IBHJ 1215

Ayaka remembered that in her memories, her sister had almost unmatched talent. Her sister was gentle and elegant, graceful and modest with everyone she met. Everyone saw her sister as the cornerstone of their family's future.

Her father had such high hopes for her sister, and her mother expected so much from her too.

Even as her little sister, she looked up to her as her role model. She admired her, loved her, dreamed that someday she could become as perfect as her sister was.

But then...

After her sister represented their family in that Holy Grail War, everything changed.

The world changed. Their family changed.

And her sister... she changed.

Her elegant, gentle sister just disappeared. In her place stood someone she barely recognized—someone more demon than human.

To summon the "Beast," her sister murdered all the other Masters in the Holy Grail War. She put a curse on a fellow Master, forcing Servants to kidnap countless young girls as sacrifices for the "Beast."

And in the end, her sister also made her a sacrifice for the "Beast".

Her father tried to talk her sister out of it, to bring her back to her senses. He became just another victim of her sister's blade.

Sister...

She had looked up to her sister her whole life. She admired her, loved her, wanted nothing more than to be just like her.

But...

The one she had admired, the one she had respected so much—why did her sister tear her dreams apart with her own hands?

As memories of the world her sister had destroyed came flooding back, Ayaka's consciousness returned. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she slowly opened her eyes, immediately seeing a ceiling of stalactites above her.

"Where am I?" Ayaka asked groggily as she slowly sat up, looking around in confusion.

"Underground cave," a voice answered from nearby.

Ayaka turned and spotted Manaka sitting against the rock wall not far away.

"Manaka..." She froze instantly, like a rabbit spotting a wolf.

"What's wrong? Scared of me?" she lifted her head, revealing her damaged face.

Ayaka gasped. "Your face—"

The entire right side of Manaka's face was completely shattered. Her right eye was gone, leaving nothing but a pitch-black hole that seemed to go on forever. It was terrifying.

Ayaka backed away, her face draining of color.

"Does it freak you out?" she watched Ayaka's reaction with a hint of amusement.

At this, Ayaka clenched her jaw and forced herself to step forward. "I'm not afraid of you!" she said defiantly. "I'm not scared of you, monster!"

"Whether you're scared of me or not, right now you have to hide in this cave with this monster."

"Why?"

"Because that woman and the imperial army are still searching for you outside. You don't want to fall into their hands, do you?"

"Being caught by them would be better than being stuck with you!"

"Hmph, that's naive. With me, the worst you'd face is death. But with her..." Manaka smiled with an unsettling glint in her eye. "That Demonic Bodhisattva has ways of breaking people that are far worse than killing them. You should know about the Shingon Tachikawa Eiten School, right? That school that advocates sexual relationships as a way to practice Buddhism. That woman comes from this school. You wouldn't want to experience the lustful hell created by her, would you? Of course, if you're desperate, you could go out and try. You might meet a man better than Arthur."

"You—you—" Ayaka trembled with anger, but after what Manaka said, she lost the courage to go outside.

She looked up at Manaka sitting nearby. She noticed how weak Manaka appeared right now—maybe weak enough that even she could kill her.

"I wouldn't waste your time thinking about killing me," Manaka said, turning to look at her. "Even as messed up as I am right now, if I wanted to crush you, I'd just need to think about it. But go ahead and try if you don't believe me."

Manaka smiled at her. Ayaka stood up, wishing she had the guts to walk over and strangle this monster with her bare hands.

But she just couldn't do it.

She didn't have the courage.

She fell to her knees, lowered her head in defeat as tears streamed down her face. "Why? Why am I so weak?" she sobbed. "If I wasn't such a coward, if I hadn't shown my weakness to the Holy Grail, you never would have appeared in my world again..."

Manaka stared at the broken Ayaka, her eyes growing darker. "You know what? I hate your weakness too. If you weren't so pathetically weak, I wouldn't have needed to exist in the first place."

"Then why don't you just die?" Ayaka screamed, completely losing her composure.

"Because I still have work to do." Manaka looked calmly at the hysterical Ayaka. "I'm sure Gaia has already told you who I really am. At this point, there's no reason to hide it from you. I want to save this world from the Lord of Salvation—from your sister's hands."

"This is ridiculous! You were the one who destroyed my world in the first place, and now you're saying you want to save it? How twisted is that? Just looking at you makes me sick! I can't breathe when you're around! Just disappear!" she shouted, taking a furious step toward Manaka.

The moment she moved forward, a blade made of black mud suddenly shot up from the ground right in front of her.

The sudden attack snapped Ayaka out of her blind rage, sending her stumbling backward onto the ground.

"Know your limits. I wasn't born to be someone you could touch. Hate me all you want, despise me if you need to, but don't you dare touch me or push me too far. If I lose my self-control, you know exactly what will happen to you, Ayaka."

Manaka covered her damaged arm and dragged herself away, turning her back as she limped toward the darker depths of the cave.

"You're nothing but a fake!" Ayaka screamed after her. "You have nothing real—not your memories, not your personality, not even your so-called concern for me! Your mission, everything—it's all fake! You're just an empty shell, a fake doll created from one moment of weakness!"

Manaka slowly turned her head back, her remaining eye staring blankly at Ayaka.

"I don't need 'Manaka Sajyou' anymore," Ayaka continued, "yet here you are, still pretending to have feelings. Don't you get it? You shouldn't even exist!"

Manaka stared at her sister’s cold determination, and the cracks on her face began spreading with audible sounds—crack, crack, crack. In her remaining eye, what looked like black tears began to form.

Manaka had faced so much—the Lord of Salvation, the UOs, betrayal after betrayal—and through it all, she had never truly felt defeated. But her sister’s words had just shattered something deep inside her.

Only now did she realize the truth: she really wasn't the real Manaka Sajyou.

Because inside her chest was a heart that could actually be wounded.

"Amitabha."

The sudden sound of a Buddhist chant broke the tension as Xuanzang Sanzang stepped out from behind a pillar where she had been hiding.

"Master Xuanzang..." Ayaka stared at her in shock.

"This humble monk, oh dear..." Xuanzang pressed her palms together, looking genuinely distressed. "I really wasn't trying to eavesdrop on your conversation."

Xuanzang was clearly uncomfortable. She definitely wasn't someone who enjoyed listening in on other people's private business, yet somehow she kept overhearing these sensitive conversations.

"Master Xuanzang, what are you doing here?" Ayaka asked with a slight frown. The last thing she wanted was for someone else to know about her complicated history with Manaka.