"What are you doing?! And why did you bring Little Sakura back here in your arms?!"
Holding Matou Sakura, Fu Yuan turned his head toward the hostile-sounding Tohsaka Tokiomi and slowly said, "I don't feel like explaining why right now. You only need to..."
"Shut up and listen to me obediently."
Tohsaka Tokiomi immediately flew into a rage. Proud by nature, this was the first time he had heard Fu Yuan, an "ordinary person," speak to him in such a commanding tone. Just as he was about to shout, What gives you the right to speak to me like that—
For some reason, Tohsaka Tokiomi suddenly felt as though a mountain were pressing down upon him. His open mouth froze, and the rebuke he wanted to voice would not come out at all.
This mountain-like suppression came from that ordinary person, who was staring coldly at him.
Tohsaka Tokiomi's heart pounded as though deprived of oxygen, cold sweat trickling down his forehead. At that moment, he had an illusion about Fu Yuan.
Fu Yuan was a lofty mountain, while he was an ant looking up at it.
He, Tohsaka Tokiomi, was standing on the stairs. If anyone should be looking up, shouldn't it have been Fu Yuan looking up at him from below? So why did Tohsaka Tokiomi have this upside-down illusion?
The suffocating pressure of a mountain made Tohsaka Tokiomi swallow. And so... he gave in. As Fu Yuan reined in his aura, Tohsaka Tokiomi, forehead drenched in sweat, managed to say, "What do you want to tell me?"
Seeing Tohsaka Tokiomi's changed attitude, Fu Yuan nodded in satisfaction.
That sense of satisfaction was like...
Recommending JoJo to someone who disliked its art style, then, with his "help," watching that person become captivated by JoJo's charm.
Fu Yuan stopped his strange train of thought, then took the phone from his pocket and said to Tohsaka Tokiomi, "I want to show you something. Once you finish watching this recorded video, you'll understand why Sakura came back to the Tohma family with me."
"Recorded? Video?"
Fu Yuan looked at Tohsaka Tokiomi's utterly baffled expression, paused slightly, then suddenly understood after giving it some thought.
He remembered that the old-fashioned magi of the Nasuverse rejected the products of technology, and Tohsaka Tokiomi was one of those old-fashioned magi.
That was why the Tohma family was such an "ancient" place that it did not even have a television or a washing machine.
Ever since Britain's King of Knights had passed away, Mystery in this world had begun to fade. To preserve the last remnants of Mystery, magi chose to conceal their existence and prevent ordinary people from learning of "magecraft" and "Mystery," thus slowing Mystery's continual decline.
And as Mystery faded, technology and the times advanced rapidly.
Thus, in order to preserve the mystery of magecraft, old-fashioned magi had all begun resisting technology and new things.
Therefore, it was perfectly normal for Tohsaka Tokiomi, one of those old-fashioned magi, not to know what recording or video meant...
Besides, phones in this era were still those huge brick-like things.
Fu Yuan could only helplessly introduce the phone to Tohsaka Tokiomi, then play the video he had recorded at the Matou family residence.
Fu Yuan and Matou Sakura were now sitting together on the sofa in the living room, while Tohsaka Tokiomi silently watched the video playing on the phone.
The recorded video was not long. Fu Yuan had annihilated Matou Zouken's tens of thousands of Magic Crest Worms with lightning summoned by a single punch, and Tohsaka Tokiomi was now utterly shocked.
He was shocked by Matou Zouken's true intentions toward Matou Sakura.
He was shocked by the tremendous power Fu Yuan possessed.
The reason Matou Zouken had adopted his daughter, Tohsaka Sakura, was not to raise her as the Matou family's heir. He merely wanted Matou Sakura's body.
And Fu Yuan, this seemingly ordinary person, was actually a magus who possessed terrifying lightning.
...What magus? What Fu Yuan possessed was not magecraft at all. He possessed Great Void Sword Qi, an ultimate art capable of slaying gods.
The short recorded video had finished playing, and Tohsaka Tokiomi, seated on the sofa, fell silent.
Looking at the silent Tohsaka Tokiomi, Fu Yuan said, "So now you should know that Matou Zouken has ill intentions toward Little Sakura. What I want to know now is what you intend to do."
"Will you take back your decision to have Little Sakura adopted into the Matou family?"
"Or will you continue stubbornly clinging to your mistake?" As he spoke, Fu Yuan rubbed his fists together. If Tohsaka Tokiomi dared choose the second option, he would definitely teach him what "coming to his senses" meant with his fists.
Physical awakening.jpg
After remaining silent for a long time, Tohsaka Tokiomi did not answer Fu Yuan immediately. He looked at Matou Sakura, who was pressed tightly against Fu Yuan's side, but Matou Sakura was not paying any attention to her biological father.
Matou Sakura's attention was entirely on Fu Yuan beside her, because in her eyes, he was her only support.
Like a hero from a fairy tale, he had taken her away from that terrifying hell.
And Tohsaka Tokiomi, her biological father... in Matou Sakura's eyes now, he was probably no different from the demon who had sent her into hell.
Looking at Matou Sakura leaning against Fu Yuan, Tohsaka Tokiomi let out a deep sigh. "I never imagined that the Matou family, once what it was, would have fallen to such a state. More than two hundred years ago, the Matou family was not like this."
According to the Tohma family's historical records of the Matou family, the magecraft used by the Matou family was Butterfly Magic.
Moreover, Matou Zouken two hundred years ago could be said to have been at the height of his power. Back then, even if his opponent was a Servant, he could still defeat them.
Though they were only third-rate Servants, as a magus, possessing the power to defeat a Servant still made him a formidable existence.
Thus, Tohsaka Tokiomi had assumed that the Matou family five hundred years later would still possess such astonishing power. Unfortunately, he had never expected the Matou family to have fallen to this state.
The Matou family had indeed declined.
An Utterly Ordinary Person
Ever since Matou Zouken moved his magecraft family from Russia to Fuyuki City in the Far East, his family's ties with Russia, their homeland, had been severed due to the relocation.
As a result, something akin to failing to adapt to the local environment occurred.
Afterward, the Matou family's magi gradually began to weaken. Each generation of descendants had fewer Mage Circuits than the last, and after around one hundred and fifty years, the inheritance of the Matou family's Magic Crest was cut off.
Then, two hundred years later, the Matou family's sole descendant, Matou Shinji, had become a worthless good-for-nothing without Mage Circuits.
It was because of this that Tohsaka Tokiomi had believed that after Matou Sakura joined the Matou family, Matou Zouken would carefully train her, given her exceptional Mage Circuits, and have her inherit everything of the Matou family.
Unfortunately, Matou Zouken had never intended to let Matou Sakura inherit the Matou family.
"I didn't ask you to lament the Matou family's changes. I only want to know what you intend to do next," Fu Yuan said to Tohsaka Tokiomi in a low voice.
Tohsaka Tokiomi looked at the mysterious young man sitting before him, then shook his head. "I do not believe everything you have said, nor the images played by this thing called a 'recorded video.'"
Excellent!
Now Fu Yuan could beat Tohsaka Tokiomi up with perfect justification.
The mountain-like pressure descended once more. Sweat breaking out across his forehead, Tohsaka Tokiomi hurriedly said, "However, I will personally go to the Matou family to verify it. If things are truly as you said, then I will take back my decision to have Little Sakura adopted into the Matou family."
"Tch."
Before you continue