Rin Tohsaka: "No way! Madoka, aren't you younger than me? How are you suddenly in middle school? Did you skip a grade?"
Rin Tohsaka: "Wait, no! You're not that smart!"
Rin Tohsaka was completely astonished by her little sister's "betrayal."
With Madoka around, she wasn't the youngest in the chat group. How could you suddenly grow up behind my back?
Hearing her question, Madoka's mouth twitched.
Madoka: "Sister Rin, that's not very nice..."
Rin Tohsaka: "Sorry, sorry! I just mean, your grades aren't good enough for that, right?"
Even Rin herself wasn't good enough to skip grades. Of course, that was mainly because her heart wasn't in her studies, so she just did enough to get by.
Madoka: "They're not. That's why I went to school normally and graduated from elementary to middle school normally!"
Madoka's answer was incredibly simple. She didn't know what Rin found so strange. If you go to school normally and move up through the grades, you'll naturally end up in middle school, right?
Actually, she was the one who found it a little strange. Why was Rin still in elementary school?
Rin Tohsaka: "Going to school normally... so several years have passed on your end?"
Madoka: "That's right!"
Rin finally understood what Madoka meant. She knew that the flow of time wasn't fixed between the worlds in the chat group, and she knew that the frequency of logging in could affect how time passed.
A time difference of ten or even several dozen times was normal. If someone didn't like to chat much, it wouldn't be surprising if a century had passed for them.
But she still couldn't quite wrap her head around it. After all, what Madoka was implying meant—
Rin Tohsaka: "You can actually hold back and log into the chat group less than three times a week?"
After estimating Madoka's login frequency, the twin-tailed girl was deeply shaken.
Rin Tohsaka: "Have you ever been through rehab, may I ask?"
She never would have imagined that Madoka possessed such willpower. She herself logged in hundreds of times a day on average, a stark contrast to Madoka's frequency.
Faced with this astonishment, Madoka replied with confusion.
Madoka: "Is that strange? Doesn't Sister Rin have homework to do? And sometimes I have to spend time with my mom, dad, and my little brother. After school, I play with Sayaka and Hitomi. With so much to do, it's normal to only be able to check the chat group on the way to school and on weekends, right?"
As a student living a full and healthy life, she felt she was perfectly normal.
Madoka: "If anything, isn't it Sister Rin who's not normal? Being in the chat group every day... don't you have any friends to play with?"
Madoka, with a tone of pure innocence and confusion, dealt a critical hit to Rin's soul.
Rin Tohsaka: "..."
Shiroyasha: "..."
Kisaragi Tendo: "..."
Okay, the splash damage was a bit wide. There were quite a few people in this chat group who didn't have many friends.
Rin Tohsaka: "...We're just group members. You've crossed a line!"
After a long pause, Rin finally recovered and gritted her teeth.
Madoka: "I-I'm sorry."
Although she didn't know what she had said wrong, Madoka obediently lowered her head and apologized.
Rin Tohsaka: "If you know you were wrong, then you'll keep calling me 'Sister Rin' from now on. Don't even think about staging a rebellion and placing yourself above me!"
The twin-tailed girl seized the opportunity to lay down the law. She had no intention of becoming the youngest little sister in the chat group.
Madoka: "Oh, okay."
Madoka nodded obediently.
Madoka: "If Sister Rin likes it, I'll keep calling you that."
Although there was no real reason to agree, Madoka wasn't used to refusing people. Besides, she didn't really care about titles; she was just joking earlier.
Rin Tohsaka: "That's more like it!"
Rin nodded with satisfaction, then remembered what Madoka had said before.
Rin Tohsaka: "Right, Madoka, you said you needed to borrow a large sum of money?"
Madoka: "Mhm! About three million... no, wait, more like ten million yen!"
Counting on her fingers, Madoka gave a rough estimate of the amount she needed.
Hearing this, several people in the group became puzzled.
Kanae Kocho: "Well, that amount isn't a problem for us. Based on the values you've mentioned before, it's just a few gold bars. But, may I ask, why do you need this money, Madoka?"
