Busujima Saeko: "Rin, calm yourself. Panic and fear solve nothingworse, they will cloud your judgment."
Busujima Saeko: "First, do not confront your father head-on right now."
Fubuki: "@Tohsaka Rin she's right. Your top priority is absolute composure."
Fubuki: "From what you described, your father is utterly resolute on this. A direct clash gives you no chance of winning and only puts you at a disadvantage."
More members popped up, and the chat flooded with concern.
Yuzuriha Inori: "Sakura is she going to be sent away? Sadness I can't reach her with this feeling"
Aihara Enju: "I hate this helpless feeling the most!"
Aihara Enju: "Knowing something bad is coming and being unable to stop it!"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "How could this happen Rin, you must be hurting. Is there anything we can do?"
Akiyama Mio: "E-Eh?! S-send her away? How can they?!"
Yukinoshita Yukino: "Though it's hard to accept emotionally, from Rin's account this appears to be a cold tradition among magus families in that world."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "From a maximization-of-interests standpoint, her father may genuinely believe this is the 'right choice,' however cruel the method."
The kouhai's cool analysis laid bare the logicyet a chill leaked between the lines. She didn't like that kind of "right."
Tohru: "Hmph! What garbage 'tradition'!"
Tohru: "Let's just smash the world barrier, go there, and burn that Matou place to ash!"
Tohru: "Or pound that stubborn dad into the ground!"
That was the dragons' simple, brute approach: if something's displeasing, either beat it up or erase it in a breath of flame.
But after the burst of righteous fury came a brutal reality: most members, however powerful in their own worlds, could not cross the solid barrier between worlds to give Rin direct, physical help.
Busujima Saeko: "If I could go myself, my sword would be at your side to sever the chains binding your sister."
Busujima Saeko: "But the gulf between worlds is like a sky-high chasm."
Misaka Mikoto: "Damn it! Damn it! Knowing something awful is coming and being forced to watch?! I haven't felt this powerless in ages"
Blue-white sparks jumped at Mikoto's fingertips with nowhere to go. In Academy City she had power to push things toward the goodyet in another world, it meant nothing.
As the chat thickened with a mix of anxiety and helplessness, a coolalmost chillymessage dropped in, hitting the core of the problem with precision.
Ai Hayasaka: "Um I have a question. It might sound blunt and harsh."
Ai Hayasaka: "If Rin needs to make a trade with Rei Ao-kun for concrete help, what 'price' does the group system require?"
Ai Hayasaka: "She doesn't seem to be of age yet."
The question landed like a bucket of ice water, dousing the heated thread and making it seize up. Everyone recognized the hard, razor-edged reality: the only one who might truly help was Rei Ao, but his help wasn't charity. The system's trading rules bound him too.
And what "price" could an eight-year-old girltrapped in a fate seemingly about to be sealedpossibly pay?
Even Rei Ao arched a brow. The trading rules were one of the foundations sustaining this cross-dimensional chat. He could, of course, blur a line here or slip through a loophole therebut he couldn't ignore them outright.
He was weighing how to offer the greatest aid to this desperate child without seriously violating the rules when
A sudden shift.
Every member's chat interfaceno matter which world they were in or what they were doingwas washed in a strong but gentle white light at the exact same moment. An unprecedented system tone, carrying an inhuman timbre, rang without warning directly in each mind:
[Ding! Detected potential rule-exploitation and a looming conflict event!]
[Per core operating principles, a mandatory emergency upgrade will commence in 24 hours!]
Chapter 955: 24 Hours...
[Ding! The group chat system will undergo an upgrade!]
[During the upgrade, all cross-world functions will be temporarily frozen/locked and unavailable. Communication and group chat functions will continue to work normally.]
[Planned contents of this upgrade include: detailed provisions for a "Special Protection Protocol for Underage Members"; optimization of the transaction-value evaluation system (introducing modules to assess abstract factors such as emotional value and future potential); a pilot "Emergency Humanitarian Aid" clause; and adjustments to certain feature permissions]
[Countdown: 23:59:59]
[Please be advised.]
Yomogawa Ayame: "The system's upgrading?"
Bibi Dong: "A forced upgrade?"
Misaka Mikoto: "Twenty-four hours? And right now of all times?!"
Akame: "Function freeze?! Then that means"
The chat instantly filled with surprised, baffled, and anxious reactions.
