Ten years had passed since then. Fuyuki City's new district had been completed during that time, and the city had grown considerably.
The Holy Grail War, an event that was supposed to occur only once every sixty years, had another reason to arrive early this time. Since no wish had been made at the conclusion of the previous war, the magical energy stored within the Grail remained abundant. With that, the curtain of the Fifth Holy Grail War rose ahead of schedule, and guided by the Grail's own will, the selection process for the next group of participating magi had already begun.
New construction, new gas pipelines. Fuyuki City had rebuilt itself to new heights.
"So then, Tohsaka family head, are you here as the formal head of the Tohsaka family to establish a relationship with us Matous, or are you coming as my blood-related older sister just to catch up?"
"We both know the Fifth Holy Grail War is almost upon us. To avoid unnecessary suspicion from the other participants, it would be best for our two families to maintain some distance. If others were to think we've formed an alliance, we'd be inviting unprovoked attacks the moment the war begins, you know."
Matou manor. The sitting room. Afternoon.
After years of careful renovation and restoration, the Matou family villa had been thoroughly revitalized. Various magecraft rituals and bounded fields had been reestablished throughout the property.
It wasn't on the level of a great mage's workshop, but it could honestly be called a competent one.
Seated on the sofa with effortless elegance, one leg crossed over the other, a girl with purple hair held a cup of red tea and teased the plainly-dressed mage sitting across from her. This was the current head of the Matou family, Matou Sakura, the undisputed ruler of the Matou household in Fuyuki City.
At just sixteen or seventeen years old, she had already achieved the rank of Third Colors during her research evaluations at the Clock Tower, a feat remarkable enough on its own. She had then turned down the results of her research, refused her mentor's pleas to stay, and returned to this far-eastern city to revitalize the Matou family. She was a genuine prodigy, one who wielded a range of magecraft disciplines including spatial distortion, necromancy, and rudimentary Imaginary Number Magecraft.
Outside of Imaginary Number Magecraft, the others had yet to reach the Colors threshold, and many remained at a purely theoretical level for her. But there was no doubt she was truly gifted, the kind of star who drew attention even during her brief summer stays at the Clock Tower.
One Lord had even commented that, barring any accidents, if she were to spend even a little time settling into serious research and complete a thesis on Imaginary Number Magecraft before she turned forty-five, she would reach the Second Colors rank that only a handful of Lords in the entire mage world could claim.
And within her lifetime, she might even have a chance at touching the Crown itself.
"Sakura, Father's condition has gotten worse again. All Mother wants is for you to come see him just once. I know you're busy, and I know you resent Father for sending you to the Matou family, but the doctor is saying now that he doesn't have much time left..."
Across from Matou Sakura sat a girl in a red sweater and short skirt, her expression drawn with worry. This was Sakura's older sister.
Or at least her older sister by blood. The current head of one of the Three Founding Families, the Tohsaka family.
A young woman whose magical aptitude fell far short of Sakura's: Tohsaka Rin.
That's not to say there was a great gap in their natural talent. The real issue was the enormous difference in their starting conditions. When Sakura had taken over the Matou family, the Matous were still a wealthy household. But when Rin had inherited the Tohsaka name, the family's foundation had been nearly depleted by the Fourth Holy Grail War, and she had been relying on financial support from the Holy Church and the goodwill of the Matou family just to continue her magecraft training.
Jewel Magecraft was just that expensive. Even with some foundation remaining, the Tohsaka family couldn't sustain the spending of a naturally gifted mage like Tohsaka Rin.
It was said that just between the ages of six and twelve, the value of the gems Rin had consumed in her magical training could have bought at least ten properties in Fuyuki's new district.
And that was only the gems. It didn't even account for her daily living expenses and basic magecraft upkeep.
"I deeply sympathize with Uncle Tohsaka Tokiomi's situation, but as you know, Rin..."
"As head of the Matou family, any overt contact with blood relatives from my past is likely to draw talk. If someone from the Einzbern family were to catch wind of it, well, as I said, they might assume we've formed an alliance. That would be a direct blow to the Matou family's interests."
The great fire of Fuyuki City, ten years ago. The entire city had been engulfed in catastrophe.
To the outside world, it appeared to be a convergence of natural disasters: earthquakes, fire, drastic changes in the weather. A tragedy within a tragedy, people said. But those within the Three Founding Families knew the truth. It had been no natural disaster. It had been a thoroughly man-made calamity, one that took a great deal from everyone.
Tohsaka Tokiomi had lost his voice and the use of his limbs. Paralyzed, unable to use magecraft, he now resided in a Fuyuki hospital under the devoted care of his wife, Tohsaka Aoi.
The Matou family had lost Matou Kariya. One of their villas and many of their insect familiars had been destroyed in the chaos. The main bloodline had been reduced to just a handful of people.
