I adopted a child demon from the Gap, and I'm a special agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Ab

The awkward atmosphere lasted for a while, until Rin Tohsaka pulled Touma Kamijou aside and explained things to him briefly in a corner of the room, which finally made him understand.

"So what do we do now? Continue protecting him?"

Ryougi Shiki stood up, walked to Kiritsugu Emiya's side, and asked, her eyes full of eagerness. She feared that if Kiritsugu said the wrong thing, she might go out and kill the target who was supposed to be under their protection.

“We can’t act rashly. To have survived the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’s’ assassination attempts for so long, he must have some trump cards up his sleeve,” Kiritsugu Emiya said without hesitation. “At least on the surface, we’ll continue to protect him for now. But I’ll start investigating him next, and if he really has any weaknesses, I’ll find them carefully.”

"Tch, is that so?"

Upon hearing this, Ryougi Shiki lost interest and turned back to sit by the window.

"Alright, that concludes today's meeting. As I mentioned beforehand, Li Cheng will be fine. Tohsaka, you can remove the soundproof barrier now. Remember, we cannot act rashly before we have truly uncovered the problem, and we must not alert the enemy."

After a secret meeting, the group walked out of the room and continued on their way to their respective posts.

As Kiritsugu Emiya reached the door of the monitoring room, he saw Jester descending the stairs from the second floor, their eyes meeting in mid-air. Jester then took the initiative to greet him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Emiya. Would you like to continue reviewing the surveillance footage?"

Jester strode up to Kiritsugu Emiya and spoke with a smile.

“We can’t be careless, we don’t know when they will come,” Kiritsugu Emiya replied with a serious expression. “Mr. Jester, you’d better not leave the safe room casually either. The enemy’s infiltration capabilities are very strong. We were only able to stop them last time because we were lucky. If the situation happens again, we may not be able to stop their advance.”

“You really are reliable. Choosing you was definitely the right decision,” Jester nodded earnestly. “Don’t worry, Mr. Emiya, I will listen to you completely.”

That's good.

"I hope we can become friends after this is over."

With a genuine smile, Jester grasped Kiritsugu Emiya's hand and shook it vigorously.

"I am truly, truly grateful for your help, thank you!"

"No need to thank us, it's our duty."

After their conversation, Jester returned to the safe room upstairs with a gentle smile. Kiritsugu Emiya watched him leave, observing the unchanging smile on his face. In Kiritsugu's eyes at that moment, Jester's face seemed like a mask, gradually becoming hollow.

Jester Cartoré.

If this really is your mask, then are there any cracks on it? Or is it that there's a problem with the "Old Man of the Mountain" organization, or that the assassin wasn't a member of the "Old Man of the Mountain" organization?

Kiritsugu Emiya turned around, silently opened the door to the monitoring room, and walked in without a word.

No matter the circumstances or the secrets, I will find them out.

Sitting in the chair in front of the monitor, secretly pondering the possibilities of this matter, Kiritsugu Emiya felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He picked it up and found that it was an update posted by an account registered by Li Chengxin.

Upon clicking, the first thing you see is a picture of Xi happily enjoying her meal. Below that is a message from Li Cheng: "I'm so glad tide liked today's dishes. I'll make them for her again sometime."

Tsk!

Kiritsugu Emiya immediately found a photo of Illya smiling happily in his phone's album, wrote "It's so heartwarming to see Illya growing up healthy," and posted it, specifically tagging Li Cheng's account. Thinking it wasn't enough, he then selected a nice photo of Chloe and Shirou Emiya and posted it, tagging Li Cheng's account again.

Want to compete with me in showing off your kids?

Ignoring the fact that his public image was being tarnished, Kiritsugu Emiya sneered and began his work for the day.

…………

Thank you to readers Tang Mu-Di Xie and Kanata no Gensokyo for the recommendation vote.

Two updates done for today, feeling refreshed.

I'll put in a little effort this weekend. Hmm, I'll set a goal of 25,000 words over Saturday and Sunday. It doesn't seem too difficult.

So you understand what I want, don't you?

Chapter 8, Section 106: The Dual Existence of tide and Zi

As Kiritsugu Emiya began his investigation, and the members of Team Six continued their defensive duties under the guise of their duties, Li Cheng, who had little interest in the mission to begin with, simply returned home and resumed his daily routine of taking care of Shio.

After dinner, feeling increasingly skilled at cleaning, Li Cheng hummed a tune with a touch of pride and decided to give it a thorough cleaning. Although he had become more hygienic since living with Xi, this was the first time he had ever done such a comprehensive cleaning.

To be precise, this was probably the first time he had done such a thorough cleaning since buying the house.

He swept away the dust on the floor, wiped the tables and chairs clean, and even moved the sofa bed to remove all the accumulated dust. He stuffed all the clean clothes into the washing machine and threw away all the unused and broken items. After several hours of work, Li Cheng finally made his house much cleaner.

"Oh my, cleaning like this every now and then really makes me feel so much more comfortable."

With a satisfied smile, Li Cheng put the cleaning tools back in their place and sat back down on the sofa.

tide, who had also been very active in cleaning, followed closely behind and jumped onto the sofa. Unusually, she didn't hug her fox-shaped pillow, not because she didn't want to, but because Li Cheng noticed it was a bit dirty and put it in the washing machine.

