Aozaki Touko simply packed her belongings and left the home she had shared with Aoko for many years.
She didn't take everything, only the Magic Craft she would need soon, as she felt she might return in the near future.
Touko decided to visit Wada Church first. She wanted to seek advice from a certain person before settling things with her grandfather and sister, especially since The Ayatsuji Family had always been closely associated with the Aozaki Family.
Touko harbored very complex feelings towards Father Ayatsuji Eiri.
In her youth, Touko had held some vague, unrequited feelings for this 'mechanically elegant and beautiful' priest, though she never voiced them (fearing Aoko's ridicule). However, as she grew older, she found him increasingly difficult to understand.
Although Father Ayatsuji Eiri had studied Magician with her grandfather for a time, he undoubtedly lacked the talent to use it. However, this reason did not negate Father Ayatsuji Eiri's combat abilities.
If judged by the class divisions of a fantasy world, Father Ayatsuji Eiri was likely either an assassin or a monk—in short, a combat-oriented character who was fast and skilled at disguise.
"He's probably the kind of guy who hides a long blade under his cloak," Touko thought, and she felt this was highly probable.
If she needed psychological assurance before meeting her grandfather, Father Ayatsuji Eiri was undoubtedly a good choice.
After all, he was the kind of person who would help others out of interest, so if Touko personally sought his help, there was a chance he would agree to assist her, right?
---Divider---
After a brief conversation, Father Ayatsuji Eiri agreed to witness the negotiation between Touko and her grandfather as an observer. Since it involved the succession of a Magician, it was a significant event, both for him as the eldest son of The Ayatsuji Family and as an active member of the Holy Church. He had no reason not to be present.
However, Touko subconsciously believed he wasn't telling the truth. He was probably just going along because he could witness some rare entertainment by accompanying Touko.
Arriving at her grandfather's Workshop residence, Touko took a deep breath. She skillfully used Magician to unlock the gate's magical mechanism, pushed the door open, and walked in first, with Father Ayatsuji Eiri following without hesitation.
It looked exactly as it always had, Touko mused. Nothing had changed since her grandfather transferred the inheritance to Aoko; he hadn't even revoked any of Touko's permissions within this Workshop. She, with an outsider, walked straight to her grandfather's favorite study. As she opened the door, she saw that familiar back.
"Is there anything else, Touko?" her grandfather asked without turning, still seated in his favorite chair, reading a book.
"Why?" Touko asked, her voice trembling slightly. "Why wasn't it me?"
Her grandfather didn't answer immediately, but continued to turn the pages at a steady pace, remaining silent for a moment.
"No particular reason," her grandfather said. "I probably only recently realized that Aoko is purer, so I did it this way."
"Just for such a ridiculous reason...?" Touko asked in disbelief.
"Ah, yes," her grandfather's reply was monotonous and cold.
Touko lowered her head slightly, her carefully styled bangs obscuring her eyes. Two drops, looking like tears, slid to the floor but immediately blended into the exquisitely crafted carpet, disappearing as if they had never existed.
How did that saying go?
Sometimes, people think they've suffered a major blow in life and are in agony, only for life to deliver another punch.
Touko felt she was in precisely that situation now.
Father Ayatsuji Eiri, the priest she had brought along merely as a witness or for psychological comfort, suddenly erupted, drawing a long blade from his meticulously groomed cloak—a blade that seemed impossible to conceal without a trace—and sliced her grandfather, who was sitting in his chair, in two.
"You...!" Touko's usually brilliant mind nearly ceased to function at that moment. She almost instinctively questioned the priest, who was now wiping his long blade with a handkerchief, "Why did you cut grandfather!?"
"I just felt the timing was right, that I could kill him, so I did," Father Ayatsuji Eiri replied mechanically, reinserting the long blade into his cloak, leaving no outward trace.
This man had always been like this. For combat, he needed no reason, no opponent, no ties of fate or hatred. When the timing was right, he would act, like a pistol with its trigger pulled.
