I, Matou Sakura, Third of the Flame-Chasers!

Matou Sakura took out a small suitcase provided by Aozaki Touko and packed the unconscious Uryuu Ryunosuke inside, then headed for the next location.

There were still roughly six months until the Holy Grail War began, but Matou Sakura did not want to wait that long. Since everything was ready, she would begin the plan.

In any case, starting early would not affect the Holy Grail ritual.

Meanwhile, Aozaki Touko, who had also arrived in Fuyuki City, had reached her destination: Mt. Enzou.

"I never expected such an enormous Ley Line to be hidden beneath Fuyuki City."

Leaning against the wall, Aozaki Touko clicked her tongue as she sensed the unusual fluctuations beyond the rock face.

"This level of Magic Power response is no weaker than the one in Misaki City."

The thought that such a Ley Line was controlled by a single noble only made Aozaki Touko more astonished.

If this were at the Clock Tower, even the Lords would be tempted.

"Where are we going in?"

Beowulf was here as well. She had no interest in listening to Touko ramble on and marvel at this and that.

Their task was far from simple. If they did not finish early, they would have to stay up late!

She did not want to stay up late!

Though staying up late would not affect her, she still did not want to do it!

"I get it!"

Aozaki Touko curled her lips. She was clearly Beowulf's master, so why did that girl seem to be showing signs of turning the tables lately?

Was something wrong with her, or was something wrong with Beowulf?

Forget it. Time to get to work.

Aozaki Touko pressed one hand against the thick rock wall before her. Through a combined use of Magic Power and light, she had carved out a unique path for herself in the field of magecraft.

A door of light appeared upon the thick rock wall.

The scene within the door was formed entirely of light. By transmitting light and using Magic Power to destroy the rock, Aozaki Touko could use those two forces to open a passage through the thick wall that would let her enter directly.

She was not that person, capable of blasting straight through a thick mountain wall with a single laser gaze.

If she had only focused on magecraft back then and raised her magecraft to the same level as her current puppet-making techniques, she would not have needed to do this. She could have simply set up a complicated ritual to connect to the Holy Grail ritual within the mountain and make adjustments.

Even having Aozuki handle this would have been more effective than doing it herself. Unfortunately, Aozuki had been watching children lately—four of them, at that.

Originally, there had only been Hisui and Kohaku, along with Tohno Akiha, whom she had brought back earlier. But a day ago, another child named Asagami Fujino had joined them.

The Wujing clan and the Asagami clan—of the former Four Great Demon-Exorcising Families, that person had now gathered half of them.

She wondered whether that was that person's collector's habit.

"Let's go."

Aozaki Touko put her thoughts aside and stepped directly through the door of light before her, with Beowulf following close behind.

Once the two vanished through the door constructed from light, the door disappeared as well.

Meanwhile, Matou Sakura had already arrived at the Tohsaka Family residence. She looked indifferently at Tohsaka Tokiomi, the father of this body.

"Who exactly are you?!"

Looking at the somewhat familiar girl before him, Tohsaka Tokiomi's eyes were filled with fear.

Was this person a Magician?!

The terrifying disparity made Tohsaka Tokiomi, a man who always spoke of elegance, tremble uncontrollably.

But Matou Sakura had no desire to answer such a pointless question.

After obtaining the Kryptonian Bloodline, there was no longer any so-called blood relation between her and Tohsaka Tokiomi.

The powerful Kryptonian Bloodline had directly removed the useless genes from her original body.

Only one thing remained from the Tohsaka bloodline: the Imaginary Number Element she possessed.

She moved in an instant, knocking him unconscious before tossing Tohsaka Tokiomi straight into the suitcase. The suitcase, which appeared only slightly larger than a woman's handbag, contained a separate space inside; fitting another four or five people inside would not be a problem.

Matou Sakura then turned her gaze toward Tohsaka Aoi and Tohsaka Rin, who were bound nearby by Pernor.

Pernor stood before the two of them. This child had little interest in Tohsaka Aoi, but she was quite interested in Tohsaka Rin.

Holding a paintbrush, she scribbled freely across Tohsaka Rin's face.

Naturally, Tohsaka Rin resisted, but as merely a child, she had no ability to fight against Pernor's teasing.

Though Pernor looked like a child, her strength was by no means weak. At the very least, the current Tohsaka Rin was no match for her.

"Who exactly are you?"

It was the same question, even in precisely the same tone. Only the one asking had changed from Tohsaka Tokiomi to Tohsaka Aoi.

"Pernor, it's time to go."

She only called out to Pernor. Having played enough, Pernor set down her paintbrush and gave the angry Tohsaka Rin before her a faint smile.

"My dear Sister, I'm coming."

Pernor took My dear Sister's right hand, smiling brightly. The meaningful smile she gave Tohsaka Rin before leaving in particular made Rin think she was mocking her. Furious, Rin wished she could break free of the ropes binding her right now and use the magecraft her father had taught her to give that hateful girl a thorough lesson.

Tohsaka Aoi said nothing. Once she had calmed down, she dwelled on that inexplicable sense of familiarity, and a name suddenly surfaced in her heart.

