After breakfast, Rin Tohsaka adjusted her school uniform and headed to school.
At a crossroad, she spotted a boy and a girl approaching from another direction. The boy was Shirou Emiya, whom she paid little mind. Her gaze settled on the girl chatting and laughing with him.
Purple hair, purple eyes... a sister from childhood memories, now changed: Matou Sakura.
Rin merely looked at her, showing no reaction. Sakura, too, seemed indifferent, glancing at Rin before looking away.
As if strangers, they passed each other. Rin heard her summoned Servant's voice in her mind, questioning.
"Looks like you two have some history."
Rin froze but quickly regained her composure, asking, "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much. Just find it amusing that you both clearly care about each other but pretend otherwise."
"What are you blabbering about? I don't get it," Rin said, her tone stiff. Morpheus chuckled, tactfully changing the subject.
"So, you still haven't told me about that jewel pendant. You forgot during breakfast."
Though she knew he was diverting the topic, Rin accepted his gesture and began explaining.
"Do you know about the Tohsaka family's magecraft?"
"Nope."
"…As a Servant, don't you ever check up on your Master?"
"I'm lazy."
Rin gave up expecting much from this Servant. She'd lost hope for the Holy Grail War and simply shared her story.
"The Tohsaka family's magecraft revolves around jewels, derived from the legendary Kaleidoscope. We refine magical energy, store it in jewels, and draw it out when needed."
"Like an ammo stockpile. Got it."
A fitting analogy, but Rin didn't comment. She continued, "Once used, the jewels become useless and can't be reused. Each jewel has a limited capacity…
"Naturally, rarer jewels are more effective. But this jewel… I know it's just ordinary selenite, worth a few hundred yen for a chunk, yet it holds an immense amount of magical energy... so much that even after years of use, it's never run dry…
"My father said he bought it while traveling in Greece, sold as a pretty rock. He only picked it up because it seemed peculiar and noticed something off."
"Noticed something?"
"Yes. He was just looking, but he sensed magical energy within. If he weren't skilled in jewel magecraft, he wouldn't have noticed. After buying it, he found the jewel's energy was vast, inexhaustible no matter how much he drew.
"But we can only extract a small amount at a time, similar to regular jewels.
"So, it became a permanent reserve jewel, a Tohsaka family treasure.
"When my father asked the merchant where it came from, they only said it was stolen by some petty thief."
"That's it?" Morpheus asked.
He knew why they couldn't access most of its energy... they were using the wrong method. To tap its power, one needed the proper approach, guided by the angels of the Church or at least the faith of the Greek Moon Goddess. Direct extraction was the least effective way.
For magi, an infinite-energy jewel as a heirloom was understandable, even if its efficiency per use was low, as it could always be drawn upon.
It could even be used to channel energy into other jewels, creating disposable items... a solid strategy.
After all, constantly refining one's own magical energy could lead to exhaustion or harm one's health, as it was tied to life force.
But Morpheus wanted to know if there were other reasons.
"Of course not just that. My father said, though he wasn't sure, the jewel's energy is gentle, even calming the mind.
"I feel it too. Wearing this pendant keeps my heart at peace. Even in sudden situations, I can stay calm, as if the jewel has the power to soothe."
Rin paused, then added, "It's not an illusion."
Morpheus suddenly asked, "Do you follow the Church?"
"The Church? You mean the Holy Church. I'm not a believer... I'm a magus... but my family has a history of faith. My mentor is from the Holy Church. If you must say, the Tohsaka family does have ties to them."
"It's more than ties. Your heart holds some faith in the Church, likely from family influence, which means you have some compatibility with this jewel."
"Compatibility?"
"Why do you think your father sensed its power when others didn't? If someone from the Holy Church touched it, they'd notice its hidden energy too."
Rin looked toward the voice, startled, then realized Morpheus was in spirit form, invisible to her.
"Why do you sound like you know this jewel so well?" she asked, astonished.
"Quite a coincidence, isn't it? I happen to know it." Morpheus hid his amusement, unconcerned about his expression since he was invisible. "You can call it the Moonstone, or Gabriel's Stone."
"Moonstone? Gabriel's Stone?" Rin, hearing the jewel's names for the first time, stared at her wrist, sensing its significance just from the titles.
"Exactly. It holds divine power, tied to the holy water element," Morpheus continued, his voice tinged with nostalgia. "You could also call it Artemis's gem."
