Tohsaka Rin's heart pounded wildly inside her small chest, thudding against her ribs so loud it almost deafened her.
Fear, anger, worry, defiance—so many feelings tangled together they threatened to swallow her whole.
She burst into her room, locked the door behind her, then slid down with her back against the cool wood onto the carpet, gulping for air. At last the tears she'd held back broke free, spilling in big drops and soaking the hem of her pretty dress.
Don't cry! Now isn't the time!
A voice screamed from deep inside.
Rin scrubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand, drew a few long breaths, and fought to steady the storm inside her.
She remembered her last hope—the mysterious "Trading Group Chat." The people in there spoke in strange ways and seemed to be from worlds that sounded impossible, but the owner, Rei Ao, gave off an unfathomable, almost omnipotent aura.
She forced herself to focus. In the depths of her awareness, a translucent interface threaded with faint streams of light quietly unfolded. She typed with her mind, every word etched with desperate urgency:
Tohsaka Rin: "Father's already decided to send Sakura to the Matou family! What should I do? Please—someone help me!"
Her message hit the once-casual, often odd, day-to-day chatter of the group like a boulder dropped into a lake—waves surged, ripples raced.
Misaka Mikoto: "What?! That fast?!"
Misaka Mikoto: "Weren't you just saying he was still considering it? That's way too sudden!"
Busujima Saeko: "Rin, calm yourself. Panic and fear solve nothing—worse, 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 logic—yet 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 good—yet in another world, it meant nothing.
As the chat thickened with a mix of anxiety and helplessness, a cool—almost chilly—message 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 girl—trapped in a fate seemingly about to be sealed—possibly 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 there—but 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 interface—no matter which world they were in or what they were doing—was 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!]