Shinji Matou at Your Service

The mood of Ms. Aozaki Touko—renowned Grand Magus, top-tier doll maker, and the Tohno family's doctor and Akiha Tohno's advisor—was a bit sour.

No one would be in a good mood after conducting experiments until late at night, and then being woken up just half an hour after falling asleep. Seeing that the person waking her up was a certain little rascal who had been missing for days with no news, her bad mood was somewhat alleviated. However, since she wasn't wearing her glasses, her expression was still unpleasant, and her tone was icy.

"Oh, back already?"

"Yeah, I'm back."

"Where's my gift?"

"Uh, there wasn't much worth bringing back from there, so—"

"So you're saying you went out, didn't bring a gift, and the first thing you do upon returning is disturb my sleep? Do we have a grudge or something?"

"I was wrong, alright?"

Hearing the resentment in Touko's voice, Shinji quickly apologized, his attitude sincerely contrite.

"I'll make it up to you later. Just tell me what you want, and I'll get it for you."

"That's more like it."

Seeing Shinji's sincere apology, Touko's remaining displeasure vanished. She reached for her glasses from the case, resuming her image of an intelligent and capable mature woman.

By this time, Akiha Tohno had also understood the boy's identity.

Touko was still sitting on the bed, wearing only a thin nightgown, not minding the exposed parts of her body being seen by Shinji. He had also lost his earlier edge, letting Touko hit and complain without getting angry at all.

This indicated that their relationship was not just familiar but something closer. Touko only showed this kind of closeness when talking about a few people, and among those few, there was only one man.

"Tell me, why did you rush over here so urgently? Is it because of this young lady?"

Touko snorted lightly. It hadn't been long, and he'd already brought someone back.

Shinji shamelessly smiled, "Half of it is because of her, the other half is because I wanted to see you as soon as possible."

"You should tell that to Sakura and Fujino instead."

Touko pushed Shinji's face away, her gaze sweeping over Arcueid. Her thin eyebrows raised slightly—this woman didn't seem human.

The pure white princess was sitting on the windowsill, basking in the moonlight, her legs swinging back and forth, still muttering, "Not yet, be patient, not yet, be patient."

"Get to the point. If there's nothing important, I need to get back to sleep."

"Where is Roa?"

"I don't know."

"This is not the time to joke around."

Shinji got anxious, seeing Arcueid getting restless.

"Who's joking with you? I don't know."

Seeing that Touko was serious, Shinji frowned, his gaze shifting twice towards Akiha Tohno.

"With your abilities, it's impossible that you couldn't find the target after all this time. Could it be the Tohno family..."

Such small gestures didn't escape Touko's notice. She shrugged, causing a ripple across her chest.

"No matter how capable I am, I can't bring the dead back to life."

"Dead? What do you mean?"

"Don't you get it? The person you asked me to find is already dead before I even arrived."

"That's impossible, Roa isn't dead."

Shinji glanced at Arcueid, who was listening intently. Despite the unusual situation, Roa was indeed the vampire she had sense. If she said Roa wasn't dead, then he wasn't.

"I don't know if Roa is dead or not, but the person you asked me to find, SHIKI Tohno, is indeed dead—you gave me outdated information."

"SHIKI Tohno... is dead?"

Shinji almost doubted his ears.

SHIKITohno was dead.

How could he be dead?

How could someone who was possessed by Roa and could drain others' life force die?

If he was dead, what would happen to Roa?

Questions kept popping up, making his head a mess, and it took a while for him to calm down.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"I see..."

Shinji let out a slow breath and turned around awkwardly.

"Uh, Arcueid, it seems I made a mistake. Roa's eighteenth incarnation is already dead..."

Surprisingly, Arcueid wasn't too shocked; she just responded with a simple "Oh" and asked, "Where did he die? Where is the body?"

"I should answer that question," said Akiha Tohno, the eldest daughter of the Tohno family.

"As a condition, I need to know the full story, including what happened tonight and his relationship with you."

If possible, Akiha didn't want to reveal the family's secrets to outsiders. But since the other side already knew about SHIKI Tohno and had formidable strength, she had no choice but to abandon the option of using force and opt for negotiation.

"Alright, I agree."

Shinji nodded. Their intrusion tonight was already wrong in the first place, so it was only fair to comply with such a reasonable request.

In 1992, Arcueid annihilated Roa XVII in France, and Roa reincarnated into SHIKI Tohno, becoming Roa XVIII. Subsequently, SHIKI experienced inversion impulses and was killed by the arriving Makihisa Tohno. Near death, SHIKI used Fusion to steal Shiki's life force, allowing him to survive, and was eventually imprisoned by Makihisa. Up to this point, this was the part of the story Shinji knew.

According to Tsukihime, SHIKI was supposed to be imprisoned until Makihisa's death, after which Roa would awaken, triggering a series of events. However, an unexpected change occurred. Shortly after being imprisoned, SHIKI experienced another inversion impulse for unknown reasons. Helplessly, Makihisa had to kill SHIKI again, completely ending his life.

After SHIKI's death, Makihisa buried him in the Tohno family's cemetery on the hill behind their house, publicly declaring it the grave of an adopted son who had died in an accident.

Seeing the empty, dusty dungeon earlier, Shinji had already believed Akiha's words, and Arcueid's readings from the dungeon and the grave confirmed that Akiha was not lying.

This also highlighted the limitations of Arcueid's ability to read the world's memory. She needed a specific medium to retrieve the desired information. The closer the medium was connected to the information, the better the effect.

She searched for Roa through the power he had stolen from her. If Roa didn't awaken, this power would remain dormant, making it impossible for her to find him.

Using the Tohno family as a medium, she read traces of Roa's existence but couldn't get further information until she used SHIKI Tohno's grave and death location as the medium.

"Now I'll have to wait a long time again."

This was Arcueid's final reaction, cold and indifferent, reminding Shinji of how she was when they first met.

"You... don't seem to care much. Isn't he your... enemy?"

"Yes, but I've killed him many times, and he's escaped many times. I don't mind waiting a few more times."

"I see..."

Hundreds of years of entanglement and long waiting, he didn't understand, but that didn't stop him from making a decision.

"Next time he awakens, I'll go with you."

"Alright."

Before dawn, the coldness of the pure white vampire princess melted, and she smiled like a blooming flower. She had changed.

That day, they met.

At that moment, a collision occurred between the natural touch and human sentiment.

In that instant, the embodiment of nature, which was supposed to be emotionless, was tainted with feelings.

Magic? Miracle?

No, none of that mattered. What mattered was that she liked this feeling.