Chapter 50:葵 and雁夜

My name is Lin Hao, and I am moving.

The Zenjo family is an ancient lineage based in Kobe that has long since ceased to produce magicians. Generations ago, powerful magicians emerged from this family, but their descendants inexplicably lost the ability to inherit magical talents.

The subsequent heads of the Zenjo family unanimously attributed this decline to a poor marital choice made by their magician ancestor. He had married a completely ordinary woman, utterly devoid of magical aptitude or heritage. Tragically, she died shortly after childbirth from a magical backlash—a disease no true magician should ever suffer. Devastated, the magician ancestor abandoned his home and never returned.

After deliberation, the family head and elders instituted a strict family edict forbidding marriage to anyone without magical talent, with violators to be expelled from the clan. Though no prodigious magicians reemerged, the Zenjo family remained respected in the outside world as a notable magician lineage.

This was partly because Zenjo daughters, when married off, bore offspring with excellent magical bloodlines at a remarkably high rate. These children, in turn, naturally cared for their mothers and maternal relatives, weaving a vast network of influence where even minor interactions had far-reaching effects.

Within such a deeply rooted tradition, the family favored daughters over sons. Males were valued primarily for continuing the family name, while females held nearly all key powers besides that of the family head. In fact, were it not for societal pressures and limited offspring, some formidable Zenjo women might have even considered inviting sons-in-law to join their household and establish a female-led branch.

Because of this, when Aoi Tohsaka returned home with her two exceptionally gifted daughters, she was warmly welcomed. Her living expenses and daily needs were treated according to the elders’ strict regulations. Sisters who had already married and found it difficult to visit freely sent their own children to play with Aoi’s daughters. Slightly overwhelmed, Aoi entrusted Rin and Sakura to look after these little guests.

———

“What! Tokiomi Tohsaka—your brother-in-law—actually had such a foolish idea? Why didn’t you say anything before?”

One day, Aoi Tohsaka was chatting with her older brother, Shinnosuke Zenjo, about the ongoing Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City and accidentally revealed that Tokiomi once considered adopting Sakura. The next family head, known for his exceptionally bushy eyebrows, immediately slammed the table.

“He is the head of his own family, so if he truly made that decision, I wouldn’t oppose it—but it was only a notion.” Seeing her brother’s agitation, Aoi smiled, recalling childhood memories.

“What family head? The head of a lineage with no heirs but himself?” Shinnosuke snorted. “If he doesn’t want such an adorable niece, he can just return her to us. After all, no one’s wanted to inherit the Zenjo magical seal for so many years.”

“Then you should inherit it. You haven’t even found me a sister-in-law yet,” Aoi teased, a faint smile playing on her lips.

“Spare me. How could anyone find a suitable partner bearing a magical seal accumulated over generations? Besides, who would want to inherit it except the sisters before marriage? Hey! Don’t change the subject! Adopted by whom? The Fujimura family?” Shinnosuke slammed the table again.

“The Matou family—you’ve met Ganya before,” Aoi sighed softly, recalling her childhood friend.

“Hmph, if I can’t have her, I’ll get her anyway... Ah! What are you doing?!” Shinnosuke clutched his head and ran off.

“Don’t get cocky, Shinnosuke,” Aoi said, maintaining a serene smile as she took back the TV remote she’d just used to lightly bop her brother on the head. “Now, seriously, what is that?”

———

In front of the siblings, the television in the living room showed a blurry image of a colossal pillar of light shooting straight into the sky. The host and several so-called experts speculated wildly, ranging from auroras, nuclear tests, and space-based weapons to aliens, Ultraman, and even classified Angel numbers.

“Honestly, such nonsense turns a major incident into mere gossip. It will probably slip out of public attention soon enough. This shows the increasing sophistication of the Mage Association’s secrecy,” Shinnosuke said, burying his head in his hands as he sank back into the sofa.

“An incident?” Aoi asked, feeling uneasy.

“Fuyuki City, after all. We have some knowledge about the Holy Grail War there. This is clearly the result of two summoned Heroic Spirits battling openly without concealment. Tokiomi is working hard both to fight and to cover up the commotion. Little Aoi? You knew this, didn’t you?” Shinnosuke stopped mid-sentence, noticing an unusual expression on his sister’s face.

“No. He mentioned participating in a potentially dangerous magical confrontation and sent us away for safety, but I never expected it to be so severe—so dangerous that one could easily lose their life.” Aoi stood up, pacing anxiously.

