"It didn't work?"
Hearing Ophis brush off his question so lightly, Tokiomi felt something inside him start to crack.
Those mysterious enemies—whose identities he still couldn't even confirm—could repel even the King of Heroes' pursuit?
Of course, Tokiomi had been so busy dealing with Sakura's situation that he hadn't had any attention to spare. Otherwise, if he'd contacted Kirei Kotomine and learned that Ophis had also shot Assassin dead during their hard-won chance at an assassination, he probably would've shattered on the spot.
"There were too many of them."
Too many, so she couldn't win?
That was what Tokiomi mentally filled in.
If not for the fact that Ophis looked immaculate—no dust on her, not a scratch on her—he might've actually believed it.
But believe it or not, he had no way to do anything about her. With Command Spells failing to work, he still had to rely on her to obtain the Holy Grail. So he could only swallow his frustration whole.
"Relax. I will deliver the Holy Grail to you, Tokiomi."
Seeing how shaken Tokiomi was, Ophis thought for a moment and offered a rare word of reassurance.
The Holy Grail of this era seemed to have problems. Ophis hadn't checked it with Sha Naqba Imuru—The Omniscient and Omnipotent Star, but the prana that flowed out of the Grail did carry a faint residue of something unclean. It didn't affect Ophis in the slightest… yet for a "Holy Grail" that was supposed to be a pure aggregation of prana, that should've been impossible.
Still, it didn't matter. Even if this era's Holy Grail vanished, Ophis could simply pull another Grail from her true body's treasury. It would be far more troublesome, but a contract was a contract. Unless Tokiomi tore it up himself, Ophis had no reason to violate it.
"I was unseemly. Please forgive me, my king. Your safe return is enough."
Tokiomi also realized that the string of sudden incidents had left him genuinely agitated. After steadying himself, he bowed slightly to Ophis.
"Then, since you've only just returned from battle, please rest, my king. I will continue gathering information on our enemies. As for my daughter—"
"I want to stay with Lord Ophis!"
Hearing his daughter speak so willfully for once, Tokiomi's head began to ache. He could understand that she'd just escaped the Matou household by the skin of her teeth, but he couldn't let her carry on like this.
"Rin, you're going to trouble the King of Heroes—"
Ophis cut him off with a wave.
"That's enough. Tokiomi, go rest."
As if his throat had been seized, Tokiomi's words died under the rare edge in Ophis's voice. He opened his mouth, then found nothing to say. With a helpless sigh, he bowed once more in salute.
"Then I must trouble the King of Heroes to look after my daughter."
I'll have Assassin keep an eye on her later…
With that half-formed, not-quite-a-plan settled in his mind, Tokiomi retreated from his own living room, utterly stifled.
"Pwahaha—look at him! That face is priceless—pwahahahaha!"
The moment Tokiomi left, Ishtar threw herself onto the floor and burst into laughter.
Watching her roll around laughing, even Ophis felt a flicker of bleak sympathy for Tokiomi.
Raising a daughter like that can't have been easy…
It had to be said: when it came to "Rin Tohsaka," Tokiomi was a completely qualified father. But because of what had happened to Sakura, Ishtar's divinity had driven her favor toward Tokiomi down to an all-time low.
As a goddess, she was—inherently—unbearably willful toward a father.
Unfortunately, Tokiomi didn't have the ability to produce a pure-gold bull skeleton that could hold up the sky, summon wind and rain, and destroy the world, just to win his daughter's approval.
"Hahahaha… haha… hah…"
Whether she was tired of laughing, satisfied, or simply decided it was enough—at any rate, Ishtar finally stopped.
"So what now? What are you going to do next?"
She hopped back onto the sofa, propping her cheeks in her hands and swinging her legs as she asked.
"No plans."
Ophis answered with startling decisiveness.
"…Right. About what I expected."
With a sigh, Ishtar shifted position and sprawled back on the sofa.
"In that case, tomorrow you're coming out with me. Keeping a goddess company is a hero's duty, you know."
...
"Senpai… are you okay?"
Noon came quickly the next day. Mash was walking along the street with Ritsuka.
Officially, they were searching for Caster's traces. But after what happened yesterday, it was hard to focus wholeheartedly on Caster anymore.
The pressure Ophis radiated was simply too overwhelming—like a mountain pressing down on them. Caster was still an enemy that had to be eliminated, yet compared to Ophis, they felt like small fry.
And Ritsuka couldn't stop thinking about what Ophis had said last night.
Could she really save humanity?
Before, Ritsuka had been avoiding that question. She was afraid that if she faced it head-on, she'd lose the courage to raise her Command Spells again.
She was the last Master. If she didn't do it, no one could take her place.
But even if she did—what were the odds of success? In the end, she had to face that question.
The enemy could burn humanity to ash without anyone even noticing. Destroying one Fujimaru Ritsuka would be effortless. For all she knew, they were hiding somewhere right now, watching and laughing.
Thinking that, Ritsuka sighed again.
"Senpai…"
Behind her, Mash looked at her with worry, not knowing what to say.
After all, even Mash herself still wasn't used to fighting. The two of them were, in every sense, a rookie duo.
"Wait!"
Dr. Romani's voice suddenly burst out of the communicator.
"Ritsuka, now isn't the time to be thinking about anything else. A Servant reaction just appeared—but it's so weak… weak enough that it wasn't detected until it got that close. With the Ritsuka we have now, that's—wait, how is that even possible?!"
"Senpai, look!"
As Dr. Romani shouted, Mash suddenly cried out.
Ritsuka turned, following where Mash was pointing—and at the far end of the street, Ophis was strolling their way as if sightseeing, a stick of cotton candy in hand, leading along a black-haired little girl with twin-tails. She looked around with idle curiosity as she approached.
---
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