In the park that morning, Aoi had brought her daughters there to play. She let go of their hands and allowed the two girls to run around happily.
Watching the sisters, a trace of sorrow flashed through Aoi's eyes. In a few days, her second daughter, Tohsaka Sakura, would be adopted into the Matou Family and take the Matou name. Was that really a good thing?
There was almost no one else in the park. Looking at the happy, blissful smiles on her daughters' faces, Aoi could only hope with all her heart that the Matou Family would treat Sakura well.
After all, in a Magus family, a second child could hardly ever find happiness. Even if Aoi was willing to let Tohsaka Sakura forgo inheriting the Tohsaka family business, she had no room to object.
Suddenly, as if something had drawn them in, the two girls, Tohsaka Rin and Tohsaka Sakura, walked toward a tree in the park. After circling halfway around it, they were startled to find a blood-covered person leaning against the trunk, head bowed, dead or alive unknown.
The two panicked and hurriedly shouted for Aoi.
"Mom, there's someone here!"
"Mom, he has a wound on his chest! He's bleeding so much!"
Aoi's heart jolted, and she hurried over to her daughters. "Danger! Don't get close to him!"
Once she got a clear look at the person leaning there, Aoi examined him briefly, then pulled her two daughters close and looked around uneasily. "He's not dead yet. We don't know whether the criminal who hurt him is nearby. We need to call an ambulance..."
Just as Aoi took out her phone, the person against the tree moved.
"Pwah..." Mo Li spat out a mouthful of blood. The noise by his ears had awakened him. He looked up at the three people before him and found them strangely familiar.
Aoi hurriedly retreated several steps with her two daughters.
Mo Li looked around and struggled to his feet. "Where is this?"
"Are you all right, young man? This is Fuyuki City..."
Mo Li did not hear the rest. He stared fixedly at Aoi. "Fuyuki City? Fuyuki City, Japan?"
Aoi fearfully pulled her daughters another step back. "Ah... y-yes."
"...Sorry. I frightened you." Mo Li looked at the two little girls and immediately found the situation absurd. "Then you're Tohsaka Aoi, and they are Tohsaka Rin and Tohsaka Sakura?"
The two girls looked at Mo Li curiously.
Upon hearing that, Tohsaka Aoi had the urge to take her daughters and run away immediately. She watched Mo Li warily. "Who are you? We never gave you our names, so why do you know the names of my daughters and me? And why are you covered in blood?"
"Mo Li. My name is Mo Li." Mo Li lowered his head and glanced at himself. With a wave of his hand, purple-gold flames rose all over his body. Flames also rose from the grass stained with his blood nearby, but they vanished in an instant. The blood and wounds disappeared as though they had never existed, and even the air became remarkably fresh.
Seeing this sudden change, Tohsaka Aoi asked guardedly, "Are you a Magus?"
"A Magus? No." Mo Li's voice was full of weakness. After looking at Aoi and the others for a while, he said, "I'm sorry for causing you trouble. I'll leave now."
After saying that, Mo Li turned and walked away.
This was not the time to chat with the mother and daughters. If this really was the Type-Moon World he knew, then Heaven had played the greatest joke on him. He needed to verify some things, such as whether he had traveled across worlds or through time.
After all, before he had fallen unconscious, he had still been serving as the Land God during the Qin Dynasty. At that time, Qin Shi Huang had only just unified the realm through the accumulated legacy of six generations. Qin II had not yet come to power, and Mo Li had still been exploring that world.
Someone had suddenly appeared and inexplicably tried to kill him, muttering something about, "Kill this Land God and climb higher. Then I'll join the ranks of immortals and get Peaches of Immortality to eat."
In the end, Mo Li had used his authority as Land God to summon the mass of trillions of tons of mountains and crush the man to death in one strike. Just as Mo Li extracted the power left behind on the man's body, a beam of light suddenly burst from the corpse and heavily injured him.
When he woke again, he had inexplicably arrived here. And when he had used his power just now, he could no longer sense his authority as a Land God.
As Mo Li turned away, Tohsaka Aoi's entire body tensed. She felt deeply uneasy, afraid that Mo Li would turn around and abduct the three of them to threaten the Tohsaka Estate. The Holy Grail War was about to begin, and an unfamiliar Magus had suddenly appeared in Fuyuki City at such a critical time. There was a high chance he had come for them.
Watching Mo Li's back, Tohsaka Aoi's gaze grew deep. She could not be sure whether he was truly leaving or merely pretending to do so. At such a critical moment, it was better to be careful.
Watching Mo Li gradually walk away without any sign of turning back, Tohsaka Aoi sighed in relief. She lowered her head to look at her children, feeling immensely fortunate. Thankfully, this had only been an accident. Hopefully, nothing would happen.
At that moment, Tohsaka Rin asked in confusion, "Mom, that big brother looked like he was in terrible shape. Do we really not need to help him?"
Tohsaka Aoi smiled. "No. That big brother's skill in magecraft is very high. He doesn't need our help at all. Let's go home first."
The sight of that person covered in blood was still vivid in her mind. Even if he held no hostility toward her and her daughters, what about the person who had injured him so badly?
At that moment, the park seemed full of danger to her. Only returning to the Tohsaka Estate could give her a sense of safety.
Tohsaka Sakura suddenly pointed in one direction. "Mom, look over there! It's Uncle Kariya!"
