The day after meeting Lynch, Tohsaka Tokiomi, accompanied by his second daughter Tohsaka Sakura and driven by his wife Tohsaka Aoi, headed towards the Matou Family residence.
As a housewife, Tohsaka Aoi being the driver was a unique characteristic of the Tohsaka Family, because Tohsaka Tokiomi, like his daughter Tohsaka Rin, was a complete mechanical idiot.
When it came to driving, while he wasn’t entirely incapable, he was certainly a super road menace.
This meant that whenever the family traveled together, Tohsaka Aoi was always the one driving.
As for Tohsaka Tokiomi traveling alone, he would either call a professional driver or have someone else drive him; he would never drive himself.
“Father, Mother, can…
can I not go…?”
Suddenly, a cute and delicate 4-year-old loli, Tohsaka Sakura, with black hair and wearing a purple dress, timidly and softly asked her parents sitting in the front seats from the back.
Upon hearing this, Tohsaka Tokiomi in the front passenger seat and Tohsaka Aoi in the driver’s seat both paused.
Then, Tohsaka Aoi, with a pained expression, looked at her daughter through the rearview mirror, then looked conflictedly at her husband, Tohsaka Tokiomi, beside her.
Tohsaka Tokiomi turned to look at his second daughter in the back, and facing her hopeful, nervous, and timid gaze, a hint of helplessness flashed in his calm, unmoving eyes, but it quickly receded.
“Sakura, this is for your own good.
With your exceptional talent, you are destined not to be ordinary.
Staying in the Tohsaka Family would only lead to a very bad outcome.”
“The Matou Family is different; it’s the best place for you.
The Matou Family’s Magecraft bloodline is almost severed, and they no longer have any successors.
After you are adopted into the Matou Family, you will become their sole heir.”
“So, Sakura, don’t be willful.
You just need to accept this arrangement.”
These gentle but undeniable words were spoken by Tohsaka Tokiomi, imbued with a father’s concern and authority, as well as a Magus’s ruthlessness.
Upon hearing this, Tohsaka Aoi opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing, only continuing to drive with a sorrowful expression, while the hope in Tohsaka Sakura’s eyes disappeared, and she could only lower her head and obediently respond with a soft sound.
It was evident that Tohsaka Sakura was very sad and in pain; it was the sorrow and confusion of a child being abandoned by her parents.
Being so young, she didn’t understand the complexities, nor the cruelty of the Magus world.
She wouldn’t know that if Tohsaka Tokiomi didn’t adopt her out to another family, she would inevitably be designated for sealing by the Mages Association when she grew up.
Currently, Tohsaka Sakura only knew that she had been abandoned by her parents and would henceforth live as Matou Sakura, filled with confusion and fear for the future.
Yes, Tohsaka Tokiomi adopting his second daughter into the Matou Family was not because he no longer wanted her.
On the contrary, although he was a Magus, he was one of the few who valued family affection.
If he had a choice, he would keep both daughters at home.
However, this was impossible, because both of Tohsaka Tokiomi’s daughters possessed extremely excellent and rare Magecraft aptitudes, and the cruelty of the Magus world meant that the Tohsaka Family simply could not protect both daughters.
The Tohsaka Family’s Magecraft inheritance could ultimately only be passed to one person.
The other person, who did not receive the inheritance, would be targeted by the Mages Association and designated for sealing under the pretext of ‘protecting rare materials’.
The so-called designation for sealing meant turning a person into a specimen and preserving them within the Mages Association, making them property of the Mages Association.
This was a fate more painful than death, where even the soul could not find release.
Tohsaka Tokiomi could never accept such an outcome, and he knew that the Tohsaka Family could not resist the Mages Association, which is why he adopted his second daughter to another Magus family that could protect Sakura.
Undoubtedly, the Matou Family, also one of the Holy Grail War’s Three Founding Families, was the best choice.
From Tohsaka Tokiomi’s perspective, there was no better place than the Matou Family.
Unfortunately, Tohsaka Tokiomi, much like Toyokawa Shoko who was unaware of the darkness of the Toyokawa Family, was completely ignorant of the Matou Family’s darkness, and thus sent his second daughter into a purgatory.
