As the saying goes: a sister, a house, deceased parents, bumping into a girl when going out, being reverse-raped onto a bed, a cheat falling from the sky, teammates dying in pits, bumping into a girl every ten steps, flowers blooming for a thousand miles, bros falling for you like clouds with a flick of a finger, beauties marrying you like rain with a wave of a hand, an easy path to the peak of life! This is the so-called winner in life!
To say that such a winner could be found in the Moon World would be impossible. Even among the three Male Protagonists, none had a smooth journey, and picking girls was always a choice of one, a perfectly harmonious harem was never an option.
But if there are winners, there are naturally losers. When it comes to a loser in life, there's probably no one more fitting than the person before her... Aoi, holding Rin and Little Sakura by one hand each, walked towards the young man. As they got closer, Rin looked up and clearly saw him: a silver-gray jacket paired with black trousers, a slightly handsome face with a hearty smile, and a gaze fixed on Aoi with a hint of infatuation and regret.
Aoi smiled and bent down to stroke Rin and Little Sakura's hair, saying: "Rin, Little Sakura, say hello to Kariya uncle."
Xiao Ying, with an innocent heart, obediently greeted the young man: "Hello, Uncle Kariya."
Rin, on the other hand, stared at him with complex eyes for a long time, her gaze filled with pity, sympathy, admiration, and a faint sadness, before finally bowing her head slightly and saying with deep affection: "Hello, Uncle Kariya."
Yes, this young man before her was Aoi's childhood sweetheart, Matou Kariya, the second son of the current Matou Family. From a young age, he was deeply in love with Aoi, and because of his love for her and his own inferiority complex, he chose to retreat when his nominal father interfered, but his feelings for Aoi never changed. However, this also led to his tragic life, a complete loser in the entire Moon World.
In the original story, Matou Kariya, who was kind by nature, was born into a Magician family but resolutely severed his ties with magic, living as an ordinary person. Although Matou Kariya and Zenjou Aoi were childhood sweethearts and he always liked Aoi, his feelings were not noticed by Aoi. Aoi, who was three years older than Kariya, always treated him gently like an older sister, putting herself in his shoes, but this feeling was not love.
Aoi chose to marry Tokiomi, and even so, Kariya still took care of the Tohsaka mother and daughters in his own way. He was meticulous and well aware of Rin's and Xiao Ying's individual preferences. Every time he returned from out of town, he would bring them gifts they liked, and he was deeply loved by Rin and Xiao Ying.
If the facts were merely this, it would at most be unrequited love in a failed romance. But the bad thing was that the story did not end there, and the root cause of this outcome was still that nominal father, Tokiomi, who passed Xiao Ying to the Matou Family. The phrase "it's all Tokiomi's fault" also began with him.
After Aoi married into the Tohsaka Family, Kariya believed that Tokiomi could give Aoi happiness, so he chose to let go of his feelings and silently protected the mother and two daughters. However, when he learned that Tohsaka Tokiomi had given Xiao Ying to the Matou Family as an adopted daughter, subjecting her to abuse, he believed that Tokiomi had trampled on the mother's and daughter's happiness. At the same time, he was consumed by self-blame, thinking, "If I hadn't left then, Xiao Ying wouldn't have to suffer like this." He also envied Tohsaka Tokiomi, who "had everything he wanted, yet disdained everything he wanted."
Kariya's aptitude as a Magician was much higher than his elder brother, Tsuruno. Matou Zouken originally wanted Kariya to inherit the family head position, but eleven years ago, Kariya resolutely broke free from the family's restraints because he could not accept the ugly worm magic and did not want to become Zouken's puppet. He left the home that was like purgatory to him, refused magic, and lived as an ordinary person.
However, from Matou Zouken's perspective, although Kariya's Magic Circuits were slightly better than Tsuruno's, they were not so good that he had to sacrifice his free will to make him the next family head. Since the ancient Matou Family had no other heir with Magician abilities besides Kariya, he requested his ally, the Tohsaka Family, to give their second daughter, Xiao Ying, to him as an adopted child.
If Kariya had not chosen to refuse and leave, perhaps Xiao Ying truly would not have been passed to the Matou Family, and there would not have been the series of tragic events in Xiao Ying's later life. But no one can blame him; choosing one's life is everyone's right, and it takes sufficient courage to refuse the terrifying and gloomy Matou Zouken.
And so, Kariya, who had previously rejected magic, participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War as a half-baked Magician. At the same time, he took responsibility for his past actions in the bravest way, exchanging his entire life for Xiao Ying's lost happiness.
Kariya made a deal with Matou Zouken: if he could win the Holy Grail, Zouken would return Xiao Ying to the Tohsaka Family. Since he had not received any magical guidance from Zouken, he did not possess the abilities of a Magician. To participate in the Holy Grail War, he asked Zouken a year before the war to implant Engraving Worms into his body. However, this also caused his body to rot, and by the time the Holy Grail War began, he only had one month left to live.
Even his currently handsome appearance was due to the Engraving Worms gnawing at his flesh and blood, integrating into his nerves. After a year of torment, the nerves on his left side were almost paralyzed, making it nearly impossible to move his left leg and left arm. The vision in his left eye completely disappeared, and the muscles around his eye were also completely numb. His hair turned completely white within just three months, and his skin lost all color, becoming a ghostly grayish-brown. He always wore a hood when going out, not daring to show his face.
He saw Xiao Ying's despair as his hope for success, hoping that he could truly become Xiao Ying's savior. Even though he was half-dead from the torment of the Engraving Worms, he still endured the pain that tore through his internal organs, smiling as he promised Xiao Ying that soon he would take Xiao Ying, Rin, and Aoi, the four of them, to travel to a distant place.
