When Kariya regained full consciousness, he found himself lying in bed again. From the blades of orange light streaming in from a shuttered window, he could tell it was nearing sunset. He made sure his body worked properly, flexing his muscles and wiggling his extremities.

He felt weak, like he'd ran five marathons. His body, working overtime, had raced to fix his body, patching up his boiled innards and burned skin. The result was that his body was out of juice, using it all for self-repair. Healing had taken longer than usual as well. He'd been out for a few hours, hovering in a dream-like state where his consciousness stayed afloat on a sea of hate for Tokiomi.

Now that he was awake, with his mind clear from the toxic concoction of adrenaline and hate, he shook his head. He couldn't keep fighting with hate alone. Hate had blinded him to Tokiomi's tricks and traps, netting him yet another loss.

Watcher became visible, sitting on a chair in the corner of the room.

"How do you feel, Master?" asked Watcher.

"Good enough. I'm not feeling much pain. The worms haven't been eating my body lately, and any other pain is nothing compared to that."

"Wonderful news. That means my treatment has worked."

Kariya sat up, blinking in surprise.

"Treatment? You've gotten rid of the Crest worms?"

"Nope." Watcher extended a stick-like arm, pointing a finger at Kariya's head. "I realized your worms were being monitored, which is quite rude. So I went ahead and accelerated your development so that you alone control your worms."

"Zouken." Kariya clenched his bed-sheets in anger, shredding the soft velvet with his claws.

"Say, my Master," said Watcher, watching Kariya's passionate response. "What is it that drives your anger? That rage which lets you beat back broken bones with utter ease?"

"Tokiomi and Zouken both. They're disgusting people that aren't fit to be called human."

"I see. So, what are you going to do about them?"

"Kill them."

"Oh? Killing another person is quite a difficult task for the average person. You may have killed wraiths, but when faced with another man that feels and breaths just like you, do you think you can strike him down?

"Like I said, Tokiomi and Zouken aren't human. Not to me, at least. Zouken is a monster in every sense of the word. Tokiomi sold off his right to live when he willingly threw Sakura into Zouken's hands. He made a deal with the devil, and now he pays the price."

Watcher started tapping a finger on the chair's armrest. Its clawed finger made sharp clicks as it picked on wood in a constant rhythm. "Forgive me, but I probed through your memories while you were asleep to get an idea of your history."

Kariya shrugged. "Exchange of memories between contracted beings is something I've heard about. I haven't gotten any of your memories, but you seeing mine was inevitable anyway."

"Thank you for understanding," said Watcher, placing a hand over its heart. "Your determination is impressive. I can concede that Matou Zouken is no longer human. But what of Tokiomi Tohsaka? Does he not love his family? Did you not give up on Aoi because you considered that Tokiomi Tohsaka could do well enough?"

"I might have thought that a long time ago," conceded Kariya, his fists balling. "But I can't give him that leeway anymore. When I fought him the first time around, I asked him about Sakura. He still thinks he's right. Tell me, Watcher. How can anyone human believe he's right when he sends a girl, his own daughter, over to a living hell? When he steals away all her happiness just for something ridiculous like his family name?"

Watcher was silent. Kariya continued, his voice growing louder.

"I can't trust Tokiomi anymore. If it came to it, he'd be willing to sacrifice Rin and Aoi for the sake of his family name. Only a saint could forgive him, and I'm no saint."

Watcher broke in. "You are no saint, but always remember that you are a hero. Now tell me, are there any consequences tied with killing Matou Zouken and Tohsaka Tokiomi?"

Kariya didn't see the point of thinking about consequences. He knew he was doing what was right. That was what mattered.

"Why ask these questions now?

Watcher's tapping sped up. "A hero must have noble goals, otherwise what story is there to tell? The greater the potential of a story, the better the legend I can weave. Aside from that, I truly want to know what type of person my Master is. So please, if you may."

"Consequences, huh? There are none for Zouken. Once he's dead the whole Matou family will be free." Kariya stopped, like he'd realized something.

"And?" asked Watcher. "What of killing Tokiomi Tohsaka?"

"Aoi is a kind woman. She would grieve for Tokiomi, and so would Rin."

Watcher nodded. "Oh? Yet you set out from the beginning to kill both. Has anything changed now?"

A lot had changed. Kariya remembered the early stages of the war. He'd struggled against constant pain, enduring his entire body being a feeding ground for merciless worms. Every day, he remembered feeling their little teeth, sharp like needles, chomping his insides.