Akiyama Mio: "T-twenty-four hours? Will that be too late? Rin's situation already seems urgent!"
She was genuinely worriedshe was a kind girl. And she wasn't the only one. In the Light Music Club's subgroup, Hirasawa Yui, Kotobuki Tsumugi, and Tainaka Ritsu were all especially concerned. Yui, who had a younger sister, was shaken the most. Just imagining her own sister being given away and suffering the unimaginable was intolerable.
"Rin and Sakura will they be okay?" Hirasawa Yui asked, worried.
""
But no one could give her an answer.
Yukinoshita Yukino: "This upgrade confirms that the issue Hayasaka raised is real and an urgent system loophole to fix."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "The timing seems unfortunate, but it's a necessary act of procedural justice."
Even as she said that, Yukino's brows knit slightly.
Staring at the cold system notice and the shrinking countdown, Rin felt the fragile hope she'd just found get crushed halfway all over again. Her fists clenched tightnails biting into her palms with a tiny sting that helped her resist the despair threatening to break her.
After a brief, breathless panic, a hotter, firmer flame lit in those crimson eyes.
No relying on others. No waiting around.
The upgrade might not be in timebut it was also an opportunity. Father didn't know about the group chat, this "variable." She still had a chance.
"I can't just sit and wait for doom."
Tohsaka Rin: "It's okay, everyone!"
She drew a deep breath and sent her message with force.
Tohsaka Rin: "Twenty-four hours. Before the freeze kicks in, I'll find a way to win these crucial twenty-four hours for Sakurano, I'll stop this from happening!"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "Rin"
Mitsuha was moved by Rin's strength.
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "I'm with you. You can do this!"
Tohru: "Oh? That's the spirit, kidno, young lady. Now we're talking!"
Rei Ao: "That resolve is good."
His message appeared with a steady weight that calmed the heart.
Rei Ao: "Twenty-four hours. Remember this, Rin: in your current position, the essence of 'persuasion' is information warfare and psychological warfare."
Rei Ao: "What you need is leverage'evidence' that forces your father to hesitate and reevaluate."
Rei Ao: "Against his absolute authority and strength, direct resistance would be foolish."
Tohsaka Rin: "What you need is wisdom. Gather and use every resource and ounce of imagination you have to find any threadespecially about the Matou family, and Matou Zouken himselfthat isn't so spotless."
Rei Ao: "After the upgrade, the new rules may let me provide more direct support that still complies with the 'price' constraints."
Rei Ao: "Until then, hold fastand act smart."
Tohsaka Rin: "Yes! I understand. Thank youthank you, everyone!"
She bowed deeply, even though no one could see it.
Closing the luminous screen in her mind, Rin took another deep breath, as if drawing all her courage and resolve into her lungs. She shoved her door open and bolted out like the wind, racing down familiar corridors and across the carefully tendedbut now eerily quietcourtyard, eyes scanning urgently.
At last, under the old cherry tree in the corner of the garden, she found Sakura, crouched quietly, fingertips brushing a tiny nameless flower.
The afterglow of sunset streamed through the leaves, laying a dreamlike softness over Sakura's sleek violet hair.
"Sakura!"
Rin ran up to her sister, a bit breathless from the sprint. She gripped Sakura's shoulders, her expression more solemn than ever.
"Sis?" Sakura looked up, her large violet eyesso like Rin's but softerblinking in confusion at her sister's agitation. "What's wrong? Your hands are shaking."
"Listen, Sakura." Rin met her sister's clear gaze and spoke each word with crystalline clarity. "No matter what happens nextno matter what Father says to you, or if strangers try to take you somewheredon't be afraid, and don't trust them easily."
"Trust me. I will protect you."
"I won't let anyone hurt you. That's my promise."
Rin wanted every word carved into Sakura's soul.
Sakura didn't fully grasp all the weight behind the vow, but in Rin's eyesburning with unwavering fireshe felt a certainty and warmth that needed no explanation. It was a power stronger than language.
She nodded lightly, a soft, trusting smile blooming on her face. "Mm. I know. I believe you."
Looking at that pure, guileless smile, Rin felt her heart squeezed tight by a warm handaching and full. Her resolve to protect that smile hardened like diamond.
She took Sakura's hand. "Come on, let's go back to our room."
"Okay!" Sakura replied brightly, squeezing Rin's hand back with all her trust.
