"Mom"
Rin stepped forward and drew a deep breath. Some things could not be hidden. She kept it as brief and clear as she could: her father's obstinacy; Matou Zouken's sudden madness and betrayal; her father's brutal death; Rei Ao destroying Zouken and cremating and laying her father to rest.
Every word struck Aoi like a hammer. When she heard that her husband had been stabbed from behind by Matou Zouken, she let out a short, strangled cry. Her body swayed; she nearly fainted.
At just the right moment, Rei Ao released a thread of gentle mental strength to steady her, keeping her from breaking under the weight of her grief.
Chapter 981: Kotomine Kirei
"Tokiomi he he really"
Aoi Tohsaka sank into a chair, tears sliding down without a sound.
She was torn and bewildered by her husband's decision, and the sudden news still cut like a knife despite all their years together.
She looked at Rei Ao, her gaze a tangle of gratitude, grief, and confusion.
"Thank you, Rei Ao-san, for saving Rin and Sakura, but Tokiomi"
"I understand your sorrow, Tohsaka-san," Rei Ao said, his voice calm yet carrying a quiet authority.
"Tokiomi Tohsaka's tragedy was born of his obstinacy and blind adherence to magus doctrineexploited and warped for centuries by Matouu Zouken."
"The dead are gone. The living have to face forward. Rin and Sakura need you."
His words seemed to carry a guiding force that let Aoi's frantic grief begin to settle.
Rei Ao had long understood that Aoi was shackled by tradition. Without his intervention, she likely would have suffered a severe mental break. As he said, Rin and Sakura needed her.
She looked at her two daughters, pressed close together, fear and reliance shining in their eyes. A mother's instinct to be strong awoke within her. Her husband was gone. She would have to stand tallif only for her girls.
She wiped her tears, straightened her back, and bowed deeply to Rei Ao. "No matter what, thank you for saving Rin and Sakura. The Tohsaka family owes you a great debt."
"There's no need for formality," he replied, steadying her with a light gesture. "But the days ahead won't be peaceful. Zouken may be dead, yet the machinery of the Holy Grail War remains. As one of the Three Founding Families, the Tohsakas will inevitably be drawn in."
At the mention of the Grail War, Aoi turned pale. Born into the Zenjou family, she wasn't ignorant of the magus world's crueltyespecially the secrets about the Grail War she had gleaned from her husband.
Rin clenched her fists, meeting her mother's and Rei Ao's eyes with clear resolve. "Mom, Rei Ao nii. Father is gone, but I'm still here. I'm the heir of the Tohsaka family. I'll shoulder our responsibilities and protect you and Sakura."
After all she had been through, she seemed to have grown up overnight. Her father's death devastated her, but it also stripped the shine from that so-called magus pride, revealing the vanity and danger beneath. Her one conviction now was to protect the family she still had.
Sakura spoke up too, soft but firm: "I'll help my sister."
Seeing her daughters so steady and sensible, Aoi's heart ached even as relief bloomed. She pulled them into her arms, tears rising againthis time threaded with determination.
Rei Ao nodded slightly at the scene. Rin's talent and temperament were exceptional. If properly guided after this ordeal, her future would be bright.
"Ding-dong!"
The manor's doorbell rang.
Aoi gathered herself and went to open the door. On the threshold stood a tall young man in a black clerical cassock, features stern yet oddly hollow. He was Tokiomi's studentKotomine Kireian Executor of the Holy Church.
"Master's wife," Kirei said, his voice flat, revealing nothing. "I sensed abnormal magical activity in Fuyuki City, seemingly from the direction of the Matou residence. As for my teacher"
His gaze slid past Aoi, across Rin and Sakura in the sitting room, and finally settled on Rei Ao. In those hollow eyes, the faintest ripple stirred.
Seeing her husband's student, Aoi began to speak of the tragedybut Rei Ao raised a hand to stop her. He stood, meeting Kirei's eyes. From the moment this man appeared, Rei Ao had felt an aberrant, twisted cast to his spirit. It wasn't simple coldness or emptiness; it was a fundamental deficit in normal emotional cognition, and a warped hunger for meaning born in pain and nihilism.
"Kotomine Kirei," Rei Ao said, calling him by name, his tone unreadable.
Kirei blinked, surprised that this stranger knew who he was. "And you are?"
"Who I am doesn't matter." Rei Ao walked toward him, blue-green eyes seeming to look straight through him. "What matters is this: did you come out of concern for your teacheror because you're chasing some abnormal sensation you think might fill the void inside you?"
