for almost a decade.

After the hour passed, Kiritsugu snapped open his pocket watch to reveal that the hair inside hadn't changed. He glanced back at the comatose body of Lockhart, then down to the notebook in his lap.

His lips twitched up into a small, sarcastic smirk. "This has promise."

-o-o-o-o-

As Kiritsugu walked away from the freshly cleared scene, he reached into his coat and pulled out a silver cigarette case. Idly, he tapped the case against his wrist a few times as he made his way a few yards deeper into the forest.

When he felt that he was far enough away, he stopped walking and transferred the cigarette case to his left hand so that he could pull out his wand and cast a few spells to ensure privacy.

He was out in the woods, in the boonies of France, and he was almost certain that no one would be nearby to overhear him, but you could never be too careful.

His paranoia slightly sated, he finally opened the cigarette case and pulled out a fresh cigarette. Nothing fancy, just a Japanese brand that he'd learned to like as a teenager and liked now for the nostalgia almost as much as the nicotine.

Lighting up, he took a long, deep breath and savored the familiar flavor before exhaling a large cloud of smoke.

Smoking had become a distant pleasure for him, ever since marrying Irisviel.

At first, he had been surprised and displeased to learn that he wasn't allowed to smoke in Einzbern Castle. But, nothing could have convinced him like Jubstacheit coming up to him and saying, "This castle is the house of my soul. You aren't allowed to smoke inside of my soul."

He'd had to leave the castle to smoke after that, a prospect which was less than inviting during the raging blizzards they tended to have there during the winter.

Later, well, not that much later, when Irisviel had become pregnant, the restrictions had become even more rigid. Einzbern women had a history of difficult pregnancies, so Kiritsugu wasn't even allowed to smell like smoke while in Irisviel's presence. Not like he would have traded anything for his wife's health, but it did make him aware of the calming effect that cigarettes could have, and how much he could miss that effect when he had to go cold turkey.

He had especially missed that calming effect when his wife went into labor and he had nothing to do but pace restlessly in front of the delivery room.

Then Illya had been born.

By then, he was well aware of the chances his daughter had of surviving to the age of four.

They were low.

No one had needed to mention anything to him, though some did anyway. He restricted himself even more from that point on. Whenever his daughter was within sight, he didn't even allow himself to think about cigarettes.

He'd lessened the restrictions on himself as time went on, but he'd never released them completely. Now, he'd occasionally have a smoke while putting up with the weather around Einzbern Castle. However, most of his smoking happened while he was away from the castle, particularly when he was on missions.

The cigarette case in his hand was probably a significant source of that pattern as well, considering it was a magical artifact he had put together before he'd tried kicking the habit.

Opening the case again, he ran his thumb over the back of the cover and hummed a few bars of the Suzume Odori.

Reacting to his touch and the password, the smear of oils from his thumb began to spread until they covered the inside cover of the cigarette case. A few more notes, poorly hummed by him, caused the smear to become black.

A few seconds later, a 'click' sounded from the blackness as vibrant lights and colors swirled around the inside cover, until it all somewhat settled into the image of a black-haired woman of uncertain ethnicity, showing that the connection had gone through.

"Maiya." Kiritsugu's voice was calm and professional as he addressed the woman who had been his aide for most of her life.

"Kiritsugu." The woman's response was cold and flat, as usual.

"How are you liking England?" Putting up a pretense of something resembling a standard conversation, Kiritsugu asked one of their pre-established questions.

She replied correctly, then asked a question of her own. They went back and forth a few times like that, asking seemingly benign questions with set responses to prove that they were who they looked like.

When the identification process was done, Kiritsugu immediately got down to business. "Do we have any strong connections in the French Ministry?"

He was decently aware of the more mercenary connections he could make use of, but the Einzberns and some of his suppliers had numerous far reaching connections that would have been impossible to commit to memory. He could have carried a list with him, but doing that while on a mission was bad practice.

Maiya pulled out a little black book and asked it about French connections. The book quickly opened itself to a certain page and Maiya took a moment to look it over.

"Natalia has a connection to a Monsieur Delacour, who has some clout in the Ministry," she said as she checked the next few pages of the book. "That's the strongest connection I can find right away. The Einzberns aren't well liked in France, due to their dislike of Flamel, who is a public icon there. By extension, you don't have many connections outside of the French underworld."

Kiritsugu took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled a large plume of smoke as he considered his options. "Reach out to Monsieur Delacour," he said, finally. "See if he is willing to meet with me. Coordinate with Irisviel as well, we'll need an in with the English papers for what I have in mind."

"What did you have in mind?" Maiya asked.

"I've discovered something interesting from a notebook Lockhart had on his person." Kiritsugu then went on to explain the information and conclusions he had elicited from Lockhart's own notes.

When he was done, his cigarette had burnt almost all the way down, so he stubbed it out in his portable ashtray and tossed the remains in as well.

"If we use this information to start a fire over here," Kiritsugu continued. "And play the media right in Britain, we might be able to use it to burn Dumbledore." He smiled at Maiya's skeptical expression. "He's normally unassailable." He was willing to admit that about Dumbledore. The man sat on top of a tall pillar of public respect. "But, he was temporarily fired this year for neglect, and last year, one of the professors was 'fired' for trying to steal from the school under his nose. This year, he hired a fraud who attacked the Girl-Who-Lived." Kiritsugu was silent for a moment before he carried on. "It won't do much to him, I'm sure," he admitted. "But considering that he destroyed the Stone, I'm willing to go out of my way to tarnish his reputation, if I can."

"Understood." Maiya nodded, her face remaining stoic. "It might take some time to arrange a meeting with Monsieur Delacour. Shall I arrange for lodgings for you in Paris?"

"No." Kiritsugu smiled slightly. "Can you look into other bounties I might find in France?" His smile turned a bit sinister "I'd like to make a show of my presence in the country. If Flamel still has the ability to be anxious, I figure I might be able to shave off a few of his remaining years by letting him know that I'm close by."

"Understood." The briefest hints of a sadistic smile touched the edges of Maiya's lips for a moment before her cold demeanor recovered. "I will see to the arrangements."

"You have my gratitude." Kiritsugu nodded once before snapping the cigarette case closed, ending the communique.

He waved his wand to remove the spells that ensured his privacy and cast his gaze about to make sure everything was as expected.

Seeing nothing amiss, he calmly walked towards the village he had left only an hour ago. On the way, he passed through the area where he had captured and examined Lockhart. Of course, he had fixed the scene so that no one would be able to tell that anything had happened in that specific section of the forest.

He didn't appear to be carrying any bodies with him, but with magic, that didn't mean much at all.