The midsummer afternoon sun was blinding.
After the so-called family dinner ended, Tsuruno Matou and his son Shinji each returned to their own business.
"Sakura... I... I'm going to study Ninjutsu with Master Orochimaru..."
"Mhm, mhm. Go on, then. Do your best, Brother Shinji!"
Watching Shinji, who usually seemed cheerful but often blushed around her and even stammered when speaking, Sakura—who roughly knew that Orochimaru was brainwashing him—smiled sweetly at him, raised her tiny fist before her chest, and made a gesture of encouragement.
After giving Shinji a sweet smile and cheering him on, Sakura turned and, still smiling sweetly, generously offered Tsuruno Matou a word of encouragement as well.
Shinji was naturally deeply encouraged by Sakura's gesture, and Tsuruno Matou appeared to be as well. However... deep in Tsuruno Matou's eyes, there seemed to be a profound sorrow at that moment.
Uncle Tsuruno really is a smart man. But the smarter someone is, the more clearly they understand their place... Don't worry. It's true that I'm using you and Shinji... but I'm not treating you as cannon fodder.
The future steward of the Matou Family and my guardian knight!
Catching that trace of sorrow deep in Tsuruno's eyes, Sakura did not choose to find some secluded corner to explain herself to him. Time would prove everything for her...
After the father and son, Tsuruno Matou and Shinji, left with their respective feelings.
Sakura turned to look at Zouken Matou, who had remained close behind her ever since dinner. The sweet smile she had been wearing vanished, replaced by a blank expression.
"Come on, Grandfather. It's time to inspect the Great Holy Grail."
Zouken Matou gave Sakura a meaningful look. Upon hearing her command, his wrinkled face, so old it barely looked human, immediately forced itself into a kindly expression.
"Heh heh... Grandfather will lead the way."
It was as though an elderly grandfather in his seventies or eighties were truly taking his several-year-old granddaughter out.
Dressed in a pure white gown and wearing a lace sunhat, Sakura looked like a little princess as she quietly held onto the hem of Zouken Matou's kimono and followed him out of the Matou Residence, into the bustling streets of Fuyuki City...
Analyzing the Great Holy Grail.
A deep, dark natural cavern that no one had entered for centuries.
The scorching magical energy constantly converging here subjected anyone who dared enter the cavern to torture every second of every minute.
Yet even such a harsh environment could not stop the intruders' advance.
Several glowing insects hovered around them.
By the insects' fluorescent light, Sakura and Zouken Matou made their way through the rugged cavern. Though they could already feel their Mage Circuits burning hot, and the heated air within the cave had roasted the skin on their bodies red, neither showed any intention of stopping...
Sakura painfully drew in a breath of murky, scorching air. Her entire little face had unconsciously turned red as she looked at the unchanging scenery around them and questioned Zouken Matou, who was leading the way.
"Huff... Grandfather, how much longer do we have to walk?"
"This old man does not know... This old man has long forgotten his memories of this place... But if we follow the direction in which the magical energy converges, we will surely find the Great Holy Grail..."
Naturally, Sakura did not completely believe Zouken Matou when he said he did not know, even if such a possibility did exist.
But that did not mean Zouken Matou had necessarily lied this time.
Still, none of that mattered. As long as they successfully reached the cavern's end, where the Great Holy Grail was located, that would be enough.
Sakura pressed her cracked lips together. Clearly able to feel that she had already entered a state of dehydration, she calmly nodded after hearing Zouken Matou's answer.
"Fine, then let's keep moving!"
They silently continued through the cavern for another dozen minutes.
Finally, just as Sakura's tiny body was about to reach its limit.
A golden light appeared in her field of vision.
"Is that... the light of the Great Holy Grail?"
"Heh heh... perhaps. But Sakura, this old man's body can no longer endure..."
Zouken Matou's trademark sinister chuckle rang out. He had been walking ahead of Sakura, clearing the path for her ever since they entered the cave. As soon as he finished speaking, he fell stiffly to the ground with a thud.
