At eight o'clock in the morning, Rin arrived at the airport with a large farewell party.
Aoko and Touko brought (and tied up) Alice, Akiha came with Kohaku and Hisui, plus the twenty leaders of the Rose Group. Rin was dressed in her usual black, her trench coat fluttering in the cold wind.
"Be careful with everything, life is paramount. If you can't handle it, run. No one will laugh at you. Don't try to shoulder everything alone; that will only hurt everyone," Touko said.
"...Take care," Alice said.
"Stupid Rin, I hope your plane crashes! Go experience the thrill of falling from ten thousand meters!" Aoko exclaimed. (Everyone looked at her with black lines on their foreheads.)
"Onee-chan, have a safe journey and come back soon. Akiha will miss you every moment," Akiha said.
"Wishing master a smooth journey. (x2)" Kohaku and Hisui said.
"Big Sister! Have a good trip!... (x20)" The Rose Group members waved white handkerchiefs, tearfully bidding farewell (Rin: I'm not dead yet, Big Sister!).
Rin, with a black line on her face, smiled and waved goodbye to the send-off crowd. The little bit of emotion she had managed to muster was ruined by the group of comedians. She stepped onto the boarding stairs without looking back.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Fuyuki City... In the dim, cold Tohsaka Magic Workshop, a tall, elegant figure stood behind a small, diligently working figure, watching her practice the family's traditional Jewel Magecraft.
These two figures were, of course, Tohsaka Tokiomi, the current head of the Tohsaka Family, and Tohsaka Sakura, the designated next heir to the Tohsaka Family.
Ever since Rin's sudden unauthorized departure from the Tohsaka Family, Tohsaka Tokiomi had rushed back to Fuyuki. After mobilizing all his resources to search for her without success, Tohsaka Tokiomi could only place the hope of the family's legacy on Sakura. After declining the request of the Matou Family head, Tohsaka Tokiomi personally began to instruct Sakura in the study of magecraft, never leaving her side.
Undoubtedly, Sakura's aptitude was outstanding, a genius among the Tohsaka Family's generations. Her conceptual void magical attribute was extremely rare in the entire magical world. When Sakura began to learn magecraft, her progress was rapid. However... with the brilliant Rin preceding her, Tokiomi, watching Sakura's daily progress, somehow couldn't find satisfaction. After all, whether in aptitude, diligence, or passion for magecraft, Sakura lagged far behind Rin.
This was only natural. Sakura was just an ordinary child, and inheriting magecraft was something suddenly forced upon her by her father after her sister left. In the initial painful purification of connecting with the Greater Source of life energy, Sakura felt an unprecedented fear, but was forced to continue under her father's demanding pressure.
In the subsequent studies of family, magecraft, mystery, knowledge, and more, Sakura finally understood why her sister had always been that way in the past, and what she had been busy with while Sakura played alone.
"This was originally Rin's responsibility, but Sakura, the future of the Tohsaka Family can only be borne by you."
Sakura remembered this as the sentence her father said to her most often. Therefore, Sakura, at a young age, began to have the self-awareness of being the Tohsaka Family's heir, bidding farewell to a happy and innocent childhood, and dedicating herself daily to the study of sorcery.
However, no matter how hard Sakura tried, or what achievements she made, the most common evaluation she received was:
"Rin could have done better back then."
Rin's departure was Sakura's biggest nightmare and the turning point in her life.
The moment she woke up that morning, Sakura immediately ran to the study, hoping, as usual, to see her tired sister emerge from it. But she was disappointed; her familiar sister never appeared again—not in the morning, not for breakfast, not for lunch, not at dusk. She went to sleep and woke up again, hoping everything from yesterday was a dream, and waited at the study door again! Rin still did not appear.
A few days later, her father returned. Her mother said her father had gone to find her sister. Sakura waited with eager anticipation, waiting for her father to return home holding her sister's hand, wondering if she should go up and tease her sister a bit. But her father also failed to bring her sister back. What followed was the heavy burden and responsibility of being the Tohsaka Family's heir.
Then came the beginning of the nightmare. It was as if the entire world had changed: her father's coercion, the painful studies, her mother's helpless tears and silence, no longer being able to play happily and simply, and having to bear the pressure left by her sister's past achievements.
All of this should have been what her sister faced. Why did it fall to me? Why did my sister leave? She left without a word, without saying goodbye, after promising to protect me! Why is it like this? She did everything perfectly, then dumped it on me to make my father laugh at me… For two years, Sakura lived with such questions, and whenever a hint of resentment arose in her heart, her sister's tear-stained smiling face from the night she left would appear before Sakura.
That was the first time Sakura, after gaining awareness, remembered seeing her sister cry, laughing and crying at the same time. Sakura didn't understand complex emotions; she only felt that her sister at that time did not want to leave… Why did her sister leave? This question troubled the already six-year-old Sakura (Rin was just seven at this time) for two whole years. She hoped to get an answer.