The Einzbern family had suffered the betrayal of Emiya Kiritsugu. Over the following years, the Einzbern main house in Germany had been targeted by multiple assassination attempts, their artificial human exports had been disrupted, the family's internal economy had fallen into imbalance, and they had been left barely able to sustain even their bounded fields. They had eventually cast aside all pretense and gone to open war with Kiritsugu.
Kotomine Risei, the Holy Church's supervisor for the war, had been killed. His son, Kotomine Kirei, had taken over as the new supervisor. Once the culprit had been identified as Francesca Prelati, a great mage from the Americas, the various families had pinned the blame on her and demanded an explanation from the American branch of the Mage's Association. Under pressure from the Church, the Americans had issued a warrant for Francesca's arrest, and she became public enemy number one overnight.
Her official list of crimes read like something out of a fever dream: destroying dozens of properties, eating twenty tons of the Matou family's caviar, stealing ten years' worth of dog food from the Tohsaka family's Roomba, sabotaging the Holy Grail ritual, and publicly calling Aozaki Touko an absolute piece of garbage. Every charge seemed more absurd than the last, yet she took the fall for all of it anyway.
Francesca, for her part, was impressively stubborn about it. Even as she was publicly vilified, she never stepped forward, never gave anyone up, and silently watched as her bank accounts and properties in America were frozen and confiscated to compensate the Church and the Three Families.
"Sakura!"
Tohsaka Rin couldn't help herself. She rose to her feet, eyes faintly red.
She was a proud person. Even as the Tohsaka family had declined more and more under her watch, she had always clung to her father's teachings and maintained her composure.
But she couldn't hold it together this time. Watching her father bedridden, her mother worn down by sleepless nights of caregiving, hearing her mother murmur through tears in her sleep that she just wanted the family to be together once more, Rin had set aside every last piece of her pride to come here and ask this of Matou Sakura.
"I don't resent Uncle Tokiomi. I also understand he had no choice back then. But family matters within our family, and I have to consider the Matou family's interests as well."
"But..."
"Do you know who the Clock Tower has dispatched to participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War? Do you know what kind of catalyst the Einzberns have managed to acquire? Do you understand that the Holy Church may be sending a member of the Burial Agency into this war? My pressures are no smaller than yours, Tohsaka Rin. You really should start looking at the bigger picture. Blinded by family sentiment, you'll never be able to lead the Tohsaka family any further."
Sakura set down her teacup, smiled elegantly, and shook her head. Having already seen the darker side of the mage world, she knew all too well what kind of people mages were.
The moment she and Rin made contact, it would draw unnecessary suspicion. And the things those ruthless mages would do after that... even she didn't dare imagine.
"If you absolutely insist on meeting with me, it's not impossible. Simply sign this Self-Geis Scroll and hand over the Tohsaka family's participation slot."
A small hand slowly drew a yellowed sheet of paper from beneath the table and pushed it across to Tohsaka Rin.
The terms were straightforward. It was an alliance between the Tohsaka family and the Matou family.
The Matou family would provide as much support as possible to the Tohsaka family, offering Rin all the resources she would need to continue her magecraft training, securing top-tier medical care and caregivers for her father, and sharing a degree of mutual aid between the two families.
What the Tohsaka family would give in return was simple: their participation slot in the Fifth Holy Grail War, allowing the Matou family to quietly control two Servants.
"Why would you do this, Sakura? You didn't used to be like this..."
Tohsaka Rin stared blankly at the Self-Geis Scroll on the table, her eyes growing more and more vacant.
"Knowing too much wouldn't do you any good, Tohsaka Rin. Your talent shouldn't be buried, and the Fifth Holy Grail War shouldn't be your final stop. I have no desire to personally eliminate a blood relative on the opening night of the Holy Grail War. It would damage my reputation at least a little, after all."
As a genuine prodigy in every sense of the word, Matou Sakura had a carefully cultivated image at the Clock Tower. Getting a reputation for killing her own sister would do her no favors going forward.
She wanted to go further. She had always wanted to go further.
Besides, this Holy Grail War was shaping up to be exceptionally dangerous. Even with all her confidence, she had little margin for error.
If she could control two Servants in battle, it wasn't a bad fallback card to have.
"This is one million yen, exact."
Unhurriedly, she retrieved a thick stack of crisp ten-thousand-yen notes from the metal case beside her. This was a portion of the Matou family's recent income from real estate and investment portfolios.
Matou Sakura smiled with interest and waved the stack in front of the stunned Tohsaka Rin.
"My dear sister, how long would you need to earn this much working part-time just to fund your magecraft training? All you need to do is sign your name, and you'll receive this much every month. And this entire case, totaling thirty million yen, you can take it with you right now."