Immediately afterward, a foul-smelling thick fluid began seeping from Zouken Matou's body. Soon, all that remained was the kimono already soaked through with sweat...
"Have you really reached your limit? Or do you simply not want that Winter Saintess to see what you look like now, Grandfather?"
"Shut up. Confirming whether the Great Holy Grail has been contaminated does not require this old man at all. You can go in yourself. This old man needs rest... If you insist on this old man accompanying you, remove the seal you placed on this old man..."
Sakura watched the fat worm lying atop a rock, radiating madness as it roared at her.
Although Zouken Matou's attitude truly annoyed Sakura somewhat... his current state also pleasantly surprised her.
Perhaps this was the tiny remnant of truth left behind in Zouken Matou's decayed soul...
At this moment, Zouken Matou actually made Sakura feel that he was, in the slightest sense, human!
"Fine, then don't come, Grandfather. Don't be angry... But I had been thinking that, after centuries apart, the Three Founding Families carrying the bloodlines of Zolgen, Tohsaka, and Einzbern could reunite before the Great Holy Grail."
"Hmph!"
Zouken Matou's cold snort echoed through the cave.
The teasing smile on Sakura's face grew even brighter.
How amusing. It's a pity this old man has forgotten far too much. If he truly remembered the original purpose the three of them shared back then, he would probably be weeping bitterly right now... What a pity I can't enjoy such a beautiful sight... A crying worm—how interesting would that be...?
Sakura glanced at Zouken Matou, who refused to proceed no matter what. Feeling somewhat regretful, she shook her head, silently recited the Yellow Court Scripture, stopped teasing him, and walked toward the cavern's end where the golden light originated.
What is this old man afraid of... Why do I feel lost, guilty... even desiring release after coming here...? Immortality, it must be immortality... It must be because this old man has not yet achieved immortality that I feel this way... Justiça Lizleihi von Einzbern, Nagato Tohsaka... Only this old man will ultimately obtain everything... It must be so!
At the cavern's end, the temperature of the air had likely reached nearly fifty degrees due to friction from the magical energy rapidly converging there. The magical energy filling the cave was probably hot enough to directly burn an ordinary magus to ash upon arrival.
As nothing more than a young girl, a little child, if not for the tiny bit of Qi Sakura had just cultivated being strong enough, she would have collapsed halfway there long ago.
Yet when Sakura arrived beside the Great Holy Grail and personally witnessed this miracle of Type-Moon, even the Qi she had only just cultivated was no longer enough to let her keep going.
Dazed, she glanced at the "system" screen that only she could see.
Without realizing it, Sakura had accumulated 1,200 Destiny Points through changing the Matou Family. She spent them without hesitation.
"System, restore me to my optimal condition, and analyze its condition for me."
Understood. I shall do so at once.
Whether it was analyzing the Great Holy Grail or restoring Sakura, such matters were naturally effortless for the "system." In the blink of an eye, Sakura returned to her optimal state.
The results of the Great Holy Grail's analysis appeared on the screen alongside the reduced Destiny Points.
Sakura casually glanced over the results analyzed by the "system."
Looking at the densely packed data, formulas, and runes marked on the screen, Sakura could not help curling her lips.
Though she did not know why the analyzed Great Holy Grail still could not be directly exchanged through the temple.
Having this information was enough.
Late at night...
The Basement of the Matou Family.
Beside a table that had been temporarily moved into the Basement.
With Orochimaru's help, Zouken Matou had once again entered a Clone Body. He clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the documents spread across the table, unable to conceal the excitement in his eyes.
Yet Sakura, seated opposite him, was entirely different. Unlike the excitement glittering in Zouken Matou's eyes, Sakura's gaze was filled more with gravity and worry.
The Holy Grail... had not been contaminated.
That was the answer produced by the system's scan of the data that afternoon!
The worst-case scenario: Chaldea's Timeline.
The Holy Grail had not been contaminated.
What did that represent...?
Theoretically, many Timelines in the Type-Moon world should exist where the Holy Grail had not been contaminated. And if the Holy Grail was uncontaminated, it might even be a good thing...
