Mission Complete, System Repaired, Database Opened
By the time Shiro and Yamada arrived, the battle was already over. As expected, no unexpected incidents had occurred. After all, Team 7 was the main character squad in the original story—C-rank missions turning into A-rank ones were practically routine for them. But Shiro wasn't a protagonist, and neither was his mission abnormal. Their C-rank task had gone exactly as described: clean, direct, and without surprises.
As for the Exploding Tags used during the confrontation, it turned out the couple panicked when they saw too many people arriving at once and threw the tags to escape. It made sense—they were still just Genin, with limited chakra and ninjutsu options. Using the tags was the only way to try and turn the tide. In the end, they chose their lives over the money.
Money could be earned again. Life, once lost, couldn't be retrieved. On that point, the couple was pragmatic.
By the time Shiro and Yamada joined the others, the Mountain Bandits were already dead. Chong Jie and Qing Yu were catching their breath on the ground. Upon seeing them, Chong Jie immediately stormed over.
"Shiro, you bastard! Didn't we agree this was supposed to be an assassination? What were you doing?!"
"Huh? Didn't we just complete a perfect assassination?" Shiro replied with a straight face.
The three members of Yamada's team stared at him, bewildered.
"You call this an assassination?" Yamada deadpanned, looking at him like he was an idiot.
"Of course it is. Kill everyone who sees you—what could be more thorough than that?" Shiro responded sincerely.
"..." ×3
The group stared at him in stunned silence. Once again, Yamada felt that allowing Shiro to graduate from the Academy after just one year had clearly been a mistake.
But Shiro wasn't reckless—he had judged his teammates' capabilities well. They were war veterans, after all. There was no way they'd lose to a group of bandits, even if one or two of them had ninja training. The one actual shinobi among the bandits had been marked by Yamada himself, so Shiro had confidence they would handle it. If a mission like this was overwhelming, it would only prove that his team wasn't qualified to be in the field.
And that was why Yamada hadn't intervened.
Chūnin might seem weak in the anime because the spotlight was always on geniuses from powerful clans, but in reality, Chūnin represented the backbone of a shinobi village. At its peak, even Konoha had only around a hundred Jōnin. A large village could field around 8,000 active-duty shinobi. Among those, Chūnin were the bulk of experienced combatants.
Those assigned as squad leaders, even if not Jōnin, were elite Chūnin. Chong Jie and his team understood that, which was why they didn't stay mad at Shiro. After all, they had seen true terror once—they'd survived an encounter with Hanzo the Salamander!
With the mission complete, the team quickly cleaned up the scene and set off for the nearest town. Along the way, Chong Jie and Qing Yu learned what Shiro had done during his part of the mission. They were quiet for most of the journey.
Sure, they'd known in training that Shiro was stronger than them, but they hadn't realized the gap was this wide. While Chong Jie and Qing Yu needed Exploding Tags to guarantee victory without injury, Shiro had handled a similar number of enemies solo—even with a ninja mixed in.
That kind of power disparity said it all. If it kept widening, they'd eventually become dead weight. That realization hit them hard. They had fought together for over a year, and now it was clear Shiro would outgrow their squad.
Yamada had foreseen this. A boy who had already developed a functioning and practical ninjutsu at this age could only be called a genius. Even if Shiro's technique had limitations, he was already leagues ahead.
That ninjutsu—Reinforcement Magic—wasn't highly valued in the village's mainstream teachings. First, its effectiveness depended heavily on individual training, and while the potential growth was good, its upper limits were unknown. Second, the technique consumed a lot of chakra and only enhanced Taijutsu. That limitation alone made it undesirable for most ninja. Finally, when others tried to learn it, the results were subpar: high cost, long activation, and minimal returns.
The village's instructors had noticed all this when Shiro first submitted his technique. But given his age, they assumed it was only tailored to his body and not widely applicable. They offered him encouragement, praised his creativity, and shelved the technique.
This was also why Chong Jie and the others hadn't bothered learning it—Reinforcement Magic wasn't some secret forbidden jutsu. Anyone could try, but few would find it worthwhile.
Right now, though, Shiro was thrilled. The system in his body had just pinged with a long-awaited alert:
System Repaired – 30% Operational
Database Access Unlocked
Energy Storage Fully Restored
He couldn't wait to reach the inn and examine the update. There were so many questions he'd been holding back. Shiro had long considered going solo, but it wasn't urgent—his teammates were still part of his life in this world. He might be seven in body, but his soul was over twenty. He wouldn't abandon them coldly.
As for why the system had repaired so quickly, it was mostly thanks to the Ten-Tails fragment. Even a broken piece of that beast held massive energy—far too much for his watered-down system to absorb in one go. Over the past week, Shiro had used it to enhance his Reinforcement Magic to C++, equivalent to the chakra reserves of an adult shinobi.
There wasn't much visible change yet, but it taught him one thing: the earlier he upgraded his attributes, the better the returns.
Still, he couldn't raise it any further. Something was blocking further enhancement—something unknown.
But Shiro had grown used to the system's quirks after two years. He decided not to waste precious resources strengthening the other stats for now. Reinforcement Magic could temporarily cover for them. Energy was limited, and it should be saved for what mattered.
And today, what mattered had arrived.
This might be the key to going back.
Even though he had found a new family here, that didn't mean he had forgotten his old one.
The four of them arrived at the town's inn just before nightfall. "Everyone rest up for the night. We'll take a day off tomorrow. You've all earned it," Yamada said, sensing their low spirits.
Even if Chong Jie's team acted mature, they were still children. Upon hearing they could rest, they happily agreed and scattered to their rooms.
Shiro practically flew to his.
"They're still kids after all," Yamada muttered with a nostalgic smile, before heading to his own room.
Once alone, Shiro immediately contacted the system.
"System, how much of the database is restored?"
> Database fully restored. 10% of data is irretrievable.
"Ten percent?" Shiro took a deep breath to steady his excitement. "Then… can I go back?"
> Retrieving dimensional traversal data…
World coordinates: Preserved.
Return pathway: Corrupted and incomplete.
"So… it's possible!" Shiro shouted in Chinese, unable to contain his excitement.
"Shiro, what's wrong?!" came Yamada's alarmed voice through the wall. His team had readied for combat within seconds.
"Ah! Nothing, Sensei! I had a small breakthrough in training. Got a little too excited—sorry!"
Yamada let out a sigh. "You kids… don't hurt yourselves. Take it easy tonight."
"Yes, Yamada-sensei."
Shiro smiled bitterly. Good thing he'd been tempered by two years in this world—his old self would've completely lost it.
So the coordinates are intact, but the traversal method is gone. That means I can still return if I find a way to cross worlds.
Yet another reason to grow stronger.
"System," he asked, "I fused with Emiya Shirou's Heroic Spirit Card. Even if Unlimited Blade Works is incomplete, what about skills like Clairvoyance and Mind's Eye (True)? And what about the Archer class skills? Why don't I have them?"
This question had been burning in him for a long time.
Without the Heroic Spirit Card, he knew he wouldn't have survived this world—not the Second War, and definitely not the Third or the destruction of the village.
If he wanted to return home, he needed power. Not just hope, but power.
> Data retrieval in progress...
Shiro held his breath.