She gave the speechless Rin a light tap on the cheek with the bundle of bills.
An insult. A condescension. Naked mockery.
The gap between the Matou family and the Tohsaka family had grown immense. Rin's financial management abilities were in an entirely different league from her father Tokiomi's, and even with the subsidies from the Holy Church, the Tohsaka family continued to run at a deficit under her stewardship.
It wasn't only the cost of magecraft training. Tokiomi's ongoing medical care was also a significant burden. For Tohsaka Rin at this point in her life, thirty million yen was an undeniably vast sum, and it would be dishonest to say she wasn't tempted.
All she had to do was sign her name and relinquish a single slot. She would be set for life.
Any mage in financial hardship would probably accept without a second thought.
But Rin neither grew angry nor surprised. She simply lowered her head and silently endured the humiliation.
"Sakura..."
"Yes?"
"I will reach the Root. Before you, and I'll do it as a Tohsaka."
"Why push yourself like this, Tohsaka Rin? With the Tohsaka family in this state, what kind of catalyst could you possibly acquire? You can't even compete in that department, so what exactly are you planning to fight with against the other magi?"
The reason Matou Sakura didn't believe in Tohsaka Rin was actually quite simple. The Tohsaka family no longer had the financial strength to purchase a catalyst on the level of something like the oldest snakeskin from Mesopotamia, the way they had in the Fourth Holy Grail War. That was a fundamental disadvantage.
Without a proper catalyst, summoning a Servant was a roll of the dice. And the previous Holy Grail War had already proven what happened when you drew from that pool without one, when a gravely wounded, near-death Medea had casually dismantled the Assassin that had been summoned without a catalyst. In the mess of a card pool that was the Throne of Heroes, going in without a catalyst was basically begging for a worthless draw. You might get a generic Hassan. You might even pull a MacArthur.
So rather than having Tohsaka Rin enter the Holy Grail War empty-handed like this, it would be far better to hand the slot to the stronger Matou family, who could at least afford to secure quality catalysts and guarantee the overall caliber of their summon.
"We'll see about that! Sakura, you've gotten too arrogant! Once the Holy Grail War starts, I'll make you eat your words! I'll defeat you with my own hands and drag you back to see Mother!"
With a slam of her palms on the table, Tohsaka Rin shot to her feet.
She threw one last stubborn, seething glare at Matou Sakura, who sat there perfectly at ease with one leg still crossed over the other, then issued her declaration of war.
She had never imagined that she and Sakura would end up like this. But when it came to the Holy Grail, she would not back down. Not for anything. The Holy Grail had been her father's lifelong wish, and the Tohsaka family's ultimate goal.
She would defeat every other mage who dared to compete. She would defeat her own foolish little sister. Then she would take hold of the all-capable wishing machine and reach the pinnacle of magecraft, and let her father rest easy at last.
Click.
With those words left behind, Tohsaka Rin slammed the door and walked out.
Left alone in the sitting room, Matou Sakura quietly poured herself another cup of red tea.
She sat in silence and savored the warmth spreading across her tongue. Then she casually tossed the stack of bills back into the metal case.
It was always like this. It always seemed to be like this.
Her sister, no matter when or where, carried that pride with her. The Tohsaka pride.
"Wasn't that a bit harsh? Sakura, you should know the Matou family has put in quite a bit of effort in providing humanitarian support for Tokiomi over the years. You even went out of your way to find a specialized healing mage during your summer studies at the Clock Tower."
A blue-haired man, his face marked with a faint tracery of cursed seals, pushed open the door and entered carrying a plate of sweets. He placed the afternoon pastries on the low table with practiced ease, looking mildly dissatisfied with Tohsaka Rin's attitude.
He knew things Rin didn't. Ever since Sakura had taken control of the Matou family, she had quietly carved out a dedicated allowance for Tokiomi's care. While Rin had been out working part-time jobs, the best doctors and equipment in all of Fuyuki City had been rotating in to treat Tokiomi around the clock. Without that, Tokiomi's already fragile condition would almost certainly have deteriorated far more than it had.
"Sister is always like this. She's so naïve that she believes whatever Mother tells her. If Tokiomi's condition had actually gotten worse, would she need Rin to come tell me? That sanatorium is staffed entirely by my people. She really doesn't look at the situation clearly."
She picked up a pastry and bit into it.
Sakura made no effort to hide her concern for Tokiomi in front of the blue-haired man. He was her foster father, after all, and a trusted family member. In the ten years since Matou Shinji had left, he had come to treat her as his own daughter. She had watched all of it, taken it to heart, and never felt the need to conceal her true thoughts around him. When it came to family, honesty mattered more than anything else.
Yes, that was right. This world-weary, mature blue-haired man was Matou Sakura's foster father.