To prevent the woman he loved from crying, he was willing to sacrifice even his life. But Kariya forgot the most important point—the person he wanted to kill was the husband Aoi loved, and this was precisely the biggest factor contributing to his tragedy. In the end, no one asked him to do anything, so all his suffering could only be swallowed by himself. Those who didn't know mocked and ignored him, while those who knew reveled in it. In the end, he remained alone his whole life.
In the later stages of the Fourth Holy Grail War, Kariya, enduring physical and mental torment day and night, was finally completely controlled by thoughts of revenge. After his defeat in the duel with Tokiomi, he was severely wounded and near death but was saved by Tokiomi's disciple, Kirei Kotomine. Kariya's internal conflict aroused Kirei's strong research interest, hoping to find pleasure in his suffering. Kariya, however, being too naive, easily believed Kirei's lies and temporarily formed an alliance with him.
Due to Kirei Kotomine's secret intervention, Kariya lost the chance to struggle and awaken, going down the path to the cliff named tragedy, never to return.
Kirei promised to help Kariya take revenge on Tokiomi and called him alone to the church. Kariya, who arrived at the church as agreed, ready to duel Tokiomi, found that Tokiomi had already been killed by Kirei. At this moment, Aoi arrived and mistakenly believed that Kariya had killed Tokiomi. She angrily accused him of "never loving anyone," completely negating everything Kariya had fought for until then.
At that time, Kariya's mental state was already extremely unstable due to the ravages of the Engraving Worms and Zouken. Faced with the accusations of the person he loved, Kariya finally completely broke down, fell into a state of madness, and accidentally squeezed the neck of his beloved. By the time Kariya reacted, Aoi had already fallen unconscious due to prolonged oxygen deprivation.
But even in regret and self-reproach, he still unhesitatingly chose to obtain the Holy Grail to save Xiao Ying, even though his body and soul were so broken that they could be destroyed at any moment. Finally, he died when the Engraving Worms could no longer bear the burden of Berserker's rampage, collapsing as an ordinary person in front of Xiao Ying, dreaming of a happy life with Aoi, Rin, and Xiao Ying as a family until his last breath.
This man spent his entire life escaping, but he escaped with nothing. He gave everything, including his life and soul, but received no return. Matou Kariya's life was a capital 'L' for Loser, losing, losing, losing until he lost his life and soul, gnawed away by the swarm of worms in his beautiful dream of happiness.
Of course, none of the above had happened yet... At this time, Kariya was still just a down-and-out young man who had lost in love. To be precise, he was a slightly green young reporter who had only recently entered society. How could he withstand Rin's gaze filled with such great sorrow? Kariya, feeling a bit awkward from being stared at, bent down and laughed: "So you are Rin and Xiao Ying? As expected of Sister Aoi's children, you're so cute."
Then he straightened up and smiled at Aoi: "Sister Aoi, long time no see."
Aoi smiled back: "Yes, it's been three years. Kariya, you've matured a lot since I last saw you."
Hearing Aoi's words, Rin's gaze towards Kariya couldn't help but gain another layer of sympathy. It seemed that in her mother's eyes, this uncle was completely at the level of a child, and the only difference between him and herself was that one was a daughter and the other was a younger brother.
Aoi wasn't thinking in that direction at all! So, I truly feel sorry for you, Kariya, you should quickly let go and find your own happiness.
After all, even if her dad was Tokiomi, no daughter would want her mother to cheat!
Rin watched the two adults, who hadn't seen each other for a long time and were chatting happily, holding the teddy bear Xiao Ying had given her, muttering to herself.
"Eh, what's wrong, Big Sister?" Xiao Ying looked curiously at Rin, who wasn't paying attention to her, but instead kept tilting her head to watch her mother and Uncle Kariya chatting, so she asked curiously.
"Ah, ah, nothing!" Rin immediately reacted, quickly turned her head to face Xiao Ying, "I just think Uncle Kariya is a really good person, and I couldn't help but look at him a few more times, that's all. Haha, hahaha."
"Hmm, really? So Big Sister feels that way too?" Xiao Ying said with novelty, excitedly telling Rin: "Uncle Kariya's gaze at Xiao Ying just now felt so warm, even gentler than Father's gaze at us."
To this, Rin could only secretly sigh for Kariya once more. Even in the world-line she had arrived in, Kariya still genuinely loved Aoi's daughters, loving them more sincerely than their real father, truly giving his all... Oh! Wait a minute! Rin suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility.
Kariya, he wouldn't have realized that he had no chance with the woman he loved, and so planned to make a move on the daughter of the woman he loved as a roundabout way to achieve his goal, would he?! Recalling the various "pure love" stories between Matou Kariya and Xiao Ying she had seen online in her previous life, Rin suddenly felt completely unwell! Her gaze towards Kariya immediately changed.
She subconsciously hugged Xiao Ying next to her, then turned her head to look at Kariya, who was chatting happily with Aoi, with a vigilant gaze. Xiao Ying couldn't help but look up at her sister curiously and ask, "Big Sister, what's wrong?"
"Xiao Ying, remember, you need to be extra careful around Uncle Kariya from now on. Make sure to maintain a safe distance."
"Eh? Didn't Big Sister just say Uncle Kariya was a good person?"
"The 'nicer' a person is, the more careful you need to be. Who knows if he's a lolicon?"
"What's a lolicon?"
"Uh... it's an adult who particularly likes little children!"
"Oh, then Mom also particularly likes Xiao Ying and Big Sister, so is Mom a lolicon?"
"..."