After her hoarse roar, Rin couldn't help but gasp for breath due to lack of oxygen in her lungs. Aozaki Touko appeared outwardly calm and unfazed by Rin's angry accusation, maintaining an aloof demeanor. However, the slight flicker in her eyes behind her glasses revealed that she wasn't entirely unmoved.
"So you defected privately, forcing your father to transplant the family's Magic Crest to your sister, and as the sole heir, she naturally couldn't be adopted by outsiders anymore. Is that right?"
"That's right."
Aozaki Touko fell into a period of silence. Rin also had no intention of speaking further. The two Maguss, vastly different in height but both older sisters who had betrayed and fled their families, fell into a deathly silence.
"It seems we are diametrically opposed on the issue of sisterly affection. You are a qualified and great sister," Aozaki Touko said after a moment of silence, turning to look at the tombstone of her master, who was also her grandfather, as if unwilling to look at Rin, speaking with her back to her.
Just as Aozaki Touko said, between sisterly affection and the family Magic Crest, Rin and Touko made completely opposite decisions.
Aozaki Touko could not tolerate the family's Magic Crest being given to her sister. She meticulously accumulated power, plotting to reclaim the Magic Crest from her sister, Aoko, because it rightfully belonged to her.
Rin, whose family Magic Crest was originally destined for her, could not tolerate her sister Sakura being adopted out to suffer humiliation and abuse, nor could she stand by and watch her sister perish in the magical calamities brought on by the magical bloodline. She still gave up the family's inheritance, betrayed her family, and left for distant lands.
Two people in such similar circumstances, yet with diametrically opposed goals, their encounter here might truly be the guidance of fate.
"What is your purpose in coming here?" Aozaki Touko asked the question again.
"Just to confirm whether the previous Old Magician Aozaki is really dead or not. I originally wanted to dig up the grave to see, but since you're here, it saves me the trouble."
"He's dead, cleanly and thoroughly dead. With my understanding of the human body, I can be 100% certain that the person I killed was not a doll or a Homunculus acting as a substitute. That old man just let me stab him to death without moving, like an act of atonement," Aozaki Touko answered Rin's question as casually as if she were talking about killing a cat or a dog.
Aozaki Touko turned her head slightly, glancing at Rin from the side, and said, "Whatever your purpose in staying in Misaki, I advise you to leave as soon as possible. The Magic Crest of the Fifth Magic is a matter between Aoko and me. It's not for any outsider to interfere."
Indeed, over ninety percent of the Maguss who came to Misaki City at this time were after the Fifth Magic. Regardless of whether they were strong or weak, Maguss would not miss even the slightest chance to touch magic, for it was the truth of the world, a shore that Maguss could never reach, no matter how close they got.
And at this moment, Rin had given up her family's Magic Crest and needed a Magic Crest to protect herself from magical calamities. Rin's victory over Alice proved she had the strength to seize one. Therefore, Aozaki Touko, whose goal was the Magic Crest of the Fifth Magic, naturally could not tolerate Rin's presence.
"I don't intend to join your struggle," Rin said frankly.
Aozaki Touko frowned and said, "Do you want Misaki's distorted spiritual pulse?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to borrow it. But compared to that, Aozaki Touko, can you answer a question that I can't figure out?"
"Speak."
"Do you really want to kill your sister and seize the Magic Crest of the Fifth Magic?"
"Of course, that rightfully belongs to me," Aozaki Touko's tone began to get agitated.
"But it's your sister's now."
"So I'm going to take it back!"
"Then why didn't you take the Magic Crest at the very beginning, instead of waiting until now, or even longer?"
"What did you say?"
"I'm asking you why, after you killed that old man who betrayed you with one knife, you didn't go and kill Aoko, your sister? The only person who could stop you was clearly dead. At that time, no one could stop you. Aozaki Aoko had just obtained the Magic Crest and just entered the world of magic, completely powerless. Why didn't you kill her? To take the Fifth Magic that you yearn for!"
"...At that time, Aoko had already gone to Alice's place." A very forced excuse.
"Alice Kuonji and you have known each other and been close for over ten years, while Aoko had only just met Alice at that time. A witch isolated from the world is inherently in a position of absolute neutrality. If you wanted to seize the Magic Crest, Alice would absolutely not stop you." Rin directly exposed Touko's reasoning.
"..." Aozaki Touko remained silent, as if she hadn't heard.
"You don't actually crave the Fifth Magic as much as the world thinks."
"..."
"You weren't actually that despairing about sisterly affection."
"..."
"You actually never intended to snatch your sister's things."
"Enough..."
"The Fifth Magic isn't actually the most important thing in your heart."
"Enough..."
"You, in fact, still love Aoko, don't you?"
"I said, enough!" Just as if the deepest scar in her heart had been torn open, Aozaki Touko for the first time lost her calm and composed demeanor, scolding just like Rin had earlier. The sky seemed to cooperate intentionally, with lightning intertwined, rain pouring down, and rolling thunder that lingered as if crying out against an injustice.
Aozaki Touko leaned on the tombstone in front of her, no longer able to regain her detached and calm composure, and said, "Why do you think this way, different from what everyone else in the world thinks?"
"It's nothing, we're both older sisters."
"Heh, really? There are many sisters in Magecraft families, but none are like you."
"Aren't you here too? We're the same, both anomalies."
Aozaki Touko silently looked at the tombstone in front of her, her left hand's five fingers gripping the edge of the stone tablet so tightly that her knuckles turned white from the excessive force. Finally, she sighed as if deflated, looking up at the torrential rain in the sky, and said, "Aoko could have been an ordinary girl, able to simply find happiness…"
"Yes, if Sakura had never come into contact with magecraft from the beginning, how wonderful that would have been…"
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