Ai Haibara: Illya, Did You Go on Vacation to Africa? / Are Kids This Age All So Ridiculously Overpowered Now?

Ilyasviel triggered a check-in event: cooperate with Miyu to defeat the Heroic Spirit incarnated from the Rider Class Card.

Check-in time limit: 20 minutes

Check-in reward: one random item, skill, Noble Phantasm, or other reward from the Rider Class Card Heroic Spirit.

Seeing that "random" condition, Illya could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.

She recalled the time she had been dominated by the reward of "grow 1 cm."

This time, it would not be some improper reward again, would it? Like directly gaining the other party's height.

If that really happened, she would probably be able to cosplay Mother Irisviel...

"Rapid Fire!"

A barrage of Magic Bullets enveloped Rider, blasting the ground and kicking up clouds of dust.

The next moment, Rider burst out of the dust, her nameless daggers aimed at Miyu.

Seeing this, Illya hurriedly swung Ruby in her hand, firing one red Magic Bullet after another.

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!"

The barrage stopped Rider in her tracks, preventing her from advancing toward Miyu.

Miyu let out a slight sigh of relief. If Rider had rushed in just now, she really might not have been able to stop her.

Although she still felt somewhat uncomfortable around Illya, she had to admit that Illya's support was incredibly useful.

Rider stopped attacking, giving Miyu a chance to catch her breath.

Now! Miyu's expression sharpened as she immediately took out the Class Card Lancer and pressed it against Sapphire.

"Class Card Lancer, Limited Install!"

A crystalline sapphire-like light burst forth, and the Class Card Lancer seemed to melt into Sapphire.

The next moment, Sapphire slowly transformed into a scarlet spear covered in what looked like intertwining thorns.

This was the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit manifested from the Class Card Lancer—Gae Bolg, a spear capable of piercing the heart without fail. A one-hit kill: that was the trait of this Noble Phantasm.

Miyu had not found an opportunity to use it before. Even if it could kill in one blow, she still needed time to activate it, right? Its attack range was also a problem. Rider was simply too fast; rushing in recklessly would be no different from courting death.

By herself, she had no way to restrict Rider's movements while simultaneously deploying the Class Card and releasing its Noble Phantasm.

But now, with Illya's support, Miyu had finally found an opportunity for a killing blow!

As Rider temporarily stopped to defend against Illya's attacks, her vision obscured by the swirling dust, Miyu rushed forward and released the demonic spear within the Class Card Lancer without hesitation.

"Pierce—"

However, before Miyu could finish, just as immense magical energy ignited at the tip of the scarlet spear, that energy abruptly died down as though its flame had been extinguished.

Miyu's body suddenly stiffened, her feet slipping as her upper body pitched forward.

Then her expression went blank, and she fell to her knees and collapsed face-down on the ground.

Chu Chen frowned slightly, instantly realizing that Rider was behind it...

Rider—Medusa—possessed high-ranking Mystic Eyes of Petrification. Even with Sapphire's powerful innate Magic Resistance, it was perfectly normal for Miyu to fall victim to Mystic Eyes of that level.

"Miyu!" Illya was immediately shocked, her face filled with concern.

"No, that girl did something!" Even Tohsaka Rin noticed that something was wrong.

The airborne dust slowly dispersed, revealing Rider once more. Only then did Chu Chen and the others notice that the blindfold over Rider's eyes had somehow come undone, exposing her strange blood-red eyes with square pupils. Powerful magical energy churned within them. Without a doubt, they were—

"Mystic Eyes!" Luvia cried out in alarm.

"Miyu! Fire!"

Even Chu Chen was somewhat surprised that Illya was the first to step forward at a time like this.

The tip of Ruby instantly gathered an enormous amount of magical energy, and a brilliant, dazzling crimson beam erupted forth.

It practically grazed Miyu's body as the enormous magical beam swallowed half of Rider's body.

The tremendous impact carried by the beam also blasted Rider away.

Feeling the pressure on her body suddenly vanish, Miyu breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, magical energy rapidly ignited at the tip of the scarlet spear, gathering in vast quantities.

Meanwhile, Miyu dashed toward the airborne Rider at a speed no normal person should have possessed.

