[MF] Ch 9: You’re Beyond Saving

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"Father, it's an honor to meet you. Truly, this is a pleasure."

"But… I'm afraid I have to tell you something that won't make you happy. Because the moment I laid eyes on you, I could see it—you're already beyond saving."

Kaito stood before Kirei Kotomine, keeping himself within two meters while his system card-reader silently ticked upward. His expression was deadly serious, honest to the core. And his opening line? The classic trick of a street fortune-teller warning, 'You're in danger of a bloody disaster.'

Except, thanks to his [Perfect Acting], the nonsense came out sounding disturbingly convincing. Not a trace of fakery to be seen.

Kirei froze. For the first time, his usual calm cracked. A flicker of shock passed across his face.

[Fun Points +10 +10 +10…]

The system log flashed happily. Proof that even Kirei Kotomine had been rattled by Kaito's words.

After a short silence, Kirei steadied himself and asked, "Pardon me… are you perhaps a doctor?"

Kaito shook his head. "No. Not a doctor."

"…"

Kirei fell silent again. Someone who wasn't even a doctor had just told him he was terminally ill. Clearly, this man was a fraud. But why bother lying to him?

He couldn't figure it out. Kirei, at this point in his life, hadn't yet been twisted into a perverse seeker of "pleasure" by a certain tyrant. He was still just a simple, straight-laced man born without emotions. His life had been… well, uncomplicated. He had never once run into someone like Kaito—who opened a conversation with "You're doomed" like some quack fortune-teller on the street.

It was new. Strange. Worth watching for a moment.

When Kirei didn't answer, Kaito pressed on with his act. "Father, I'm not a doctor, but I've specialized in psychology. My research runs deep. With just one look, I can usually tell if a person is struggling with mental or emotional issues."

A bold-faced lie, of course. In the future internet era, people online would have roasted him alive as a poser or a scammer.

But in 1993, with the internet barely starting, "experts" and "masters" still carried weight. And in Japan—land of cults, conmen, and wide-eyed believers—plenty of people ate this stuff up.

And more importantly, this world did have actual supernatural systems. Kirei himself was a practitioner. That made things completely different.

Especially when he couldn't sense a shred of deceit coming from Kaito. Everything about him felt painfully genuine. His instincts screamed that the handsome man before him wasn't lying.

Perfect Acting plus Masked Fool—together, they were terrifying.

It was the same trick Kaito had used to fool Tokiomi Tohsaka into believing in his fake identity.

Comedy-based powers might sound useless, but conceptually? They were broken.

So after a moment, Kirei asked quietly, "Then… you mean to say you've seen something wrong with my mind? Or my spirit?"

Kaito nodded slightly, then gestured toward a nearby bench. "Yes. Why don't we sit and talk? I think this will be a very enjoyable conversation."

Kirei hesitated, then nodded in agreement.

The two of them strolled toward the bench. Kaito walked deliberately slow, like a man taking a leisurely after-dinner walk. And true to his straight-laced nature, Kirei matched his pace.

In other words: drag it out.

If Kaito could keep this going for ten minutes, everything would fall neatly into place.

What should've been a ten-second walk stretched to forty. Finally, they sat side by side.

Through it all, Kirei's expression stayed calm—so calm it could've unnerved a normal man. But Kaito wasn't normal. He kept his "wise fortune-teller" persona steady, staring into Kirei with a gaze that seemed to pierce through flesh to the very soul. He let half a minute of silence drag on before finally speaking.

"As I thought. You have a very clear emotional defect. If I'm not mistaken… you struggle to feel sadness at all, don't you?"

Slowly, word by word, Kaito dropped the line that made Kirei's composure twitch ever so slightly.

Not waiting for a reply, Kaito continued, "Because you can't experience sorrow, your capacity for joy is equally stunted. Even things that would normally make people happy… can barely stir any reaction in you."

"…"

Kirei said nothing. But the system racked up more and more Fun Points, proof enough of the truth.

Kaito was dead on. Kirei really was born unable to feel sorrow—and by extension, unable to feel much of anything else. A man without joy, without grief, without warmth.

His family had always known. His father, Risei Kotomine, treated Kirei's condition as a mark of sainthood. He was so proud of it he nearly shouted, "My son is destined to be a saint!"

His wife, Claudia Hortensia, saw it differently. She understood it for what it was: a flaw. She pitied him deeply. So deeply, in fact, that she once tried to "save" him through her own suicide.

Yeah… Kaito couldn't wrap his head around that one. Suicide as a form of salvation? The only conclusion: anyone who could marry Kirei Kotomine wasn't exactly normal themselves.

And Risei? Also a piece of work. Calling congenital sociopathy a saintly trait—only a religious fanatic could reach that level of delusion.

...

After a while, Kirei's emotions settled again. For someone with no emotions to begin with, it was impossible to keep him stirred up for long.

He looked steadily at Kaito and spoke in a low, serious tone. "Then, sir… could you explain my condition to me in more detail? I'd like to… understand it better."

Kaito smiled warmly, full of composure and false empathy. "Of course. I'd be delighted to engage in an… academically valuable discussion with you."

And thus began their little one-sided "pleasant" exchange.

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