Time rewinds to the moment Sakatsuki arrived in Japan.
Stepping out of the airport and strolling through the Eastern-style streets, Sakatsuki removed his cloak and curiously surveyed his surroundings.
"So this is Japan in 2004... interesting."
Up until now, he had already experienced the Fourth Holy Grail War in the island nation’s urban landscape of 1994; the peaceful Fuyuki of 2007 in the world of Prisma Illya; and now, he stood in 2004, at the cusp of modernity, gazing down the streets.
Not everyone could, like Sakatsuki, witness world-shifting changes measured in years within just a few short months. He walked through time, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with countless heroes of past and future.
With a soft exhale, he tucked away the unique mix of awe and melancholy that belonged solely to time travelers. Standing before a vending machine, Sakatsuki discreetly released several spider puppet familiars to enhance his reconnaissance efficiency.
Having left the main battlefield in Romania to travel thousands of miles to now-irrelevant Japan, he certainly wasn’t here for tourism.
According to original lore, there was a lone Master of the Black Faction hiding here.
His name: Hyouma Sagara.
The Sagara family specialized in a fusion of Japanese and Western curses, profiting from techniques that ensured building safety or protected humans at the cost of lives—methods naturally unfit for proper society. To summon his Servant with absolute preparation, Hyouma Sagara had left Yggdmillennia and returned to his ancestral home in the Far East.
This should have been a closely guarded secret, but the war had been infiltrated by a prescient time traveler.
Unfortunately, the original author never specified the exact time or location, so I had to obtain the Sagara family’s address from the Clock Tower... Now it’s just a matter of combing through the area and praying to find Hyouma Sagara before the summoning begins.
Even as he raced against time, Sakatsuki’s expression remained calm. While directing his familiars to infiltrate the ley lines, he bent down to pick up the drink he had casually purchased, popped the tab, and took a sip.
"Ugh... black bean and ginger flavor? Why does this abomination exist across worlds too?!"
She was a woman who embodied the best traits of both Eastern and Western beauty, appearing to be in her early twenties with an innocent face tinged with fox-like allure. Her chestnut hair cascaded over the dramatic curves of her ample bosom, while her thin, light green dress clung to the soft contours of her feminine figure—especially the plump, enticing swell of her hips, accentuated even more by the fabric.
Without a doubt, she was a woman of considerable charm.
But not everyone cherished such delicate beauty—especially when her value as a sacrifice outweighed the appeal of her flesh.
Her body was carved open, her abdomen slit with countless gashes as gushing blood pooled onto the floor, where the man who had kept her traced an ancient magic circle.
Weakened from blood loss, the woman couldn’t make out the man’s mutterings clearly, catching only fragments.
"Victory... Yggdmillennia... the Sagara family... my lifelong wish..."
As her consciousness faded and her mind dimmed, the woman heard the man’s final words.
"Rejoice in this honor, Reika Rikudou. You shall become the sacrificial offering for the Yggdmillennia clan’s ascent to supremacy. The moment of your death shall herald the descent of my Servant!"
These were words that those untouched by mystery could never comprehend. Yet even without understanding, the woman named Reika Rikudou could sense the thick aura of death creeping inexorably toward her.
So this is how I die, she thought.
There was no great struggle or resentment—only a wisp of regret as fleeting as drifting clouds. After her family’s decline, her life had become mere existence: mechanically eating, sleeping, living as someone’s mistress or appendage. Nothing more.
For her, death might even be a release.
Still, if possible...
"Close, close, close, close, close."
"But the time of overflow must be severed."
"Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be entrusted to your blade."
"Answer the call of the Holy Grail! If you submit to this will and reason, respond at once!"
Amid the man’s fanatical, hymn-like chanting, Reika saw light—mystical radiance enveloping her. It maintained her consciousness even as she clearly felt her life force draining away, tormenting her.
In this indescribable agony, Reika’s long-dormant will to survive gradually awakened.
I... I don’t want to die after all.
Though she held little attachment to this world and despised her aimless, dependent self...
She still didn’t want to die. She wanted to live!
I don’t want to die, don’t want to die, don’t want to die!
Someone save me. Anyone... please save me!
I want to live! I want to keep living!
Her blood dwindled within her veins as warmth pooled increasingly on the floor beneath—until that warmth became searing heat.
The battered woman lay upon the near-scorching ground like a burnt offering to the gods.
Reika knew death’s approach was imminent.
[Do you wish to live?]
At death’s door, these words pierced her heart like a hallucination, demanding her truest answer.
"I... I want to live!"
[No matter the cost?]
"No matter the cost!" Her survival instinct screamed louder than ever within, though no sound escaped her lips. "Save me! If anyone’s there, please save me!"
[Excellent! Then your remaining years—]
The mental voice vanished as the wall exploded inward, replaced by a flash of cold steel aimed at Hyouma Sagara.
As the contract formed, Sakatsuki’s right hand swept out, severing Hyouma’s head from his body, while his left wove healing magecraft to revive the blood-drained Reika from the brink of death.
Hyouma’s head hit the ground before his expression could even register shock. As a Master in the Holy Grail War, he’d never imagined being slain at the very moment of summoning his Servant.
Opening a displacement portal, Sakatsuki consigned Hyouma’s corpse to Tokyo Bay, his gaze lingering on the increasingly radiant summoning circle. After long hesitation, he finally dismissed the annihilation magecraft at his fingertips and sighed.
For future plans, Sakatsuki couldn’t cause too much commotion at the Sagara residence. After pinpointing Hyouma Sagara’s location, he painstakingly broke through the family’s magical workshop with great effort.
Assassin’s meager magical energy reserves gave Sakatsuki considerable trouble. He had to rest after each breakthrough, and by the time he found this place, it was already too late.
"Shaking the ’catalyst’s’ resolve indeed doesn’t affect the summoning ritual itself," Sakatsuki murmured with a sigh, his expression blank as he tightened his grip on the pistol in his hand.
Barring any surprises, the figure emerging from this magic circle would be Jack the Ripper in her child form. He had to capture her before she activated her Misty Night and Information Erasure skills. If the Servant escaped, it could create unpredictable consequences for the future—an outcome Sakatsuki absolutely didn’t want to see.
As the pure light of the summoning faded, a petite figure appeared at the center of the magic circle. Like a newborn creature just out of its shell, she looked around curiously before locking eyes with Sakatsuki. Then, in an innocent, childish voice, she called out:
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