[22] End of Failure Magus

Failure—

Garfield watched as Kazuya picked up the handgun. His head was spinning, and then he passed out...

Indeed, he should have used the handgun first. Ordinary people couldn't dodge bullets, but...

It was a matter of his pride as a magus...

His magical abilities were lacking, so he thought of using this method to enhance the power of his magecraft...

Inside the magical device he had created, there was indeed gasoline, but there was no ignition device. The ignition relied on his magical power...

This way, he could use a small amount of magical power each time to unleash powerful magecraft... and the flames contained magecraft power, making it a decent attack for some subpar magus. However, he didn't expect this person to be so agile, despite his large size.

He had failed... in the end, he had failed...

How embarrassing.

After Kazuya picked up the handgun and checked the bullets, he fired a shot at the ceiling. In the room filled with children's cries, he warned those who were staring blankly or seemed bewildered, "Don't make any sudden moves!"

Before long, the police arrived.

The chaos in this place came to an end, and those people never showed any intention of resisting or escaping until the very end. They stood there like fools, which puzzled Kazuya and his sister...

Were all criminals like this in the end? Or was it because their faith had disappeared?

"Maybe this can be depicted in a manga? No, wait, readers probably wouldn't believe that criminals would end up like this," Kazuya contemplated, now that things had calmed down.

"Onii-chan."

"How are you, Kazumi?"

"I'm fine."

Looking at his sister, Kazuya nodded in satisfaction. She didn't cry or make a scene... that was good.

"By the way, how did they get inside?" Kazuya wondered.

"It seems like they just opened the door... Maybe they had a key?"

"Well... we should pay attention to that, but for now, this matter has come to a close. Alright, let's go. Our journey has just begun, right? Or are you scared and want to go back?"

"Let's continue!" Kazumi replied without hesitation, her eyes even shining with excitement.

"Haha, as expected, your courage is as great as ever."

...

"That person... did he succeed?" Emiya Kiritsugu, who was about to leave London to return to Einzbern, smiled slightly as he looked at the newspaper.

He hadn't fired a shot back then...

There were two reasons: one, it was a busy area, and two, it was London.

If it had been just a busy area, it wouldn't have been a problem. He could have used magecraft to cover it up. However, it was still London... if he had acted, it might have been discovered that a "mage killer" had been in London. That would have been detrimental to his information gathering.

But... in the future, he probably wouldn't have a chance to meet him again...

Emiya Kiritsugu casually put down the newspaper and turned his mind to how to win the Holy Grail War.

Suddenly—

His gaze landed on a shop nearby.

"Before going back... let's bring a gift for Illya."

...

"By the way, have you heard that they're changing the protagonist of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' on your side?"

Takashi Motoki, an editor from another department within JUMP's editorial team, suddenly turned to Yu Iwamoto, who was reviewing manuscripts.

"Yeah, that's right. After this part ends, they'll be changing the protagonist. Jonathan Joestar will meet his end."

"Really?" Luckily, he hadn't taken a sip of water, or Motoki feared he might have spat it out.

"Well... yes," Yu Iwamoto replied after thinking for a moment. "Since this part is coming to an end, there's no need to keep it a secret anymore. However, it's only within the editorial department. Don't spread the word outside."

"Sure, I understand. Now, tell me, how does Jonathan die?" Motoki quickly asked, as he was a big fan of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure." Especially recently, with the change in art style and all the action surrounding the villain Dio, as well as the earlier uproar over Zeppeli's death.

This middle-aged man, who knew he was going to die but charged forward without hesitation, finally revealed his charm at the very end, entrusting everything to JoJo and dying heroically. In that moment, Motoki felt the difference in this manga, the praise for humanity, and was drawn in as a fan of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure."

"Could it be that Dio kills him?" Motoki couldn't wait to learn more about the upcoming plot. He greatly envied Yu Iwamoto for being the editor for Kurokawa-sensei.

It was all because of this manga that Yu Iwamoto was likely to rise up the ranks, and what's more, he could read the original drafts of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" firsthand. What a wonderful feeling!

Why did he choose to become an editor? Wasn't it all because of his love for manga?

"Well... do you really want to know?" Yu Iwamoto sighed. "Spoilers... you know, right? You won't hit me later, will you?"

"Haha, impossible. You're... never mind." Motoki thought for a moment and then said, "I'll see for myself later. It wouldn't be right to know everything in advance."

"Hello, this is the Young JUMP Editorial Department. Huh? Kurokawa-sensei? Ah... so the school's spring break is ending, huh... Yes, I understand. If I have nothing to do tonight, I'll bring it over to you, Neko. Yes, yes, no problem. After all, I'm just an editor who can't help with anything, so this is the least I can do... Yes, I understand."

"Kurokawa-sensei's call?" Motoki asked Yu Iwamoto as he hung up the phone.

"Yeah, that's right. He went abroad for a trip a while back and left his cat with me to take care of. I'll bring it back to him in a bit."

"He's incredible..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Even though he's in the middle of serialization, he can still go on a month-long vacation and not miss any updates... that's impressive."

"Yeah... Ah, yes," Yu Iwamoto chuckled. He couldn't say that he had already drawn several years' worth of material in advance, was slowly preparing for new manga projects, and had even started serializing them in other magazines.

"Anyway, I'll finish up this manuscript I have here, and then I'll go return the cat."

For him, the most important thing now was to handle the matters related to Kurokawa-sensei. It was a ladder that would allow him to keep rising.

---

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