"So…"
"So you came here today because of your daughter, right?"
Outside the door of a hotel room owned by the Kanbuki City family, Ritsuka stood with his arms folded, staring coldly at the well-dressed middle-aged man in front of him. He clicked his tongue, faintly annoyed.
"…Huh?"
Asagami Fujino's father—the current head of the Asagami household—looked at the irritated boy with surprise.
At first glance, Ritsuka was handsome—sharp features, striking looks, not like an ordinary kid at all.
At a second glance, the man's seasoned instincts also picked up something else: a kind of presence that didn't belong to normal people.
And yet…
For reasons he couldn't explain, being stared at by those eyes made his skin crawl. A chill crept up from his pores, forcing his earlier arrogance to fade into something closer to caution.
"Last night… my daughter stayed here with you, didn't she?" the man said after some hesitation. "I'm Asagami Fujino's father."
He continued, eyeing the boy who clearly didn't take him seriously.
"You two didn't do anything you weren't supposed to… right?"
It was phrased like a question, but the tone was essentially an accusation.
"…"
Ritsuka raised an eyebrow. This guy's got something wrong with his brain.
But from the man's perspective, a young man and a young woman—alone together, full of hormones—spending the night in the same room and claiming "nothing happened" was impossible. That was why he'd come all this way.
Fujino hadn't come home last night, so he'd had people investigate.
And the more he investigated, the more alarmed he became.
Street cameras. Witness accounts.
He learned Fujino had been walking with a boy—and the two of them had checked into a hotel together.
"Unbelievable," Ritsuka said flatly. "You run an investigation and still don't bother to verify the basics before you come knocking. The Asagami line really has fallen to rock bottom."
He pulled two receipts from his pocket and slapped them in front of the man.
Two separate rooms.
Of course he hadn't stayed with Fujino. He wasn't some kind of pervert.
And this was the kind of fact anyone could've confirmed with even a halfway competent check. The man hadn't. He'd just shown up to pick a fight—right when Ritsuka had finished his business and was about to leave.
"'Asagami'…? No, my surname is Asagami," the man snapped, momentarily stunned by the pronunciation, then quickly corrected him—as if hoping it was merely a slip of the tongue.
Ritsuka narrowed his eyes.
After meeting Fujino, he'd gone back over what he remembered from Kara no Kyoukai.
He couldn't recall everything, but he could reconstruct enough—including Fujino's situation, and the kind of person standing in front of him.
"Oh, you might not be 'Asagami,'" Ritsuka said coolly. "But Asagami Fujino is absolutely descended from the Asakami bloodline."
"As for you… you don't have even a shred of that talent. What are you—married into the family? Or did they pick you up from some backwater corner?"
Ritsuka's gaze raked over him without mercy. He never bothered being polite to men like this.
"…"
Whatever flimsy hope the man still clung to shattered. He didn't even know how to respond.
"I'm not interested in a fallen girl like her," Ritsuka went on. "But since she latched onto me, I took the opportunity last night to check her condition and talk to her a bit."
"And it looks like she thinks her analgesia is congenital… but that was your doing, wasn't it?" he asked. "Care to explain why?"
Even having seen Kara no Kyoukai, Ritsuka's memory wasn't perfect. Compared to the Holy Grail War and FGO, it wasn't something he'd memorized down to the details—so he threw the question out casually, fishing for confirmation.
"You really are from that world…!" the man blurted, his face finally cracking.
For him, Ritsuka's words were a direct declaration—an unbearable fact.
This boy wasn't ordinary.
He belonged to the other side.
To that "mysterious world" the man feared and loathed.
"You were afraid her power would bring you trouble," Ritsuka said, voice calm and merciless, "so you used trash methods to seal it."
"You twisted her life and hurt her—when you could've guided her properly. When so many things were unnecessary."
"But you did it anyway for your own ugly desires."
"No wonder she lost all will to live. No wonder she clung to me and treated me like salvation."
As he spoke, two tall men behind the middle-aged man—bodyguards who looked ready to put hands on Ritsuka—collapsed to the floor without warning.
Two tiny insects crawled quietly down from their necks.
They were hypnotic bugs.
Anesthetic bugs potent enough to drop a camel.
Ritsuka intended to let them sleep for a couple of days.
"So," he asked, lifting his gaze again, "was I right?"
His deep-blue Mystic Eyes shimmered with a calm, glassy light.
He didn't release mana. He didn't "show off" anything overt.
But the fact remained: he had neutralized two grown men instantly and silently.
That alone was more than enough to shatter a normal person's nerves.
Facing the unknown, the man's earlier bluster evaporated. His legs gave out.
"And now that you've come to make trouble for me…" Ritsuka said slowly, each word measured, "have you prepared yourself?"
"Trash."
A dreadful pressure filled the space.
The man's throat worked helplessly. He slumped on the ground, barely forcing sound out.
"Y-you… what do you want…?"
"Honestly," Ritsuka muttered, rubbing at his eyes, "getting pissed off at scum like you is enough to make my Eyes flare up…"
He forced his emotions back down and withdrew the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
This kind of garbage wasn't worth using those eyes on.
