"But as far as I know, the Matou family is participating in this Holy Grail War as well."
Kirei Kotomine frowned.
"I know what you are worried about, but the one representing the Matou family, Kariya Matou, is someone who abandoned the path of magecraft halfway.
"While the Holy Grail War does emphasize the Servant's power, if the Master is a half-baked magus, then no matter how strong the Servant is, it's useless, because the Master himself is the weak point.
"Still, we do have to be cautious. That's why I called you here.
"Kirei, I need you to use your Servant Assassin's power to investigate what is really going on.
"Whether this is the Matou family's scheme or some unknown force truly did abduct Sakura, I want you to get to the bottom of this.
"And then, bring Sakura back safely if at all possible."
"Understood, teacher."
"This is Sakura's photo."
Tokiomi Tohsaka took a photo out of his pocket. It was a group picture of two young girls—his two adorable daughters.
The younger one, back when she was still Sakura Tohsaka, was smiling with pure, innocent happiness.
"What a lovely child. She's in no way inferior to Miss Rin."
Kirei said politely, his face expressionless.
"Sakura's talent really is no less than Rin's. But unfortunately, the Tohsaka family's magical crest can only be passed down to one child. No matter which child inherits it, the other, unable to inherit the crest, will suffer the misfortune that comes with such a rare talent."
Tokiomi sighed as he spoke. That was why, when the Matou family proposed adopting one of his daughters as the future heir to their magecraft, he had not refused.
"All right, Kirei. Get to it quickly. I'm worried about that child's safety."
Tokiomi raised his glass of red wine, signaling that his disciple could go.
"Your child is missing, Tokiomi. Why not ask this king for help?"
After Kirei left, a blond man stepped in from the balcony. His crimson, slit-pupiled eyes were like those of a serpent. Who else could it be but the future "enthusiastic citizen" of Fuyuki, Mr. Gold himself—Gilgamesh—looking bored and itching for something to do.
For this former fifth king of Uruk, helping a vassal find a missing daughter was just something to pass the time with.
If Tokiomi would kneel and pray to him with sufficient devotion, Gilgamesh would treat it as a bit of idle amusement to grant a vassal's request.
"How would a mere subject dare trouble the great King of Heroes? This is only a private matter of mine."
Faced with his Servant's offer, Tokiomi replied with utmost respect.
"Hmph, what a tedious fellow."
Seeing that deferential attitude, Gilgamesh immediately lost interest. It was like a tyrant suddenly wanting to do something good, but his subordinates neither believed he could nor dared to refuse him to his face. Instead, they met him with impeccable, faultless formality, just like Tokiomi's display now, leaving him nothing to criticize.
Tokiomi: "…"
If this man were not the proud and aloof King of Heroes, he would long ago have treated him like an ordinary familiar.
He still had two Command Seals on hand and could force him to act, but if he wasted them on such a trivial matter, how would he fight the rest of the Holy Grail War?
Was he supposed to throw gem magecraft at those monstrous Servants with his own body on the front line?
While Tokiomi answered the Hero King's complaint with silence, Kirei suddenly came back in from outside the study.
"Why have you returned?"
Tokiomi broke the silence.
"Teacher, there is no need to look for your daughter. She is outside."
Kirei's expression was oddly mixed as he answered.
He had only just taken the photo and was about to head out, when he ran into three people at the front door reaching for the doorbell.
One of them was the very girl in the picture.
"Hm?"
Tokiomi froze for a moment, then asked for details.
"I haven't asked them yet, but the ones bringing your daughter back are a pair—one big, one small.
"The little one is a boy about the same age as your daughter. The older is a girl with a bamboo sword.
"The girl, at least, looks pretty aggressive, but she's an ordinary person."
Kirei described what he had seen, then went out with Tokiomi.
"Daddy!"
As soon as Tokiomi reached the front entrance, he heard his younger daughter's delighted call—but that was all, just one shout.
Sakura stood outside the Tohsaka gate, shifting uneasily. She did not dare step into this home.
"Sakura…"
Tokiomi's eyes softened, but before he could say anything, he was hit full-on by the 1988 Type-Moon world's version of top-tier scolding.
"So you're this child's father. I really didn't expect a rich man living in a huge mansion like this to actually throw away his little daughter!"
Taiga Fujimura launched straight into her tirade. Her bamboo sword pointed at Tokiomi's nose as she spoke. The sight of Sakura hesitating at the doorway and not daring to enter had left her simmering with anger.
Just what had this child gone through in this home, to stand outside the open door and still be too afraid to step in?
"How can a scumbag who abandons his own daughter even call himself a man, much less a father?!"
Tokiomi: "…"
At his side, Kirei's mouth twitched, while Mr. Gold in the back settled in with the expression of someone ready to enjoy the show.
"Today, this house—if you let her in, she goes in; if you don't, she's going in anyway. If you don't want me to punch you right out of your own house, you'd better do the smart thing and let her come home!"
After Taiga's opening volley, Broly also stepped up, raising his little fist at Sakura's other side in a show of threat.
The two of them, left and right, were like street yakuza coming to "collect protection fees" from a shopkeeper, trying to intimidate him.
Except, the ones doing it were a high-school-age girl in her prime and a little boy who still looked like he belonged in kindergarten, so the actual effect was more like a chibi version of "dragon roar" comedy.
Tokiomi had considered that his younger daughter's disappearance might be some ploy by the Matou family in this Holy Grail War, or that some other unscrupulous Master was using it to target both Matou and Tohsaka.
He had just never imagined that the day after hearing she'd been abducted, his girl would return with this pair.