It was a torture beyond compare. Getting hurt on the outside, where he could see his wounds and losses, was far easier to get used to. While dying from the inside, he couldn't react to the invisible pain, leaving him only with the certainty that he would die. Every time the worms feasted, his pain felt new, and every jolt of agony meant another step forward on the race track to death.

He had grown tired of that macabre race, and it had stretched his sanity thin.

He hadn't been able to sleep, eat, and think. Combined with Berserker's monstrous strain, and he hadn't had any breathing time from drowning in pain. Saving his loved ones and killing those he hated were the only things propping his sanity up, so when his body gave in, all he had were those crutches to stay alive.

"I'm not feeling as much pain as before. I can think clearly now, for the most part." Kariya recalled his desperate fights where he tread between life and death. "I lose myself during battles, but that's about it"

"In other words," said Watcher, sitting up straight in its chair. "You can see the consequences of your actions, and as such, you won't kill Tokiomi Tohsaka?"

"No. I'm going to kill him."

Watcher leaned forward, now both its hands tapping on the armrests, the claws carving out erratic patterns in the wood. "Oh? What of the consequences?"

"I'll kill him without Aoi and Rin seeing. I'll make sure they won't know it's me."

Watcher clapped its hands. "Incredible! I love heroes with many dimensions, they make for better tales. Tell me, then, will you take Tokiomi Tohsaka's place? Take back the happiness he stole from you?"

Kariya shook his head. "It's not like that. I just want Rin, Sakura, and Aoi to be happy as a full family."

Watcher sighed, slumping back into its seat. "You must be more honest with me, my dear Master, but no matter. Honesty will come in time. For now, we must attend to another visitor."

A holographic screen fizzled into existence in front of Kariya. The image it showed were so blurry that he couldn't see anything, but realized it was clearing up second by second, like it was a low-spec piece of tech trying to show a high-definition image.

"What ability is this?" asked Kariya as he waited for the image to clear.

"This? I stole this ability from that Master in the sewers. Incredible, isn't it?"

"Uhm, yeah," said Kariya as he waited for the legion of blocky pixels to make sense.

"While we're waiting, here you go." Watcher pulled out Kariya's clothes, neat and folded, from his cloak. Kariya nodded, taking the clothes and dressing into them.

After he was done, Watcher held out the sword.

"I suspect you'll want this," said Watcher.

"Huh?" questioned Kariya before his breath caught. Zouken was there, tapping his cane on the boundary field, staring straight at Kariya with eyes so sunken in they looked like voids.

Kariya took the sword and bolted out the door, jumping from the second floor straight to the first, cracking and splintering the wooden flooring. He kicked the front door open with a dull bang.

"Zouken? What do you want?" said Kariya, shouting to project his voice. He was careful to stay within the limits of the boundary field, as he didn't know what Zouken was planning.

Zouken laughed. It was a disgusting, wheezing sound interlaced with the throaty rasp of senility.

"You don't know why I'm here?." Zouken smiled, baring a perfect set of gleaming white teeth. Surrounded by a mass of glossy wrinkles looking like they were under formaldehyde, the flawless teeth cut such a contrasting image that Kariya shuddered. "You haven't come to the house for a while now, so grandpa was getting worried."

Kariya snickered with scorn. "I don't need your help anymore. I can keep my mana up by myself. I have no need to go back to the Matou house anymore."

"Oh Kariya, is that what you think? So selfish. You might be fine, but what about dear grandpa? I can't check up on you anymore, so of course I'd be worried."

"Like I said, I don't need you. I don't need your mana, and I don't need you watching over me. I'm going to win the grail with my own hands."

"You do need me. Don't I have something you want?"

Kariya's breath stopped. "You can't mean...?"

Zouken laughed. "Yes. If you don't come to the house by midnight for some 'remodeling', then I simply don't know what will happen to Sakura."

The old monster faded away, his body sinking in the ground like a drop of water. Kariya ran after the fading, cackling visage, but when he got to where Zouken had been, he found nothing.

He had fought so hard. So hard. How many times had he come back from virtual death? And each time, he had felt so much pain he couldn't think. But now, all of it was going to be for nothing.

Kariya slammed his sword into the ground at the dark splotch where Zouken had been. A splash of darkness erupted from the blade, parting the rock with a shrill whistle. He took an immediate step back, his anger taking a seat as surprise stood up.

He looked at the scar in the ground, a several meter deep rift gouged out so clean it looked like someone had poked a giant pencil into the dirt. Black flairs of magical energy danced around the parted earth, moving in wild arcs before fading away.

