The bright headlights tore through the darkness of the night.
The sound of tires rubbing against the ground broke the silence of the night.
A black Toyota sedan was speeding along the national highway towards Fuyuki City.
The driver was a woman with the temperament of a Yamato Nadeshiko, and in the back seat of the car sat a pair of girls of similar age. They were the cause of that ugly battle, and the people that Kariya was willing to burn his life to protect: Aoi, Rin, and Sakura, a mother and daughter.
Since the evening, Aoi began to feel uneasy, as if something was grabbing her, and she felt very nervous, as if something bad was about to happen.
When the sun set, she received a call from Yan Ye. The call was connected for only a few seconds and he only spoke two short sentences.
"Aoi, how are you, Sakura, and Rin?"
The usual concern was answered affirmatively by Aoi, who spoke in a gentle voice.
"You can return to Fuyuki City tomorrow and everything will be over tonight."
After saying this, without giving Aoi a chance to ask further questions, Kariya hung up the phone.
tomorrow.
Return to Fuyuki.
tonight.
Finish.
These few words made Aoi's anxiety reach its peak.
What ends
It can only be the Holy Grail War.
Only when the Holy Grail War is over can she and her daughter return to Fuyuki City and return to her home.
But Aoi knew very well that the Holy Grail War was cruel, there could only be one winner, and the chances of the losers surviving were low. Her husband, Tousaka Tokiomi, was also worried that he would not be able to make it to the end, so he came to Zenjo's house yesterday afternoon to give his daughter his final instructions.
Now, Kariya called again.
The shadow of death loomed over Aoi's heart.
Tokiomi, Kariya.
Tokiomi, Kariya.
Tokiomi, Kariya.
... ...
The faces of her husband and her childhood sweetheart flashed before her eyes alternately.
The warm memories of childhood and the happy life after marriage keep emerging in my mind.
Love, friendship, she doesn't want to lose either one.
Yes, that's right.
She didn't want to lose either Tokiomi or Kariya.
However, the Holy Grail War will end tonight, and there is a high possibility that one of them will fall.
No, we can't let this happen.
We must stop this kind of thing, and the only one who can stop it is ourselves.
As long as I am here, no matter who loses, they will not be killed by the opponent. I don't know why, Aoi has such confidence, maybe this is a woman's intuition.
He had to go back to Fuyuki, he had to catch the duel between Tokiomi and Kariya.
After making this decision, Aoi walked out of the house. Before leaving, she did not forget to tell her two daughters that she was going out to do something and would be back soon, and asked them to be good at home.
To her surprise, the two daughters actually guessed their mother's destination based on the few words they heard, and one of them pulled her hand and asked to go with her. No matter what Aoi said, they would not listen.
The quirky Rin also said: "Dad said that Fuyuki is very dangerous at night. We can protect mom. The magic pointer can help us avoid danger."
Sakura, who was always obedient, nodded continuously and said, "I know where Uncle Kariya might be, but I won't tell you unless he takes us there."
The sisters' words completely dispelled Aoi's insistence, and the three of them drove to Fuyuki under the rising moonlight.
Sakura did not lie to Aoi, she did know where Kariya was. She had heard Shinji, Kariya, and Yustisa mention the two place names "Enzoyama" and "Ryudoji" more than once, saying that they were the most suitable places to hold ceremonies, and the whole family had gone there several times under the pretext of paying homage.
She had a feeling that her brother, her master, her uncle, and teacher Yustisa would all be there.
The magic signal seen in the suburbs of Fuyuki also confirms Sakura's statement.
However, Aoi did not have a flying machine like Rider and Archer, nor did she have the superb driving skills like Saber. Considering her two daughters in the back seat, Aoi did not dare to speed, so their speed was much slower than others.
After parking the car casually on the side of the road, the mother and her two daughters walked up the mountain along the approach to the shrine, guided by the magic pointer.
They didn't know that the direction of the magic pointer was wrong. Now that the magic power of the entire earth veins has gathered at Ryudo Temple, unless the servant releases the treasure at close range, the pointer will always point to the top of the mountain.
They also didn't know that the place where Kariya and Tokiomi, who were rolling around in each other's arms, finally stopped was near the mountain path.
The fates of these people, who have long been entangled, meet earlier than expected.
From a distance, the mother and her two daughters heard the man's roar.
"Tokiomi!!!"
"Kareya!!!"
Following the sound, we saw a scene that no one could imagine.
Kariya, who was always elegant and calm, like a medieval nobleman, and who always kept himself clean and tidy, now had a bruised face and bruises all over his body, like two monkeys who had just rolled out of the mud.
Tokiomi grabbed Kariya by the collar and repeatedly kneed him in the abdomen. Kariya became even more courageous and kept hitting Tokiomi’s head with his forehead until both of them were dizzy and fell on the shrine at the same time, gliding down the shrine, leaving two trails of bright red blood.
After finally stopping, the two men struggled to stand up and started a new round of fighting. Not even anyone was heard calling their names.
Just as the two were about to pounce on each other again, they suddenly felt their legs being hugged.
A woman who was very familiar to both of them intervened in the already blurred vision.
"Tokiomi, Kariya, stop hitting me!" Aoi's eyes were red, and her voice was almost pleading.
"dad!"
"Uncle Kariya!"
Rin hugged her father's legs and Sakura hugged her uncle's legs, and they refused to let go.
"Aoi...Rin...Sakura."
"Aoi... Rin... Sakura."
The familiar face and the familiar voice were like two basins of cold water, poured over the heads of the two men with red eyes, slightly cooling down their blood.
"Please get out of the way. This is between Tokiomi and I."
"Women should not interfere in men's affairs."
The two people's eyes passed over Aoi's head and collided again, full of tension.
"Tokiomi, I must wake you up today!"
"Kariya, I will make you pay the price!"
"That's enough!"
Even the gentlest people have tempers, and even the most magnanimous women have limits to their patience.
Days of continuous worry and fear finally turned into an unprecedented scolding and released it.
"Has that enough, you two?"
Although Aoi was not tall and her body was very weak, her aura at this moment was extremely astonishing. Both Tokiomi and Kariya were shocked by this sudden outburst.
"You are already injured like this and you still want to fight. If you continue like this, you might die, you know that? Have you ever thought about our feelings?"
"Tokiomi, if you die, what will happen to me? What will happen to Rin? How will you pursue the Holy Grail?"
"Kariya, I'll leave Sakura in your care. If you die, who will take care of Sakura?"
"You guys, you guys—this is too much!!!"
PS: Correction: Aoi’s car is not white but black, as corrected in the previous article.