Sakura Matou Rewrites Destiny

The midsummer afternoon sun was blindingly harsh.

After finishing this so-called family dinner, Tsuruno Matou and his son Shinji each went their own way, busying themselves once more.

"Sakura... I... I'm off to learn Ninjutsu from Master Orochimaru..."

"Mm-hmm, go ahead, Brother Shinji! Do your best!"

Watching Shinji—usually so cheerful, but always blushing and stammering around her—Sakura, who had a pretty good idea that Orochimaru was brainwashing him, flashed a sweet smile and raised a little fist to her chest in a cheering gesture.

After that sweet smile and words of encouragement for Shinji, Sakura turned and, still beaming, didn't hold back from giving Tsuruno Matou a "good luck" as well.

Shinji felt thoroughly inspired by Sakura's gesture, and Tsuruno Matou put on the same face on the surface—but deep in his eyes, there seemed to be a thick layer of sorrow at that moment.

'Uncle Tsuruno is a sharp one, all right. But the sharper you are, the better you know your place... Don't worry, I am using you and Shinji, but I'm not treating you as cannon fodder.

Future steward of the Matou Family and my guardian knight!'

Catching that flicker of grief in Tsuruno's eyes, Sakura thought this to herself but didn't bother finding a quiet corner to explain. After all, time would prove everything for her...

Just as the father-son pair of Tsuruno and Shinji left with very different feelings in their hearts.

Turning to face Zouken Matou, who had been sticking close behind her since the meal ended, Sakura let the fake sweet smile fade from her face, replaced by a blank expression.

"Let's go, Grandfather. Time to check on the Great Holy Grail."

Giving Sakura a meaningful look, Zouken Matou's wrinkled, ancient face—already barely human—twisted into a kindly expression at her command.

"Hehe... this old man will lead the way."

As if a doddering old grandfather were truly taking his little granddaughter out for a stroll.

Dressed in a pure white dress with a lace sunhat on her head, like a little princess, Sakura quietly tugged at the hem of Zouken's kimono and followed him out of the Matou Residence, stepping into the bustling streets of Fuyuki City...

7. Analyzing the Great Holy Grail.

A deep, dark natural cavern that no one had set foot in for centuries.

The scorching mana converging there without pause subjected any intruder to torment every single second.

Yet even such a harsh environment couldn't stop the trespassers.

Several glowing bugs flitted around them.

Relying on the light from the bugs as they walked through the rugged cave, Sakura and Zouken Matou could feel their own Mage Circuits burning hot, their skin reddened by the heated air inside—but they showed no sign of stopping...

Drawing in a painful breath of murky, scorching air, her little face already flushed red, Sakura looked at the unchanging scenery around her and finally asked the leading Zouken Matou.

"Huff... Grandfather, how much longer?"

"This old man doesn't know either... The memories of this place... have long been forgotten. But if we follow the direction where the mana converges, we're bound to see the Great Holy Grail..."

When Zouken Matou said he didn't know, Sakura naturally didn't fully believe him—though it wasn't impossible.

But that didn't mean he was definitely lying this time.

None of it mattered, though, as long as they reached the Great Holy Grail at the end of the cave.

Pressing her already cracked lips together, clearly aware she was dehydrated, Sakura nodded calmly at his answer.

"Fine. Let's keep moving."

They trudged on in silence for another ten-plus minutes along the cave.

Just as Sakura's young body was about to reach its limit—

A glint of golden light appeared in her vision.

"Is that... the light from the Great Holy Grail?"

"Hehe... perhaps. But Sakura, this old man's body can't go on any longer..."

Zouken Matou's signature cackle rang out. He had been walking ahead of Sakura, clearing the way since they entered the cave, but as he finished speaking, there was a dull thud as he collapsed flat on the ground.

Then, a foul-smelling thick liquid began seeping from his body, soon leaving behind only the sweat-soaked kimono...

"Really at your limit? Or is it that you don't want the Winter Saintess to see you like this, Grandfather?"

"Shut up! Confirming whether the Great Holy Grail is tainted doesn't require this old man at all. Go in yourself. I need to rest... If you insist I accompany you, then lift the seal you've placed on me..."

Staring at the fat worm sprawled on a rock, radiating a mad aura as it roared at her...

Even though Zouken Matou's attitude was somewhat irritating to Sakura... his state also surprised her.

Maybe this was a sliver of truth left in his rotting soul...

At this moment, Sakura actually felt he seemed a little bit human!

"Fine, if you won't go, you won't go. Don't be angry, Grandfather... Though I was thinking that after centuries apart, the Three Founding Families—with the blood of Zolgen, Tohsaka, and Einzbern flowing through us—could reunite before the Great Holy Grail."

"Hmph!"

Zouken Matou's cold snort echoed through the cave.

The playful smile on Sakura's face grew even brighter.

'How amusing. Too bad this old fossil has forgotten far too much. If he actually remembered their original goal back then, he'd probably be weeping by now... What a shame I can't witness that 'beautiful sight'... A crying worm—how entertaining that would be...'

Glancing at Zouken Matou, who absolutely refused to go any further, Sakura felt a twinge of regret and shook her head. Then, silently reciting the Yellow Court Scripture, she stopped teasing him and walked toward the golden light at the cave's end.

"What is this old man afraid of... Why do I feel lost, guilty, even wanting to be free when I come here... Immortality, it must be immortality... It must be because I haven't achieved immortality yet that I feel this way... Justiça von Einzbern, Nagato Tohsaka... Only I will ultimately gain everything... It must be so!"

At the end of the cave, the air temperature, under the friction of magic power converging rapidly, had likely reached nearly 50 degrees. Meanwhile, the magic filling the cave was hot enough to incinerate an ordinary Magus upon arrival.

