KyokaSuigetsu
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Chapter 21: Subduing Matou Kariya
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 06:25:44 +0000 UTC"...So what if I told them? Those bastards! Those mages have long lost their minds! They're not normal people at all! Otherwise, why would they send Sakura to the Matou family? Only I can save Sakura! And this is the only way to save her! You don’t understand anything..."
"Fool! The one who doesn’t understand anything is you! Don’t be so damn self-righteous, Matou Kariya!" A fist struck Matou Kariya, sending him crashing back to the ground.
"You think you’re saving Sakura? In reality, you’re the one who cut off her last hope! You’re the clueless bastard here. Did you really think Tohsaka Tokiomi sent her to your family because he didn’t care about her?" The man roared in anger.
"Wasn’t it?"
"Fine. Then let me tell you exactly why Tohsaka Tokiomi sent Sakura to the Matou family."
And so, the man—Takashi Kuroda, who knew the entire story—explained to Matou Kariya the full context behind Tohsaka Tokiomi’s decision to send Sakura away.
When it came to this matter, neither Rin nor Sakura ever had a choice. One possessed all five basic elemental affinities, while the other had the rare Imaginary Numbers attribute. Both sisters carried miraculous talents, something beyond mere genius—almost like a curse.
The supernatural attracts the supernatural. Those who stand too far outside the natural order inevitably "invite" equally abnormal experiences. This isn’t something one can control with willpower. There’s only one way to deal with such a fate—consciously stepping beyond the natural order oneself.
For Tohsaka Tokiomi’s daughters, the only way to handle the magical nature embedded in their blood was to study and train in the magecraft themselves. Yet, the Tohsaka family’s protection could only be given to one heir. This fact tormented Tokiomi for a long time.
The child who didn’t become the heir would inevitably be dragged into supernatural incidents due to their blood, bringing danger upon themselves. And if the Mage’s Association discovered such a "normal person," they would happily "preserve" her in formaldehyde as a specimen under the guise of protection.
That was why the Matou family’s offer to adopt Sakura was nothing short of divine providence for Tohsaka Tokiomi. It was a way for both of his beloved daughters to inherit first-class magecraft, free from the constraints of bloodline fate, and forge their own paths.
In other words, Tohsaka Tokiomi didn’t send Sakura to hell. He genuinely believed that the Makiri family, as one of the Three Great Families, had a rich heritage. If Sakura became the Makiri heir, it would be an immensely beneficial experience for her career as a magus. Her talents wouldn’t go to waste.
Tohsaka Tokiomi’s mistake was assuming that the Matou family still practiced the orthodox Water Magecraft or familiar summoning of old. He had no idea that Zouken Matou had decayed to the point of practicing the heretical arts of insect magecraft. Had Tokiomi known, he would have immediately taken his daughter back.
After all, while Tohsaka Tokiomi might have been a failure as a father, that didn’t mean his love for his daughters wasn’t equal. Both were deeply important to him. Had he known that Zouken had no intention of passing down magecraft to Sakura and was instead molding her into a breeding tool, he would have stormed the Matou household in fury.
That was why, as the only one who knew the truth, if Matou Kariya had just told Aoi Tohsaka or Tohsaka Tokiomi about the Matou family’s current state and what Sakura was really enduring, her fate might never have reached this point. At the very least, she wouldn’t have suffered that year of torment and conditioning.
Takashi Kuroda spoke with some anger. Even though Sakura was now safe and the main villain had been executed, he still felt frustrated with Matou Kariya’s inability to act.
After all, in other parallel worlds of the Type-Moon universe, there were timelines where Tohsaka Tokiomi never sent Sakura to the Matou family—instead, she was often sent to the Edelfelt family, the lineage of Tokiomi’s mother.
If only Matou Kariya had properly communicated with Tohsaka Tokiomi—or even just Aoi—especially emphasizing that the old worm never intended to make Sakura an heir but merely a breeding tool for superior offspring, Sakura could have escaped her悲惨命运 much sooner.
Hearing Takashi Kuroda’s explanation, Matou Kariya’s face turned ashen. Seeing this, Kuroda’s anger subsided somewhat. Truthfully, most of his fury was on Sakura’s behalf. Two days as her mentor had deepened his affection for her, making him all the more critical of Kariya, who claimed to want to save her yet repeatedly missed the most crucial chances to do so.
"Mages may not be normal by most standards, but that’s simply the norm in the world of magecraft. And even if they aren’t normal, they still have their own taboos. For Tokiomi, the idea of his daughters becoming ordinary was the worst possible outcome. That’s why he sent Sakura to the Matou family. He might have been able to endure her suffering if he believed it was necessary to forge her into a great magus. But he would never have tolerated his daughter being turned into a breeding tool, wasting her talents. Because that’s what Tohsaka Tokiomi’s love for his daughter looked like."
Takashi Kuroda continued calmly, "That’s why I said you didn’t understand anything, Matou Kariya. No matter how twisted Tohsaka Tokiomi might have been, he would have intervened in something like this. But more importantly—Matou Kariya, even if you didn’t know all this, if you truly wanted to save Sakura, why didn’t you even try talking to Tohsaka Tokiomi? Why did you trust that insect-controlling monster over him?"
"Were you really trying to save Sakura when you did all this?"
The words struck Matou Kariya like a hammer. Had he really been acting purely to save Sakura? If that were the case, shouldn’t he have tried every possible method? Telling Tohsaka Tokiomi the truth was one such option—so why hadn’t he taken it?
As Kuroda said, why had he trusted the old monster of his family over Tohsaka Tokiomi? Finally, Kariya recognized the selfishness buried deep beneath his desire to save Sakura—he had been jealous of Tohsaka Tokiomi and afraid of his own family’s patriarch. This was the "immature, escapist past" that Takashi Kuroda had spoken of. And as Kuroda had said, only by overcoming this past could Matou Kariya grow—and truly save Sakura.
In that moment, everything became clear to Matou Kariya. He knelt before Takashi Kuroda and said, "My lord… it was you who killed that wretched old man Zouken and saved Sakura, wasn’t it?"
"Not completely stupid. Sakura is now my apprentice. Don’t worry—she falls asleep with a smile every night now," Kuroda replied coolly.
"Thank you for saving Sakura… and for enlightening a fool like me. Because of my immaturity, because of my selfishness, Sakura was left in this hell, heading straight for that悲惨fate. You saved her… and you saved a worthless man like me. I can never repay this debt!" Matou Kariya kowtowed deeply.
He now understood—this man was the one who had truly saved Sakura. And that was why he had gone out of his way to point out Kariya’s mistakes.
"My original deal with that old bastard was that if I won the Holy Grail for him, he would free Sakura. But now that you’ve saved her, my life is yours. I will stake everything to claim the Holy Grail for you!" Kariya declared, bowing again and again.