"Stop bothering me. I'm not interested in your daughter," he said coldly. "And with the way you're acting, you don't even care about her 'purity.'"
"You're just worried rumors will embarrass you, right?"
"As always—people like you make my blood boil."
"If you can't educate her, then hand her off to someone who can."
"And as for right now…"
He grabbed the man by the collar—no hesitation, no restraint.
And he threw him out.
The man and his two unconscious bodyguards went tumbling down the stairs, rolling all the way to the lower floor before slamming into the ground and passing out completely.
"Get lost."
…
"So what you're saying is… I can live here from now on?"
The next afternoon, after school, Fujino—still anxious from spending the night away and dreading her father's reaction—returned to the school gate with a pounding heart.
And then she saw a familiar figure again.
That cold, indifferent boy from yesterday.
Standing there—waiting for her.
In front of many classmates, he led her once again to the "fairy godmother's" hut.
Fujino stared at Ritsuka, then at the Mother of Kanbuki City, shocked.
Ritsuka didn't bother with long explanations.
He simply laid out her medical records and the messy facts he'd dug up—forcing Fujino to face a cruel truth:
Her "illness" was not congenital.
It had been caused by her scumbag stepfather.
Treatment was simple:
Stop taking the medication, and slowly, her sensation would return.
Fujino skimmed the evidence Ritsuka brought.
The documents were clear—hard data.
But she still couldn't understand what he was, or how he could obtain material this sensitive.
And beyond the mystery, the emotional hit landed even harder:
To learn that her suffering had been arranged—
it left her shaken.
But Ritsuka didn't have the time—or the patience—to play big-brother therapist.
He'd done all this because he couldn't stand what the man had done… and because it reminded him of his own past.
This was already more than enough.
As for why he brought her here—
it was the old woman's idea.
After Ritsuka threw Fujino's father out like trash, he'd briefly considered finishing the job "properly" by finding Fujino a safer place to stay.
Before he could, the Mother of Kanbuki City called him.
Using her absolute future sight, she'd already seen his dilemma and offered a solution:
Ritsuka was about to walk into a hell beyond imagination. There was no world where he could take Fujino with him.
So—
"Leave the girl with me," she'd proposed.
She was old now, and she needed an heir.
A talented successor to become a first-rate diviner.
Ritsuka had no objections.
Anything was better than sending Fujino back to her original home—or worse, the Matou household.
And that old woman was no ordinary figure. Under her protection, Fujino would have the best chance she'd ever get.
So he brought Fujino here, told her the truth, and let her choose.
Thinking back on her past—thinking how she might've stayed ignorant forever if Ritsuka hadn't appeared—Fujino felt cold from head to toe.
She feared her "home" even more than before.
Seeing that, the Mother of Kanbuki City gently repeated the offer:
Would Fujino stay… and learn?
Fujino's heart wavered.
What girl wouldn't be drawn to miracles and strange wonders?
Yesterday, she'd watched things she'd only seen in fairy tales, and she'd truly believed the old woman was a fairy godmother.
Now she was being told she could learn that world for herself.
How could she not be tempted?
And yet—
her gaze kept drifting back to Ritsuka.
More than studying with the old woman…
she wanted to stay with the person who saved her.
But that was never an option.
Ritsuka didn't offer it.
They were two rivers that could never intersect—destined never to merge.
With the matter resolved, and with his warning ensuring Fujino's father wouldn't dare cause trouble again, Ritsuka finally exhaled in relief.
His business in Kanbuki City was done.
He'd gained the Mother's prophecy.
And he'd saved a pitiful girl, as much as he realistically could.
For the first time in years, the suffocating weight inside his chest loosened slightly.
He lifted a hand, clenched it, and pressed it over his heart.
…It was still beating.
And it still felt joy when he did something right.
Proof that he was alive.
Proof that, at his core, he hadn't changed.
And he remembered something—his sister's old wish:
Even if you become a magus… you must still be a good person…
"Don't worry," he murmured. "I'll do it, sis."
A faint smile rose to his lips.
Then he turned away and walked out of the Mother of Kanbuki City's hut.
This time, it was a true farewell.
Fujino's tragedy might have been averted—
but his own suffering was only beginning.
"Um… will we see each other again?!"
As he left, Fujino's timid voice called after him.
"And… you still haven't told me your name!"
She was right.
From the moment he saved her yesterday, she'd never learned the name of her benefactor. At this moment of parting, she blurted it out.
Ritsuka looked back at the girl in the doorway.
"The world is round," he said softly. "If we really have fate between us… we'll meet again."
"As for my name…"
"My true name is Fujimaru Ritsuka."
"Just an ordinary magus."
"And like you—someone who struggles against fate."
"I hope that, in the not-too-distant future, you and I can both become victors over our own destinies."
"When that day comes… we'll talk."
With those words, his figure vanished at the end of the alley.
All that remained was a fading silhouette—
burned deep into Fujino's eyes, impossible to forget.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka…"
A name as warm as sunlight—
a name she knew she would never forget.
(An illustration followed.)
Join here to read ahead.
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