Chapter 52: Rin's Adventure

My name is Lin Hao.
I am touring the new stronghold.

110:34:11
In the afternoon, the crowd at Fuyuki Station, which should have thinned out, was noticeably denser than usual.

Essentially, this situation was thanks to a certain leaked photograph. Most tourists were drawn by curiosity to explore the mysterious "near-Earth aurora"—as the official designation dubbed it, a natural phenomenon. However, the people rushing to Fuyuki at this moment clearly did not believe that explanation at all.

"L-Little Rin, maybe we should go back..."
"You've repeated that phrase five times along the way. Not happening."
"Ugh..."

Near the station exit, a pair of adorable little sisters were holding hands as they walked outside. A twin-tailed girl in a red dress was forcefully pulling another short-haired girl wearing a pink light jacket and a white skirt. Although the latter looked somewhat troubled, her opposition was not particularly resolute.

"Listen well, Sakura." After moving away from the crowd at the station, Tohsaka Rin finally released her grip and said to her younger sister, "You saw how worried Mother was about Father."

Earlier, when the two sisters went to look for Tohsaka Aoi, they happened to overhear her and their uncle discussing the ongoing Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, alongside her thinly veiled anxiety over Tohsaka Tokiomi—at least, her worry was enough that she had no idea the girls were eavesdropping.

"Um..." Tohsaka Sakura nodded, but this wasn't really a valid excuse to run off on their own—

"So, we're going to bring something back that will set Mother's mind at ease!" Rin interrupted Sakura just as she was formulating how to express her thoughts. "Ta-da!"

The twin-tailed little girl produced a ruby the size of her fist from her pocket. It was a standard tetrahedron, refracting a faint multicolored light under the sunlight.

It was a disposable mystic product, formally known as a Recording Jewel. Originally, it could only store a fixed image, but after modifications, a continuous video-recording function was added. It could be replayed at any time after recording, though it could not be recorded over again. The modifier was none other than her father, Tohsaka Tokiomi, and he had intentions of further upgrading it to allow rewritable recording.

"Then, what are you going to film with it, Rin?" Sakura tilted her head in confusion. "Father?"

"Father, Father's Servant, and the sight of them defeating their enemies~" Rin nodded as she said, "We'll sneakily record it, and then we'll take the train back. We can hand it to Mother right before bedtime. That way, once she knows how amazing Father is, she won't worry anymore."

"Ah, wait, don't walk so fast..." Although she felt something was amiss, Sakura couldn't figure out the reason in time, and was already being dragged along by her action-oriented older sister.

109:21:19
Matou Kariya was considering for the third time whether he should simply reveal himself and take the two lost brats back to Tohsaka Tokiomi.

When he first spotted them, little Rin was openly holding that obviously very expensive ruby and talking to Sakura. He had been forced to follow closely behind to shoo away ill-intentioned onlookers.

That was why the magecraft lineage of the Tohsaka family was truly problematic. The spellcasting materials chose luxury items like gemstones. He had heard Aoi mention that just the gemstones wasted due to failure while teaching the daughters magecraft amounted to a considerable sum. The ultimate result was that the two daughters had zero concept of the fact that "gemstones are extremely valuable," causing them to stroll around flaunting them so casually.

Then there was Tokiomi himself. That old fossil had zero intention of integrating into modern society. Even with convenient technological products available, he insisted on using magecraft methods to achieve his goals—though the folks at the Clock Tower were much the same. A gemstone spell with functions identical to a camera and a video recorder had somehow actually managed to get a patent approved.

A father holding such views would naturally raise daughters with the same mindset. Right now, the two of them knew the results of technological products without understanding the principles behind them. Because the broadcasting system of the train they took had malfunctioned, they had gotten lost in the city where they grew up, making Kariya—who had been trailing them in secret—want to let out a loud sigh.

Finally, there was the present situation. Rin, having finally realized she was lost, decided to use a "Mana Compass" to find her way home. She had probably used it that way before. After all, the Tohsaka residence sat upon Fuyuki's largest spiritual vein, making it a prominent landmark, so doing so made sense. But this was during the Holy Grail War; the spiritual vein might have already been thrown into chaos by the various participating factions. Furthermore, rather than a spiritual vein, that gadget was much more likely to point toward the nearest Servant and Master.

Fortunately, the two sisters were currently near the commercial district in New Fuyuki. Even if they had the misfortune of running into a Master and Servant on the spot, the other party probably wouldn't be able to make a direct move. Besides, an outsider mage shouldn't possibly recognize Tokiomi's two daughters.

Moreover, the fact that Rin and Sakura had been discovered near the station proved that Tohsaka Tokiomi had already sent his wife and daughters to the neighboring city before the war began, and these two restless little girls had obviously seen that photograph and ran back on their own.

Since Aoi was completely safe, it wouldn't hurt to look after these two handfuls for a while.

"Yo! Kariya, when did you get back? Why didn't you give a heads-up?"

As Kariya watched Rin head for the seventh time in the opposite direction of the Tohsaka residence, a hand clapped onto his shoulder while a familiar voice sounded from behind.