Kirei's pupils tightened a fraction. The words pierced like a needle, striking a place in his heart he himself barely understood.
He had been born without ordinary emotional experience. Pain, joy, sorrowthese were vague notions. Only when he witnessed others' suffering and struggle did he feel a faint, strange stirringan unconscious twist one could call "pleasure."
"I don't understand what you mean," Kirei said evenly. But beneath the emptiness, something began to churn.
"Don't understand?" Rei Ao stopped a few paces away, a faint, ambiguous smile on his lips. "Then let me help you see yourself."
A green glint flashed in his eyes. An invisible, vast mental force swept over Kirei. It wasn't an attack but a higher-order insight and reflectionan ability from another world known as Psychological Mastery.
"Urrah!" Kirei let out a sound that wasn't quite human. His body shook violently, as if his brainhis very soulhad been stripped of every disguise and thrust, bare, into the glaring light of truth.
~~~
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Chapter 982: Fun thing to do...
A torrent of scenes and sensations surged up in his mind beyond his control.
As a child, faced with his father's strict dogma, he felt no ripple in his heartonly weariness.
When practicing martial arts, there was no passion for the martial path, just mechanical repetition.
As an Executor punishing heresies, witnessing others' pain and death, a hidden, morbid pleasure quietly took root deep within him.
Studying magecraft under Tokiomi Tohsaka was not driven by fervor for the Root.
It was an attempt to find, in that pursuit, something that could jolt his numb soul.
His deepest confusion and distortion: why was it only in the misfortunes of others that he could feel the reality of being alive?
Was that twisted delight the meaning of his existence?
All of that darknessburied so deep he himself had never fully seen itwas laid bare, magnified, and presented to him with stark clarity under Rei Ao's Psychological Mastery.
"No that's not me that"
Kotomine Kirei clutched his head. For the first time, violent emotion tore across his faceutter chaos, self-loathing, and the panic of being exposed.
And yet, strangest of all, beneath the panic there seemed to tremble a faint thrill at being understood and an eager anticipation of even richer pleasure now that his dark nature had been completely unveiled.
His features twisted; in his eyes, confusion tangled with a sickly lucidity. He was teetering on the edge of collapse.
Aoi Tohsaka and her daughters were stunned by the sudden turn. They didn't fully grasp what was happening, but they could feel the grotesque, spine-chilling aura pouring off Kirei.
"Do you see it now?" Rei Ao's voice remained calm, cold as a verdict. "Kotomine Kirei, your essence is neither good nor evilit is emptiness. And from that emptiness has grown a pleasure that feeds on others' suffering. Your very existence profanes ordinary order and feeling. Left unchecked, you will only walk further down this twisted path and become the source of countless tragedies."
His words fell like a final sentence. He had seen Kirei's possible future: the "Mapo Priest" of the Fourth and Fifth Grail Wars, who would run rampant in pursuit of his private pleasure and cause innumerable calamities. The manifestation of All the World's Evil is terrifying, but a pure perversion born of missing humanitylike Kirei'sis a disaster no less.
For such a being, Rei Ao saw neither the need nor the possibility of guidance or salvation. That twisted nature was already set. The best course was to erase him completely before he could do more harm.
"No you can't"
Sensing what was coming, Kirei struggled to rouse his mana, to call on the powers of an Executor and a magusbut it was already too late.
Rei Ao didn't make another move; he merely willed it. The invisible mental field around Kirei suddenly changed in nature, shifting from reflection to primal decomposition and erasure.
"gh!"
Kirei's body snapped rigid. His mouth opened, but no sound came. His very existencebody, mana, that warped soul and mindbegan to fall apart from the most basic strata, like pencil marks being rubbed from paper.
No flash. No sound. No agonized struggle.
Under the eyes of Aoi and her daughters, the man radiating danger one second earlier became absolute nothing the next, as if he had never existed in this world. Even the cassock on his back vanished without a trace.
""
The sitting room fell dead silent. Aoi covered her mouth, eyes wide with shock. Kirei's earlier abnormality had frightened her, but Rei Ao erasing a person with a flick of thought went beyond anything she could grasp, rousing a primal awe.
Rin and Sakura stared, little faces stunned. Once again, they feltfirsthandRei Ao's unfathomable, god-demon power
Rei Ao turned back to them, expression unchanged, as if he had only brushed away a mote of dust. "His existence was a latent danger to youand to the world. Clearing it away was best."
