When Izumi, Le Fay, and Tohsaka Rin vanished into the spatial tear, Asia and the others fell into silence.
Izumi leaving so suddenly left everyone feeling a little… empty.
Passing through the rift, Izumi suddenly felt the ground disappear beneath him.
A moment later—
The three of them were free-falling.
"KYAAAAAA!!"
Tohsaka Rin's scream split the air as she instinctively pushed her hands down on her skirt to keep it from flying up.
Her skirt, after all, did not come with anti-gravity functions.
Le Fay was equally stunned.
"L-Izumi-sama, what's happening!?
Did something go wrong!?"
Izumi steadied his body mid-air and rubbed his chin.
"No idea.
This is my first time using this thing."
"Judging by the cliché… are we about to fall into a lake and crash into a beautiful girl who's in the middle of bathing?"
"Just imagining it is kind of exciting, isn't it?"
Le Fay stared at him in disbelief.
"This is not the time for jokes, Izumi-sama!"
"We'll die if we hit the ground—!"
"And… ah! I can't use magic! My mana—it's sealed!"
Her voice trembled as she tried to cast, only to realize her magical energy was being forcibly suppressed.
Izumi blinked, tested his own power, and nodded calmly.
"Huh. I'm fine."
"Guess you're just too weak."
"No big deal, don't panic."
For Izumi—powered by the Third Magic and his own perpetual mana engine, his magical energy was infinite and self-generating.
A petty interworld restriction wasn't going to stop him.
Le Fay, however, wasn't built the same.
Different worlds, different rules.
As they continued falling, Rin had already stopped screaming—not because she was calm, but because her throat hurt.
Her expression was empty, dead inside.
Why? Why is this happening?
When I got isekai'd, it was instant! A flash of light and—boom—I was already there!
Where is my smooth, cliché teleportation!? Where is the alleyway arrival scene!?
Nothing about this was in the script.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nasuverse — Matou Residence Basement
A pitch-black underground chamber.
No light.
Only scratching noises—skitter, skitter, skitter—
and the sound of a little girl crying.
"Help me… someone… please…"
"S-So scary… I don't want this…"
"I'm sorry, Grandpa… I'll be good… I'll behave…"
"Please… let me out…"
The girl curled into a trembling ball.
Beyond the faint reach of her vision, hordes of slithering insects slowly crawled toward her.
She was desperate.
She wanted to escape—escape this darkness, escape this nightmare, escape this house.
Above her, a withered old man stood, smiling through rotting teeth.
Matou Zouken watched her suffering with sick delight.
"Fufufufu… it will be over soon, Sakura.
Endure it a little longer."
Her cries pleased him.
Cry, cry, cry until your tears dry up—
Only then will you become a proper Magus of the Matou family.
Probably.
The little girl who once bore the name Tohsaka Sakura, now renamed Matou Sakura, felt nothing but despair.
She hated her parents.
She hated her sister.
Why was I the one abandoned?
Why did they send me to this monster's house?
Why do I have to suffer like this?
Just as the swarm was about to engulf her completely—
A sudden sound rang out.
Crack.
Crack.
Sakura froze.
Matou Zouken frowned.
A fracture—
In space itself.
The air in front of Sakura shattered like glass.
The insects sensed danger instantly and scattered in every direction.
And from the opening in space—
Three figures plummeted straight down.
Izumi landed lightly on his feet.
Le Fay landed safely in his arms.
Tohsaka Rin—
SMACK.
Face-first impact.
Rin let out a groan before pushing herself up, furious.
"You—!"
But before she could unleash her wrath, Izumi spoke first.
"…Oops.
Looks like we arrived at the wrong place."
"Tch. Of all places, we ended up here.
Should I call it good luck or terrible luck?"
Before Rin could even process his words, a massive magical circle bloomed beneath Izumi's feet.
In the blink of an eye, it spread across the entire basement—then surged outward, wrapping the entire Matou estate in its radiance.
Rin's breath caught.
"W-Wait—Izumi—this is—?"
Then she noticed the tiny figure trembling in the corner.
Her eyes widened.
"That's… Sakura?"
She ran toward the young girl, kneeling beside her and gripping her shoulders.
"Sakura!? Is that really you!?"
"Is this… the little you!?"
Little Sakura stared blankly at the unfamiliar older girl.
Her mind couldn't connect the face to any memory, yet… something about her felt painfully familiar.
"I… um… who… are you…?"
Rin's hands trembled.
"Sakura, it's me.
I'm Rin!"
"I'm your older sister!"
Sakura blinked in confusion.
Sister?
Rin?
There was no way—her sister shouldn't be this big.
Did she drink some kind of potion?
Before Sakura could say anything more—
Matou Zouken's rasping voice echoed through the basement.
"Well, well… I must say, you three are quite rude."
"Breaking into another man's home uninvited… don't you think that's discourteous?"
Izumi glanced lazily at him.
"What the hell are you babbling about?"
"You talking to your ancestors or something?"
The magic circle flared.
A blinding wave of light surged outward and illuminated the entire basement.
Rin finally got a clear look at the insects crawling across the floor—
and her face turned ice-cold.
She wasn't stupid.
Seeing the tears on her sister's face and the horrors around her, she instantly understood.
"Matou Zouken!!!"
Her enraged scream echoed like a thunderclap.
Tohsaka Rin had snapped.