I Have Special Mana-Replenishing Skills

In the time between midnight and dawn, while most people are resting to relieve the fatigue of a day's work or study, recuperating for a brand new tomorrow, there are still those who work hard while others sleep. Thus, they gain what others lose. It's only fair, isn't it? The law of exchange, where there's gain and loss, is fair to everyone.

However, sometimes fate brings surprises to a bland life. As the saying goes, if you don't court death, you won't die. Since you're doing business in Dongguan, you should be prepared for inspections—cough, cough, what I mean is, since you're engaged in special night shift work, you must be prepared for betrayal.

And this guy trembling next to the trash can in the corner seems to lack the aforementioned mental fortitude, but that's understandable. He was just an ordinary thief, honest and diligent, who only stole and never harmed anyone. He never acted ruthlessly, taking only a little from each household, preferring to visit more houses each night rather than cause some families to go hungry the next day. In this era, that's truly commendable.

But what's the use of all that? The dark shadow slowly approaching him, the guy who has been toying with and chasing him like a cat playing with a mouse for over two hours, certainly won't let him off the hook because of his usual behavior.

Now he has nowhere to go—actually, even if he did, he's too exhausted. He can only pray that everything tonight is just a nightmare, that he'll wake up the next second, immediately find a proper job, and never go out after ten o'clock again.

Unfortunately, he did not wake up as he wished. The figure lifted him up with one hand—this is definitely not human strength, it must be a monster! The other hand touched the terrifying mask—underneath must be the face of a demon! Is it going to eat me?

The mask was lifted...

"Ah, hahahahaha, ah hahahaha! It really was a dream, a nightmare and a wet dream. When I wake up, I'm going to find a proper job. What should I look for? It definitely can't be one where I get home too late. Seven o'clock, no, six o'clock, that's still too late. Five o'clock would be perfect. I don't even care about the salary..."

"Is this guy crazy?"

Jizi looked at her last prey of the night with a confused expression. Ever since she removed her mask, this guy had suddenly gone from being too scared to speak to muttering incessantly, like Fan Jin who had passed the imperial examination.

"Whatever, it has nothing to do with me anyway." Shrugging, Jizi placed the mask back onto the still-muttering guy's face.

"Ahhhhhh!!!"

As soon as the mask touched his face, it stuck like it was magnetic. Then, black and red patterns quickly spread from his head to his entire body, emitting an ominous glow. The initial painful screams soon stopped.

"What an unpleasant scream, like a pig being slaughtered. It's not like I'm taking your life, just absorbing some stamina," Jizi said, seeing that it was about time. She then removed the mask and threw the fainted thief into the nearby trash pile.

"My mana is almost full. Time to go back and sleep!"

After leaving the church, Jizi began her voluntary activities to maintain order in Fuyuki City at night. So, those thieves had terrible luck tonight. Although there were no real losses in the end, Jizi merely used them to restore her mana. At most, they would suffer from continuous muscle soreness and fatigue for several days, making them unable to work. However, the psychological impact was hard to say. Due to her personal preference, Jizi had specifically imitated Batman's style of operation, appearing and disappearing mysteriously, dragging them into the darkness one by one, and using the night to create a terrifying atmosphere. In short, after this night, the night-time public order in Fuyuki City was inexplicably good for a long time. It even left behind strange urban legends among the pickpockets...

But none of this had anything to do with Jizi. Back at the hotel, she quickly entered dreamland after switching to her "human" form. She didn't get out of bed until the afternoon of the next day, when the sun was already leaning towards the west.

[Jizi: Did I forget something? Oh well, if I forgot it so easily, it must not be important. Let it go.]

--- The Forgotten Ones ---

How long has it been? Risei Kotomine began to ponder. It had been many, many years since he last lost control of his emotions. Yet, within the first twenty-four hours of this meticulously planned Holy Grail War, his inner turmoil had been stirred up at least three times, affecting his usually stable heart.

Preparing the items requested by the mysterious Caster overnight and sending people to deliver them to designated strange locations—so strange that one could doubt whether the other party truly had the intention to trade (which was the truth, as such things didn't actually exist). The bottom of the tower crane at Fuyuki Port, the piers of Fuyuki Bridge, every guest room in the Hyatt Hotel—would anyone actually collect them from these places? Moreover, the first and last locations specifically requested the placement of large quantities of gunpowder. What was the point of that?

Indeed, the old priest, who personally participated in surveillance due to his unease, stared at one "transaction point" for over ten hours despite his fatigue. The conclusion he reached was—he seemed to have been tricked. The other party had no intention of picking up the goods at all. The other transaction points were the same. They didn't even react when the materials were retrieved as a test. Therefore, other than the other party wanting to mess with him, no other explanation could be made.

[Jizi: Foolish human, if you knew what would happen later at the place where the gunpowder was placed, you would understand my good intentions. As for the ones on the bridge piers, I did intend to pick them up, but who told me to oversleep?]

"Damn Caster's master, I pray that you die honorably in the Holy Grail War, otherwise..."

On the streets of Fuyuki City, with her hair and eyes disguised to resemble the unique black of Asians, and her clothing changed to casual wear, Jizi looked like an ordinary young woman. Furthermore, in her human form, she didn't emit any unusual aura, making her perfectly suited for a certain task—tailing!

