"Haah..."
A heavy sigh. Tohsaka Tokiomi sat rigid in his chair, unable to process his turmoil.
Four days had passed since Kotomine Kirei and Emiya Kiritsugu's mutual destruction.
Fuyuki City had finally returned to something resembling calm. The chaos from Lancer's rampage was fully contained.
Three Servants remained: Archer, Rider, and Berserker.
"Rider has vanished since the extermination."
"He hasn't even visited the Church to claim his bounty reward."
Brow furrowed, Tokiomi dwelled on Rider's disappearance.
It was as if the man had evaporated. Numerous familiars dispatched across Fuyuki had turned up nothing.
If the war weren't still formally ongoing, he'd have assumed it was over.
"Hmm."
Setting the Rider problem aside, Tokiomi turned to the more pressing issue: Sakura.
"I need to see for myself."
After Risei had delivered the news days ago, he'd agonized over the decision. Today, he'd finally resolved to visit.
Archer should be mostly recovered by now, so personal safety wasn't a concern. His own magecraft could buy time against a Servant, and in an emergency, a Command Spell would summon Archer immediately.
Thus armed with confidence, he dressed and departed for the Matou residence.
He arrived without incident.
But the person who received him was not the household head Matou Zouken, but Matou Kariya -- the "dropout."
"If it's about Sakura, you'd best not see her right now."
The thinly veiled hostility in Kariya's tone was something Tokiomi dismissed as petty emotionalism.
He was granted entry regardless.
What struck him immediately were the changes to the estate.
The grounds had been transformed. The garden was meticulously maintained, the furniture arranged with genuine taste.
The overall effect was... pleasant. Almost idyllic.
Someone with exceptional skills in horticulture and housework had been at work.
"Remarkable."
Sensing no magical traps or hostile intent, Tokiomi voiced his admiration.
Watching Kariya lead the way, he was certain this wasn't the man's doing.
This level of craftsmanship required serious experience.
Under different circumstances, he'd have wanted to commission the same decorator for the Tohsaka manor.
"..."
Kariya glanced back at Tokiomi, hostility still simmering beneath the surface.
But with Sakura living a good life now, his resentment had lost some of its edge.
He knew why Tokiomi was here. His initial instinct had been to refuse entry, but Berserker had insisted on consulting Sakura first.
When Sakura learned her former "father" had come, she'd shown no joy. Only a stranger's wariness.
After enduring Matou Zouken's repeated machinations, her trust in others had become a guarded thing. To this day, Berserker remained the only person she was truly close to. A severe attachment had formed from his protective influence.
She needed him for everything -- being tucked in, eating, walks, play, even having her hair brushed.
Kariya knew full well: if Tokiomi had come to convince Sakura to withdraw, he'd be wasting his trip.
This girl would never relinquish her chance to wish.
She only wanted Berserker to stay by her side forever.
Because he was her "hero."
Click.
Opening the rear garden gate, they found the unlikely pair -- Master and Servant -- tending flowers together.
"Hmm?"
Berserker in an apron, sleeves rolled up, wielding garden shears alongside little Sakura. The sight gave Tokiomi pause.
This hardly looked like a Servant. More like a devoted caretaker.
Both noticed his arrival. Berserker spared him a single glance before returning his attention to the flowers. Sakura approached reluctantly.
Noting the safe distance, Tokiomi relaxed somewhat.
Berserker's "harmless" presence in the background confirmed he had no hostile intent.
Tokiomi studied the warrior's face, committing every feature to memory. He wanted to identify this Heroic Spirit.
A combatant who could engage the King of Heroes repeatedly was no ordinary legend.
As for convincing Sakura? He'd expected nothing from the start.
But when he actually spoke with her, Tokiomi discovered the situation was more complicated than anticipated.
Gone was the docile, quiet girl from his memories.
In her place stood a child brimming with defiance.
Even when he deployed the weight and authority of a "father," she refused to flinch.
"When I was at my most desperate, when I needed someone most, the one who came to save me wasn't you, and it wasn't Mama."
"It was..."
"A real hero!"
The sheer adoration and joy in her voice was utterly childlike.
"In this war, even if the opponent is 'Papa,' I won't back down! Please leave."
Young as she was, something in her had matured. And she'd made her position crystal clear.
"Foolish! Do you understand what you're saying?"
"To oppose me, you--"
Disbelief that his own daughter would defy him. Tokiomi's hand, placed neatly against his leg, began to tremble.
"I understand perfectly. That's exactly why I won't give up."
"I don't want him to leave."
She cut him off. That unyielding yet childish voice nearly drove Tokiomi to the brink of exasperation.
A mage who didn't aspire to reach the Root? Whose wish was simply for a Servant to stay with her?
Absurd!
In Tokiomi's eyes, this was nothing more than a child's whimsy.
"I never should have explained so much to you."
"You're incapable of understanding how naïve this is right now."
"The chance to reach the Root is--"
Palm pressed to his face, Tokiomi accepted he'd been playing his pearls to a stone wall.
A six-year-old could never comprehend his grand ambition.
Offering to "reach the Root" had about as much appeal as promising to take her to an amusement park.
Less, actually.
"..."
Watching Tokiomi's deflated expression, Kariya suppressed a grin with visible effort.
He'd predicted this exact scene.
Tokiomi's fatal flaw: a textbook magus mindset applied to every situation.
But Sakura was no magus. Not anymore.
She was closer to an ordinary child with ordinary feelings.
The Root?
You'd explain that to a six-year-old who didn't even understand magecraft?
How pointless could you get?
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]