"Gae Bolg!"

Miyu released the true name of the demonic spear in her hand, thrusting it straight at Rider like a scarlet aurora.

Sensing danger, Rider tried to evade the attack. Yet the scarlet spear suddenly changed direction as though it had locked onto its target, still heading straight for Rider's heart. That was Gae Bolg.

A one-hit kill. The moment it was thrust, the result of the spear piercing the heart had already been fixed. No matter how the enemy dodged, the concept of an unavoidable hit had been woven into the spear itself and could not be altered.

Unless the opponent possessed an ability like Instinct, allowing them to shift the attacker's aim before the result took shape.

A Noble Phantasm that reversed cause and effect. Though it was only Anti-Unit rank, it was still an extremely rare type.

Once the heart was pierced, even a Heroic Spirit could not survive without some special innate skill. Rider, moreover, possessed neither such a skill nor a life-saving Noble Phantasm.

Thus, Rider's figure soon began to turn transparent. What emerged afterward was a Class Card marked with the word Rider. Miyu slowly reached out and caught the Class Card before her.

"Phew... Thank goodness! At least Miyu wasn't hurt..."

Illya immediately breathed a sigh of relief, a smile of joy spreading across her face.

Miyu turned around, her gaze fixed on Illya as faint ripples stirred in her eyes.

"Miyu... Just now, Lady Illya..."

Although Sapphire had not spent much time with Miyu, the two of them had unexpectedly gotten along well.

Sapphire could even more or less guess what Miyu was thinking now.

"Mm... I know..." A faint blush appeared on Miyu's cheeks.

She could also guess what Sapphire wanted to say.

"Miyu... Are you hurt? You were okay just now, right...?"

Chu Chen and Luvia hurried forward in concern. As he approached, however, Chu Chen gave Luvia a rather surprised look. It was only natural for him to be concerned, whether because of his duties as Miyu's guardian or his relationship with her. But Luvia coming over to check on Miyu truly surprised him.

With his intervention, Luvia and Miyu's relationship should not have been as close as it was in the original story.

When he saw the concern in Luvia's eyes, Chu Chen was genuinely a little surprised.

But he soon put it out of his mind. Luvia would never harm Miyu, so why think so much about it?

"I'm fine..." As she said this, Miyu slowly walked over to Illya.

"Um... about earlier... Thank you, Ilyasviel... Hm?"

After awkwardly thanking her, Miyu noticed that Illya seemed somewhat distracted.

But Miyu quickly understood after hearing the voice from the System Network.

Ilyasviel completed the check-in and obtained Rider—Medusa's Luck E.

Illya: "...If I remember the Administrator's explanation correctly, E-rank is the lowest, right...?"

Busujima Saeko: "...That's right..."

Yukino Yukinoshita: "Hiss~~ Illya's blood has been stained black by the legendary Blood of the Unlucky..."

Haibara Ai: "Illya, did you go on vacation in Africa recently? First, your height increased by 1 cm, and now it's Blood of the Unlucky... This is really..."

Illya: "o(╥﹏╥)o!!!"

The poor Illya was completely crushed inside!

"Miyu, are you okay... Did my attack hurt you just now...?"

On the way back, Illya had more or less recovered from the earlier blow.

Now, Illya was more concerned about whether Miyu had been hurt. Her blast had practically grazed Miyu's body, which meant her own attack might have injured Miyu. Illya was very worried about that.

Of course, she was even happier that she could now take her relationship with Miyu a step further.

Miyu also realized something: many problems could not be solved through her efforts alone.

For example, if not for Illya, she would have been seriously injured by Rider earlier.

Illya was still holding both of Miyu's hands, her face full of worry, while Miyu felt slightly uncomfortable.

She could not help it. She simply could not get used to such excessive enthusiasm.

"I'm fine... Ilyasviel... Illya..." Remembering that Illya had told her to just call her by name, Miyu silently corrected herself halfway through.

She was still not used to calling Illya by her name directly, but... Miyu would try...

Miyu really was trying to treat Illya as a friend now... And Miyu had also realized that she could not collect all these Class Cards by herself.

"Phew... It's good that you're okay! You really scared me to death..." Illya immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"You did very well this time, Illya... You saved Miyu, after all. Compared to me, her guardian, you were much more amazing! To unleash such tremendous power at a time like that..."