"Women really do love to shop. Do even artificial humans retain this trait? But from a scientific perspective, it seems that women shopping is controlled by genes. Then how come Irisviel, whose genetic map is unknown, is like this! I guess in worlds with higher mystery, science often meets a tragic end, right?"

From the target of her complaints, it could be seen that after waking up, Jizi's tailing target was the popular idol of the Type-Moon series, the main star, and one of the three great "public buses" of fan fiction—Ms. Artoria Pendragon, and the model of wifely virtues, Mrs. Irisviel Einzbern, who achieved the great feat of NTR-ing her own husband. Today, as the debut day of their new combination, they hadn't actively attacked other combinations, nor had they returned to the Einzbern mansion to rest, but instead... they had been shopping for most of the day! And they were really just window shopping, not entering any stores at all, at most looking in display windows before continuing. This made Jizi, who temporarily only had average human physical fitness, extremely frustrated—at least go into a store, haggle, buy something, try on clothes, give me a break, aren't you tired!

As for why Jizi wasn't discovered, it's because Saber's class is not known for its scouting abilities. Even if her perception was excellent, discovering an anomaly in a place full of people as just an "abnormal person" would be too difficult, right? Moreover, Jizi herself didn't show any hostility. She just wanted to see her favorite characters up close. Even if she stared at the yuri couple the whole time, she would probably be classified as just another bystander in the crowd marveling at the two.

As night deepened, only a few pedestrians walked slowly on the quiet road. The yuri couple was about to reach the seaside park and confess their love by the sea, unleashing their dazzling affection. However, at this moment, the surrounding area, which should have been extremely tranquil, was filled with melodious music:

"Open your heart, shed the shyness of spring. Let your dance steps soar, breaking the silence of winter... Come, come, let's meet in '98... Meet under the silvery moonlight, meet in warm affection..."

"Hearts meet, hearts connect, meeting year after year, whether near or far." (1)

"..."

Startled by the sudden sound, Saber instinctively shielded Irisviel. She saw that it was just someone with messy long hair, dressed like a street singer, playing a guitar. She breathed a sigh of relief, but she still watched vigilantly the "singer" who had approached so closely without her perceiving him at all.

However, Irisviel, lacking common sense, had no such awareness. Like Columbus discovering a new continent, she walked over to the "singer" (Jizi, of course), listened to "Meet in '98" with great interest, and applauded enthusiastically.

You ask why they understood Chinese? Servants were instilled with corresponding knowledge upon being summoned to the present world. Multilingualism was just a bonus. Artificial humans were similar (let's assume so).

You also ask why Jizi, who used the Noble Phantasm "New Yorker's Tears," was not detected by Saber? Who said she used a Noble Phantasm? It was just a random guitar. As for the sound, hehe, Jizi quietly pushed a small recorder behind her with her foot. People in the 1990s were relatively simple; double-lip-syncing was not easily detected.

"Thank you very much, beautiful ladies. May your beauty last forever like this eternal night sky." Jizi bowed exaggeratedly and said to Irisviel in a poetic tone, then extended a worn hat containing a few coins towards Saber, who had rushed over.

"Ah?" Saber didn't quite understand the situation.

"As a gentleman accompanying such a beautiful lady, don't you have any matching generosity? Or do you think the art appreciated by this lady is worthless?" You're pretending to be a man, you're a girl, so you should have the awareness of a girl. Hurry up and change into that white wedding dress (2) to please me, otherwise, I'll make things difficult for you—Jizi's inner thoughts.

"No... this..." Even if Saber lacked understanding of human nature, if she still didn't understand now, it wouldn't be an issue of emotional intelligence but of IQ. However, she wasn't a rich person like Gilgamesh with his Golden Rule, so...

Irisviel noticed Saber's embarrassment and put a stack of bills into Jizi's hat. [Jizi: Holy crap! These green bills have Franklin printed on them! The numbers are one and two zeros! There are at least ten of them! Do you know how extravagant you are? Even if you sold actual cut cakes, you couldn't spend this much!] Just as she was about to say something, Jizi cut her off: "Praise your generosity, your heart is equally beautiful. Even the pearls born from the sea behind me are not as good as one ten-thousandth of yours. However, the flower protector you chose is truly... a pretty boy with no substance. To make a lady spend money, tsk tsk..."

"You..."

"Even a street performer like me, impoverished as I am, knows that as a man, one must be self-reliant, earn (make) their own money, and make a living with their own skills. Although life is hard, it is dignified. I didn't expect someone like you, who looks like they have status and position, to be... Well, I've said enough. Goodbye."

After indirectly mocking Saber as a kept man, Jizi packed up her things as quickly as possible and left the scene like a gust of wind. Saber, who wanted to retort but didn't know what to say, looked aggrieved. Just as she was about to express something to Irisviel, who was comforting her, a strong fighting spirit made her cast aside this small unpleasantness.

The declaration of war by a man with some skills kicked off the prelude to the famous Battle of the Docks in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Notes: (1) Bilibili AV number 753269. Although many people know it, I'll mention it anyway. (2) The dress Saber wore when imprisoned by Medea in the FSN UBW movie.