The magical light receded. Under Sakura's careful operation, a crystal infused with magic was shaped into a lifelike steed, rearing up on its hind legs. Its eyes, long mane, hooves, and tail were all clear and vivid, showing the creator's meticulousness and earnestness.
"Father, I'm done." Sakura calmly reported her achievement to her father beside her. Although her tone was calm, her bright, wide eyes still held a hint of anticipation, hoping for approval.
"Well done, Sakura." Tokiomi was in an unusually good mood today. He smiled and praised Sakura, saying, "To achieve this much at your age, Sakura, you are truly a Magus genius."
"What about my sister?!" Ever since she started learning sorcery, Sakura had always, consciously or unconsciously, compared herself to her sister, but she had always been utterly defeated. Today, suddenly receiving her father's approval, she instinctively blurted out.
"Rin, huh…" Whenever the topic of his eldest daughter, who had left home without permission, came up, Tokiomi couldn't help but look distraught, sighing repeatedly. After a moment, Tokiomi said to Sakura, "Sakura, as the heir of the Tohsaka Family, there are some things you need to know. Maguss of the Tohsaka Family are born with an undeniable responsibility: to obtain the Holy Grail."
"The Holy Grail?" Sakura murmured, hearing this term for the first time.
"The Holy Grail War, which unfolds every sixty years to obtain the Holy Grail. Winning this war, obtaining the Holy Grail, opening the gateway from the present world to the Root, and achieving the Magus's ultimate goal of seeking truth—that is the responsibility of us Maguss of the Tohsaka Family," Tokiomi told Sakura with utmost solemnity and seriousness.
Sakura couldn't help but ask, "Does the Holy Grail have anything to do with my sister?" Sakura hadn't forgotten the question she asked.
Tokiomi sighed involuntarily, saying, "Rin left on her own because she wanted to obtain the Holy Grail."
"What?!" Sakura exclaimed, instinctively covering her small mouth with both hands.
Tokiomi's face showed undisguised regret, saying, "Your sister, Rin, showed unimaginable intelligence from a young age. Her comprehension of sorcery and her passion for its pursuit made many mature Maguss feel inferior. But her excessive intelligence also made her understand things she shouldn't have."
Tokiomi pointed to an empty space on the bottom shelf of the front row of the grimoire bookshelf, saying, "That spot originally held a grimoire. It recorded a high-level magic that only had certain commemorative significance and no practical value. Therefore, I stored our Tohsaka Family's most original data concerning the Holy Grail War within the hard cover on the back of that book. But that book also disappeared when Rin left."
Sakura looked incredulously at her father's pained face. She couldn't imagine what kind of charm the Holy Grail possessed that could make her sister abandon this family and leave alone.
"Undoubtedly, Rin left to pursue the Holy Grail. As a descendant of the Tohsaka Family, to have such understanding and resolve, as a father, I should be proud. However, to betray the family's honor and privately seek the Holy Grail out of personal desire—this, I cannot forgive," Tokiomi said with impassioned rhetoric.
"Then, Father, when does the Holy Grail War begin?" Sakura asked, somewhat lost in thought.
"This year, in five months," Tokiomi replied.
"Five months? Will my sister come back in five months?!" Sakura asked with some surprise; she truly had too many questions she wanted to ask her sister for clarification.
Tokiomi nodded gravely, saying, "Yes, but she will participate in the Holy Grail War as an enemy of the Tohsaka Family."
"How could that be?!" Sakura was terrified, dumbfounded. She had never imagined a scenario where her sister would one day appear as an enemy of this family.
"Seven pairs of Master and Servant will fight each other. The last remaining pair of Master and Servant will have the right to obtain the Holy Grail. All participants are enemies."
"Then, will Father win?" Sakura asked with some concern.
At this, Tokiomi's face immediately broke into a confident smile. "Of course. Father has already obtained the strongest, sure-win trump card. The victory of this war, even before it began, already belongs to the Tohsaka Family."
"What about my sister? Won't she also participate?" Sakura asked worriedly.
Tokiomi couldn't help but frown again, finally sighing, "When a Master's Servant is defeated, they can receive the protection of the Church, which supervises the war. At that time, as long as Rin's Servant is killed, Rin can safely survive by seeking protection at the Church. Father Rissei Kotomine, who supervises this Holy Grail War, is Father's ally. I will ask him to look after Rin."
Hearing that her sister would be safe, Sakura immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but her heart couldn't help but become infinitely curious about the Holy Grail. What kind of magic did the Holy Grail possess to make her sister so obsessed as to leave this family?
As long as her sister could come back, the heir of the Tohsaka Family, let her sister do it…
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