How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

"...If Sakura were to develop a personality like yours, Fuji-nee, that would truly be a disaster."

Emiya Shirou pushed the plate of fish belonging to Fujimura Taiga in front of him and made a sarcastic remark. Then he saw Fujimura Taiga staring intently at the back of his hand.

"Shirou, what are those red marks on the back of your hand? Did you bump into something while you were cooking?"

Upon hearing this, Shirou Emiya looked down and indeed saw some red marks on the back of his left hand, which looked similar to bruises.

But he doesn't remember touching anything.

"You probably bumped into something accidentally, right? But it doesn't hurt, so it should be nothing serious. There's still a dish in the kitchen, I'll go first—"

Just as Shirou Emiya stood up, he heard someone ring the doorbell.

"Ding dong~"

"Ah, this must be Sakura! I'll go open the door for her!"

As Shirou Emiya turned to open the door, he didn't forget to warn Taiga Fujimura: "Fujimura-nee, don't you dare sneak a bite while I'm not here!"

"Huh? Shirou, do you really think I'm the kind of person who would cheat on someone?!"

"That's hard to say."

With a distrustful look as a parting gift, Shirou Emiya went to the entrance and opened the door, only to find a purple-haired girl in a school uniform standing outside—or so he thought!

Who are you?!

Looking at the bald old man standing outside his door, Shirou Emiya sniffed, feeling a foul, rotten smell emanating from him, and a tangible look of doubt crossed his face.

"Um... may I ask who you are?"

"Hehehe, Emiya... Shirou, is that right?"

Zouken Matou smiled sinisterly. He probably originally wanted to pretend to be a kind and amiable old man, but unfortunately, with his mummy-like appearance, no matter how kind he pretended, he would only scare children to tears.

“My name is Matou Zouken. My granddaughter and good-for-nothing grandson have been taken care of by you.”

Sakura's grandfather?

Come to think of it, I do recall her mentioning having a grandfather...

"Oh, hello, please come in and have a seat. What brings you here?"

"Hehehe, there's no need to sit. I'm just here to deliver a message for my granddaughter..." Matou Zouken tapped the ground with his cane.

"Because my good-for-nothing grandson suddenly 'ran away from home' last night, Sakura can't come to your place today, so she asked me to tell you..."

His deep-set eyes glanced casually at the mark on Shirou Emiya's left hand, paused, and added:

"Hmm... she probably won't be able to come over for a while..."

"That good-for-nothing grandson... Shinji? I see. Is Sakura alright?"

Emiya Shirou frowned, thinking to himself why Shinji always did things that would worry Sakura, while asking Matou Zouken about Matou Sakura's situation.

“It’s alright, of course she’s alright,” Zouken Matou said meaningfully.

"She's doing very well now..."

Chapter Twelve: Omens

Just as Shirou Emiya met Zouken Matou.

Meanwhile, inside the Tohsaka residence, Rin Tohsaka was sitting opposite Yuwatari, explaining in detail the contents of her dream and sharing her belief that the dream was a memory from her past.

"Ah... okay, I think I get it..."

Yuuto, rubbing his temples in frustration, listened to Rin Tohsaka's perspective on the dream and realized that there were indeed some differences between the two of them in terms of... cognition.

First, Rin Tohsaka believes that the dream was a memory from his past, but he's certain it was just a dream. He just doesn't know why Rin Tohsaka would have the same dream with him...

Secondly, he thought playing cards with others was normal, but Rin Tohsaka saw it as him fighting against someone wielding the same type of Noble Phantasm...

Finally, and most importantly.

He had no memory of the part about the hyperfusion that destroyed the world.

From his perspective, he simply used the effect of [Evil Hero Hellfire] in the graveyard to set a [Super Polymerization] card, then activated the [Super Polymerization] effect to fuse a [Evil Hero Darkblade] using a monster on the opponent's field and Evil Hero.

But speaking of this...

Yuto frowned, recalling the [Super Polymerization] card that had been added to his deck due to the effect of his unique skill [Unleash Ultimate Power: EX], and which he still kept at the bottom of his deck.

After all, this card has the power to fuse 12 universes. He was worried that if he used it outside of a duel, it would uncontrollably melt the entire world, just like Rin Tohsaka had seen. That's why he hadn't tried to use that [Hyperfusion] card for so long.

