"Tohsaka-sama, was it really wise to tell Archer about Assassin? If she becomes wary of an Assassin who should've already been eliminated…"
"Relax, Kirei."
Tokiomi sat elegantly beside the phonograph used for communications, swirling a glass of red wine as he answered his disciple.
"At this stage of the Holy Grail War, it's hard to keep Assassin hidden from the King of Heroes forever. In that case, we may as well reveal Assassin's existence outright—and be candid about the alliance, and about the fact that if the war drags on to the very end, we will have Assassin take their own life…"
"I see. That way, the proud king will lower her guard to the bare minimum against an Assassin she now views as a subordinate, no longer a threat."
"Exactly. As long as the war lasts to the final moment… I'll leave the timing to you, Kirei."
"Leave it to me, my teacher."
The line cut. Tokiomi rose to leave—only to have his steps halted by a familiar, clear voice.
"Father."
"Rin?!"
For the first time, surprise flickered across Tokiomi's ordinarily placid face. He turned toward the sound and saw his elder daughter holding his younger one, standing there as if she'd been there all along.
This was the very heart of the Tohsaka workshop. Even the owner's daughter couldn't enter lightly—much less slip in without Tokiomi noticing.
"Rin. Didn't I tell you to stay with Aoi? Why are you here? And what happened to Sakura?"
Years as a magus let Tokiomi steady himself quickly even in the face of such an abnormality. One hand slid into his pocket, fingers closing around a gem as he quietly raised his guard, his voice sharpening as he scolded the two girls.
So long as he wasn't at a critical juncture, Tokiomi's mind stayed clear. In his eyes, the two girls before him could very well be an illusion, or a disguise conjured by some enemy—something he couldn't take at face value.
And because all his attention had been on the Banquet of Kings and the intruder attempting to seize his workshop, Tokiomi still hadn't received word that the Matou residence had been reduced to rubble. Otherwise, his reaction wouldn't have stopped at mere vigilance.
Rin, however, seemed not to hear his rebuke at all. Instead, she put on a flustered expression.
"Father, please—look at Sakura!"
Tokiomi frowned. He didn't immediately dismiss it as a trap, but shifted his gaze to the unconscious Sakura in Rin's arms.
Then his eyes widened.
You couldn't resolve Magic Circuit modification on a whim—much less fuse a bloodline in the middle of the process. With Ophis as an Archer, there was no way she could complete something that intricate, so for the time being they could only implant a serpent into Sakura's body to replace the crest worms and keep her alive.
A serpent combined with Sha Naqba Imuru far surpassed crest worms in performance—more than enough to let Sakura wait for "that point" without any pain at all.
They could've used a Noble Phantasm to heal Sakura completely first and then modify her slowly over time, but as Ishtar had put it… breaking it into that many steps was far too cruel. Better to handle it in one stroke.
It also felt like Ishtar had motives of her own, but Ophis couldn't be bothered with that. She let her do as she pleased.
Which meant: Sakura's appearance, and her Magic Circuits, were still in the altered state the Matou had forced on her.
Tokiomi wasn't a prodigy in magecraft—but after years of study, he was still a first-rate magus. Even if he couldn't identify the issue at a glance, he could at least tell something was wrong.
After a brief hesitation, he lifted his cane and approached, still wary.
Then he pressed the gem at the tip of his cane to Sakura and began to probe.
"Th—!"
A few seconds later, Tokiomi's face blanched. He snatched Sakura from Rin without a word of explanation and hurried away at a run.
"Tch. Why do I have to call him 'Father'? No matter how you look at it, that guy can't even be mentioned in the same breath as Father Anu…"
As she watched Tokiomi go, the panic vanished from Rin's face in half a second, replaced by a faintly disdainful look.
"But fine. He made mistakes, sure—but he hasn't lost even the most basic sense of family. I won't punish him."
Tokiomi Tohsaka was unquestionably guilty for handing Sakura over to the Matou. He hadn't fully investigated what lay beneath that household's surface… though even if he had, it's not like he would've been able to outplay an old worm who'd lived five hundred years. Still, failing to notice anything amiss at all was his own fault.
But if you judged it purely as "abandoning a daughter," then in truth, Tokiomi had very few options where his daughters were concerned. Sending Sakura away—where she might someday become the head of another magus family—was, perversely, the most humane choice available.
Looked at rationally, you couldn't lay all the blame on him.
"Since you're still a person, I'll stop there…"
Ishtar shook her head.
Tokiomi intended to kill his own Servant.
A normal Holy Grail only needed the prana of five Servants to function as a wish-granting device, but Tokiomi's goal was the Swirl of the Root.
For that, the Grail had to absorb the souls of all seven Heroic Spirits.
From the very beginning, the so-called "contract" had been a fraud the Three Founding Families played on the Servants. The moment they were summoned, their deaths were already decided.
That was the information Ishtar had dug up while she was in the Tohsaka house.
Their goals differed. Ishtar had no interest in condemning that approach. But this time, Tokiomi's Servant was Ophis.
Any scheme Tokiomi aimed at Ophis was doomed to fail. Even with Ophis reduced to a Servant, Ishtar couldn't think of a single way to kill her—let alone Tokiomi.
And yet, Tokiomi would pay no price for it.
Why?
"Because she's a child who doesn't even know what hatred is…"
Ishtar let out a soft sigh.
No matter how badly you wronged that girl—so long as it didn't affect her, or the goal she meant to reach—she could ignore it completely.
She wouldn't be angered. She wouldn't hate.
To a ridiculous degree—enough to make you wonder whether she simply lacked negative emotions altogether.
Maybe it was a kind of arrogance born of dragon-kind, something that belonged to Ophis. Even so…
"Isn't it too unfair for her? She helped Sakura. So I'm not going to just stand aside. Cutting down your own kin for the sake of principle—doesn't that sound exactly like a goddess's style?"
With a little devil's smile, Ishtar's figure vanished completely from the Tohsaka workshop.
"Don't worry. I have a sense of proportion. After all… you're still the 'father' who raised me."
Only those words remained—lingering, slowly fading where she'd stood.
Dragon-kind has its arrogance.
And a goddess has her own, too.
A girl who helps without asking for anything, without hesitation—and a father who can hand his daughter away so casually.
At the very least, shouldn't the latter be taught a lesson?
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