Corridor
In the hallway, Sakura Matou stood quietly.
Under the constant erosion of the Crest Worms, the girl who had once had black hair and blue eyes had transformed into a child with purple hair and dark violet eyes. Her eyes—so dark they were almost black—contained not a trace of light.
Dressed in a Japanese elementary school uniform, she had just finished the daily "assignment" set by her grandfather Matou Zouken. She walked out from the room that led to the Worm Pit basement, only to run into Matou Kariya.
"Yo, Sakura-chan."
Kariya forced himself to put on the gentlest smile he could manage.
"U-Uncle… Kariya…"
Seven-year-old Sakura could not hide her feelings at all. She instinctively stepped back half a pace, fear showing clearly on her face—apparently frightened by Kariya's grotesquely damaged appearance.
Even after a year of torment, she had not yet become completely numb.
But as a child, she had no way of understanding how much the man named Matou Kariya had sacrificed in order to free her from the sea of worms and give her back her freedom.
Sakura's fear and distance caused the hand Kariya had halfway raised—hoping to pat her head—to freeze in midair.
The heart that had endured hellish torture without breaking suddenly felt a sharp pain.
"Did I scare you?"
Kariya withdrew his hand and laughed self-deprecatingly.
He didn't blame Sakura. What could a child possibly understand?
All of this was Tohsaka Tokiomi's fault.
After the initial fear passed, Sakura stepped forward. She stretched out her small hand and gently touched the deeply wrinkled, terrifying face of the man crouching before her.
"Your face… doesn't it hurt?"
"No."
"Not at all!"
Something inside Kariya snapped.
He suddenly pulled Sakura into a tight embrace and burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Why is Uncle Kariya crying?"
Held in his arms, Sakura's face remained blank.
She had already instinctively sealed away her heart to minimize the pain. Only a tiny remnant of emotion still supported her fragile, broken body.
"It must be because Uncle Kariya isn't as strong as Sakura."
He wiped away his tears and forced a bitter smile.
"I ended up making a fool of myself in front of you again. I'm supposed to be the adult, yet you're the one comforting me."
"Uncle Kariya… you're becoming less and less like how you used to be."
"Maybe that's true."
Children always spoke bluntly, and Kariya accepted it without hesitation.
"Tonight I don't have to go to the Worm Pit," Sakura said. "Grandfather said there's a more important ritual. Uncle Kariya, do you know about it?"
"Yes. I know."
"Because tonight… Uncle will be going underground in your place."
"Uncle Kariya… are you going somewhere far away?"
"From now on, Uncle will be busy with something very important. So… we probably won't have many chances to chat like this anymore."
"I see…"
Sakura looked slightly disappointed.
"Sakura-chan," Kariya said softly, "when Uncle finishes this job… how about we go out and play together? You, me… and your mother and sister."
"I don't have anyone I can call mother or sister."
"Grandfather said… I should pretend they never existed from the beginning."
"…I see."
A deep sadness crossed Kariya's face.
He held Sakura a little tighter before correcting himself.
"Then we'll invite Aoi Tohsaka and little Rin from the Tohsaka family. The four of us—Aoi, Rin, you, and me—will go somewhere far away together."
"Just like before…"
"Can I really see them again?"
"Yes," Kariya said firmly.
"I promise you."
Sakura silently nodded.
Kariya stood up and prepared to leave.
"Then it's a promise. Uncle has to go now."
"Goodbye, Uncle Kariya."
His footsteps paused for a moment.
But he did not turn around.
As if having made up his mind, Kariya dragged his broken body forward, limping step by step toward hell.
"Goodbye…"
Watching his miserable retreating figure, Sakura clutched her chest with her small hand.
She wanted to say something more.
But she had already lost the ability to express herself.
All she could do was softly repeat the same word again and again.
"Goodbye…"
Worm Pit Basement
No matter how many times he came here, no matter how long he stayed, Matou Kariya could never get used to this human hell.
Frowning, he covered his nose and mouth.
The Servant Summoning Ritual had already been prepared by Matou Zouken.
Standing across the ritual circle, Zouken spoke to him:
"Besides the standard summoning chant, you must add two additional verses while reciting the incantation."
"Why?"
"It's simple."
"Your ability as a Magus is far inferior to the other Masters. That weakness will affect the Servant's base parameters."
"So we must compensate by adjusting the Servant Class, directly increasing its basic abilities."
It was a lie.
Zouken knew very well that a failure like Kariya could never obtain the Holy Grail.
The madness-inducing incantation he gave Kariya was merely another form of torment.
The Servant summoned would become yet another instrument of Kariya's suffering.
This was Zouken's revenge for Kariya once rejecting him.
Nothing more than twisted amusement.
When everything was ready, Kariya raised his right hand—marked with the Command Seals—toward the summoning circle under Zouken's malicious gaze.
His expression solemn, he began to chant.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Repeat five times.
Yet when each is filled, destroy it."
"I declare—"
"Your body shall be under my command.
My fate shall be bound to your blade!"
"If you heed the call of the Holy Grail,
And obey this will and reason—
Then answer me!"
"I, Matou Kariya, hereby swear—"
"I shall accomplish all good in this world!"
"I shall suppress all evil in this world!"
"Yet you shall blind your eyes with chaos
And serve me!"
"You are the one imprisoned in the cage of madness—"
"And I am the one who holds your chains!"
"Clad in the three great words of power,
Cross the Wheel of Suppression and come forth!"
"Guardian of the Scales!"
As the chant continued, magical energy surged through Kariya's body.
The Crest Worms lurking within him began writhing violently.
To squeeze out even more magical energy for the ritual.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!"
A scream of unbearable agony echoed through the chamber.
Within the dark-red summoning circle, a dazzling rainbow light erupted skyward—blinding yet dreamlike in its beauty.
"What—?!"
The unexpected phenomenon filled Matou Zouken with shock and unease.
Normally, a Servant summoning ended with the pure white light of the Counter Force, sometimes mixed with faint shades of black or crimson.
Never—
Never like this.
The rainbow light gradually faded.
Standing within the summoning circle appeared a jet-black humanoid figure.
A terrifying aura of violence emanated from him, yet paradoxically he radiated an unsettling calm.
He opened a pair of ominous black eyes, symbols of ultimate darkness.
After glancing once at Matou Zouken, who had already begun trembling and stepping back—
He turned toward the man collapsed before him.
Matou Kariya, who had already collapsed to the ground, prostrated and gasping for breath, his body pushed beyond its limits.
The figure looked at him politely and asked:
"Question."
"Are you my Master?"
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