~~~
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Chapter 956: Ais and Michiru's Troubles
The Labyrinth City, Orario.
Night had already fallen.
Yet this bustling city built around a massive dungeon still blazed with light.
Taverns and the Adventurers' Guild were alive with noise and chatter.
The Loki Familia's evening feast had long since broken up.
After the din, the streets felt a touch quieter.
RiveriaRoyal-Blooded Elf and the mage hailed as the city's strongestwalked gracefully along the slightly empty street.
She hadn't returned with the rest of the familia.
Instead, she slowed her pace, waiting for Ais, who was trailing alone behind, clearly preoccupied.
"Ais."
Riveria's voice was as gentle as water,
yet carried that cool, unmistakable elven concern.
She closed the distance to the blonde girl with ease.
"I've noticed you've been unsettled ever since we were at the Hostess of Fertility."
"You were quiet at dinner too, barely touched your food."
"Did something happen?"
"If you can, would you tell me?"
Her emerald eyes shimmered with wise, soft light in the moon glow, watching Ais quietly as if she could see straight through to every worry.
Ais was called back from deep thought.
She lifted those crystal-clear eyesso calm they showed almost no ripples of emotionand met Riveria's worried gaze.
She checked again: the faint group-chat window floating at the edge of her vision that only she could see, and the bizarre, incredible conversations inside about a "group owner," "other worlds," "prices for trades," "saving a little sister," and more.
All of it seemed undeniably realand impossible to share with anyone else.
She parted her lips, instinctively wanting to tell everything to Riveria, the person she trusted most, who guided and protected her like a mother.
That being who claimed to connect countless worlds; those unheard-of systems of power; and that that method that might let her get strongerfaster and fasterstrong enough to catch up to that "silhouette"
But the moment she tried to form the words, an unseen, overwhelming force clamped down on her voice.
Some absolute rule woven into the group chat itself stopped her from revealing anything specific.
She realized she couldn't say the words "group chat," "Rei Ao," "other worlds," or "system."
Any attempt to describe its concrete details, functions, or the members would twist and blur at the last moment, warping into meaningless sounds
or vanish from her mind altogether.
The feeling was stifling and uncanny.
She had a powerful urge to confideespecially to Riveria
but the rule stood like an invisible wall, sealing her mouth shut.
"It's nothing."
In the end, Ais could only shake her head, almost imperceptibly.
She forced all those words rising to her throat back down into her heart.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Riveria.
The nature of the rule made it impossible to speak.
A rare flicker crossed her eyesconfusion, urgency, and a hard-to-name longing, all mixed together.
"Is that so?"
Riveria murmured softly.
As a powerful adventurer and an elf, her keen insight told her clearly that Ais wasn't telling the truth.
This child had definitely run into something that defied normal understanding.
But she didn't press.
She chose patience and forbearance.
Gracefully, she changed the subject; her questions had only been affectionate concern.
"If it's nothing, then let's head back."
"That idiot Loki is probably dead drunk again. Finn and Gareth should've gone ahead to handle familia business."
"Mm."
Ais nodded and walked beside Riveria in silence.
A sliver of distance lay between them.
Moonlight poured over Orario's stone-paved streets, stretching the slim, strong silhouettes of the two women far behind them.
Each was lost in her own thoughts, and the silence thickened in the air.
Ais's mind had already flown back to that mysterious group chat that offered a "way to get stronger."
She replayed Rei Ao's words, turning over what a "trade" really meant.
A price What could she offer as the price?
Her sword?
Her talent?
Or something even more important?
"As long as I can get stronger"
Riveria, meanwhile, quietly resolved to observe Ais far more closely from tonight on, in subtler ways.
She would wait, patiently, and probe little by little
using her wisdom and experience to figure out what Ais had run into, and what was disturbing that simple, straightforward heart.
Protecting the children of the familiaespecially Ais, the one who tugged at her heart the mostwas a responsibility she bore as their "mom."
In the moonlight, Riveria's profile looked both tender and steadfast.
Disboard.
Night in the human city was peaceful and serene, a stark contrast to Orario's clamor.
Starlight took the place of magestone lamps.
The air was fresh, tinged with the scent of grass and trees.
Inside Rei Ao's spacious homea cross-dimensional blend of styles from many worldsthe long-running commotion was finally dying down.
