> "No… Maybe I'm not completely without hope."
Emiya Shirou muttered to himself, his voice low and resolute.
He had made a wish to the Holy Grail—to gain complete control over his body and soul. Now, the corrupted Lesser Grail had fully fused with him. Yet despite this, Shirou could still control its power without losing himself to its corruption.
He wasn't powerless.
In fact, becoming the vessel for the tainted Grail had changed his body. The massive surge of mana released by the Grail had reshaped him from within.
Why the Grail appeared in the first place—he couldn't figure that out just yet.
> "So… what time period is this?"
Shirou began piecing things together.
From the memories in his head, he could tell he had just turned seven.
The Fourth Holy Grail War hadn't started yet.
Rin Tohsaka was the same age as him.
Illyasviel von Einzbern was one year older…
And Sakura was one year younger than Rin.
That would make her six years old now.
At that moment, Sakura's name flashed through his mind.
If he couldn't escape this world's fate—
If he was destined to be dragged into the Holy Grail War no matter what—
Then he would change something. No, he must change something.
> Some tragedies… must never be allowed to happen.
Like Sakura's.
---
In mage families, only one heir could inherit the family's Magic Crest.
A Magic Crest is essentially an auxiliary engine separate from a mage's innate circuits. It contains encoded spells that activate instantly when mana flows through—no complex incantations needed.
Tokiomi Tohsaka chose Rin as the heir, and thus handed Sakura over to the Matou family.
But the Matous had long since fallen under the control of Zōken Matou, a withered monster who had lived for centuries.
Zōken desired immortality. To achieve that, he sought the Holy Grail.
With Kariya Matou having abandoned the family, there were no suitable candidates left to represent the Matous in the Fourth War.
So Zōken planned to raise Sakura as his tool for the Fifth Holy Grail War.
To "adjust" her body to be compatible with the Matou line, she was subjected to unspeakable horrors—under the guise of "education," she was locked in the family's underground worm pit and tortured day and night.
But children's hearts are fragile.
Faced with overwhelming cruelty, a child cannot resist through willpower alone.
They don't yet understand life.
They don't even know what hope or dignity really mean.
In the face of evil, a child is far more likely to shut down completely.
Because they've never tasted joy, they find it easier to give up.
Because they've never seen a future, they are quick to fall into despair.
What Sakura suffered was far worse than Shirou had imagined—
Her body was violated by Crest Worms.
These worms, Zōken's familiars, feed on the host's life force and convert it into mana. In some ways, they mimic magical circuits.
But they do so by devouring the host's body from the inside.
The pain is unimaginable.
Use too much mana, and the Crest Worms devour their host entirely.
And yet, they also forcibly expand a host's magical circuits.
Kariya Matou, desperate to save Sakura, returned to the Matou household and took everything upon himself. But by then, it was already too late.
Aoi, Tokiomi's wife, had once been Kariya's childhood friend.
He had loved her.
But when he saw her smile for the first time—when she looked truly happy by Tokiomi's side—he gave up.
He couldn't give her that smile. But maybe that man could.
Still, when Sakura was given to the Matous, Kariya's hatred for Tokiomi boiled over.
He knew exactly what kind of place the Matou household had become.
He had loved Aoi—and by extension, he loved both her daughters: Rin and Sakura.
Aoi, as a mother, had suffered deeply when Sakura was given away.
But the Tohsaka family wasn't ordinary—it was a prestigious bloodline of magi.
Kariya made a deal with Zōken:
If he could become a Master and win the Holy Grail, Sakura would no longer be needed.
But by then, he had already missed his chance.
He wasn't a strong magus. For the Grail to recognize him, for him to be chosen as one of the seven Masters, the price he paid was steep.
In the Matou worm pit, he let the Crest Worms devour him daily, trying to expand his circuits.
He only had a few years left to live.
Most of his body had been destroyed, his face half-rotted.
By all rights, he should have died already.
But the worms inside him were keeping him alive.
He had resolved to dedicate what remained of his life to saving Sakura and Aoi.
Even after returning to the Matou house, even under the same roof, Kariya never told Sakura the truth—that he was suffering for her.
To Sakura, words of hope were more dangerous than silence.
By that time, despair was the only thing keeping her alive.
If she saw even a flicker of hope, she would shatter completely.
If you've never known light, you can survive the darkness.
But if you've tasted the light… you can never bear the dark again.
To Sakura, Kariya was just another helpless adult—someone broken and beaten, just like her.
And yet, even that despair was only the beginning.
Shinji Matou, her "brother," would later do things to her that filled Shirou with indescribable rage.
---
> "Uncle Kariya was a real man.
Zōken Matou deserves a thousand deaths!"
Shirou clenched his teeth, furious.
He now fully understood the horrors Sakura would face.
He had to stop it.
He would save her.
Just then, he felt it—something was wrong.
Several mana signatures were approaching.
> "Damn it…"
Shirou's eyes darkened.
When he became the Lesser Grail, the surge of mana that burst from his body had been massive—strong enough to alert every magus in Fuyuki City.
He'd been found.
Shirou rushed to the window and flung it open.
Familiar Japanese streets and rooftops stretched out before him.
But there was not a single person outside.
Things had escalated.
Someone had used magecraft to repel all civilians, likely without them even noticing.
He was in danger.
And against professional magi, what chance did he have?
He didn't know any magic.
He didn't even know how to wield the corrupted Holy Grail's power inside him.
In the next instant, the door burst open.
A tall man stepped inside, clearly in his forties, with an imposing presence.
He walked straight toward Shirou.
Shirou instinctively suppressed most of his magic circuits, revealing only fifty-one active circuits.
This was part of his wish—to completely control his body and soul.
Including his will.
That control now allowed him to mask all magical activity—
even his circuits.
> The Holy Grail truly was a wish-granting machine.
The omnipotent cauldron. A miracle made real.
No wonder it was called a device of miracles.