Kanae asked in her incredibly gentle voice.
If Madoka just needed some pocket money, given their relationship, they wouldn't mind just giving her a few gold bars.
But if what Madoka needed was the equivalent of several gold bars, then they had to get to the bottom of it.
The money was a small matter; the reason for needing it was what was important.
Rin Tohsaka: "Madoka, you haven't picked up any bad habits and want to use the money for something bad, have you?" Rin asked with a hint of worry.
She could understand that kids had their vanities, but this was clearly beyond the scope of that. Something was definitely up!
Faced with the two sisters' questions, Madoka immediately shook her head like a rattle drum.
Madoka: "No, no, no! Sister Rin and Sister Kanae, you're overthinking things!"
Rin Tohsaka: "Then what do you need so much money for?"
Kanae Kocho: "If you tell us, we won't have to worry!"
Under their combined pressure, Madoka hesitated for a moment before speaking.
Madoka: "I'm not borrowing the money for myself... A while ago, my little brother had a cold, and at the hospital, I saw a girl about my age. It looks like she has some health problems, and her family seems to be in a difficult situation."
The story goes back two days.
At that same time, in the world of Honkai: Star Rail, Robin's voice was growing hoarse with pleasure, her understanding of the Path of Harmony reaching one peak after another.
But in Madoka's world, she was living a life healthier than almost anyone else in the chat group, playing an important role in her family.
Her little brother had been born not long ago and couldn't walk yet.
A fever in a small child is always an emergency, so the whole family went to the hospital. She was in charge of keeping her brother entertained with toys while her parents handled the paperwork.
Soon, her mother returned with the paperwork and took her brother to see the doctor, leaving her and her father to wait outside. It was then that Madoka noticed a commotion over at the payment counter.
Her father took her over to see what was going on.
Just then, Madoka suddenly noticed a frail-looking girl standing at the entrance to the payment area.
The girl was wearing a thin hospital gown and looked to be about her age. She had a slender figure and a pale face—clearly a long-term patient.
As if noticing her gaze, the girl looked up at Madoka with a puzzled expression, then immediately and frantically lowered her head, as if she'd done something wrong. She hesitated for a moment before moving to a corner, trying to avoid everyone's eyes.
Her two braids hung low over her shoulders as she stood in the corner, like a cat in the shadows that might flee at the slightest disturbance.
Realizing this, Madoka didn't approach her.
A short while later, the commotion died down. She saw a thin man being escorted out by security guards, and then the anxious-looking girl lowered her eyes and slowly followed him.
A few minutes later, her father finished gathering information and told Madoka what had happened with a sigh.
Apparently, a patient had been behind on their medical bills for a long time, to the point where the hospital could no longer continue treatment and was demanding the family pay up.
However, the patient's family seemed to be in financial difficulty. The father had been deliberately avoiding the doctors and nurses and hadn't visited his own twelve or thirteen-year-old daughter for a long time.
In modern society, a hospital couldn't just kick a young girl like that out, nor could they let her starve. They had to take care of her while searching for her father.
Just now, a security guard had recognized the girl's father and stopped him, only to find that the man was truly destitute. Not only did he not have a single penny, but he was also deeply in debt.
"Sigh, how pitiful! I heard his daughter is about your age, Madoka... If the amount wasn't so large, I'd really want to help her!" Madoka's father sighed.
In their family, his wife was the breadwinner while he was a stay-at-home dad. He couldn't spend such a large sum to save a stranger out of a moment of pity.
Hearing this, Madoka remembered the braided girl she had just seen and was filled with compassion.
"Dad, how much money do they need?" she asked.
"If it's just for his daughter's illness, at least three million. If you include their family's debt, even ten million might not be enough to hold on."
Her father sighed again. Seeing the melancholy look on Madoka's face, he patted his daughter's small head.
"There's nothing we can do, Madoka. There's too much suffering in this world. Ordinary people like us can't save everyone."