Was it you?

Sakura?

Whether it was a mother's intuition or the interference of certain people, Matou Sakura—who had nothing whatsoever to do with the past—reminded Tohsaka Aoi of the daughter who should have died in the Matou Family fire.

The more she thought about it, the more Tohsaka Aoi felt that the girl who had taken her husband away was her supposedly dead daughter, Tohsaka Sakura!

"Sakura! Is that you?!"

She called out instinctively, completely failing to realize that the other party had long since left without the slightest hesitation.

Tohsaka Rin's eyes widened when she heard her mother's cry.

Sakura?

Where was she?

"Doesn't My dear Sister want to acknowledge them?"

Holding My dear Sister's right hand, Pernor raised her head and looked into her eyes.

Those eyes were beautiful, and calm—so calm that no emotion could be seen within them.

"There's no need."

Matou Sakura replied flatly, her tone as calm as ever.

Even though the blood in her body had not been changed and the so-called blood ties still remained, she had no intention of acknowledging them.

A mother and daughter recognizing each other?

To her, that was nothing more than a boring joke.

She had never considered Tohsaka Tokiomi, Tohsaka Aoi, or Tohsaka Rin to be her family.

She did not need them.

And besides, she had her own family.

Pernor was by her side, and Elysia and the others had fates waiting for her to change.

To her, the people who had endured all kinds of hardships alongside her in the Flame-Chasers were her true family. Some of them were not family by blood, but brothers and friends; for her, that was already enough.

And Mother...

Though she was unwilling to admit it, Aponia truly was her mother.

It was just that she had not been a good child to Aponia.

Perhaps the current her could make Aponia like her.

Pernor said nothing more and merely held My dear Sister's right hand tightly.

She would definitely remain by My dear Sister's side forever.

Aoko?

That idiot was not important.

Within Mt. Enzou, Aozaki Touko looked at the enormous ritual before her, a fine layer of sweat beading across her forehead.

For the Holy Grail ritual to begin, the Greater Holy Grail hidden here had to be filled with magical energy. Only then would the Holy Grail begin distributing the qualifications for participants—the so-called Command Spells. The Command Spells would serve as a medium to open a breach leading to the Hall of Heroes and summon the aspects of Heroic Spirits, the so-called Servants.

After that came the battle between the seven Servants, using their souls to fill another Grail—the Lesser Holy Grail.

Then the Greater Holy Grail and the Lesser Holy Grail would merge, summoning the true Holy Grail.

What Aozaki Touko was doing now was charging the Greater Holy Grail within the ritual before her, speeding up the accumulation of energy inside it.

Of course, she was not pouring her own magical energy into the Greater Holy Grail to charge it. The amount of magical energy she possessed was nowhere near enough to satisfy the Greater Holy Grail!

The light within her body could do it, but she would have to be out of her mind to use it to fill this Greater Holy Grail!

Therefore, she needed to alter part of the ritual's structure, increasing the output of the mechanism that collected magical energy for the Greater Holy Grail so that it could draw enough magical energy from the Ley Lines in the shortest possible time.

Doing so would cause the Ley Lines to weaken, leading to upheaval in Fuyuki City.

But she did not care about that.

Fuyuki City's safety had nothing to do with her, and even if something went wrong here, it would be the two Counter Forces above who would have to worry about it.

As that person's subordinate, she had dealt with those two quite often these past days.

"Finally done."

Aozaki Touko let out a heavy breath. It had nearly exhausted her to death.

Luckily, she had encountered similar rituals before, and she only needed to alter a small part of the structure rather than the entire ritual.

If it were the entire ritual, she might as well prepare to give up!

That kind of workload was simply not something she could bear on her own!

Besides, the ritual was far too vast and complex. She could only understand a small portion of it.

Anything beyond that exceeded the scope of her knowledge.

The ritual had already begun operating, drawing Magic Power from the underground Ley Lines at roughly eight times its previous speed.

When she had modified the ritual earlier, she discovered that it had eight sections for drawing from the Ley Lines. One was the primary structure, while the other seven were secondary structures.

Under normal circumstances, only the primary structure and four secondary structures operated, while the remaining three secondary structures stayed dormant.

Though she did not know why, she had activated them all at once.

The ritual drew vast amounts of Magic Power through the magic circle, and the concentration of Magic Power in the air rose accordingly, nearly forming a mist visible to the naked eye.

Not wanting to waste it, Aozaki Touko directly used the light within her body to devour that Magic Power.

Come to think of it, even now, she could not understand the true nature of the light that person had given her.

Her first impression had been warmth and hope, but after examining it more closely, she realized that this light possessed more than the qualities of light alone. It was different on both a spiritual and physical level.

This light seemed to be missing something important. It was not as though she had never asked that person about it.

But the answer she received was that she, too, lacked that part.

She did not say exactly what it was, only that Touko would understand in the future.

And that was all.

If she did not know, then she did not know. She was not yet all that proficient in using the light anyway, so overthinking it was pointless.