Matou Kariya turned around, and standing there indeed was Uryu Ryunosuke. As he exchanged pleasantries and chatted with him, he finally set aside the worry that "my own strength is lacking and I might fail to protect Rin and Sakura if we encounter a formidable enemy." After all, since Ryunosuke was Tokiomi's disciple, his appearance here must be at Tokiomi's behest to look after the two daughters.

"Ryunosuke! Weren't you participating in... How do you have time to come out?"

"Ahem, it seems you noticed that photo too. Oh right, speaking of which, this is right up your alley."

"What's the specific situation? Why does it feel like this commotion is a bit too big?"

"Well... actually, all sorts of problems came up."

Through the corner of his eye, Kariya noticed a girl dressed in black, seemingly completely melting into the shadows, following the two young misses of the Tohsaka family amidst a drift of black smoke. Moreover, Ryunosuke, who was witnessing the exact same scene, showed no sign of surprise whatsoever, which put Kariya even more at ease.

"By the way, Kariya, judging from the mana fluctuations, it looks like you used some pretty crude suggestion and repulsion magecraft."

"Hah? Even a half-baked guy like you is starting to mock my crude skills?"

"I used outsider-repulsion magecraft just now too. You didn't notice at all, did you?"

Kariya blinked, then carefully perceived his surroundings, realizing there indeed were faint mana fluctuations. Furthermore, although the two of them were standing at a tram stop, all the ordinary people were standing far enough away that they couldn't possibly hear what they were saying.

"Well, it seems you've made a lot of progress over the years."

"If you'd just inherited the Matou family—hey, don't glare at me. Your old man abandoned the estate and vanished, did you know?"

"He actually gave up on the Holy Grail War?"

"And your brother Karnya liquidated the regular assets in the house and left too. The only things left behind there are the magecraft-related inheritance."

"I don't even want those things—"

"After all, they're things passed down from your Matou ancestors. Can you bear to watch the Mage Association take them away for nothing? Or rather, even if you discard the parts you refuse to accept, isn't the remaining valuable portion more than ten percent?"

Matou Kariya fell silent. Although he had run away from home out of disgust for Zouken's worm sorcery, he wasn't completely ignorant of what those things were. Before that immortality-seeking ancestor warped them beyond recognition, it was actually a normal magecraft system akin to spirit channeling. Naturally, only a lunatic would think of using it to replace their own body to achieve immortality.

"I'll consider—"

"Hey, there's no time like the present, let's go resolve it today. Save you from hesitating and forgetting again."

Kariya's shoulder sank, and he couldn't help but wryly smile as he looked at Uryu Ryunosuke, who had hooked his arm around his neck. Oh well, this was fine too. He only hoped that Ryunosuke wouldn't be terrified by that warehouse full of bugs when the time came.

109:07:13
Tohsaka Rin actually hadn't wanted to bring this younger sister along.

She always spoke in a tiny voice, dragged her feet when walking, and would occasionally get startled by inexplicable small animals. She constantly disagreed with her adventurous plans, yet insisted on tagging along when the time came to execute them. Her only redeeming quality was that she didn't cry easily; otherwise, she would never have brought her along this time.

"Rin, if we cross the bridge, we're going the wrong way..."

Standing in front of the map-inscribed notice board at the left end of the Fuyuki Great Bridge, Rin searched painstakingly for their family estate for a long time before finally concluding, "Let's cross the bridge first and figure it out," only to be immediately shot down by her sister.

"There aren't as many tall buildings around our house as there are on the other side of the bridge."

Aah! If family teachings hadn't required her to maintain elegance at all times, she definitely would have started tugging fiercely at her hair. If she couldn't film the cool poses of her father and the Servant fighting, she wouldn't be able to make it back to her grandmother's house in time. If she returned too late, she would definitely be found out, and then her mother would tattle to her father, making a harsh scolding inevitable.

Thump—

A pillar of light suddenly soared into the air by the riverside in the distance. Although it lasted for only a very short time, it looked remarkably like the "near-Earth aurora" Rin had previously seen on TV and in photographs. Moreover, the pocket-watch-shaped "Mana Compass" in her hand instantly pointed its tip directly toward it.

"Rin, is that Father..."
"No!"

In that instant, Tohsaka Rin displayed the sharpness of a mage's daughter. Even if mages were indeed engaging in combat over there, the probability of her father being involved was extremely low. If she rushed over blindly, she ran a high risk of getting caught in the crossfire or being recognized and used as a hostage. Therefore, rather than approaching, she had to get away—

Just as she was about to call out to her sister to hurry away, Rin spotted a large crowd of tourists rushing over under the excited delusion that they had discovered the "near-Earth aurora." They had completely blocked the path of retreat, and the only way to escape in the opposite direction was to swim upstream against the current.

"Sakura! Keep close to me!" Rin grabbed her companion's small hand in a single motion and led her against the human tide.

Amidst the clamor, she seemed to hear a startled cry from her sister, but there was no need to worry. There might seem to be a lot of these people, but there were still gaps to slip through before they fully converged.