But not for Sakura.
Because among the few Timelines Sakura knew where the Holy Grail had not been contaminated, the one that best fit her current circumstances was perhaps that one—the Timeline in which Chaldea was born.
Of course, it was still impossible to determine whether Sakura was currently in Chaldea's Timeline.
After all, the Holy Grail War in which the Old Director participated alongside Solomon took place in 2004.
And now... next year would be 1994, when the Great Holy Grail finished accumulating magical energy and opened the Holy Grail War.
In other words, based on the current situation, there was a strong chance Sakura was not in the Timeline where Chaldea was born.
However... no definite conclusion could yet be reached.
There was still nearly a year left. No one knew whether something might go wrong with the Great Holy Grail, delaying the Holy Grail War by another ten years.
Even if this was not the Timeline Sakura knew where Chaldea was born, the fact that the Holy Grail had not been contaminated had, to some extent, erased Sakura's advantage as a prophet.
Therefore, the answer that the Holy Grail had not been contaminated was not what Sakura wanted.
While Sakura handed today's analyzed Holy Grail data to Zouken Matou, whose eyes shone with desire and excitement, for him to organize and analyze the Holy Grail's present condition and the formulas used to construct it.
At Sakura's former home... the Tohsaka Residence, Tokiomi Tohsaka, who had long been laying plans for the Holy Grail War, revealed an expression of utter shock.
"What is going on... This is impossible!"
Having entirely lost his usual elegance and composure, Tokiomi Tohsaka stood up from the dinner table with a face full of disbelief, as if the end of the world had arrived. Ignoring the questioning and concerned looks of his wife and children, he rushed toward his study without looking back.
Just moments ago, while Tokiomi Tohsaka had been preparing to enjoy a brief moment of family happiness with his loved ones.
The Ley Lines throughout Fuyuki City had stopped flowing for an unknown reason...
On the sea surface of the East China Sea.
Near a crucial Ley Line Node where the continental Ley Lines flowed toward the Japanese islands.
A mysterious-looking magus with a noble bearing, like an aristocrat who had stepped out of eighteenth-century London, stood silently atop the vast waves, manipulating several Ley Lines beneath the sea with his will.
"With the anomaly corrected, this should return to normal... Still, it is strange. Why would an abnormal distortion occur at this time, which was about to become a Singularity...?"
As he spoke, the mysterious man adjusted the green top hat on his head. Then, as though dissolving, he transformed into a cluster of red particles and vanished over the waves of the East China Sea.
As for the mysterious man's actions in adjusting the Ley Lines.
Not only Tokiomi Tohsaka in Fuyuki City, but even the world's foremost Magi failed to notice anything at all.
Yet in the following days, news of the abnormality in Japan's Ley Lines still spread throughout the world among the Magi living in the Far East.
Several days later, at the Matou Residence.
Inside the study that symbolized the head of the Matou Family.
Sakura had been reading various Taoist texts when Zouken Matou suddenly burst in with a livid expression. Surprised, she also suddenly felt an ominous premonition rise in her heart.
"Sakura... the Ley Lines... all the Ley Lines throughout Japan have gone wrong!"
Sakura took the intelligence Zouken Matou handed her.
When she saw the words "ten years," specially marked on the report, Sakura froze as though struck by lightning.
Ten years...
Less than a year remained until the Holy Grail completed its accumulation of magical energy and opened the Holy Grail War...
And if the majority of Japan's Ley Lines truly stopped flowing for ten years, just as this report claimed...
Then it was almost certain that the next Holy Grail War would be held in... 2004.
2004... This was Chaldea's Timeline!
As those words thundered into Sakura's mind.
Just like Zouken Matou's current expression, Sakura's face turned livid in an instant.
This was undoubtedly the worst possible news.
After all, what Sakura needed to do to Rewrite destiny was rewrite the plot, rewrite history.
Doing so in other Timelines might attract some unknown and mysterious people, or draw the guardians of the Counter Force.
But those were not troubles that could not be resolved. Sakura might even have the possibility of cooperating with those people.
Before you continue