“Looks like Tokiomi didn’t tell you everything. Well, even if he had, it would only have caused unnecessary worry.” Shinnosuke patted the sofa. “Try to be calm. Even if you don’t trust him, you have to trust the Zenjo family’s judgment in choosing sons-in-law.”

“Hmm...” Aoi glanced again at the terrifying image on the screen. The faces of Tokiomi’s two disciples appeared vividly in her mind: the stern and serious Kirei Kotomine, and the lively, clever Ryunosuke Uryu. Slowly, she sat down again. “For now, they’re the only ones I can trust.”

———

“Look, look! That big sister must be a Heroic Spirit!”

“Ah! That person is so cool. She must be a Heroic Spirit too!”

Faced with a group of children of the same generation from the Zenjo family, Rin Tohsaka sighed with mature resignation.

How to put it? Rin understood better than most kids what it meant to be “a magician’s daughter”: learning knowledge never taught in classrooms, delving into places unreachable by road or rail, fighting indescribable enemies, and possibly dying alone in places no one would ever discover.

Among magicians, the best was her father, Tokiomi Tohsaka. That towering pillar of light surely came from him.

Because her father was engaged in an extremely dangerous but certain-to-win war—a contest where seven magicians summon seven Heroic Spirits to battle, with the victor claiming a treasure called the Root.

The summoned Heroic Spirits all came from those hefty books. They certainly weren’t like the kids’ guesses from TV—no Ultraman nonsense.

Especially that old woman from Fuyuki who was clearly over ten years old but hadn’t married yet, instead hanging around with them and showing strange photos during their discussion of the light pillar, asking which might be Heroic Spirits. There was no way truly powerful Heroic Spirits could be caught on camera.

“Sis, that’s Ryunosuke.”

Little Sakura, easily fooled, was once again enchanted by the photos. Rin decided to rescue her sister, not because she wanted to see how Ryunosuke was photographed.

Rin approached and began flipping through the photos.

———

After some time away, Ryunosuke seemed even more foolish, seen riding a motorcycle with a strange figure clad in black armor. No doubt he was chased by female patrol officers. But would recent police even recruit blonde foreigners?

...Well, she admitted those three ladies were beautiful, but no way were they Heroic Spirits—probably just a young lady and her maid returning from a charity ball. But why was the maid in a wheelchair?

Then there was this one. Just because someone has red hair, a red beard, and is burly doesn’t mean they’re a Heroic Spirit. Look at the thin man beside him. He must be a personal trainer hired from abroad.

And how did that obvious vacationing soldier’s photo get in here? And that one, dressed all in black, was clearly a thief wearing night clothes. If they had time to take photos, why not report it?

Rin casually flipped through a few photos, all meaningless and unrelated to Heroic Spirits. Bored, she tossed them aside and stood up.

“I’m going to find Uncle. Sakura, will you come?”

“Yeah, okay.”

———

Outside the world of magicians, Ganya Matou was a photography enthusiast. Though he had no intention of inheriting the Matou family’s “business,” his innate magical blood granted him exquisite balance and keen eyesight, allowing him to capture the most captivating scenes in landscapes that ordinary people would only admire with a “Wow.”

He originally submitted his photos to photography magazines and newspapers for compensation, but his talent caught the eye of a publishing tycoon owning multiple newspaper and magazine companies. They hired him as vice president of a photography publishing house, imposing no strict duties—just the requirement to “continue delivering perfect photos as usual.”

Though said casually, Ganya’s photos were rarely imperfect. As a result, he had already published two highly acclaimed personal photography collections. His pen name, “Dark Kariya,” was well-known in photography circles. Were it not for constant worries about Aoi Tohsaka and her two daughters, he might have accepted invitations to work abroad long ago.

Now, spurred by a deliberately leaked photo of the colossal light pillar, he planned another trip to Fuyuki. Ordinary people treated the incident as mere gossip, but those versed in magic knew the immense magical collision necessary to create such an effect.

Despite some dissatisfaction with Tokiomi, Ganya recognized his genuine magical skill, and Ryunosuke had obtained a Command Spell. These reasons helped him reassure himself that Aoi would be fine, though his worry remained undiminished.

After a rare mishap at work, Ganya requested permission from the president to visit Fuyuki, which was granted without hesitation.

“You should’ve said earlier. I’m quite interested in that pillar too, and the photos used in the news are simply unbearable. If it were me, even if a tornado lifted me into the sky, I’d still get a good shot of its interior,” the president said.

Thus, Ganya Matou set off for Fuyuki, reviewing magical knowledge as he drove. No matter what, Tokiomi must send Aoi, Rin, and Sakura safely out of Fuyuki first.