A minute earlier—
Rin Tohsaka held her sister in a death grip. With her father closing in step by step and Matou Zouken watching like a hawk, her heart was a knot of anger, despair, and helplessness.
On her own, she couldn't protect Sakura. That fact crushed her, ready to break her small frame.
And then—at the very brink—there was a crisp, uncanny chime only she could hear, ringing through her mind like music from the heavens:
[Ding! Trading Chat Group system upgrade complete!]
[New feature unlocked: "Special Deal"!]
Rin's consciousness was pulled into a UI no one else could see. Simple lines of text flowed past:
"Special Deal": When a group member lacks the price for a regular deal, they may initiate a Special Deal. The condition for a Special Deal is granting "World Channel access" to the member's world.
"World Channel": Through the World Channel, the trading partner may freely enter that world with no time limit, and may choose to open the channel to other group members.
The sudden upgrade was a blinding beam of light cast into the pit of her despair.
Her heart hammered with excitement.
It was thanks to this mysterious "Trading Chat Group"—and its all-knowing, benevolent owner, Rei Ao—that she'd learned of Matou Zouken's plot. But the previous deal terms hadn't made any allowance for a child like her, so she hadn't been able to trade—and couldn't fix anything at the root.
Now the update meant a real, decisive opening.
She didn't hesitate. She didn't even stop to weigh the long-term consequences of granting World Channel access. Acting on pure instinct to protect her sister, she locked onto Rei Ao's name in her mind and sent the most urgent plea she'd ever made.
The deal went through almost at once.
[Special Deal]
[Partner]: Rei Ao
[Content]: Save her sister, Tohsaka Sakura—stop her from being sent to the Matou family.
[Condition]: World Channel access to Rin's Type-Moon world.
[Special Deal confirmed!]
[World Channel access transferred!]
[Channel under construction!]
The prompts flashed by like lightning.
In the real world, from the spark of strange joy in Rin's eyes, to her vow to "use my own method," to the ripples that spread through the air before her—only a heartbeat passed.
And then Rei Ao crossed the wall between worlds, appearing as if from nowhere and yet utterly natural, stepping in front of the sisters and shielding them.
This time, Rei Ao set foot in this world. He could feel the faint leylines of Fuyuki tremble underfoot, breathe the fog-and-dust-tinged air with its trace of mana, and sense how this world's unique "Root" drew on all things.
The World Channel was like an invisible umbilical cord, binding him tightly to this place. If he wished, he could remain indefinitely—he could even invite trusted allies from other worlds to join him. That freedom gave him a calm he'd never had before.
…
Back to the moment he appeared: after he spoke Matou Zouken's true name—Makiri Zolgen.
Yes. Matou Zouken is not "Matou Zouken." His current state is complicated, entangled with a self from five centuries past.
"Makiri… Zolgen…"
The name was a long-sealed curse dredged up from centuries ago, and a rusted key driven straight into the deepest hive of worms and obsessions that passed for his soul.
The twisted smile on his face froze. His clouded eyes locked on Rei Ao, brimming with disbelief, terror—and the panic of a man stripped naked under the sun with nowhere left to hide.
His shriveled body trembled—not from fear, but from a soul-deep stabbing pain, like being jolted awake from an age-long sleep.
How many years had it been since anyone spoke that name? Even he sometimes lost track, corroded by time: Was he Matou Zouken—or the once-idealistic magus called Makiri Zolgen?
He drifted for a moment, eyes vacant, as if his soul had slipped back to that snowy day five hundred years ago and the fateful meeting there.
Tohsaka Tokiomi, meanwhile, frowned hard. As head of the Tohsaka, he knew his history. He'd seen the name Makiri Zolgen in the clan's oldest records—the Matou family's ancestor (back when they were the Makiri), a gifted magus with lofty ideals.
The records were clear: he died in pursuit of those ideals. So why was this young man calling Matou Zouken by a name from the grave? A mistake? Or some secret Tokiomi did not know?
While Tokiomi wavered and Zouken reeled, Rei Ao turned his gaze on the head of the Tohsaka—who, in the Fourth Holy Grail War to come, would be stabbed in the back by his trusted disciple Kotomine Kirei and die a wretched death.
A flicker of disdain passed through Rei Ao's eyes—contempt for Tokiomi's obstinacy and foolishness, a touch of pity for his end, and, more than anything, the wry amusement of someone who sees the whole board.
He remembered the famous meme:
—In the end, it's all Tokiomi's fault.
~~~
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