"You've made progress," said Watcher. "Sooner or later, you'll know how to activate your Noble Phantasm."

Kariya didn't care about that. The shattered ground reminded him of his current situation. Rage, pure, undiluted rage, welled up inside him, clasping a fiery hand with mounting desperation.

He didn't know what Zouken was going to do to Sakura.

He didn't want to know. Didn't know any way to save her.

All he knew was that he had to save her.

But how? How? Zouken was a force of nature that had taken deep roots in the entire Matou family for centuries. How could he uproot a weed of that scale?

Watcher shook Kariya with an iron grip, and he snapped back to clear thinking.

"Don't be so glum, my dear Master," said Watcher. "This can be a chance. A chance for you to set everything right."

Kariya looked down at the chaotic crackles of night billowing around his blade. "How?"

He felt Watcher take his hand, the one with the command seals. Watcher's hand was cold, cold enough to chill some more calm back into him.

"Matou Zouken came here because he could no longer control you," said Watcher. "Use that to your advantage. You were once a hound leashed against his will, but now that leash is gone. Rip off Matou Zouken's head." Watcher stopped Kariya from responding by tightening its grip on his hand. "Don't worry about Sakura. I will make sure Zouken does not harm her. I swear it on every name possible. But to do that, I need to ask you: how many sacrifices are you willing to make?"

Not even a millisecond passed before Kariya's reply. "Every sacrifice. Any. All of them."

"Then let us begin," said Watcher.

Kariya found himself transported back in the room, with Watcher's icy grip still clasping his hand. This must be the Independent Manifestation Watcher talked about.

"Matou Zouken gave you until midnight, so we have time."

Anxiety bled into Kariya's voice. "Time for what?"

"Have you not wondered about the exact details of your constant evolution?" asked Watcher. He hadn't. He'd just taken them in stride.

"No? Then here is how it works. I've been growing Divinity within you."

Kariya looked at Watcher like it'd asked him to solve the most complicated math problem in the world. "What?"

"To be precise, it is my divinity. Every day, I have been pouring in some of my existence into you, my dear Master, so that you may have the power to obtain the Grail." Watcher poked a finger at Kariya's chest, where his heart was. Its nail produced a metallic clink as it hit his skin. "That divinity has granted you a body that marches ever forward, no matter the injury. It has granted you dominion over the Crest worms that once lorded over you."

If he had been a seasoned Magus, he would have been lost in endless wonder as to how his human body was capable of taking in divine spiritrons. But as a simple, desperate man, Kariya didn't know where Watcher was going with this. "What about this divinity? What do you want to do with it?"

"I wish to speed up the process. My Master, your current rank in divinity, at least according to this awfully contrived Servant scale, would be around D. I want to put that up to a B," said Watcher. "The sacrifice you would have to make would be losing me. I am mostly composed of divine spiritrons, so I would be reduced to near nothingness."

"How does that help me?" asked Kariya.

"As I have said, your divinity allows you dominion over insects, my Master. You may not have noticed, and I do not blame you considering your inexperience with Magecraft, but Matou Zouken is comprised of insect familiars. I trust that you can put two and two together, yes?"

Kariya could, but he didn't want to lose the single lifeline that had given him a second chance. There was a small part of him, the part in his scarred heart, that told him he would be losing a friend. But a friend was nothing compared to family, which he needed to save.

"I'll do it."

Watcher nodded. "Splendid! I knew you would be a brilliant Master all the way the end. I must thank you for helping me so much, and letting me see you develop as a hero. I thank you in advance for all the help you will give me in due time. Now then-"

Watcher placed its hands on the sides of Kariya's head. He felt how cold those hands were, felt the coldness seeping into his head, freezing his consciousness.

Kariya woke up to a dark and empty room. It was night. He was propped up against the bed, and his back was growing stiff from leaning on hard wood for so long. His sword lay on his lap. He rubbed his back and stood up.

"Watcher?" he said.

No answer. He wanted to feel bad about this. He wanted to feel sad, angry, perhaps guilty. But he couldn't. All he could muster up was a dull pang of remorse in his heart.

The only strong feelings broiling in his hardened heart were those involving saving Sakura.

He glimpsed his hand, and saw the Command Seals were still there. The Grail was giving him yet another chance, allowing him to summon a Servant even after Watcher was gone. The thought of that bonus left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, but he swallowed it down anyways.

If it meant saving Sakura, he needed to have as many cards to play as possible.

He judged that it was getting close to ten. He didn't have much time left. He grabbed his sword and hurried out of the room, steeling himself to finally end it all with Zouken.