The sudden attack by the Wada Church priest profoundly shocked 19-year-old Aozaki Touko. It was her first direct encounter with the death of a family member, and the murderer was someone she herself had brought before the victim.
The priest said nothing more, ignoring Aozaki Touko, who stood frozen in the study, and walked swiftly towards the door.
"Ah, excuse me," a young female voice came from outside the Workshop. "Father, please wait a moment."
Hearing the voice, Father Ayatsuji Eiri froze, feeling an inexplicable unease. He immediately drew the long blade he had just put away from his cloak, preparing to confront this sudden uninvited guest.
However, to everyone's surprise, the priest's drawing motion suddenly stopped. Touko could even see the priest's stiff body tremble slightly, but it didn't seem to be from fear or tension, but rather from being immobilized by some unknown force.
And emerging from the dark shadows was Aozaki Aoko, with a faint smile. She held an exquisite leather-bound book in her left hand, while her right hand was posed in a peculiar gesture, emitting a faint glow.
"Human Immobilization Spell," Aoko said. "Isn't it strange?"
Touko wanted to say something, but she saw the immobilized Father Ayatsuji Eiri and her grandfather already split in two, and ultimately remained silent.
"Long time no see, Father Ayatsuji Eiri," Aoko said. "To be honest, I wasn't eager to see you, because your handsome face once made my lovely sister fantasize for a while, and I'm very displeased about that."
Aoko finished with an exaggerated sigh, then shook her head.
"Your twisted logic, saying you killed because you 'felt you could kill'?" Aoko questioned the immobile Father Ayatsuji Eiri. "Honestly, I quite like that theory, but you used it on my grandfather, and I dislike that very much."
Hearing this, the already numb Touko paused slightly, a bad premonition forming in her heart.
"Because 'I felt I could kill you, so I did,'" Aoko's tone was filled with contempt and indifference, an extreme disregard for life.
"Wait a...!"
Touko had just reached out, wanting to stop what her sister was about to do, but immediately realized it was too late. Aozaki Aoko raised her right hand, forming a pistol shape, and then a series of projectiles with tracer trails flew out in a bizarre arc, blasting Father Ayatsuji Eiri's head to smithereens. Some of the blood even splattered onto Touko's face.
That was the Magic Web Arcane Aoko loved to use, Magic Missile.
"Ah, my apologies, my apologies," Aoko said, seeing Touko with a speck of blood on her face, her tone filled with genuine remorse. "Let me help big sister wipe it clean."
With that, Aoko took out a pure white handkerchief from who knows where, walked over to Touko, and gently and carefully wiped her stained face clean.
"That carpet is very expensive," her grandfather's figure, who had risen from the destroyed chair at some unknown point, said, his voice unusually filled with regret. "Clean up here before you leave, and remember to replace the carpet for me."
With that, her grandfather's soul left the study, heading towards the basement deep within the Workshop. The room was a mess, with only the bodies of her grandfather and Father Ayatsuji Eiri remaining, along with the Aozaki Sisters.
Hearing her grandfather's command, Aoko frowned, then conjured a medical body bag out of thin air, put on a mask, and began methodically using Magician to place Father Ayatsuji Eiri's remains into the body bag.
She also handed Touko a body bag, gesturing for her to put her grandfather's body in it as well.
Aozaki Touko numbly accepted Aoko's suggestion and began working. While enduring the discomfort in her stomach, she felt out of place with the current situation, as if she were the odd one out in this family.
Perhaps Aoko was more suited than herself to become a qualified Magician or Magician.
Touko thought this for no particular reason, but then immediately dismissed her absurd idea, focusing on putting her grandfather's body, split in two, into the bag.
The next morning (actually, it was noon), Aoko, wearing her pajamas and yawning, woke up for breakfast and discovered that Touko had run away from home.
On the dining table was a letter left for her. In the letter, Touko said she was going to study abroad at Clock Tower... and that when she returned, she would settle things with Aoko as sisters.
"What is this?" Aoko sighed, thinking, "That idiot, she should have said goodbye in person before leaving, right?"
