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Seeing his adversary topple over the edge of the bridge’s guard rail and to the ground far below, Tohsaka Tokiomi feels the satisfaction of having completed an unpleasant but necessary chore. In the sky, Berserker has broken away from his pursuit of Archer, and is now heading in the direction of the battle at the Mion River. That out-of-control Servant will probably drain the last of Matou Kariya’s prana from his body and leave that man as good as dead.
Still, Tokiomi is nothing if not thorough in his actions. He descends the bridge on foot, and makes his way to the place where that man had fallen, in order to be sure of his adversary’s timely demise.
To his surprise, Matou Kariya is still breathing.
The Master of Berserker is lying in a puddle of stagnant water. Much of his body is covered with severe burns, and he has gone into some kind of shock, but he is alive. And he is suffering: that much is clear.
—Tohsaka Tokiomi is not by nature a cruel man. Ordinarily, he would not stoop so low as to hurl such insults at his opponent in a duel of magecraft. It was simply that the unexpectedness of the encounter, and the fatigue of the war, had led him in the heat of the moment to express out loud that nascent contempt he had always held for the Matou scion and his unfathomably selfish choices. Besides, he and Matou Kariya cannot even be considered enemies in this war. The difference in ability is simply too laughable for that.
Here in the half-darkness under the bridge, the only sound is the drip drip drip of water from a leaking pipe. In the far distance, the battle with Caster still rages. But the Einzbern camp and Rider’s Master will deal with that situation; Tokiomi’s presence or absence will not alter that outcome.
What Tokiomi still stands to gain from this situation, then, is information. Even if participating in this farce has been a total waste of time, if he has the Master of Berserker in his possession, then he can at least interrogate him to find out Matou Zouken’s intent.
It was not too much trouble for Tokiomi to cast a spell that would transport Kariya’s weight in addition to his own. But the Tohsaka household is not equipped to handle medical emergencies, so there is nothing for it but to lay the body on the sofa in the living area and consider what he will do next.
It is a pity that Kirei is not around; his talents would be far more suited for this task than Tokiomi’s own. Still, Tokiomi well remembers the year he had spent training in healing magecraft, and quickly calls to mind a spell that will allow him to assess the state of the man’s Magic Circuits.
To Tokiomi’s surprise, they are far more numerous and dense than he had expected. They appear almost fully functional, despite the battering they must have taken in the last few hours. And besides—they are aligned strangely in an interconnected network with no clear center, instead of fanning out from a central branch like the nervous system does.
—These are not natural Magic Circuits. They are foreign entities that function as prana conductors, woven all through Matou Kariya’s body.
So this is the secret of the Matou magecraft.
Tokiomi has to step back. He has seen many terrible outcomes during his years of study, and to tell the truth, he had also always been somewhat aware that the principles underpinning that family’s magecraft would be extremely distasteful. They were only a dying house that would do anything to sustain the bloodline, after all.
But to witness its effect like this—it makes bile rise in his throat. This family is a disgrace to the very name of magi.
And he had given up his daughter to such a thing.
This knowledge does not make him wish to change his mind about Sakura. The surrounding circumstances, and the facts that had led up to him deciding thus, were still the same—so his judgment, too, remains the same. Yet there is a part of him—the part that only wished to fulfil the role of a father—which hopes that, with any luck, Matou Zouken had found her intrinsic Magic Circuits satisfactory, and not gone to such an extreme.
—Matou Kariya had mentioned Sakura’s name, up on that bridge. He must have known what had happened to her. Up on that bridge, when he had asked Tokiomi ‘why did you hand Sakura to Zouken’, he had not done so with the intent of hearing Tokiomi’s reasoning. He had been saying, ‘how could you do such a thing’.
This is the first time it even occurs to Tokiomi that Matou Kariya might have reasons for his choices besides his own selfish whims. Tokiomi had not thought the Master of Berserker even capable of such a thing.
Through the connection of the healing spell, Tokiomi feels Kariya’s consciousness surface, along with that of many, many worms. Kariya’s eyes open, and his ruined face twists—Tokiomi cannot even tell what expression he’s trying to make— and he struggles to get up. A worm slithers through a vein just beneath the skin, and for a second Tokiomi is mesmerised by the undulation.
Tokiomi presses his free hand to Kariya’s forehead and sends fire lancing through the man’s magic circuits. It is rough work, even slipshod, but it will hopefully shock the parasites enough that they subside. That will also seal off his connection to Berserker and his curse, and give Kariya back his own mind for a time.
Kariya stops struggling, and Tokiomi uses the opportunity to take him by the shoulders. “Stop. I just want some answers— and then you can try to kill me again, since you want to so much.”
Kariya’s eyes seem to focus on Tokiomi’s face, and then with effort he turns away. “Fine,” he croaks.
That—had been easier than Tokiomi expected.
He considers all the things he does not know about the Master of Berserker, and decides to start with the most pertinent. “Why are you even fighting in this war, Kariya? Zouken must know you aren’t up to the task.”
You even have to ask—like you don’t know—you bastard—
—There is really no hope of getting a coherent answer from this man. Tokiomi must lead this conversation, then. He thinks back to the connection he had made several minutes ago. “It has to do with Sakura?”