He said it lightly, then looked to Rin. "Rin, let's talk about the Holy Grail War."
Rin straightened, alert. "Please, Rei Ao-nii."
"The Grail War is a ritual the Three Founding Families built to reach the Root. But after centuries of driftoutside interference, and the taint of All the World's Evilthe Fuyuki Grail is no longer a wish-granting cauldron. It's a massive, catastrophic risk."
"Even so," Rei Ao continued, "the war itselfthe rules and scaffoldingis still a vast stage and an opportunity." He held Rin's gaze as her crimson eyes firmed.
"I understand! I'll take part!" Rin nodded hard.
"Noyou're not just taking part," Rei Ao said, a deep light flickering in his eyes. "I want you to win the coming Holy Grail War."
"Win?" Rin was surprisedand intrigued. But then she remembered the tainted Grail. "B-but, Rei Ao-san, didn't you say the Grail"
"The Grail itself is worthlesseven dangerous," he said. "But the process of winning, and the victor's status, are a credential and a voice. More importantly, by taking part and steering the ritual, you can probe the essence of magecraft in this world and hone your abilities."
He paused, then added, "And with my guidance, your odds are high."
That was the truth: he simply thought the Holy Grail War would be funand the notion of "raising" Rin Tohsaka had taken root.
Chapter 983: Command Seals
"I'll teach you magecraft unlike anything in this world and help you grow faster."
"Entering the Holy Grail War will be your quickest trial by fireand your proof."
Rei Ao's words set Rin Tohsaka's heart racing. To protect her mother and sister, she needed strength. The Grail War was dangerous, yesbut it was also the fastest path to power and recognition. More importantly, Rei Ao would be there.
"I agree!" Rin answered without hesitation, eyes blazing. "I'll enter the Holy Grail Warand I'll win!"
"Good." Rei Ao's smile showed his satisfaction. "Then special training begins today. First, we need to choose a proper holy relic and summon the Servant who will be yours."
The way he spoke of the Grail Warand of winninglit a fire in Rin's chest. Protect her family, prove herself Those fierce desires tangled together, bringing a flush to her cheeks. She clenched her fists; her crimson eyes shone with resolve.
Just then, a small but clear voice sounded: "I I want to enter the Holy Grail War too."
They turned toward the voice. Sakura Tohsaka was gripping the hem of her sister's clothes. Her face was still pale and timid, but in those violet eyes burned a determination beyond her years.
"Sakura?" Rin stared, surprised.
"I don't want to just be protected by my sister anymore." Sakura lifted her head, her gaze moving from her mother to her sister, then settling on Rei Ao. "Dad is gone, and Rin has to carry so much. I want strength too. I want to help her. I don't want to be a burden"
Her voice was choked, yet unwavering. Witnessing her father's death, the fear of being sent away, and her sister's desperate protection had cut her to the core. Deep inside, she longed to become strong enough to stand beside her sisternot hide beneath her wings forever.
Seeing the light in Sakura's eyesa blend of fear and courageRin felt a sting in her heart, followed by a wash of warmth. She squeezed Sakura's hand tight. "Sakura, you were never a burden!"
Aoi watched her younger daughter, eyes full of ache and conflict. Instinct told her not to let another child step into danger. But the resolve in Sakura's eyes said some roads must be walked together.
Rei Ao regarded Sakura with a flash of approval. An affinity for the Imaginary attribute, paired with this hardiness born in extremitySakura's potential in this world was far from small. He inclined his head. "You may."
"Rei Ao-nii?" Rin glanced at him, worried. She feared Sakura was too young to bear the perils of the Grail War.
"It's fine," Rei Ao said calmly. "With me here, nothing will happen to them. And sisters of one heart can cleave metal. One more Master means one more strengthand one more possibility."
He stepped before Rin and Sakura and held out his right hand, index and middle fingers together. A point of clear radiance bloomed at the tipsnot mana, but something more fundamental, closer to the level of law.
"A Master's qualification in the Grail War is granted by Command Seals. Now, I will inscribe your Command Seals."
His fingertips touched Rin's smooth hand. The clear light flowed, swiftly tracing out a complex, arcane pattern: three scarlet marks like flamesor wingsforming her Command Seals, their core tinged with a thread of blue-green, Rei Ao's own primal breath.
Then he marked three Seals on Sakura's younger hand as well. Hers were gentlertwining vines and blooming violetswith a glint of blue at the center.
