Chapter 12

A man-made arson case broke out at night at the luxury hotel where Kenneth was temporarily staying.

The arsonist had pressed the alarm button in advance, giving everyone in the hotel enough time to evacuate.

"There's a fire downstairs."

Sora answered the phone call from the hotel employee, and after learning the situation, she looked toward Kenneth on the other side of the sofa, who was watching a news report on TV about a mysterious gas leak explosion that had occurred a few days ago in Wan Gang District, Fuyuki City.

"Man-made arson, clearing the area in advance—it must be Saber's Master. To heal his Servant's injured left hand, he launched this attack."

"No need to worry. On this floor, I have already laid out twenty-four magecraft spells and summoned dozens of demons and monsters to guard. Let the attackers come if they wish; let's see if they can break through the Magic Workshop Fortress built by me, Kenneth El-Melloi II."

"Lancer, go downstairs to prepare for battle. This time, I will not allow your failure!"

The blond man with a pompadour was very confident, while the Servant with a tear mole beside him bowed and replied, "I shall not disappoint my lord's expectations."

"Mr. Kenneth El-Melloi II."

On the square far from the hotel, hotel employees were counting the guests, worried that some guests might still be in the burning hotel.

"That's me."

Only when the hotel employee called out for the third time did a man respond. Seeing that the man looked like a compatriot, the hotel employee's expression was somewhat subtle, looking at the responding man with suspicion, as if thinking, "You're actually using that name."

"My wife Sora has already gone to a safe place, so please don't worry."

Kiritsugu Emiya said with an expressionless face.

"Alright."

While thinking that this might be a man who had taken on a Western name after luring a rich foreign woman, the hotel employee crossed out the names of Kenneth El-Melloi II and Sola Nuada-Re.

Kiritsugu Emiya took the opportunity to look at the list in the employee's hand and saw that the names of the evacuees had almost all been crossed out. He then moved away from the crowd, took out a folding phone from his pocket, and called his aide Maiya Hisau.

After confirming from her that Kenneth on the top floor of the hotel had not attempted to flee, this Magus Killer pressed the detonator.

Direct confrontation with secret techniques is simply impossible. Blowing up the entire building directly and using the force of the building's free fall to kill the enemy—that is the truly safe tactic.

【Even a monarch as powerful as the Clock Tower's cannot survive a fall from a height of 150 meters.】

The Magus Killer set a Flag, then without looking back, drove away from the scene.

Meanwhile, the other attacker who should have been present was currently at the Zenjou Family Villa in Shin-Far Town, next to Fuyuki City, because he needed to escort his teacher's young daughter to her mother's side, handing the girl he brought over to Aoi Zenjou.

"Madam, I have brought Miss Sakura. My mission is complete; please inform the teacher."

"Thank you. I will tell Tokiomi."

The woman nodded and embraced the little girl who threw herself at her.

"Mommy, I missed you so much."

Although the father gave young Sakura a sense of security, only her mother's embrace was more gentle.

"Sakura, Mommy missed you too."

Aoi Zenjou looked at her little daughter with loving eyes, embraced the girl, and buried her face in the girl's hair.

"And me, and me..."

Rin Tohsaka jumped up and down beside them, also wanting to get close to her sister after being separated for half a month.

"Big sister~"

After young Sakura was put down, she threw herself onto young Rin and hugged her sister tightly.

The scene of mother and daughter reuniting and sisters embracing seemed harmonious, but Kirei Kotomine knew that this was his teacher hoping, through his wife's words, to educate this girl who had escaped from the Matou Family to be strong and brave in facing the fate of becoming the Matou Family's successor.

Compared to harsh lectures, that teacher who gave people a stern magus impression also had tenderness for his daughter, which was truly surprising.

"Then, Madam, I will not disturb you. Please help Miss Sakura pull herself together as soon as possible. By that time, I will come again."

This was a trivial task assigned to me by Teacher Tohsaka Tokiomi, leaving me unable to properly track the whereabouts of other Masters and Heroic Spirits, especially that man named Kiritsugu Emiya. Suppressing the strange dissatisfaction in my heart, after leaving these words, Kirei Kotomine left the Zenjou Family.

"Grandpa, Broly wants to learn."

