10 – A Speech of Grandiose Proportions
"I would like to speak with you."
The formal speech of a young magus-in-training was more entertaining than it should have been. Then again, by the time Kiritsugu himself had mastered formal speeches, he had been shooting his master down as she had wished. So there was much less use for it aside from brushing people aside like waves in a sea.
That said, he couldn't exactly ignore one of his charges, therefore Kiritsugu put his book down and regarded Rin with the same amount of seriousness that was in her face. She stepped back, as children did, unable to handle it. Her father must have been like that, only regarding her in equal in things that he thought she was equal to him in. IT wasn't condescension, not really. It was just believing what he thought was the reality of the universe, rather than acknowledging what truly existed. He wasn't the only one, so it wasn't like it was a poor trait for Tohsaka and Tohsaka alone. HE had done the same with Ilya once upon a time.
"And what would you like to speak to me about?" he asked. He was alone in his room, which was rare enough. Often he was with Ilya or Shirou, or helping with appointments, or scouring the wreckage for the lost injured people, to help them be buried. Perhaps he was looking for Shirou's actual parents.
Rin almost snorted. It was the orphan house here, indeed.
"Do you really think the Holy Grail War will stop without us?"
Kiritsugu paused, the immediate answer springing to mind. Yet he withheld it for a moment because even if it was his truth, it wouldn't be right to just tell her outright. She had to learn the same as anyone else. "No, it would not."
Her mouth opened, and Kiritsugu watched her swallow the very obvious question likely bursting to be spoken. Then Rin lowered her eyes and thought.
"It would make it tougher though, wouldn't it?"
"Without candidates from the original three families? Likely. The Matou are willing to wait until the end of time to reach their goal. Or at least until another viable candidate presents itself. You are the last of the Tohsaka, yourself and your sister. You being absent will hinder it. As for the Einzbern… they are desperate. They wish to follow their creator's will, no matter the cost." He swallowed his spit for a moment. "They did so with Iri. To them, personhood is much irrelevant."
Rin looked at him. "What can we do then?"
"The Clock Tower has observed the business with only curiosity." He waved a hand. "To them, lives that aren't those of magi are frivolous, at best. They turn up their noses at them. Most magi do." He shrugged, and Rin swallowed a lump in her throat. It sounded like what her father had taught her. It even sounded sensible."The idea of magic trumping science or science trumping magic is irrelevant. They both exist. It's just the matter of which is more dangerous for the current situation."
And currently, Rin mused, magic was the most dangerous.