Chapter 12: You Are a Magus Too?
As Rin's magical energy took effect, the girl's vacant pupils regained their color, and her eyelashes trembled slightly.
"Ah... Rin, what happened to me... Where is this place?"
Upon seeing Rin, Kotone was immediately delighted.
"Kotone, I finally found you!" Rin's eyes instantly reddened, and tears streamed out as if a dam had broken.
Infected by Rin's emotion, Kotone also couldn't help but cry, and then the two girls hugged each other and began to sob.
"..." Shirou, standing nearby, watched them somewhat speechlessly.
Then, he looked at the other seven children who had been awakened along with Kotone.
"Look here."
A pair of eyes turned to look at Shirou.
Then, a faint blue light of magical energy flashed, and the children's gazes became dull.
"You have never seen me today, do you understand?"
"Understood." X times N
Hearing their reply, Shirou nodded, then said, "Alright, go back to your respective homes and find your mothers."
After Shirou waved his hand, the children followed the routes in their memory and began walking toward their homes.
"How long are you two going to keep crying?" Shirou looked helplessly at Rin and Kotone, who were still embracing and weeping.
Just then, several octopus-like creatures dropped down from above the alley. Waving their disgusting tentacles covered in viscous fluid, they began moving slowly toward Shirou.
"What is that thing... It's terrifying!"
Seeing the sudden monsters, Shirou raised his right hand.
"Trace On!"
Under the weaving of pale blue magical energy, a silver-white long sword swiftly shot out, piercing through the octopus monster that was flailing its tentacles, and violently pinning it to the ground. Viscous fluid flowed out from the pierced wound, and a strong stench immediately filled the ground.
Unlike Kotone, who was an ordinary person, Rin, having come from a family of magi, had been instilled with a lot of knowledge related to magecraft since childhood. Now, upon seeing Shirou's Projection Magecraft, she immediately recognized it.
"That's 'Projection' magecraft... Are you a Magus too—!?"
'Projection' magecraft is a very fundamental type of magecraft, so Rin naturally knew about it. This 'Projection' magecraft uses magical energy to create a consumable copy of a genuine item, essentially a counterfeit, whose quality is only four-tenths of the real thing.
However, because this magecraft not only wastes magical energy but also creates useless counterfeits that are as fragile as glass, excellent magi generally do not use such low-level magecraft.
However, the object that the person in front of her 'Projected' seemed to be somewhat different. Rin, who was highly talented in this area, vaguely sensed this.
But the current situation did not allow her to observe more closely.
"Leave this place to me, you two should leave first." Shirou stood in front of the two little girls, facing the monsters constantly crawling out from the deep darkness ahead.
Several more deep-sea monsters rushed toward Shirou, their grasping tentacles and sharp teeth reflecting the cold light.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh——————!!!
Several long swords trailing pale blue light streaks flew out rapidly, piercing through the monsters like sharp arrows and pinning them to the ground.
At this moment, a young man walked out from the darkness, speaking with a playful smile on his face.
"To destroy the toys that Master gave me, it seems necessary to let you know what a mistake you've made."
The orange-haired young man looked at Shirou with a joking tone. In his opinion, although Shirou seemed to know some magecraft, it was impossible for him to compare with his Servant, Caster.
However, Ryuunosuke Uryuu seemed to have forgotten, due to Caster's excessive power, that he was merely an ordinary person with no knowledge of magecraft whatsoever. Even as a killer who could easily abuse ordinary people, confronting a Magus or even a Heroic Spirit was like a praying mantis trying to stop a carriage.
"Heh, do you know the saying, 'Evil begets evil'?" Shirou looked at Ryuunosuke Uryuu, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"I don't know that one~ But I do know the saying 'Evil men are dealt with by other evil men'~" Ryuunosuke Uryuu said, smiling. "I've decided. After I catch you, I will enjoy your despair just like Master does!" Ryuunosuke Uryuu's sadistic eyes fixed tightly on Shirou.
Looking at the overly confident Ryuunosuke Uryuu, Shirou suddenly frowned and murmured softly, "Lancer, do you sense the presence of any other Servant?"
Karna's voice entered Shirou's ear the next moment.
"I do not detect the presence of any other Servant, Master. However, it cannot be ruled out that the opponent's Servant has a method to conceal their own presence."
Hearing Karna's reply, Shirou couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly.
"Looking at Caster's abilities, it shouldn't be possible... they should be far apart, but using a Command Spell could summon Caster immediately, though..."
Murmuring this, Shirou looked at Ryuunosuke Uryuu.
Then, a uniquely shaped long sword instantly tore through the air and shot out rapidly!
Swoosh————!
With Ryuunosuke Uryuu's ordinary human reaction time, he couldn't dodge in time and was easily pierced through the heart. His body was then carried by the sword, flying backward and pinning him against the wall.
"Cough cough... How could this be..." Ryuunosuke Uryuu's eyes widened. He looked at Shirou in disbelief, unable to understand until his death why a child who was only about six or seven years old could kill him so easily.
"Be a good person in your next life." Shirou waved his hand, dispelling the long sword that had pinned Ryuunosuke Uryuu's body.
The long sword dissolved into a pale blue light of magical energy. At the same time, Ryuunosuke Uryuu's body, without support, fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Shirou did not look at the corpse, which had ceased breathing, and turned to walk in the direction Rin and the others had fled.
The reason he let Rin and the others go first was naturally because he was worried that seeing the bloody scene of him killing Ryuunosuke Uryuu would leave them with psychological trauma.
For Shirou, who had died an unknown number of times and killed countless people, executing scumbags did not cause him any psychological burden.
However, if he were to cause psychological trauma to the two little girls because of it, Shirou would feel that it would be wrong.
Not long after Shirou left the alley, he saw a small red figure running toward him. The girl's small face now showed a hint of worry.
"Are you alright, Orihara?"
"I'm a Magus, after all. Dealing with an ordinary person should be manageable, right?" Shirou replied with a shrug.
Hearing this, Rin immediately felt it made sense, and she nodded, posing like an adult with her arms crossed.
"Hmm, that's true. After all, you're my comrade!"
"Is that so..." Shirou smiled.
The smile that appeared on Shirou's face, under the double effect of being a lifesaver and a comrade, made even Rin stare for a moment.
"Huh? What's with that expression?" Shirou raised an eyebrow, looking at the red-faced Rin.
"I... I'm just a little hot!" Rin gave a clumsy excuse for her moment of lapse, then turned around and walked ahead by herself, not daring to look back at Shirou again.
Shirou, following behind the girl, had no intention of teasing her further and strolled along, escorting her home.
"Speaking of which, where is Kotone?" Shirou asked, changing the subject while looking around to check for any signs of Caster pursuing them.
"I... well... I sent Kotone onto the train and then came back. I felt that I couldn't let you risk it alone. After all, I am a Magus too." Rin said, slightly lifting her small face, her expression looking quite proud.
"Is that so." Shirou nodded.
"Huh? Aren't you surprised?" Rin didn't expect the other person to show no surprise after she revealed her identity as a Magus. After all, the Tohsaka family was quite famous in the world of magecraft.
"I already figured that out, you know." Shirou replied.
Hearing this answer, Rin let out a long, astonished sound.
"Eh————?"