Hyperfusion...

Could this be some kind of omen?

Could it be that he will need to use [Hyperfusion] later?

I can't figure it out...

"Have you thought of something, Archer?"

Seeing that Yuuto, who was sitting opposite her, seemed to be thinking about something after listening to her, Rin Tohsaka, whose emotions had returned to normal as she finished speaking, asked.

Coming to his senses, Yuuto glanced at Rin Tohsaka, a mischievous thought suddenly forming in his mind. He then smiled and asked her:

"Speaking of which, Master, have you checked my Status (commonly known as the panel)?"

"Eh? This... I haven't actually seen it yet, but why are you suddenly bringing this up? Hmm... I'm a Master who respects the wishes of my Servants, so I won't secretly look at it if you don't agree!"

A hint of curiosity flashed across Rin Tohsaka's face, but as she said, she was a Master who respected the wishes of her Servants... at least she respected Yuwatari's wishes, and she didn't want to ruin her relationship with a Servant she got along with and who was also very capable over such a trivial matter.

Yuuto didn't care about this, but he was still satisfied with Rin Tohsaka's answer.

"Would you like to take a look?"

"...If you agree...of course, I don't really care about the so-called stats of a Heroic Spirit, but knowing more about your abilities will be more beneficial for our future cooperation..."

Although Rin Tohsaka kept saying things like "there are only the weakest Masters, not the weakest Servants," her body still honestly followed the dictates of her curiosity and started checking Yuwatari's panel.

If the Servant being viewed doesn't have any Noble Phantasms or unique skills that conceal their identity, it's quite easy for a Master to view the Servant's stats. However, for unique skills and Noble Phantasms, only the name can be seen; the specific effects cannot be viewed.

Rin Tohsaka, who was checking the Yuwa panel, was initially stunned by the string of Ds, but then became excited when she saw the A+ rank magic power and the EX rank luck and Noble Phantasm.

'We've struck gold! We've really struck gold!'

Although she had vaguely guessed this fact based on Yuuto's behavior, Rin Tohsaka found herself much more excited than she had expected when she actually saw the panel with her own eyes.

However, Yuwatari's stats were much more exaggerated than she had expected...

'With two EX stats and one A+, plus its two unique skills both above A rank, and its Noble Phantasm already confirmed as EX, it doesn't matter if the remaining skill is at a lower level!'

With the thought that if she hits the jackpot, she'll make a killing, and if she misses, she won't lose out. Rin Tohsaka excitedly looked at the level of her last unique skill.

She was initially pleasantly surprised to see an EX-level character, but when she saw the skill name, that surprise turned into complete horror.

[Unleash Ultimate Power: EX]

Even without seeing the effects, Rin Tohsaka felt like she could guess the specific effects of the skill...

The words of the Overlord in her dream still seem to echo in her ears.

She stood stiffly, her neck cracking like a wind-up toy without lubrication, meeting the other person's mocking smile, and then—

"Pfft!"

Yuuto looked at Rin Tohsaka's stunned expression and couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself..."

"Eh?"

Rin Tohsaka pondered, Rin Tohsaka was shocked, Rin Tohsaka was embarrassed and annoyed!

At this point, she could easily understand that You Du had deliberately shown her this unique skill in order to scare her!

Damn it, how can there be a Servant with such a terrible personality?!

She actually enjoys seeing her Master make a fool of himself!

We can't take this anymore; we have to strike hard!

Rin Tohsaka, her blood boiling, impulsively raised her left hand to issue a Command Seal, but Yuuto, who had anticipated her move, quickly covered her mouth.

"Ugh! (Let me go! You damn Servant who loves to laugh at your Master!)"

"Wait, wait, Master! Don't waste your Command Spells yet. Give me a chance to explain!"

As her initial surge of passion subsided and her rationality returned, Rin Tohsaka calmed down and nodded, deciding to give him a chance to explain.

Startled, Yuuto breathed a sigh of relief and let go of her hand.

Thank goodness, I almost lost a power bank.

"Ahem, Master, I'm sure you guessed its effect when you saw my unique skill, right?"

