Penguin group for this book: **, I didn't expect this to be a restricted word too. If you're interested, just click on it.
Actually, Mahoutsukai no Yoru itself doesn't have many good entry points for alteration, because everything that should have happened already has. Old Magician Aozaki is already dead, and Aoko and Touko have already fallen out. What follows is merely a struggle between the two sisters for the Magic Crest.
In the original work/canon, Aoko wins, and Touko is cursed by Aoko ten years later, preventing her from ever returning to her hometown (stepping into Misaki Town would turn her into a Madagascar rainbow frog—||). No one dies, and no one suffers a tragedy.
From this, it's clear that compared to other story plots, Mahoutsukai no Yoru doesn't really involve any tragedy. Perhaps the only sad part was the Golden Wolf, but he won't appear here anymore. Perhaps without the Golden Wolf to deal with the Golden Wolf, and without his death to awaken Aoko's Fifth Magic, Touko might win.
But what does that matter? Even if Touko obtains the Magic Crest, what could happen? Would Touko kill her own sister? And as for who becomes the Fifth Magus, is that really important?
If one doesn't want the plot to change, at worst Rin could step in to deal with the Golden Wolf. As someone with similar strength and physical prowess, and having learned the Arm Technique of the "wolf," Rin facing the magic-immune Golden Wolf seems perfectly fine. Although Rin can't yet perform the 'create weakness punch,' in terms of strength and various physical parameters, a full-power Rin would be more than ten times stronger than the Golden Wolf.
Even if this can't activate Aoko's Fifth Magic, if Rin and Aoko team up, they would most likely defeat Touko. Therefore, from all possible outcomes, Rin has no need to be troubled.
But, she just couldn't accept it!
That's right, Rin couldn't accept it, because the entire Mahoutsukai no Yoru seemed like an utterly boring farce, and completely unnecessary. The reason Rin couldn't let it go was still because of the rift between the sisters, Touko and Aoko.
Originally a pair of loving sisters, Touko, as the elder sister, took on all responsibilities for the family's future and for her sister, shouldering all the heavy burdens of the family so that Aoko could enjoy her parents' love and a simple, happy life like other ordinary children.
Aoko's childhood remark, "Lucky me, I can push all my troubles onto my sister," showed how much Aoko relied on Touko. Even living in two separate worlds from her sister, she would listen attentively to her sister's daily complaints and offer serious advice.
The Touko of the past was definitely a good sister. Even Rin couldn't say she would have done better than Touko if she were in her shoes.
Because of her love for her own sister Sakura, Rin now particularly values the bond between sisters. A pair of sisters who were once so harmonious ultimately ended up on a path of complete estrangement.
Sigh, I'm still worrying about other sisters' feelings. Sakura must be resenting me now, leaving without a word, abandoning the entire Tohsaka Family to her.
But the more this was the case, the more Rin couldn't stand by and do nothing about the aozaki sisters' situation. She felt that if she remained a bystander now, one day in the future, she and Sakura would end up in the same situation.
Even if it was just a vague premonition, Rin absolutely did not want to face such a possibility. Therefore, Rin repeatedly recalled and filtered the plot of Mahoutsukai no Yoru in her mind. The conclusion of this plot was already decided from the beginning: a duel between sisters, where the winner or loser made no essential difference.
So, who was the culprit behind this situation? There was only one answer: Old Magician Aozaki!
This old man, who never even showed his face, and had been buried for nearly a year since the beginning of the story, was the source of the entire Mahoutsukai no Yoru!
From deciding to take Touko as his disciple and cultivating her with all his might for 18 years, to suddenly changing his mind on Aoko's 16th birthday and passing the Magic Crest to Aoko, it was all his doing. He was ultimately repaid by Touko with a cleaver and her death, completely escalating the conflict between the sisters, leading to an irreversible and complete estrangement.
But Rin repeatedly thought about it and just couldn't understand what that old man was after. He poured his heart and soul into cultivating Touko for 18 years, only to abandon her at the end and choose Aoko, and then even sacrificing himself. What was his true goal?
Just as Rin was at her wit's end, casually throwing a tantrum and asking her subordinates, she received a seemingly flippant answer: "That old man wanted to die." Suddenly, Rin realized that all the difficulties seemed to make sense!
If Old Magician Aozaki's death was established as part of his objective from the very beginning, then everything seemed to make sense.
Perhaps Aoko was chosen as the successor of the Fifth Magic from the start, and taking Touko as a disciple and fully cultivating her was merely a smokescreen, while also nurturing a tool—a tool to truly activate the next generation's Fifth Magus!
He deliberately denied all of Touko's efforts and sacrifices to ignite her uncontrollable rage and hatred, using his death to intensify the irreconcilable conflict between the two sisters. Ultimately, a life-and-death struggle between Touko and Aoko was inevitable, and amidst the grievances and hatred of sisters, family, and inheritance, Aoko would truly activate the Fifth Magic, ensuring the Fifth Magic was truly passed down!
If this was that old man's goal, then he had undoubtedly succeeded.
The end of the story was that due to Shizuki Soujuurou's death, Aoko awakened the Fifth Magic, the three primary colors of blue—time-line manipulation, manifesting the Aoko from ten years later, who easily defeated Touko. A Mahoutsukai no Yoru thus concluded.
This theory was undoubtedly the most reasonable, because this idea also perfectly explained a question that had previously been unexplainable: How did Touko kill her grandfather?
One must know that Old Magician Aozaki was a true Magus, having mastered the Fifth Magic for hundreds of years. His understanding of mysteries and his personal strength were absolutely among the strongest in the world. Even if he had transferred the Magic Crest to Aoko, he was still the Magus of the Fifth Magic before Aoko truly mastered it.
How was such a peerless powerhouse killed by Touko, who was only 18 years old at the time?
A surprise knife attack? Touko isn't an assassin, completely clueless about stealth and assassination, how could he not have noticed?
Using magic? Isn't that like showing off in front of an expert? Touko's magic was taught by him!
Poison? According to the original work/canon, the Fifth Magic's time-line manipulation can even avoid the outcome of death. Even if Old Magician Aozaki really drank poison, as long as he didn't just sit there waiting for the poison to take effect, he wouldn't die.
Therefore, there was no way to explain how an 18-year-old Touko killed a powerhouse on par with Heroic Spirits and the Dead Apostle Ancestors, one of the strongest in the world. The only plausible explanation was that he did it on purpose!
Using his own death to pass on the Fifth Magic, he orchestrated the entire Mahoutsukai no Yoru. That old man really wanted to die!
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