It Is Said That People Who Like Lolis Are Not Bad People

To ensure Rin could keep up and wouldn't make any mistakes, Jizi hoisted her onto her shoulders. While Jizi wasn't as burly as Heracles, she was just about big enough to accommodate a loli, provided Rin held on tight. Even if Jizi performed some difficult maneuvers, Rin wouldn't fall off.

Tracking Ryunosuke Uryu wasn't a difficult task, as the guy wasn't making any effort to conceal himself. It wasn't that he was careless, but rather, thanks to the trinkets Caster had given him, his recent actions had been going so smoothly that he had inevitably become lax in his vigilance.

"He seems to be gathering children into that building," Rin judged after observing for a while, having formed a general understanding of Ryunosuke's behavior patterns.

"Mhm," Jizi's attention wasn't on Ryunosuke; she was warily watching out for Caster, whose location was unknown.

"Shall we go inside and take a look?" Rin voiced her opinion again.

"Mhm," Jizi maintained her seemingly absentminded attitude.

"Assa-shin is a big idiot!" Ignored twice, Rin grew a bit annoyed.

"Mhm... Wait!" Jizi finally snapped back to attention. "You little brat, are you looking for a beating?"

"You're the one who's been spacing out!"

"I'm keeping watch on our surroundings. You're too young to notice!"

"I can't just let that slide! You have to take it back!"

"Sure, as long as you provide sufficient evidence."

"Ummm... What kind of evidence do you want?"

"For example, why don't you go into that building yourself and rescue your friend? How about that?"

"Ah!?"

"As expected, you still can't do it."

"Who says I can't! I'll show you! I don't need your help!"

"Alright, then hurry up and go in. Oh, and if you get scared, you can shout. I'll come save you."

"Who needs saving!"

Watching Tohsaka Rin being goaded into action by her words, Jizi quickly summoned her twin blades and took a defensive stance, facing the surroundings. At the same time, indescribable monsters emerged from the shadows.

Ryunosuke wasn't in the building at the moment, so Rin wouldn't be in any danger going inside. On the other hand, if she stayed by Jizi's side, she might witness scenes detrimental to a young girl's healthy development, and Jizi wouldn't be able to go all out while protecting her.

"Now then, let's see how much power you monsters have."

Freed from her concerns, Jizi charged towards the demonic creatures, wielding her twin blades.

...Meanwhile...

Gently pushing the door, which wasn't locked, Rin carefully squeezed through after opening it a crack.

The interior of the building appeared to be a normal bar. It should have been open at this hour, but Fuyuki City's recent curfew had forced such entertainment venues to close early. The bar, having lost a significant amount of business, looked rather desolate.

The room was dark. Not knowing where the light switch was, Rin had no choice but to tread carefully, testing her way forward like a foal crossing a river. As she approached a table—

"Ah!"

Something touched her ankle. The sensation felt like a human hand!

Her legs turned to jelly from the sudden fright, Rin fell backward onto the ground. The jewels in her pocket tumbled out with her.

"So scary, so scary, so scary!"

Really, I shouldn't have argued with Assa-shin just now. If she had come with me, I wouldn't be this scared. No, no! Rin, you are the heir of the Tohsaka Family! How can you have such thoughts! You must perfectly and elegantly rescue Kotone and make Assa-shin admit defeat!

The power of her (prideful) self-esteem once again gave Rin courage. Trembling, she stood up and picked up the jewels from the ground. Huh? These jewels are actually glowing. Did they have this function before?

"Could it be from that time?" Rin suddenly remembered Jizi modifying the jewel fragments earlier.

Feeling someone's care from the soft light, Rin became less afraid. She used the jewels' illumination to search for what had startled her.

"I made such a big opening just now, yet I wasn't attacked. That means what I touched was just a dead object."

Calming down, Rin's intelligence instantly returned. Concluding there was no danger, she felt relieved. She walked back to where her foot had been touched, and then—

"Ah!"

Under the glow of the jewels was a human face, or rather, a loli's face with a distorted expression, unconscious. Rin had touched this loli's hand, and this loli herself was—

"Kotone! Kotone, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

—Tohsaka Rin's main objective for this trip, her friend Kotone, but her condition seemed a bit strange.

In her haste, Rin turned her head and looked around, searching for some water or anything else. What she saw was that in this bar, children were lying slumped everywhere—on the floor, on tables, on the counter—there were twenty to thirty of them.

"How could this be..." Rin was horrified by the scene before her. "I need to call the police. What's the number for 119?" (①)

Her hand trembled as she took out her phone from her pocket, but she couldn't bring herself to dial the simple three digits. After finally inputting the number, just as she was about to press the green call button, an unfamiliar hand reached over from above her and snatched the phone away.

"Well, well, little lady," the red-haired young man Rin had been following was now standing behind her, speaking to her with a twisted smile. "Did you hear we were having a party here and come specifically for it?"

Who would want to attend your party! But how did he get in? Assa-shin should be at the main entrance. Could this bar have a back door?

"This is great. I was worried because we didn't have enough people," Ryunosuke extended his hand, which was adorned with a magic bangle, towards Rin, intending to control her consciousness.