Then, just as the car reached the outskirts where the Matou Family residence was located, something suddenly happened.
This area was originally a suburb, and the Matou Family residence was in a remote location with few people around, so there were no other cars on the road.
Tohsaka Aoi subconsciously sped up a bit.
As a result, at that moment, a circle of sparks suddenly appeared ahead, followed by an ‘opening’ in the air.
The sudden situation made Tohsaka Aoi freeze.
Before she could react, a person emerged from that ‘opening’ surrounded by many spark circles.
After he emerged, the spark circle immediately vanished.
The person was wearing a well-tailored suit and had his back to the car, completely unaware of its approach, and was subconsciously curiously observing his surroundings.
During this process, the car was already very close to the person, causing Tohsaka Aoi to instinctively slam on the brakes.
It must be said that in this regard, Tohsaka Aoi was far superior to many road menaces, because she would instinctively slam on the brakes in an emergency.
However, even so, the braking was still slow.
Although it left clear tire marks on the ground and emitted a piercing screech of tires, the front of the car still collided with the person who had suddenly appeared.
The person instantly grunted and was sent flying.
Seeing this, although the three people in the car were fine due to their seatbelts, Tohsaka Aoi’s heart went cold.
She instinctively cried out ‘It’s over’ internally, and Tohsaka Tokiomi in the passenger seat also frowned.
However, he wasn’t thinking about the aftermath of hitting someone, but rather who this person who had suddenly appeared was.
The method of directly opening a spark rift and suddenly appearing, no matter how one looked at it, was a supernatural ability.
Clearly, the other party was most likely a mysterious Magus.
Then, before Tohsaka Tokiomi could ponder for too long, the person who had been sent flying was suddenly covered by an external skeletal steel battlesuit in mid-air.
The steel battlesuit ‘grew out’ directly from the person’s body, covering him completely at an extremely fast speed.
The entire battlesuit was predominantly red, with some gold accents, and was full of technological flair, like something out of a sci-fi movie, even beyond what existed in contemporary sci-fi films.
It was more like a peak work of handmade sci-fi animation from the island nation of that era.
To be honest, this completely bewildered Tohsaka Tokiomi, the mechanical idiot, and his brain immediately crashed, completely negating his previous judgment.
After all, such a futuristic object, no matter how one looked at it, didn’t seem like something a Magus could create.
It also caused Tohsaka Tokiomi to experience a strong mental tremor afterward—could America’s technology have advanced to this extent?
After all, in this era, when it came to science fiction and the future, the only thing people could think of was America, which had just defeated the Soviet Union, causing the red giant to fall and split into multiple countries.
As for the clearly unscientific ‘hole’ of sparks from earlier, it also seemed explainable by science fiction, as America’s sci-fi films were never short of incredible and very unscientific situations.
Immediately after, before Tohsaka Tokiomi could think much longer, the ‘mysterious mecha person’ who had been sent flying suddenly took advantage of the momentum to turn around in mid-air, then landed in the classic superhero knee-smash pose, dragging for over two meters on the ground due to inertia before finally stopping.
Subsequently, the person stood up, but as he did, the mecha on his body, like receding ‘tides’, vanished from him like fading matter.
If one were to activate a microscopic view, one would see that these mechas were actually composed of countless nanobots, and their retreat was into various parts of this person’s body.
Of course, Tohsaka Tokiomi didn’t have such a view.
What he saw was an incomprehensible situation, and he once again doubted whether his guess was wrong, that the mecha person in front of him might not be from the sci-fi side, but from the Magecraft side.
After all, this nanomech surpassed Tohsaka Tokiomi’s understanding of science fiction; it was entirely in the style of a magical system.
Then, amidst this shock, the next scene they witnessed made Tohsaka Tokiomi and Tohsaka Aoi, who also saw it, directly crash their brains and lose the ability to think.
Because the couple clearly saw the face of the mysterious mecha person as he lifted it.
It was…
a face very similar to Tohsaka Tokiomi’s.
If there were any differences, it was in the beard and hairstyle, and he was older.
It was the face of a middle-aged man in his forties, with some silver strands mixed in his black hair, but with a meticulously groomed hairstyle.
Like…
Tohsaka Tokiomi from more than ten years in the future.