When young Sakura was sent to the Zenjou Family and was about to receive her mother's encouragement, on the Fujimura side, the bathed Broly was brought by Fujimura Taiga in front of Fujimura Raiga, and the girl made the request for the boy to receive education.

"Please, Grandpa Fujimura."

Broly imitated what Fujimura Taiga had taught him in the bathroom, making a posture of asking the old man for help.

"Learn? Indeed, children should receive an education."

Fujimura Raiga nodded. In the past, being a Yakuza and fighting was fine, but with the development of the times, this old man also realized that future Yakuza must have enough culture.

"Then, Grandpa..."

Fujimura Taiga hadn't finished speaking when she was interrupted by Fujimura Raiga.

"However, is this child truly ready for education?"

"His age is visibly small; if he enrolls now, he'd probably go to kindergarten."

"But what can one learn in kindergarten? That's just a place for playing around and making friends with other children."

"Rather than sending him to kindergarten, it's better to keep him at the Fujimura Residence."

"From a young age, influenced by the Fujimura family atmosphere, he can become a good child with proper roots."

The old man said so.

"Grandpa, please don't lead this child astray, okay? Being a Yakuza has no future."

Hearing this, Fujimura Taiga slapped both hands on the table and roared at her own grandfather.

"Saying there's no future—isn't it because you descendants don't want to inherit the family business?"

【55】 Hearing this, Fujimura Raiga also slapped the table and roared, their gazes clashing as if sparks were flashing, like an old tiger facing off against his young cub.

In response, Fujimura Raiga also slapped the table and roared, his gaze clashing with his granddaughter's as if sparks were flashing between them, like an aged fierce tiger facing off against his own young tiger cub.

Finally, seeing that his granddaughter was unwilling to back down on this matter, the elderly Fujimura Raiga took a step back, but also proposed some conditions.

"If he truly wants to learn knowledge, let him go directly to elementary school. And since you don't want this child to become a Yakuza in the future but want to rely on the family's financial support, let this child show his talent and value in learning. I need you to guarantee that his academic performance stays at an excellent level. No problem?"

"No problem." Fujimura Taiga patted her chest and promised. This child Broly is quite smart; she chose to believe in the boy's learning ability.

"But what if problems arise and you try to shirk responsibility then?"

Fujimura Raiga suddenly asked.

"Impossible."

Fujimura Taiga flatly rejected this possibility, but faced with her own grandfather's 【"You've welshed before"】 doubting gaze, her voice also weakened: "Then Grandpa, what do you say we do?"

"This isn't anything difficult to handle. When the time comes, Grandpa will directly step down, and you only need to inherit the family business and become the Fujimura Group's new Spearhead."

Fujimura Raiga was smiling, yet it was a case of the map exhausted, the dagger revealed.

"Only if you agree to this condition will the Fujimura family help you sponsor this child."

"Grandpa, you're so despicable."

"This is also something that can't be helped. Who told you your father didn't want to inherit the family business, and you also look like you don't want to inherit it. How about it, do you agree or not? If you don't agree, then leave this child at home to be raised."

Fujimura Taiga looked back at the clarity in Broly's eyes, and decided in her heart that she could not let this child be led astray by the Fujimura family's yakuza ways. She slapped the table again and replied: "Fine, Grandpa, I agree to this condition."

"Bring the phone over. I'll call the Principal of First Elementary School of Shin-Far Town and arrange for a child to go study at their school."

Arranging for an undocumented child to attend school is a troublesome matter for ordinary people, but for the Fujimura Group, the local snake entrenched in Fuyuki City, it's just a matter of making a phone call.

However, due to the yakuza identity easily producing misunderstandings, local elementary schools accepting definitely wouldn't be too smooth. But as long as they choose a school in a town near Fuyuki City and enter a bit low-key, enrollment isn't a problem.

"Old Master, do you really think the Big Sister will abide by the agreement?"

After Fujimura Taiga left with Broly, the scar-faced man asked.

"This is the first time I've seen her care so much about someone else."

"The Big Sister is kind-hearted. She might just feel pity for that child, and therefore cherishes him a bit more."

"Then as long as we let her continue cherishing that child, she'll abide by the agreement and inherit the family business."

"What if that child actually has good learning capability?"

