The Second Reborn

Matou Sakura had not fallen to darkness. Upon hearing Caren's account, she instead gently comforted her, even though she herself was still quite young.

Seeing the two girls getting along properly, Mo Li breathed a sigh of relief. At least it was good that Matou Sakura had not fallen to darkness, right?

Einzbern did not welcome him over at the moment, and Tian Nü Ba had assigned him a mission as well. There was nothing more to say—he would get straight to work.

Mo Li had plenty of dirt on Japan, especially after taking over all of the Matou Family's connections and resources and receiving help from the Tohsaka Estate. There was even more he could do now.

Thus, over the following days, the two little girls noticed that the time Mo Li could spend taking care of them seemed to have decreased drastically. He appeared to be constantly busy with all sorts of matters.

This only made them depend on Mo Li even more. During the little time they had together, they practically clung to him. Mo Li did not particularly mind; he simply treated them as daughters.

Mo Li and the two girls also visited the Tohsaka Estate from time to time. After all, there was still Tohsaka Rin to teach.

System devouring complete. Destiny Shop repaired by 10%.

Mo Li frowned. "Hm? Devouring another system directly repairs the shop? But why is it so little?"

The other system lacked sufficient resources.

"Fine." Mo Li could only sigh helplessly.

Another half year passed, and the time came to 1994, shortly before the Holy Grail War was due to begin.

Watching the surveillance footage on his computer, Mo Li smiled. "Ryunosuke Uryuu, you finally entered Fuyuki City? Don't tell me you're a reincarnator too."

After shutting down the computer, Mo Li went to the living room and smilingly rubbed the heads of the two girls playing games. "Big brother is going out for a while. You've learned all the magecraft of the Matou and Tohsaka families, and until you grow up, there's nothing much left for me to teach you. Your martial arts foundations have already been laid too, so just keep practicing slowly. I'll take you to the Tohsaka Estate now, and then you'll go to Zenjo City with Tohsaka Rin for a while."

He drove the two girls to the Tohsaka Estate, where he happened to see Tohsaka Rin dragging a red suitcase that looked rather heavy.

"Hello, Rin. Looks like you're having a little trouble there." Mo Li smiled as he took her suitcase.

Seeing that Mo Li had arrived, Tohsaka Rin blushed and lowered her head to look at the suitcase. "I-I don't need your help! I can carry it myself!"

"Alright, alright. I'll give it back after I carry it to the car for you."

"Hmph~" Tohsaka Rin looked at the two little girls who had followed him inside. "Sakura, Caren!"

"Rin!" x2

The three little girls gathered together and began chatting noisily. Mo Li smiled, turned around, and carried the suitcase outside, with the three girls following after him.

Mo Li set Tohsaka Rin's luggage beside the Tohsaka family car, alongside the other two girls' suitcases. At that moment, Kirei Kotomine happened to arrive at the Tohsaka Estate as well.

Kirei Kotomine glanced at the three suitcases. "Are they leaving already?"

Mo Li replied, "Yes. It's best for them to leave now. Fuyuki City isn't safe."

Looking at the two adults talking, Tohsaka Rin gathered her courage and said, "Big Brother Mo Li, and Kirei! You'll make sure my father is alright, won't you?"

Mo Li smiled. "Don't worry. I'll definitely do my best to protect your father."

After all, Tokiomi Tohsaka had an extremely broad network of connections that could provide Mo Li with enormous assistance.

Kirei Kotomine smiled faintly as well. "I cannot guarantee that. If this war were simple enough for me to make such a promise, there would be no need for you and your mother to take refuge. Still, with Mo Li's help, I do not think it will be too difficult."

Tohsaka Rin was not very satisfied with Kirei Kotomine's answer, but with Mo Li present, she did not voice any objection. "Hmph~"

Tohsaka Aoi came out at this moment and gently said to the two men, "Mr. Kotomine, Mr. Mo Li, I'll leave my husband in your care. Please help him fulfill his long-cherished wish."

Mo Li said, "Ha, leave it to us. Though I don't think his long-cherished wish can succeed."

Kirei Kotomine said, "Please rest assured. I will do my utmost."

Tohsaka Aoi froze briefly at Mo Li's answer, unable to understand why he believed it could not succeed. She said apologetically, "In any case, I'll trouble you both. As long as my husband survives, that will be enough."

After some further conversation, Mo Li watched Tohsaka Aoi drive away with the children.

"What is it? You're worried about them?" Kirei Kotomine asked from beside him.

Mo Li did not deny it. "A little. I placed a barrier on the car, and the children each have portable barrier tools I gave them, but these are troubled times, after all."

Kirei Kotomine asked curiously, "Troubled times? I heard that recently, aside from Fuyuki City, Tokyo and Osaka have also fallen under your effective control. Even local governments elsewhere in Japan have to obey your orders. There should be no one in all of Japan who would dare offend you, right? Come to think of it, I am rather curious how you managed to control such a vast area. Japan is a tangled web, and it is rather strange that those local governments would obey your commands. Even if you were a high-ranking official with real power, it should not have been so easy."