Yuuto drew the [Super Polymerization] card from the bottom of his deck and showed it to Rin Tohsaka. Looking at Rin's pupils, which shrank slightly due to surprise and fear, he said in a serious tone.

"That's right, this is the card you saw in your dream—"

"[Hyper-convergence]."

"As for the overlord you saw in your dream... I can only say that person is me, but not entirely me..."

Here, Yuuto means that the original Overlord was not him, but Yuuki Judai from the original drama, and he only temporarily took on the other's identity in that dream.

After all, he couldn't bring himself to explain to others his chuunibyou (delusional) experience in his dream, so he could only play the riddle-teller he hated and hint at it to Rin Tohsaka.

"Phew... So that's how it is."

Rin Tohsaka, who breathed a sigh of relief, understood the meaning slightly differently from him after hearing it.

She felt that the Overlord was actually the dark side of Youdu, which is why the Overlord was both Youdu and not entirely Youdu, because he was only one side of Youdu!

That's why Youdu has the [Super Fusion] card in Bawang's hand, because they are different aspects of the same person!

Rin Tohsaka felt that she had completely understood.

You've definitely misunderstood...

Seeing Rin Tohsaka's confident demeanor, Yuuto was equally confident that she would never understand his meaning.

It doesn't matter, as long as she can find a reason to convince herself, then the purpose of the journey will be achieved.

It's time to get down to business!

After resolving the 'knot' between the Master and Servant, Yuuto stood up and told Rin Tohsaka about his plan to go out and investigate. He decided to investigate Ryudouji Temple during the day as planned the night before and try to keep a close watch on it to prevent the old bug from launching a sneak attack.

In the evening, he went to the Emiya residence to see if Shirou Emiya would still be able to summon Saber tonight if Archer and Lancer's battle hadn't taken place.

If you happen to encounter that elusive old bug during this time, seize the opportunity to unleash your Noble Phantasm and obliterate that bastard bug to dust, leaving him no chance to cause trouble!

In fact, if Yuuto hadn't been worried that the old worm might not dare to show up after he went to the Matou residence, and that it would make the other party more alert and hide even deeper, Yuuto would have planned to go directly to their door.

Time to get busy...

Chapter Thirteen: This is common sense, my friend.

Ryudong Temple.

To most people, this temple is just a local landmark in Fuyuki.

But only the magician knows that this temple, located on the summit of Mount Enzo, is actually built on the largest spiritual vein in Fuyuki City, making it an extremely auspicious spiritual site.

Furthermore, in the underground stalactite cave of Ryudou Temple, there is a large-scale magic circle that stores magical power drawn from the spiritual veins of Fuyuki City for sixty years, which is used to hold the Holy Grail War.

It was for this reason that a witch took a liking to this place and occupied Ryudou Temple as her base.

The witch's name is Medea, and she was summoned in this Holy Grail War as a Caster.

Although her current Master, Souichirou Kuzuki, is not a magician, so she cannot obtain magic power from him, for a witch from the Age of Gods, there are countless ways to replenish magic power.

As Caster possesses A-level site construction skills, she naturally transformed Ryudouji Temple, where Kuzuki Soichiro was staying, into her own magic workshop.

Although she did not expel the people from Ryudouji Temple, she did cast a spell on them to keep them hidden in the shadows. She also sent out Dragon Fang Soldiers to collect magical energy by attacking ordinary people in preparation for the upcoming Holy Grail War.

To this end, she also used the magic stored underground at Ryudouji Temple to obtain a large amount of magic power in a short period of time. Combined with her knowledge of the Age of Gods witches, she used loopholes in the rules of the Holy Grail War to illegally summon Assassin.

In this way, Caster's group essentially gained an ally they didn't have to worry about betraying. Combined with the Dragon Fang Soldier puppets she created, their combat strength was definitely superior to that of other Masters who fought alone.

She could easily restrain the opponent's Servants herself, let the Dragon Fang Soldiers restrain the enemy's Master, and then the Assassin could hide in the shadows and seize the opportunity to decapitate the enemy Master.

Unfortunately, what brought him success also brought him failure.

Assassin named Sasaki Kojiro was summoned by Medea through the gate of Ryudouji Temple after violating the rules of the Holy Grail War. As a result, he was unable to leave the gate of Ryudouji Temple and could only guard it as a gatekeeper.