Sakura Matou sat beside Kariya Matou's body.
She did not cry.
Nor did she scream.
An ordinary child would probably have broken down long ago at such a sight.
But Sakura Matou simply sat there, her purple eyes watching Kariya Matou lying on the ground. After a few seconds, she looked up at the blond knight holding a sword before her.
Those eyes were terribly empty.
After so long in the Matou Family's underground worm chamber, there was little a seven-year-old child could still hold on to.
Crying was useless.
Screaming was useless.
Being afraid was useless too.
After enough time, she stopped crying and screaming.
Artoria looked at her.
Her footsteps halted.
Excalibur was still in her right hand, its blade stained with Kariya Matou's blood.
Artoria only needed to swing once more, just as she had before, and it would all be over.
Root them out completely.
That was what Kiritsugu Emiya's order meant.
Artoria Pendragon was Britain's King of Knights.
Many had died by her sword on the battlefield.
Armed knights, barbarians charging into the ranks, and magical beasts.
They had all been enemies.
But the one before her was only a child.
A little girl sitting on broken bricks, filthy all over, looking at her with a pair of purple eyes.
Kiritsugu Emiya's judgment was not wrong. Everything belonging to the Matou Family needed to be dealt with thoroughly.
This girl still had the Matou Family's Crest Worms inside her.
The fact that she seemed harmless now did not mean she would remain so.
Tactically speaking, killing her was indeed the safe choice.
Artoria understood.
She started walking again.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Her armored boots trod over broken bricks, the sound carrying through the ruins.
The tip of Excalibur rose, pointing at Sakura Matou.
Sakura Matou still did not move.
She neither ran nor dodged, simply sitting there and quietly watching Artoria approach.
Their eyes met.
Be quick.
Artoria told herself.
Do it quickly, and this child will suffer less.
Excalibur rose.
Instinct A sounded an alarm.
The danger was not ahead.
It was overhead.
Something was hurtling down from the night sky.
Artoria turned, holding her sword across her body as she poured magical energy into the blade.
When she looked up, she saw a black shadow bearing down from above. It was large, fast, and coming in a straight line.
But its target was not her.
It was Sakura Matou.
Artoria's expression changed.
It was too late.
High in the sky, several hundred meters away.
Mayuri hovered in the darkness, her rose-red eyes watching the ruins of the Matou Residence below.
She had hurried over after hearing the fighting.
Destruction on that scale, with several consecutive blocks leveled, was difficult to overlook in Fuyuki City at night.
Tokiomi Tohsaka had acknowledged her request through their contract and permitted her to scout the scene, but still reminded her not to expose herself.
By the time Mayuri reached the airspace above the area, the battle was already over.
She saw Lancelot dissolve into golden motes of light.
She saw Artoria walk toward the ruins. She also saw Kariya Matou killed with a single stroke.
Then Mayuri saw Sakura Matou.
Tokiomi Tohsaka saw her too.
Through the visual link of their Master-Servant contract, what Mayuri saw was transmitted back to the study in the Tohsaka Residence.
The image was somewhat blurry, but clear enough.
The Matou Family's ruins.
A white-haired man lying among broken bricks.
A little purple-haired girl sitting beside him.
Tokiomi Tohsaka's hand paused on his desk.
He recognized that child.
Her hair had turned purple, but the contours of her face closely resembled Aoi's as a child.
Sakura Matou.
Once Sakura Tohsaka.
His second daughter.
The child he had personally given to the Matou Family for adoption.
When he had made that decision, Tokiomi Tohsaka had offered a complete set of reasons.
The Tohsaka Family could have only one heir.
Rin's aptitude was better suited to inheriting the Tohsaka Family's Jewel Magecraft.
Keeping Sakura in the Tohsaka Family would only limit her potential.
Entrusting her to the Matou Family and letting her grow within their system would benefit both children.
There was nothing wrong with that logic.
But now, the Matou Family's home lay in ruins.
Kariya Matou was dead.
Zouken Matou had probably not survived the attack either.