The scar-faced man pursued the question, meaning whether to pull strings and interfere with a child's studies.

"If it's good, then it's just right to prepare for washing the Fujimura Group white."

"Eh?"

"My granddaughter had a sentence just now that was right. There's no future in mixing in the yakuza."

"Old Master, you're not optimistic about the yakuza business either?"

"It's not a matter of being optimistic or not. It's that the era is developing just like this."

Fujimura Raiga sighed. He had experienced the yakuza's most prosperous era, and now he could also feel the situation of the yakuza being far inferior to the past.

"Then what if that child's learning capability is no good?"

The scar-faced man asked again.

"Although the world is abandoning us, where there is light there is shadow. The Fujimura Group will continue to exist in that place. Even if in the future it becomes far inferior to the past, it still won't easily disappear. I believe in my granddaughter's capability.

And that child, whether he becomes a good child or a bad child, as long as he has capability, he can all become Taiga's support, just like you."

"Old Master's high insight. I will help cultivate that child's loyalty towards the Fujimura family and towards the Big Sister."

Broly didn't know Fujimura Raiga's views on him and arrangements. He only knew that with the time remaining in this world decreasing by another day, he had gained an identity as a transfer student at First Elementary School of Shin-Far Town.

"Broly, you must study properly at school. If you don't understand, ask the teachers more."

At the time of parting the next morning, Fujimura Taiga instructed Broly like this.

And on the girl's body, she was also wearing a middle school student's school uniform.

Today is Monday, yet it's a school day.

Broly was driven to First Elementary School of Shin-Far Town by the scar-faced man. Along the way, the scar-faced man kept instilling in him how good the Big Sister was to him, and that in the future he should also be grateful to the Big Sister and work hard to repay the Big Sister's grace of cultivation.

At first, Broly listened and would nod in agreement. After all, repay a meal's kindness with a spring's gratitude. But gradually, he started yawning. Only because the scar-faced man repeated these words over and over, just like hypnosis, making one listen until sleepy.

"This is the child coming to attend school, right? Teacher Kimura, go give him a test and see which grade is more suitable for him."

The Principal of First Elementary School of Shin-Far Town, upon seeing the child brought by the scar-faced man, ordered the teacher who had been called over long ago to take Broly to test his academic ability.

Not testing, not knowing. One test, and this is just a pure illiterate child, right? Broly was unsurprisingly arranged into First Year.

However, less than half a day passed, and the teacher teaching the class couldn't bear it somewhat.

"Principal, this child has too many questions. I say 1+1=2, and he actually asks me why 1+1 equals 2. How am I supposed to answer this question?"

"Principal, my side is the same. This child is quite smart, even smarter than other children. But he just has too many questions. The whole class period, it's all him asking questions and me answering his questions. If the questions he asked were meaningful, fine. But the problem is, some questions are fundamentally meaningless, purely a child's stubborn behavior."

One morning, four class periods' time, four teachers came to complain. It wasn't that they lacked patience to teach children, but that Broly, this classroom question-asking machine, was too terrifying. He had already seriously affected their teaching of other children.

"A child's heavy curiosity is understandable. Didn't you let him not ask some meaningless questions?"

"We did that, but it was completely useless. That child said his sister instructed him when he came over: when encountering things he doesn't understand, he must ask the teachers more.

And that child dead-set recognizes this principle. As long as he doesn't understand, he asks. Even if you make him stand as punishment, he'll continue inquiring as if looking at incomprehensible air."

"Even more terrifying: I wanted to use slapping the palm heart to make him shut up. Result: that child was quite obedient and extended his hand. But no matter how I used the rattan cane to hit his palm, he still continued asking questions with a blank expression. Teaching children this long, I've just never seen such a special child."

The speaking teacher had a sentence she didn't say. When she was being looked at by that question-asking child, she felt some fear.

It wasn't that the child showed an appearance of resenting her. On the contrary, it was because that child was too calm. Calm to the point of making people unable to see what he was thinking at all, and thus feeling fear towards the unknown beneath this calm.

This sounds very metaphysical, but the actual feeling is just this. In just the effort of teaching one class, these First Year elementary teachers felt Broly this transfer student was thorny.

(Chapter End)