Something changes in Kariya’s face then. The static in his mind seems to quiet, and he nods, slowly.
“So, you’re not fighting for family honour or the Third Root or anything like that. You’re fighting because Sakura will—what?”
“If I gain the Grail, then Zouken will let her go.”
Kariya says this immediately, without hesitation. That is why Tokiomi can believe that this is the heart of the motivation that drives this man to continue fighting in this war.
“And why do you care what happens to the Tohsakas’ daughter?”
“Aoi’s daughter,” he replies, again immediately. ”She’s—Aoi’s daughter.” He looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn’t.
Tokiomi tries to make sense of that. Tokiomi has heard Aoi talk often about her childhood friend who’d moved away, and whom she would sometimes make the journey down to the next city over to meet. So—Kariya cares far more for her than he had thought. He cares about her enough to come back to the place he had left, and undergo all of this, in order to reach for the almost impossible hope of saving her daughter.
—Kariya had loved her. That was the only possible explanation. And that would also explain his hatred for Tokiomi.
Tokiomi also remembers that a long time ago, Matou Kariya had been engaged to Zenjou Aoi. Back then, he had assumed that that had been the reason Kariya had run away, because he didn’t want that sort of responsibility. But now—
He could have had everything he wanted. So why would he have chosen to run away from it all?
“So—ten years ago, when you left.”
“I had to. That man would have, to her child—I couldn’t let—“
If Matou Kariya had married Aoi, and produced a child—no doubt, Zouken would have done to that child what he had done to Sakura. So, when Matou Kariya had renounced his name and left Fuyuki, he had been trying to protect them from that fate.
But it had happened anyway.
This is really—
“I didn’t know,” Tokiomi says softly. He is not sure why he is saying this. He need not justify himself to this man. Now that Tokiomi is in possession of all the facts, he can clearly see—this situation that nobody wanted to happen. It is just what it is, and everything else only followed naturally. Such is the nature of tragedy.
Tokiomi’s sentiment regarding Matou Kariya is no longer contempt, but rather an odd sort of pity, and perhaps even respect for having the strength to do – what he did.
“You do know that what you’re doing changes nothing, right? You’re just making it harder on yourself.”
He does not know if Kariya hears him. That man—if he really has been so focused on this desire, to the point that he would endure all of this—he definitely cannot see the futility of what he is doing. Perhaps his mind, in this state, is not even capable of processing it.
So this is what you really are. Matou Kariya.
Unexpectedly, a long-standing uneasiness has been completely resolved in this encounter. In this state, Kariya could not have hoped to win the Heaven’s Feel. Matou Zouken knows this, and so he must have allowed all this to happen just for his own entertainment.
Tokiomi feels very tired. Even with this matter closed, there is still a war to fight. Now that he knows for sure that the Matou wildcard is not a threat, the next step—is an alliance with the Einzberns.
He turns back to the matter immediately at hand. “I understand. Like I said—you can try to kill me now. If you can.”
With effort, Kariya lifts his hands. Tokiomi expects those bone-white fingers to wrap around his throat, but they tighten instead around the back of his neck and drag him forcibly downward.
Kariya’s lips collide with his, and as he yields to the pressure of that thin, withered mouth he thinks he might understand what Matou Kariya is thinking. These lips, which have touched Aoi’s.
He should feel disgust—both at the principle of the matter, and that it is this man doing this to him. But as he lets himself be pulled forward, as he lets Matou Kariya kiss him, he doesn’t feel anything.
In the eyes of a normal person, the things Tokiomi has done in the name of magus should condemn him to burn in a hell made from the fire of his own magecraft. Even now, considering Sakura, he cannot say that he has not given it any thought. If Tokiomi had been a lesser man, if he had not determinedly schooled himself in the practice of shutting out that weakness, he would long have fallen into despair.
Such is the price of thaumaturgy. And Matou Kariya just happens to be one of those who had fallen by the wayside. Now, however, as Tokiomi looks into that man’s ruined eyes, he can empathise at least.
—There is one last thing he can do for this man.
He shifts his hands to Kariya’s stomach, over the centre of the body cavity where the mass of worms is densest. He casts the same spell he used up on the Fuyuki bridge, except directed inward instead of outward. Fire, bright, clean, red. It burns through the worms and leaves them ashes trapped in dying flesh. Kariya cries out in pain, the sound more ragged than sharp. Tokiomi conjures a soundproof barrier and lets the spell run its course.
Like this, Berserker is permanently cut off from his prana supply. Since Matou Zouken knows this is a lost cause, he will do nothing, and Tokiomi does not think that Servant is capable of finding another Master on his own. So that will be the end of the Matou family’ involvement in this war.
And Kariya—
Tokiomi could tell him where Aoi is. But he has no desire to subject his wife to the appalling knowledge he now possesses. In any case, if that man tried to find her in his current state, it would likely kill him.
So he helps Kariya to his feet, and casts the spell that will bring him to the doorstep of the Matou family’s house. “Go home, Master of Berserker. With any luck—we’ll not meet during this war again.”