Mo Li wore a mocking expression. "I cannot guarantee that no one will take desperate risks. As for why the local governments elsewhere in Japan obediently follow my orders, it's because I have their lifelines in my grasp. I uncovered things like their secretly operating nuclear power plants that failed to meet safety standards. They really don't dare say anything careless now. All they want is to coast through their terms peacefully and retire. Japan may look modernized and unified, but in reality, they pay lip service while resisting in private. They have carved up their territories long ago, each ruling their own domain. They're nothing more than a loose pile of sand, and I can handle them however I please."

Entering the game under Matou Zouken's identity, combined with the Matou and Tohsaka families' network of connections and piles of dirt from the future, made arranging the current situation far from difficult.

After hearing Mo Li's answer, Kirei Kotomine said, "Fragmentation? There is indeed no helping that. Perhaps it is a problem left behind since ancient times. Let us go see Tokiomi."

"Mm."

The two knocked on Tokiomi Tohsaka's door.

"Excuse us." Kirei Kotomine pushed open the door and entered.

Tokiomi Tohsaka turned around and looked at the two men entering. "You came at just the right time. The relic I have been preparing for finally arrived this morning."

Tokiomi Tohsaka lowered his gaze to the fossilized snakeskin in the box on the table. "Look."

Kirei Kotomine asked, "What is this?"

Tokiomi Tohsaka said joyfully, "This is a fossil formed from the shed skin of the first snake in the world to molt, from the distant primordial age. If we can successfully summon that Heroic Spirit using this as a catalyst, then our victory will be assured."

As if deliberately ruining the mood, Mo Li suddenly said, "Don't celebrate too soon. Something went wrong with the Holy Grail War. Angra Mainyu was summoned during the Third Holy Grail War, and the All the World's Evil he left behind contaminated the Grail. Even if you win in the end, your wish will inevitably be twisted, and it will be granted in an extremely malicious manner. For example, if you wished to become the tallest person in the world, the Grail would kill everyone taller than you. That is how the Grail grants wishes now."

"What?!" Tokiomi Tohsaka could no longer maintain his composure. Shocked and enraged, he grabbed Mo Li by the shoulders. "Are you certain?!"

Kirei Kotomine was equally astonished. "The Holy Grail has already been corrupted?"

Mo Li looked somewhat helpless as well. "I'm certain of it. Through the magical tomes of the Tohsaka Estate and the Matou Family, I inspected the Holy Grail system. But what I found was this disastrous—the war is destined to have no outcome this time. Our battle may have to focus on cleansing the Holy Grail."

"How could this be..." Tokiomi Tohsaka seemed to lose all his strength as he sat down on the sofa. He recalled the records of the previous Holy Grail Wars and realized that Angra Mainyu had indeed been summoned—and the legends surrounding Angra Mainyu...

Mo Li said, "Tokiomi, I need your help. Send a letter to the Einzbern Family with me. Tell them to bring all magical tomes related to the Holy Grail when they come here. We need to conduct a major overhaul of the Holy Grail system."

Tokiomi Tohsaka clutched his head in anguish. "The long-cherished wish of all these years... I understand. I'll help you."

"Hm?" Mo Li suddenly froze, then vanished without warning. Before disappearing, he left behind one sentence: "There really is someone reckless enough to attack them."

Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine were both stunned as they watched Mo Li disappear.

At an intersection outside the city, the car driven by Tohsaka Aoi had stopped by the corner. The group of four, still shaken, stared at the seemingly empty road ahead that should have been completely clear. They had just crashed through a barrier.

A man emerged from the bushes by the roadside.

"Huh?" Seeing that the car had merely been forced to a stop, Ryunosuke Uryuu immediately grew troubled. "What the hell? I lay in wait for so long, so why did this car have a barrier on it? Not even a tire came off. And the barrier I worked so hard to set up was broken too. Though I hadn't set it very strong to begin with—just enough to make them lose the strength to resist. I should've learned more magic from Gil back then."

The second reincarnator, Ryunosuke Uryuu, had only discovered before his death that what he had been pursuing had always been within him. Regretting that the pleasure he had experienced was not enough, he had now been reborn before the Holy Grail War. In his eyes, it was as though God was watching over him.

He intended to kidnap Tohsaka Aoi and her daughters to threaten Tokiomi Tohsaka, forcing him to deal with the other Masters after the Holy Grail War began, while he reaped the benefits. That was the plan he had devised.

Ryunosuke Uryuu pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Tohsaka Aoi behind the window. "Hey, want to gamble on whether I planted landmines up ahead? This handgun might not break the barrier on this car, but can you stop landmines?"

"Landmines?" Tohsaka Aoi's previously furious expression instantly changed. She looked ahead in utter terror. If they couldn't go forward, then they could only reverse, couldn't they?

She had no idea when this car had gained a barrier, but they could only gamble on backing up. This was a bulletproof car, after all!