As a mere young girl, a loli, if not for the faint bit of Qi Sakura had just cultivated being strong enough, she would have collapsed halfway.

But when Sakura reached the Great Holy Grail and witnessed this miracle of Type-Moon with her own eyes, even that newly cultivated Qi wasn't enough to keep her going.

Drowsily, she glanced at the 'system' light screen only she could see.

Without realizing it, through altering the Matou Family, she had accumulated 1200 units of Destiny Points. Sakura didn't hesitate to spend them.

"System, restore me to peak condition and analyze its state at the same time."

Understood, I shall comply.

Analyzing the Great Holy Grail or restoring Sakura—for the 'system,' such tasks were effortless. In the blink of an eye, Sakura was back to her best.

The analysis results for the Great Holy Grail appeared on the light screen alongside the decreased Destiny Points.

She casually scanned the results the 'system' had parsed.

Looking at the dense data, spells, and runes marked on the screen, Sakura couldn't help but curl her lips.

Though for some reason, even after analysis, the Great Holy Grail couldn't be directly exchanged through the Temple.

But having this data was enough.

Late at night...

The basement of the Matou Residence.

Beside a table temporarily moved into the basement.

With Orochimaru's help, Zouken Matou, now re-entered into a Clone Body, marveled at the documents laid out on the table, his eyes gleaming with excitement he couldn't hide.

But Sakura, sitting across from him, was completely different. Unlike Zouken's sparkling gaze, her eyes held more of a heavy, troubled look.

The Holy Grail... was not corrupted.

That was the answer from the afternoon's system scan!

8. Worst-case scenario: the Chaldea Timeline.

The Holy Grail was not corrupted.

What did that mean...?

Though in theory, there should be many worldlines in the Type-Moon universe where the Holy Grail wasn't corrupted, and if it wasn't, that might even be a good thing...

For Sakura, it wasn't.

Because the uncorrupted Holy Grail timelines Sakura knew of were few, and the one most fitting her current situation might be that one—the timeline where Chaldea was born.

Of course, whether Sakura was in Chaldea's timeline couldn't be judged well yet.

After all, the Old Director participated in the Holy Grail War with Solomon in 2004.

And now... next year, 1994, the Great Holy Grail would finish accumulating magic and kick off the Holy Grail War.

In other words, for now, there was a high chance Sakura wasn't in the Chaldea-born timeline.

But... such things couldn't be definitively answered yet.

With nearly a year left, no one knew if the Great Holy Grail would malfunction and push the Holy Grail War back ten years.

Even if it wasn't the Chaldea-born timeline Sakura knew, the fact that the Holy Grail wasn't corrupted erased some of her prophetic advantage.

So the answer of an uncorrupted Holy Grail wasn't what Sakura wanted.

While Sakura handed over today's analyzed Holy Grail data to Zouken, who was trembling with eager, passionate eyes, to organize and study the Grail's current state and the spells composing it...

At Sakura's former home, the Tohsaka Residence, Tokiomi Tohsaka, who had long begun planning for the Holy Grail War, wore a look of utter shock on his face.

"What is this... Impossible!"

Completely losing his usual elegance and composure, as if doomsday had arrived, a stunned Tokiomi Tohsaka stood up from the dinner table in disbelief. Ignoring his wife and child's questioning, concerned gazes, he rushed headlong to his study.

Just moments ago, as Tokiomi was about to enjoy a brief family moment...

The entire Ley Line Node of Fuyuki City had stopped flowing for an unknown reason.

On the Sea Surface of the East China Sea.

Near the key Ley Line Node where the continent's ley lines flowed into the Japanese islands.

A mysterious, noble-looking Magus, like an aristocrat from 18th-century London, stood silently atop the vast waves, manipulating several ley lines on the seabed with his own will.

"With this abnormal distortion corrected, things should return to normal... But strange, why would this time, about to become a Singularity, suffer such distortion..."

Saying this, the mysterious man adjusted his green hat, then dissolved into a cluster of red photons, vanishing over the East China Sea's waves.

As for the mysterious man's process and actions in adjusting the ley lines...

Not even Tokiomi Tohsaka in Fuyuki City, let alone the world's top Magi, had the slightest awareness.

But news of the abnormal ley lines in Japan spread across the world in the following days, passed on by Magi living in the Far East.

A few days later, the Matou Residence.

In the study that symbolized the head of the Matou Family, Zouken Matou burst in with an ashen face. Sakura, who had been flipping through various Taoist texts, felt a pang of surprise, but an ominous foreboding also surged within her heart.

"Sakura... the leylines... the leylines across all of Japan are in trouble!"

Taking the intelligence report handed over by Zouken Matou.

When her eyes landed on the specially marked word 'ten years' in the document, it struck her like a thunderbolt. Sakura froze completely, stunned.

Ten years...

At this point, there was less than a year left until the Holy Grail finished accumulating magical energy and kicked off the Holy Grail War.

And if most of Japan's leylines truly stopped flowing for ten years, as this report claimed...

Then it was almost certain that the next Holy Grail War would be held in... 2004.

2004... That's Chaldea's timeline!

With that thought, it crashed into Sakura's mind like a thunderclap.

Her face, mirroring Zouken Matou's expression, turned deathly pale in an instant.

This was undoubtedly the worst possible news.

After all, what Sakura aimed to do with Rewrites Destiny was to alter the Plot, to change history.

Doing this in another world line might attract some unknown and mysterious entities, or draw the guardians of the Counter Force.

But those weren't insurmountable problems. What's more, with those people, Sakura might even find room for cooperation.