Everyone knew that Ryuuto's mother, Manaka Sajyou, was basically the sweetest, kindest, and most gorgeous woman you could ever meet. In a parallel world's Tokyo Holy Grail War, Manaka had quite a passion for one specific thing: "adopting" her opponents' Servants.
Take Paracelsus the alchemist Caster, or that runaway homeless Assassin—they all fell under the motherly glow of the Root Princess's compassion, eventually becoming Miss Manaka's loyal followers. Ryuuto definitely inherited one of his mom's best qualities: that genuine desire to help others. Though, being just a kid, he didn't seem particularly interested in collecting other people's Servants...
...
"Hey, could you losers just back off?" Ryuuto said flatly, standing in front of Tohsaka Aoi. "This lady already has plans tonight. She's with me."
"...What?" The blonde guy let go of Aoi's wrist and grabbed his collar instead. "What the hell did you just say?"
"Hey! You little punk, you got a death wish or something?"
Facing this kid who suddenly showed up playing hero, the normally cocky men seemed confused, just talking tough without actually doing anything.
Maybe they had so many insults ready they couldn't decide which to use first. Ryuuto couldn't care less about their reaction, though.
"Little brat, looking for your mommy's milk?"
"You think we won't beat up a kid just because you're young?"
"I've even beaten up little girls your age!"
"Wow, that really makes you garbage," Ryuuto said, his smirk growing more pronounced.
"You little—you've got the nerve to smile?" The man swung his fist violently at the boy.
"No!" Aoi couldn't bear to watch the boy get beaten and covered her face with a scream.
But the dull sound of a fist hitting a young face never came. Instead, there was the distinct crack of something breaking.
"AAAGHH! AAAAAAAHH!"
A man's high-pitched scream tore through the late-night streets of Shinto.
Aoi looked up in confusion and saw something she couldn't quite process. The man who'd swung at the black-haired boy had his fist frozen mid-air, but it looked completely wrong. His fingers, which should have been tightly clenched, were twisted in all different directions—like some bizarre coral formation in an aquarium.
"AAAAHHHH!" The man collapsed to his knees, clutching his mangled hand, while his friends stood there just as stunned as Aoi, unable to figure out what had just happened.
"Using violence to control people, hurting those weaker than you... feels pretty good, doesn't it? I get it, I totally get it," Ryuuto said casually as he straightened his rumpled clothes without even looking up. Then he addressed the men: "Each of you strip down and run away naked, and maybe I'll let you live."
The men just stared at him, eyes wide and jaws hanging open.
"What the hell did you do to him?!"
"Watch out! This kid must have some kind of weapon!"
One of the men shouted while pulling out something from his waistband.
A minute later, it was all over. Even though these guys were complete scumbags, there's not much point in describing the brutal beatdown of ordinary people in detail.
Ryuuto sat on top of one of the four men, pummeling him until teeth scattered across the pavement. Another guy got chopsticks jammed up his nostrils before he smashed his nose with a punch. The third guy was lucky enough to keep his face intact, but unfortunately, he permanently lost one testicle.
After leaving the thugs sprawled on the ground, he turned and gently took Aoi's hand.
"Come on, neesan, let's get out of here."
"Oh... right, okay." Aoi was still too stunned by what had just happened to even thank him, and simply allowed herself to be led away from the scene.
"Fanatic, keep an eye on them," he said to the Assassin, who remained invisible to normal eyes.
"If they behave themselves, let them go. If they try anything stupid, teach them some manners."
"As you wish... Master."
A tall figure and a short one walked beneath the dim streetlights. Ryuuto, who'd just returned to Fuyuki from Tokyo, had stumbled upon Aoi in trouble and jumped in without hesitation. While other magi were still busy plotting war strategies, he was already thinking about post-war family arrangements.
Aoi hadn't quite recovered from what had happened earlier. She walked silently beside him, looking somewhat dazed.
"Hey, neesan," he said, breaking the silence. "I just took down four guys back there. Aren't you even a little surprised?"
"Oh... no, I am surprised," she replied softly. Living somewhat on the edges of the magical world, she understood certain mystical matters, but she'd never witnessed anything quite like this before.
"Hmm, are you some kind of magus?" she asked.
He gave her a mysterious smile. "Nope, not at all."
"You're not?" A look of genuine concern crossed Aoi's classically beautiful face. "Then you really shouldn't be doing such dangerous things. If you got hurt, your mother would be worried sick about you."
"Yeah, probably," he nodded, "but if I hadn't taken that chance, those creeps would've violated you, Aoi-neesan."
"V-violated?!" Hearing such a blunt term, the lady of the Tohsaka household immediately turned bright red. Good grief, she thought, his vocabulary is something else. Are kids this age really so... advanced these days?
Despite her embarrassment, a warm feeling of gratitude spread through her chest. "I see... you did all that for me. I was so rattled earlier that I didn't even thank you properly."
She stopped walking and bowed her head respectfully to him. "Thank you so much for helping me. My name is Tohsaka Aoi. If you don't mind, could you tell me your name? I'd really like to properly thank you sometime."
"Oh, don't worry about it," he said, waving his hand dismissively before casually grabbing her arm.
"Come on, Aoi-neesan! It's getting super late—I'll walk you to the station!" He flashed her a bright, genuine smile.
Though privately, he wasn't actually sure if there were any trains still running at this hour. Hehe