However, having observed Ryunosuke for a long time, Rin already knew the secret of the bangle on his hand. Without any hesitation, as Ryunosuke reached out, Rin hurled one of the three jewels she was clutching at him. The jewel, imbued with magic, detonated violently during its flight. Ryunosuke was hit directly by the blast. While it wasn't fatal, he was severely injured, especially his eyes, which were blinded by the intense light emitted before the jewel's explosion, causing temporary blindness.

Seizing this opportunity, Rin gripped Ryunosuke's bangle with both hands and injected a large amount of her magic into it. The small magic tool, not designed for such a feat, could not withstand the immense magical power and was forcibly blown apart.

With the destruction of the bangle, the abducted children gradually began to regain their senses. Rin quickly used the retrieved phone to call the police. Then, to avoid further trouble, she left the bar before the police arrived and hid in a nearby alley to observe secretly.

Rin let out a sigh of relief as she watched the police rescue the children. However, she didn't see the red-haired person among them. Did he escape in the end? Still, saving Kotone was enough. Now Caster had nothing to say, right? Haha...

Wait, speaking of which, where is Caster? Just now, why did she let that guy into the house? It put me in so much danger, I have to extort her properly with this...

Lost in thought, Rin didn't notice the pointer on her neck spinning violently—something was approaching her!

"Screech!"

The ground in front of Rin was broken through from bottom to top, and a tentacle stretched out! The tentacle first stuck to the walls on both sides with its suction cups, then pulled hard, bringing up something even larger.

It was a creature resembling an octopus—or rather, could it even be called a creature? Both its form and aura proclaimed that it was not of this world.

Only a demon would have such a form.

There's no escape, I have no chance against that thing! Rin watched as the tentacle reached for her, fear paralyzing her. But a voice suddenly echoed in her mind—

"...If you're scared, you can yell. I'll go back and save you."

So Rin poured all her strength into a scream.

"Caster!!!"

Then—

"Coming!"

Dual blades flashing with blue and white light sliced the monster to pieces. A masked figure appeared behind the dismembered demon. To Rin, their posture was so cool, so reassuring.

"Idiot! Where were you just now!"

"Sorry, sorry, I had something to take care of."

--- Previous ---

After all, it was in the city, so even the mad Caster had some restraint. The Sea Demons appearing here were far inferior in both number and quality to those that attacked Castle Einzbern.

Even so, Jizi had to work hard to clear them out. Then she saw Ryunosuke return. Out of a desire to let Rin undergo her trial and a bit of personal mischief (just a little bit, really~), Jizi didn't stop Ryunosuke. After he went inside, she closely monitored the situation from outside, ready to rush in if Rin was in danger.

She didn't expect Rin to do so well on her own. As expected of someone evaluated by Mushroom as "truly powerful in Fate." Even as a little girl, she was still very strong.

But at this moment, she suddenly felt a powerful surge of magic—it was Caster's aura, which Jizi was very familiar with after tracking them many times.

The direction the magic was coming from wasn't far. Strangely, the fluctuation was growing stronger, like an overinflated balloon—could the enraged Ryunosuke have instigated Caster to pull off a big stunt? If it exploded here, an entire street could be blown away. So Jizi couldn't bother with Rin anymore and rushed over at maximum speed.

However, when she reached the center of the magic convergence, she found nothing—a feint!

Fortunately, her Class was Assassin, known for its mobility. Jizi managed to rescue Rin just before she was in danger.

But this was only the beginning. Because of her actions, she had exposed herself to Caster. Caster, who harbored resentment towards her for being tricked, and Ryunosuke, who was full of resentment towards Rin for ruining his plans. Would they let them off easily?

Dozens of tentacles that burst from the hole in the ground answered that question clearly.

"Oh my, Rin-chan, it looks like we're in trouble."

--- Notes ---

① 110 and 119 are indeed emergency numbers in Japan, but unlike in China, 110 is for police emergencies, like robbery or kidnapping. 119 is used not only for fires but also for emergency assistance and medical aid. This information comes from Baidu, and if it's inaccurate, well, you won't be using it anyway, so don't worry about it. (If you really do need to use it, you'll definitely know better than I do, so there's no need to worry.)

--- PS ---

Ps1. Jizi doesn't directly kill Ryunosuke because if Ryunosuke dies, Caster would theoretically disappear soon after. However, as anyone who has read the original work and related materials knows, this "soon" is actually quite long, enough for the mad Caster to do some crazy things, like summoning a Sea Demon in the city center, or perhaps, having lost their Master, Caster might start eating people to replenish their magic and maintain their existence.

Ps2. I didn't quite capture what I wanted to express in this chapter... a pity. But compared to the beginning, I think I've grown, right?

Ps3. Speaking of which, I don't know if it's related, but after I shouted on the Qidian forum, "I'm so annoyed by the WeChat platform ads forcefully inserted in the recent chapters, get rid of them quickly," I first tried to log into the author's zone and it showed "You are not the author." Refreshing and logging in again didn't help. Then it directly said "Password and account do not match." Seriously, Tencent? And because the phone number I bound is the one I use back home and not the one I use here at school, resetting the password was a huge hassle.