The father of Matou Shinji, the younger brother of Matou Kariya: Matou Tsuruno.
Years ago, he had been nothing more than a wealthy playboy who spent his days in idle pleasure. But as he had grown older, he had come to care more and more about the people around him.
As the old saying goes, nostalgia sets in with age. Once you've grown tired of everything else, you come to realize that family is the one thing truly worth holding on to.
"Well, I don't really understand all the specifics of the mage world, but the Matou family and the Tohsaka family have been close for generations. Now that they've fallen on hard times, helping them out a little is the right thing to do..."
Matou Tsuruno, who didn't know the full extent of the mage world's dangers, sat down with a sigh.
He had no objections to Sakura quietly supporting the Tohsaka family. They were blood relatives, when it came down to it. If Sakura had become the kind of mage who didn't care about family, like Matou Zouken, then he would have felt like he'd raised her wrong.
Not caring about Tokiomi or Rin? Then how could you expect Matou Sakura to care about the people she called family in the Matou household?
Clearly impossible. In a way, his views and the late Matou Kariya's aligned more than one might expect. No matter what kind of mage you became, you still needed to hold onto some humanity. One Matou Zouken was more than enough.
The Matou family didn't need a second Zouken. It just needed a new family head who could still feel something.
"I'm already helping her as much as I reasonably can. This Holy Grail War isn't something she can afford to step into. Even I can't say with confidence that I could walk away from it unscathed if I lost. Something is strange about the Church this time. There are rumors going around that they've sent an executor from the Burial Agency, and that alone is a formidable threat to deal with."
"The Burial Agency?"
"It's a Church organization that hunts the Ancestors of the Dead Apostles. Every single one of them is an elite among elites, equipped with Mystic Codes that would be terrifying even by the standards of the Age of Gods."
"...I don't really follow."
"That's fine, Foster Father. You just need to know that they're our second biggest threat in this Holy Grail War."
Even Matou Sakura, as confident as she was in her own talent, had felt a deep wariness after learning about the Burial Agency during her Clock Tower studies. Those people were, without exaggeration, monsters. Any one of them in a direct fight might not be inferior to a Servant.
If Rin drew a bad hand, she could be eliminated on the very first night, just like her father.
Even a good hand might be countered depending on the matchup. And with Rin's middling level of magecraft proficiency, entering this Holy Grail War was essentially volunteering to be taken out. When your opponent's Master can fight a Servant toe-to-toe, there wasn't much a standard mage could do.
"Anyway, let's leave that for now. Foster Father, what about Shinji? Still no word from him?"
Sakura shifted the conversation with a soft smile, slipping into easy family talk.
"What do you think? Still the same. I cut off his bank card and he still won't come home. I haven't had a single letter from that ungrateful son since about six months ago."
The mention of Matou Shinji, that runaway disaster of a son, was enough to put Tsuruno in a foul mood.
It had been around middle school, right before Shinji was about to enter high school, when he had suddenly left behind a letter saying:
I want to see what's out there. I've confirmed that I have no talent for magecraft, but I want to try a little longer. If a person's entire life passes without them giving everything they have to pursue the things they truly want, then to me, that life is no better than a hollow shell.
I want to become a mage. That is my wish, and my obsession.
For that, I am willing to give up everything I have and follow in the footsteps of the saint who showed me what was possible.
When the Holy Grail War begins, we will meet again. Sakura, my genius little sister, from today I am no longer a member of the Matou family. When that time comes, even as your older brother, I will show you no mercy. The all-capable wishing machine will be mine!
(Signed, Matou Shinji.)
An incredibly melodramatic letter.
But that reckless idiot's follow-through was terrifyingly efficient. By the time the letter was found that night, the boy had already boarded a flight to Russia. Even mobilizing the full extent of the Matou family's connections, Tsuruno hadn't been able to stop him.
No one even knew who had put those ideas in his head. Ever since childhood, Shinji had been obsessively fascinated with magecraft. He had gotten beaten for sneaking the Matou family's grimoires out to read, had absolutely no talent for it, couldn't learn even the basics, and yet still pored over those pages until sunrise, night after night.
"He'll come back eventually..."
"Hmph, let's not talk about that brat. Sakura, just take care of yourself. If the Burial Agency is only the second biggest threat, what's the first?"
At that, Matou Sakura fell uncharacteristically silent for a few seconds.
When it came down to it, she had simply moved too slowly. And the Matou family, for all its wealth in Fuyuki, was still a country upstart by Clock Tower standards. The gaps in connections and resources were enormous.
"If things are as I suspect, I'll try to put together an alliance. Because if that Heroic Spirit shows up in this war and isn't eliminated first, every other Master and Servant can start counting the days."
"What kind of alliance?"
"An alliance against the Servant Killer, Medea