"Artemis? The Moon Goddess's gem?" Rin frowned. As a magus, she knew plenty about mythology.
Hearing Morpheus, her confusion grew. "You said it holds Gabriel's power. What does that have to do with Artemis?"
Morpheus, having mentioned the name, didn't answer directly, instead musing, "Yeah, what's the connection? It's puzzling."
"So, you just heard someone call it that?"
"Well, if you say I heard it called that, I suppose so."
"By the way, I had a strange dream last night. Any idea why?" Rin said suddenly. The dream happened after Morpheus was summoned, so she suspected he might know something.
"A dream? Want me to interpret it? I know a bit of astrology and Tarot. Should I use them to decode it?"
Rin frowned. In her understanding, astrology in magecraft was for harnessing stellar energy, like life force in the air, but hard to sustain long-term.
"I mean divination, not harnessing," Morpheus clarified, prompting Rin to shake her head. "You say things that make me doubt you're really a magus. You even call yourself a magician."
Morpheus chuckled, saying nothing more.
Seeing Rin lose faith in the Holy Grail War because of his responses amused him greatly.
At the classroom, Morpheus slipped into other rooms, spotting Shirou Emiya and Sakura Matou but not Shinji Matou, which puzzled him.
Where was Shinji? He wasn't the type to skip class!
But then, Morpheus shifted his focus to someone else.
Sakura Matou!
From their morning encounter, he'd sensed a familiar aura from her. Now, observing her again, he confirmed it came from her chest area.
Something hidden under her clothes felt strikingly familiar!
But Morpheus couldn't get closer. A Servant, also in spirit form, was protecting her.
He knew it was Medusa from Greek mythology!
In Nasuverse's setting, he vaguely recalled Medusa was a deity, but after being defeated by the Greek gods and stripped of her worship, she became what she was now.
"A descendant of Pontus, the primordial sea god and brother of Uranus. Medusa's mount, Pegasus, was actually her child with Poseidon… at least in legend.
"There's no evidence linking Medusa's Gorgon sisters to the Earth Mother Goddess. At most, they're head-like monsters from Thessaly. It'd make more sense for Nasu to write Cybele and Rhea as one, or even Cybele, Rhea, and Gaia as facets of the same being, than to tie it to Medusa…
"Forget it. I'm in Nasuverse now. Thinking about what's logical is pointless. Medusa even uses some of Cybele's power, I think.
"But the issue is, in ancient Greece, some saw Cybele as the Earth Mother Rhea… and Cybele was a Phrygian deity…"
Morpheus surrendered to Nasuverse's mythology, too exhausted to dig deeper.
If he'd known during the Age of Gods that he'd end up in the Fifth Holy Grail War, he'd have asked Rhea what was going on. But he hadn't, so he accepted his fate.
His only urgent question was: what was the familiar aura from Sakura's chest?
What else of his had ended up in this world?
With that, Morpheus left Sakura's classroom and returned to Rin's.
"It's odd. Who's participating in this Holy Grail War?"
"How should I know?" Rin replied. "But the Matou family is definitely involved."
"Matou? Oh, that girl from earlier, right? I heard someone call her Sakura. Matou Sakura, correct?" Morpheus lied, probing further. "Is she alone?"
Rin was stunned by Morpheus's initiative, her mind racing.
"He went to check on Sakura without me knowing?! He even learned her name. Does he have a thing for her?!"
"It's normal to scout, right? But I only got that far. Is she a participant, or is there someone else in her family?"
Rin paused, weighing whether his words were true, then said, "Sakura's parents are gone. Her grandfather, Matou Zouken, runs the household. She also has an older brother, Shinji Matou."
"So there's a brother. That means the participant could be Shinji Matou," Morpheus said, hoping to glean more from Rin.
Then, he heard something completely unexpected.
"No, the participant is Sakura. Not long ago, Shinji left Fuyuki for Europe."
"Europe?!"
Rin explained, "I don't know the details, but I heard it was for travel."
This left Morpheus speechless.
"Seriously? Shinji Matou avoiding the Holy Grail War? His personality screams wanting to prove himself in it, yet he left? Is this really the Fifth Holy Grail War I know? The gaps are growing!"
It even made Morpheus consider a possibility.
"Did Nasu write a parallel Fifth Holy Grail War I don't know about?!"
***
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