"Great! The Command Spells have appeared!"
At the same time Zuke was summoned, in the Tohsaka household's living room, Rin Tohsaka—now grown into a graceful young woman—raised her hand, satisfied as she examined the vivid red marks etched onto her right hand.
Strictly speaking, these were not yet formal Command Spells. Rather, they were "omen" marks granted by the Holy Grail, signifying that Rin had been officially recognized as a participant in the Holy Grail War. The true Command Spells would only manifest fully after summoning a Servant—what appeared on Rin's hand now was merely a signal that she could begin preparing for the summoning ritual.
Not bad.
After all, the Tohsaka family was one of the Three Great Houses of the Holy Grail War. It was only natural that they would secure a spot in the competition.
"Congratulations, Rin."
Beside her, Rin's mother, Aoi Tohsaka, smiled warmly as she offered her sincere congratulations.
The pain of Tokiomi Tohsaka's death had long been eased thanks to Zuke's intervention, and unlike in the original timeline, Aoi had never suffered the traumatic assault by Kariya Matou. As a result, her mental and physical state remained stable—far from the broken, mentally unstable woman who had met an early demise in the original story. Now, Aoi still looked beautiful and healthy.
Having spent these years by Rin's side, Aoi was well aware of her daughter's relentless efforts to prepare for the Holy Grail War.
"Rin, which Heroic Spirit do you plan to summon?"
Before Zuke left this world, he had used "Blackbird · Lovers" to manipulate Luviagelita Edelfelt, forcing her to help maintain the Tohsaka family's assets.
Thanks to the assistance of a high-ranking member of the Mage's Association, the Tohsaka family's current situation was far better than in the original timeline. At the very least, Rin no longer had to work part-time jobs to afford materials for her gem-based magecraft.
Because of this, if Rin wished, she could easily obtain rare "catalysts" through the Mage's Association to summon specific Heroic Spirits.
However, Rin had never shown interest in acquiring such catalysts. Because of this, Aoi already had a guess as to which Servant her daughter intended to summon.
"Of course, I'm summoning Berserker—or rather, I'm summoning Zuke!"
Just as expected, Rin's answer was exactly what Aoi had anticipated.
Since Zuke had been summoned last time without the use of a catalyst, Rin planned to do the same this time.
"So it really is Mr. Zuke..."
Aoi nodded subtly, unsurprised by the answer—though her cheeks flushed slightly at the mention of Zuke.
Back when Tokiomi had died, Aoi, overwhelmed by grief, had impulsively engaged in… rather embarrassing activities with Zuke in a moment of emotional collapse.
While that incident had helped her quickly recover from the pain of Tokiomi's death, she had never dared to tell Rin about it.
Fortunately, while Rin knew that Zuke had "comforted" Aoi and helped her move past Tokiomi's death, she remained completely unaware of the specifics.
Thus, when Rin declared her intention to summon Zuke, Aoi couldn't help but feel a strange mix of emotions.
Perhaps she was anticipating something... but of course, such thoughts could never be voiced to Rin.
---
"So this is Fuyuki City ten years later—what do you think, Mr. Zuke? Any thoughts seeing the battlefield where you once fought?"
Atop Mount Enzou, which overlooked the entirety of Miyama City—where both the Tohsaka and Matou residences were located—Reines stood beside Zuke, gazing down at the city below with an excited smile. She seemed eager to see his reaction.
However, Zuke's response was far more indifferent than she had expected.
"Not really. After all, the last Holy Grail War ended pretty quickly."
Zuke shrugged. His time in Fuyuki City had been brief—just a few days at most, and even then, he had only been present for less than eight hours each day.
As for the so-called "ten years ago"... To the people of this world, the Fourth Holy Grail War had indeed been a decade ago.
But for Zuke, it had only been a matter of weeks. While others might have missed him dearly, he didn't feel the same level of nostalgia.
"Did you bring me here just to reminisce about the last Holy Grail War?"
"Not exactly. Mr. Zuke, you possess something akin to Clairvoyance, don't you?"
Reines shook her head. She wasn't here for leisure—she was here to win the Holy Grail War, and her actions had a purpose.
Unlike Zuke's previous Master, Rin Tohsaka—who had been just a child with no ability to formulate strategies—Reines already had a plan in mind.
"From here, you can see all of Fuyuki City. Can you identify the other participants in this Holy Grail War?"
In the Holy Grail War, information was everything.
If this were the El-Melloi family of old, gathering intelligence would have been trivial. But now that the family had declined, Reines had very few resources at her disposal.
Under these circumstances, she could only place her hopes in Zuke's supposed "Clairvoyance."
"...Where did you hear such a rumor?"
However, when Zuke heard her question, he gave her a strange look.
"Clairvoyance" in the world of Type-Moon wasn't just about seeing far—it was the ability to perceive the past, present, and future.
Zuke most certainly did not possess such an ability. At best, he could use "Blackbird Requiem's" causality manipulation to vaguely predict certain outcomes.
"Huh? You don't have it?"
Seeing that Zuke didn't seem to be lying, Reines froze for a moment before a flash of anger crossed her face.
Of course, she wasn't angry at Zuke—she was furious at Waver for feeding her false information.
"That guy… he actually lied to me!"
But upon hearing Reines' complaint, Zuke quickly realized why she had mistakenly believed he had Clairvoyance.
During the last Holy Grail War, he had effortlessly provided detailed information about every Master and Servant, leading Waver to assume he had some form of future-sight.
Waver had then passed this assumption on to Reines, creating this misconception.
If the current events still followed the original Fate/stay night storyline, Zuke could indeed have relied on his memories to provide some intelligence on the participants.
But this time, most of the people connected to the original plot had been killed by him in the last Holy Grail War, rendering that knowledge useless.
If nothing else, Reines herself had never appeared in the Fifth Holy Grail War in the original story.
Her very presence here was already a major deviation from the original plot.
To be continued…
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