Illya was clearly lacking in confidence right now, and what Chu Chen needed to do was help her build some.

Illya and Miyu could basically handle these early enemies. The ones Chu Chen would likely need to help with were Saber and Berserker later on. With the magical energy and swordsmanship he had gotten for free from Illya and Busujima Saeko, dealing with Saber would not be a problem. Berserker would be more troublesome, but both Illya and Miyu had Magical Girl Transformation Cards. Perhaps they could defeat Berserker without Chu Chen needing to step in... Besides, Chu Chen himself also had a Magical Girl Transformation Card...

Tohsaka Rin, standing nearby, nodded emphatically, the satisfaction and pride on her face plain to see.

"That's right, Illya... You did wonderfully this time! As long as you keep fighting like you did today, fully recovering those Class Cards will be no problem at all!"

Illya scratched her head with a silly grin. She did not think she was as amazing as Tohsaka Rin made her out to be...

And she was only so powerful because the system had given her cheats! So Illya did not think she was all that impressive... If she truly were that amazing, she would have rushed to the front like Miyu long ago.

Illya knew very well that she still lacked Miyu's courage in battle.

"Still, Ilyasviel, the magical energy within you truly is abnormally strong... That attack just now was clearly not something an ordinary child could have unleashed. Although the Kaleidoscope Staff can provide nearly limitless magical energy, its output cap is determined by the wielder's own condition. The fact that you, Ilyasviel, could unleash a magical blast like that proves that the magical energy inside you is astonishingly high... No normal human should possess that much!"

Luvia could not help carefully examining Illya as she clicked her tongue in amazement.

Her amazement was not without reason. She and Tohsaka Rin considered themselves outstanding young magi, yet they now sorrowfully discovered that they seemingly could not even compare to a child like Illya...

Even if she compared herself while wielding the Kaleidoscope Staff to Illya, she probably would not measure up...

"Are children this age all such monsters now?" Luvia could not help looking at Miyu again.

Although Miyu was not as outrageous as Illya, the speed she displayed when she approached Rider was also something Luvia could not match... Luvia now seriously suspected that she had fallen behind the times.

Feeling Luvia's gaze, Miyu could not help shrinking her shoulders. How should she put it? Luvia's stare was a little too intense.

"Alright, Tohsaka, I'll leave Illya to you. I'll take Miyu and head off first... Bye..."

Tohsaka Rin merely watched Chu Chen leave with Miyu, then tilted her head toward Luvia's ear.

"Hey, hey, Luvia, is that guy really okay? I know he's that child's guardian, but he's still an unfamiliar magus. Is it really okay for that child to keep the Lancer and Rider cards?"

It was not that Tohsaka Rin was overthinking things. As a magus sent by the Clock Tower to carry out this mission, she needed to remain vigilant.

"At least until all the Class Cards are recovered, he will not make a move against them... So there is no need to worry for now. Besides, we basically know nothing about him at the moment, so all we can do is keep watching..."

Luvia could at least be certain of that. And she could tell that Chu Chen genuinely cared about Miyu.

So, at the very least, for that child's sake, he should not casually make a move against the Class Cards.

"What are you two talking about... Rin, Luvia...?"

Illya looked curiously at the two women with their heads together and could not help asking.

"My, my, anyone can tell at a glance that these two are plotting something... Otherwise, with their personalities, why would they be standing so close together?" Ruby tilted herself, her tone filled with teasing.

"Hehehe... That's true..." Illya recalled the relationship between the two and could not help grinning foolishly.

"Cough, cough... Anyway, keep an eye on that guy. Being careful never hurts! Of course, I also hope that guy is not a magus planning to seize the Class Cards..."

Tohsaka Rin was simply maintaining basic vigilance. She did not want things to go in that direction.

After all, if Chu Chen really intended to seize the Class Cards, it would clearly create a rift between him and Illya. It might even cause problems in Chu Chen's relationship with Miyu.

Tohsaka Rin was not blind. She could naturally tell that Illya respected Chu Chen as her teacher, while Miyu was satisfied with—and fond of—Chu Chen as her guardian...