One who opened by cursing him as an unfit father, and one who, at such a young age, dared wave a fist and threaten him.
All at once, Tokiomi found himself asking the three great questions of life: "Who am I?" "Where am I?" "What am I doing?"
"My daughter was supposed to have been taken from the Matou house, correct?"
After a moment, he turned to his disciple and asked.
"If your message via familiar was accurate, teacher, yes."
Kirei replied blankly.
"Then can someone tell me what exactly I am looking at right now?"
Tokiomi asked, but Kirei had no answer. He did not know either.
"Foolish vassal, just ask your daughter directly and you will know."
Mr. Gold, like a guiding star, gave his opinion.
Tokiomi: "…"
Only then did he step forward, stand at the threshold with a bit of distance between them, and ask the girl, "Sakura, can you tell Father what happened? The Matou family came yesterday saying you'd been abducted."
"No one abducted me. I was rescued.
"After I got to the Matou house, 'Grandpa' threw me into a basement full of bugs.
"Those bugs crawled all over me. It hurt so, so much.
"It was Broly who suddenly appeared and pulled me out of the pile of bugs."
Sakura mustered her courage and told her father about what she had gone through in the Matou household.
Tokiomi's brows drew tight.
The Matou family did indeed have a magecraft for controlling insect familiars, but throwing the daughter they had adopted to be their heir into a bug-filled basement was something he could not understand.
"Why did that Matou Zouken throw you into a basement full of bugs?"
He asked.
"Grandpa said it was to change my magecraft element."
Sakura answered honestly.
Magecraft element… But isn't the Matou family's element Water? Unless…
Tokiomi had an idea, but did not say it aloud.
"And they are…?"
He turned his question to the two at her sides.
"This is big brother Broly. He's the one who rescued me from the bug house.
"And this is big sister Fujimura. When we had nowhere to go last night, she took us in."
Sakura introduced them.
Tokiomi: "…"
"No place to go," she had said—what a phrase.
Coming from his younger daughter's mouth, it was bitterly ironic.
"There may be some misunderstandings here."
After a deep breath, Tokiomi broke the deadlock at the door.
Taiga was still hung up on the bugs and magus talk. Hearing him mention a misunderstanding, she exploded again.
"What misunderstanding? Just look at her—she's too scared to even walk into her own house. That tells you exactly what kind of irresponsible father you are!"
Tokiomi was berated once more. But since the girl before him was just an ordinary person, and she had taken care of his daughter, the elegant gentleman in him could not lash out. He could only patiently explain that Sakura had been adopted out to another family.
Of course, he said nothing about magical crests. He only talked about how the Tohsaka and Matou families had been close for generations.
In his heart, he had already decided that his younger daughter's "abduction" was actually her fleeing the Matou house to escape the modification of her element, with help from the boy named Broly.
"Then why not let her come back to her real home?"
Broly asked.
"There is no such thing as 'not letting' her come back. But this is about the inheritance of the family business. After adoption, we had to draw clear lines. That is unavoidable. Yet if Sakura wants to return here once she has grown up, that is not a problem."
Ah, so that's how rich families handle adopted children?!
Taiga sighed inwardly. From what she'd just heard, she had already filled in a whole melodrama of rich families and adopted kids.
Broly did not have that kind of imagination. Tokiomi's words only left him feeling completely lost.
He shook his head, then asked the man at the doorway, "So can she go home now or not?"
"Of course she can."
Tokiomi nodded.
Sakura's eyes lit up, though she still hesitated.
"The distance and coldness before were in a normal adoption. But this is no longer a normal situation. So, Sakura, you are still my child."
The elegant gentleman opened his arms to his younger daughter.
"Daddy…"
Sakura could not hold back any longer. She ran into the house and threw herself into her father's embrace.
"Uu, uu…"
She began to cry. Her father's arms were still as broad as ever.
Surely, if Father had known what she had gone through in the Matou house, he would have come to take her home.
It must have been that evil "Grandpa" who lied to her father, who never told him what was really happening in the worm house.
That was the only reason Father had not come.
Sakura found a way to excuse him for not rescuing her.
With that excuse, she quickly forgave the man who was her father and once more treated him as a vital source of support, slowly drawing a feeling of peace from his presence.
"Sakura Matou's Happiness Value is steadily rising."
"Even though this was a misunderstanding, I still have to say: not even checking the adoptive family properly before sending your daughter to them to be abused makes you a terribly irresponsible father."
Taiga had not finished scolding. On that point, Tokiomi had no way to refute her. He could only say, "It was indeed my negligence. I must thank you both for helping my daughter."
After a moment's thought, he reached into his pocket and took out two high-quality gemstones.
"The Tohsaka family does business in jewels."
He said, handing the gems toward the boy and the girl in front of him.
"These two stones aren't anything truly rare. Please accept them as a token of gratitude."
Taiga had intended to curse him a bit more, but the man before her was being a little too generous.
Broly only glanced at the gift. Realizing they were rocks and not food, he immediately lost interest in the blue stone.
"Shiny gems are a common item for increasing the opposite sex's Happiness Value. The main way to use them is to give them."
The Crystal Palace's prompt changed his mind about the "useless stones."
"For you."
Without any hesitation, he took the sapphire from Tokiomi's hand and shoved it into Sakura's.
"Eh?!"
Sakura froze, a sapphire in her hand, and instinctively looked up at her father.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Tokiomi was momentarily stunned and frowned slightly.
"I'm giving her a rock. You got a problem with that?"
Broly's blunt counter left Tokiomi speechless.