And the daughter he had placed with the Matou Family was sitting in the ruins, watching a holy sword descend.
Tokiomi Tohsaka closed his eyes, but his fingers no longer tapped the desk.
A magical message passed through the contract to Mayuri.
It was not one of his usual crisp tactical orders. Something very faint was mixed into it, so faint that his own reason had nearly suppressed it.
"Caster."
Tokiomi Tohsaka's voice came from deep within the contract.
His tone remained steady, carrying an aristocrat's restraint.
Only his opening syllable was a little lower than usual.
"Please help me save that girl."
He paused.
"She... was once my daughter."
He paused again.
"Although I personally gave her to the Matou Family for adoption, now that the Matou Family has been nearly wiped out... I would like to bring her back for the time being."
Mayuri listened to those words in midair.
Her opinion of Tokiomi Tohsaka changed a little then.
It was not really a change for better or worse.
It was simply that this man, who always kept everything so firmly in place, had moments when his voice grew subdued too.
"No problem, Master."
Mayuri answered quickly.
She issued a magical command.
Above Fuyuki, the enormous presence concealed high overhead responded to her once again.
Part of the Thunder Sanctuary emerged from an unseen altitude, and its lower panels began to reconfigure. This time, it was not lion form.
The metal plates unfolded differently, making the whole structure narrower and better suited to high-speed flight.
Two wings extended from either side of the sphere.
They had none of the white-feathered appearance of angel wings, consisting entirely of mechanical metal wing surfaces, with a wingspan of roughly eight meters and very thin edges.
The head elongated from the front, forming a metal eagle's beak. The tail contracted into stabilizing fins, leaving it a size smaller than lion form.
Vulture form.
One of the Thunder Sanctuary's four combat support forms, used for high-speed maneuvering and striking small targets.
Once its configuration was complete, vulture form did not pause.
Its metal wings beat downward, and its entire body dove from high altitude like a black shadow, heading straight for Sakura Matou in the ruins.
It was too fast.
Those in the ruins only had time to notice that something was coming down.
By the time Artoria turned and raised her sword, vulture form was already above Sakura Matou's head.
Its metal beak opened as it swept over Sakura Matou.
It was not going to attack.
The metal panels inside the beak unfolded, forming a temporary containment chamber.
A golden cushioning layer formed along the chamber's inner walls, enveloping the purple-haired girl sitting on the ground.
Sakura Matou had no time to react.
One second, she was still sitting on broken bricks, looking at Artoria.
The next, her surroundings had become a cramped, enclosed space.
It was warm inside, with golden light lining every side.
The ruins, the night breeze, and the knight holding the holy sword were all out of sight.
After securing her inside, vulture form pulled out of its dive.
Its metal wings beat the air at full power, and its body veered skyward from less than three meters above the ground.
Two seconds later, it was already moving so fast that Artoria could barely track it with her eyes.
The black shadow swept over the ruins and soon vanished into the night sky.
Holding Excalibur, Artoria stood where Sakura Matou had just been sitting.
Only broken bricks remained on the ground.
And Kariya Matou's body.
The little purple-haired girl and the metal birdlike entity that had descended from the sky were both gone.
Artoria could pursue them.
In her current state, with an ample supply of magical energy and Mana Burst at full output, pursuing an airborne target was not entirely beyond her.
Excalibur's slashing waves could reach a great distance too.
But Artoria did not pursue.
She stood where she was, looking in the direction where the black shadow had vanished.
Excalibur slowly lowered to her side.
She could not tell whether she had just felt relieved.
Perhaps she had merely judged pursuit unnecessary.
Perhaps it was both.
Forty meters above the ground.
Mayuri received the returning vulture form.
The metal eagle hovered before her, and the containment chamber in its belly slowly opened.
Sakura Matou curled up inside the golden cushioning layer, blinking her purple eyes a few times, still not understanding what had just happened.
Mayuri looked down at that tiny figure and sent confirmation to Tokiomi Tohsaka through their contract.
The girl had been rescued.