Tohsaka Aoi's heart skipped a beat. She looked in the direction Sakura pointed and indeed saw Kariya Matou. She immediately felt deeply puzzled. Why was he here? By all rights, he should not have been in Fuyuki City right now.
When Kariya Matou saw the mother and daughters, joy immediately appeared on his face, and he quickly walked toward them.
Tohsaka Aoi smiled and greeted Kariya Matou. "Kariya, long time no see. Are you back from your business trip? This time took quite a while."
Hearing those familiar yet distant words, Kariya Matou forced out a smile. "Yes... For certain reasons, I finished things early and hurried back. It's good that you're all still here. There's still time for everything. Heaven gave me a chance to be reborn."
Tohsaka Aoi sensed that something was wrong and asked doubtfully, "Kariya? What happened? Why do I feel like you're worried something will happen to us...?"
Tohsaka Rin also said, "Yeah, Uncle Kariya. Did something happen that you're worried about?"
Tohsaka Sakura smiled and comforted him. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself~"
Listening to their still childish and innocent words, Kariya Matou laughed and cried at once. "Wonderful... This time, I'll definitely stop everything. Tokiomi Tohsaka, Matou Zouken! I want them dead! Only if they both die can Sakura be safe!"
Tohsaka Aoi suddenly found the person before her utterly unfamiliar. She retreated several steps with her daughters, unable to believe what she had heard. "What? Kariya, what are you saying!"
Kariya Matou clutched his head in pain. "Aoi, I'm sorry, but even if Tokiomi is your husband, I have to kill them! I can barely suppress the power I brought back any longer—the power of Berserker Lancelot! As long as I unleash this power, I can kill them all!"
Veins bulged across Kariya Matou's face, and his eyes were blood-red. He roared in extreme agony, "No! I can't lose my mind yet. I have to return to the Matou Family first, or my berserk self will kill all of you here too..."
Tohsaka Aoi looked at the increasingly abnormal Kariya Matou in terror. "Kariya, what exactly happened? Don't scare us!"
Tohsaka Rin said uneasily, "Uncle Kariya! What's wrong with you?"
Tohsaka Sakura also asked, "Uncle Kariya, what's wrong? Please turn back to normal..."
"Kill Tokiomi Tohsaka, kill Matou Zouken. Those two have to die..." Kariya Matou's gaze was unfocused as he kept muttering the conviction that had sustained him through his flight back to Japan from abroad.
Tohsaka Aoi said fearfully, "Kariya, no matter what happened, give up this idea. Don't think about killing Tokiomi. Whatever it is, we can talk it over..."
"Aoi, you don't understand! You don't know! You have no idea what will happen in the future!" Kariya Matou cried out frantically. "Only now is there still time to stop it! It's all Tokiomi's fault! Only by killing them can Sakura be safe!"
Tohsaka Aoi cried out, "You can't! Kariya, turn back to normal!"
"Ahhh, aaah!" Stimulated by Tohsaka Aoi's words, Kariya Matou roared. Red-black magical energy burst from his body, and a suit of exquisite armor gradually covered him from head to toe. The greatsword Overweight Lake Light appeared in his grasp.
Like the roar of an abyssal demon, Kariya Matou bellowed, "Aoi! Don't stop me! I don't want to kill you again!"
The magical energy erupting from Kariya Matou shattered the park pavilion into pieces, while the surrounding trees snapped one after another.
"How can this be..." Tohsaka Aoi stared at her friend in horror, continuously backing away with her daughters. "What happened? How did you become like this? Why must you kill Tokiomi...?"
Tohsaka Rin shouted anxiously, "Uncle Kariya, wake up! Don't kill my dad!"
Tohsaka Sakura could not understand what was happening before her, and she began crying in panic. "Uncle Kariya, what's wrong with you?"
Kariya Matou trembled all over as Overweight Lake Light slowly rose. He wailed, "I'm about to lose control! Take them and leave this place! Aoi!"
"Rin, Sakura, let's go!" Tohsaka Aoi fearfully scooped up both children, turned around, and ran.
"Ah!!!"
The visor of Kariya Matou's helmet glowed red as he raised Overweight Lake Light and slashed at the three with their backs to him.
Swish~
The blade swept over Tohsaka Aoi's head without directly striking the mother and daughters, but the gale generated by the sword sent all three tumbling to the ground. They were covered in dust and looked utterly disheveled.
"Wake up, Kariya!" Afraid yet brave, Tohsaka Aoi stood before her two daughters, trying to awaken the mind of her former friend.
Tohsaka Rin and Tohsaka Sakura cried out, "Uncle Kariya!"
Kariya Matou's visor shone with an incomparably scarlet light, and his greatsword mercilessly cleaved down at the three.
Tohsaka Rin screamed in terror, "Uncle Kariya, don't!"
Tohsaka Sakura sobbed, "Uncle Kariya, don't kill us!"
Tohsaka Aoi was horrified. "Kariya, stop!"
Kariya Matou did not waver. Overweight Lake Light continued to fall, and just as the three despaired—
Clang!
Mo Li suddenly appeared, holding the Heavenly Halberd as he blocked Overweight Lake Light. Looking at the Kariya Matou who had already lost his reason, he said, "Pitiful man. It seems you can only die after all."
The shockwave from the collision of the two weapons blasted the broken tree remains throughout the park in every direction.
Tohsaka Rin and Tohsaka Sakura looked in delighted surprise at Mo Li, who had suddenly appeared before them and protected all three of them. Tohsaka Aoi stared at the two men in lingering shock, feeling as though everything had become a tangled mess.
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