Speaking of which, when I stuffed it in, the pillow seemed to struggle a little, but I don't know if it was just my imagination.

"Cheng, tide is sleepy."

Softly yawned, tide lay on Li Cheng's lap, and said lazily in a low voice.

"Go back to bed if you're sleepy."

Li Cheng reached out and patted tide's head, speaking softly.

Come to think of it, I seem to touch this girl's hair quite often. Is it because she often displays this animalistic personality? But it does feel really nice to touch.

Subconsciously fiddling with Xi Jin's long, smooth golden hair, Li Cheng couldn't help but feel a little sleepy. He yawned, wondering why he felt tired so easily, but his body couldn't help but lean back on the sofa, and the light in his eyes began to blur slowly.

Ah, I'm so sleepy, I might as well take a short nap...

When Li Cheng opened his eyes again, he sat up somewhat dazedly, looking at the room, which had inexplicably become quite dark. Just as he was wondering if the light was broken, he felt a slight movement on his leg.

Hmm? Did my movements disturb tide?

Li Cheng lowered his head and met a pair of bright purple eyes unexpectedly.

"What's wrong? Is it something strange that you saw us?"

A girl with radiant blonde hair (?) covered her mouth and chuckled softly, lying back on Li Cheng's lap, observing Li Cheng's somewhat dazed state with great interest.

"You...you are the one I saw last time, the one..."

For a moment, Li Cheng was unable to process the situation before him. He stared blankly at the girl he had met once before, and couldn't even speak properly.

"You, you are called... Purple, right?"

However, he quickly remembered the name the other person had mentioned and tentatively said it.

"Hehe, it seems you've remembered my name well after all."

Reaching out, Zi wrapped her arms around Li Cheng's neck, then stood up and sat up against his shoulder, bringing their faces much closer together.

Li Cheng leaned back slightly, feeling a little uncomfortable, but was immediately pulled back by Zi Qiang's forceful grip on his neck.

For a moment, the two sides stared at each other silently.

After a long while, just before Li Cheng was about to push Zi away, the girl before him sighed softly, raised her hand, and gently stroked Li Cheng's left cheek. Only then did Li Cheng realize that what she had been looking at was actually his left eye—the eye that Huo had mentioned, the one formed from Zi's power.

"Looking back now, it really wasn't worth it. To save a human being as stupid as you, I actually had to risk my whole life."

Touching Li Cheng's left cheek, Zi narrowed her eyes and whispered in a sorrowful and regretful tone.

Uh, what's going on? Am I being rejected?

"Why are you looking so dazed? We've only just recovered a little. Don't you have any questions for me? Xi's background? My identity? Don't you want to know these things?"

Zi lightly tapped Li Cheng's nose and said with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Uh, sorry," Li Cheng said, scratching his head. "I was just a little surprised and didn't react in time. Speaking of which, you saved my life last time, didn't you?"

"Don't you know this very well yourself?"

Releasing Li Cheng's shoulder, Zi shook her head and said nonchalantly.

"So, what exactly is your relationship with tide?" Sitting upright, Li Cheng asked seriously, "Dual personality? A shared spirit within the same body? Or perhaps..."

"tide is Zi, and Zi is Xi, you know. I've told you this before, haven't I?"

Before Li Cheng could finish his question, Zi interrupted him, speaking in a flippant tone.

"I don't quite understand..."

“Cheng is really stupid,” Zi sighed softly, raised her head and looked at Li Cheng, saying, “tide and Zi are exactly the same two people. The only difference is that Xi has no memories and power, while I have memories and power. To put it bluntly, after I suffered a very serious injury, I lost my original form and degenerated into Xi’s appearance. As a result, my memories and power cannot be awakened normally. That’s how it is.”

As she said this, Zi's expression suddenly became complicated again.

"But in that situation, we were basically facing certain death, yet you managed to take us in without any suffering and raised us like a daughter. Hmph, in the end, we were the ones who got ourselves killed. Fate is truly ironic."

"So, what exactly was the injury you suffered that led to you becoming like this?"

Li Cheng then asked.

“Let’s talk about this kind of question when you’ve fully mastered the power I’ve given you,” Zi said, shaking her head. “With the power you have now, you’re not qualified to know about that level of things.”

"I feel like I've heard that phrase so many times lately," Li Cheng said with a wry smile. "It's like something terrible is about to happen, like the end of the world or something."

"Who knows?"

Zi simply shook her head slightly, neither confirming nor denying.

"But there's no harm in becoming stronger, is there?"

"indeed."

Li Cheng nodded, but he couldn't help but recall the scene of fighting Cheng Yan again. He didn't want to experience that feeling of despair again, when he couldn't win even after giving it his all.

"So, your appearance this time means you've finally recovered?"

After thinking for a moment, Li Cheng tentatively asked.

"So, you won't be able to revert to tide's state anymore, right?"

"oops--"

Unexpectedly, as soon as Li Cheng asked this question, Zi narrowed her eyes again.

"Compared to how we are now, Cheng prefers tide, right? You're a lolicon?"

With a mischievous smile, Zi slowly moved closer.

"Cough, no, that's not it!" Li Cheng retorted hastily, turning his head slightly and taking a small step back. "I just... I just wanted to know. That's right, I was just curious, so I wanted to ask. After all, if you transform from a toddler into this young girl, some procedures and documents for forging your identity would definitely need to be changed!"

"What an insincere guy."