Abnormality In Type-Moon: Madness Of Animeverse

"You're here."

Touko Aozaki stepped into the backyard of the mansion.

Aoko Aozaki stood in the open space, her gaze fixed on the overcast night sky.

"What's so fascinating about a sky this dreary?"

"It really isn't much to look at."

Aoko nodded, pouting a bit as if annoyed.

"The night sky was better in the old days. But unfortunately, bringing back that sky would be... well, a bit difficult now."

"A bit difficult?"

Touko chuckled in amusement.

"With the power of a Magician, altering something like the sky's appearance should hardly be a challenge, no?"

Although she phrased it as a question, her tone was quite confident.

After all, it had been twenty years since Aoko had become a Magician. Even if she had once been young and naive, by now, she was bound to have left that innocence behind. Touko preferred not to think about just how powerful her younger sister might be now—it would only end up demoralizing her.

And who needed that?

"Yes, very true!" Aoko nodded with a frank smile. "Breaking up the clouds overhead is easy. But if I wanted to bring back the world of the past, that's beyond my say."

"You think the past was really better?"

"At least it was better than now. You of all people, running a business, should feel the same, right?"

"Haha, you're not wrong there!"

Touko let out a laugh.

Back then, she could still make a decent living through her craft. But now? It was a struggle just to scrape by.

Even though her Sealing Designation had been lifted ten years ago, she had no intention of working under the Mage's Association, living a somewhat lonely, hand-to-mouth existence.

Luckily, she could occasionally "borrow" from Roy's savings.

"But this 'world you can't change back to'—is that because of some limit to your power?" Touko asked, casually revisiting the topic.

"Who could have that kind of power?"

Aoko sighed, waving off the notion as if it were absurd.

Touko nodded in agreement. Turning back time on the entire world was indeed a fanciful idea.

She took a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket—an old-fashioned Taiji brand. After a moment's hesitation, she took one out and lit it.

"Then let me put it another way: is it that you don't want to, or that you're simply not allowed to?"

Her tone sharpened suddenly, the casual banter between sisters giving way to a probing exchange between magi. The shift left no room for warmth, making it hard to believe they were even related.

"Hmph…"

Aoko gave a casual, dismissive laugh.

"To a magus, does it really make any difference?"

"Well said. Magi are creatures who accept reality as it is, not ones who reshape it to their liking. Even if they learn the truth, it rarely changes anything in the end."

Touko's voice held a hint of melancholy.

"If they confirmed that the Counter Force no longer exists, they'd probably be overjoyed… no, they'd definitely go mad with glee."

As magi delved deeper into magic, they lost pieces of their humanity. Many were even obsessed with experiments that defied the prohibitions of the Counter Force. Knowing the proverbial Sword of Damocles was gone, they would surely celebrate with some world-threatening experiment or another.

Touko took a drag from her cigarette, blowing a ring of smoke that partially obscured her expression.

"Aoko… has this world been abandoned?"

"What, you're interested in the answer to that now?"

Aoko's face lit up with a teasing smile.

"I didn't care much before. Now… well, I care a little more."

A touch of frustration crossed Touko's face as she cast a complicated look toward the sky.

"Ten years ago, when the Corrupted Servants emerged from that black mud and aimed their swords at the world, you must have known what was happening. But you didn't intervene to stop them."

"For the past decade, I've traveled far and wide, encountering the same troubling question everywhere I went. At that time, besides national armies, only local magi stood against the black mud. The ancient True Ancestors, lingering spirits, and mystical creatures all stayed out of it—even beings like you, a Magician, chose to stand by."

"Though the Wizard Marshal Zelretch did appear once, all he did was set up a simple ward in Fuyuki City before vanishing without a trace. To top it all off, the Counter Force should have prevented such a calamity… yet, the world still fell apart."

"After everything I saw, I began to wonder if our world had been abandoned, reduced to a pruned event. But I couldn't grasp why."

Touko's voice held a deep frustration as she spoke.

This question had weighed on her for years. The same doubts haunted her, gnawing at her each time she traveled to new places. But an answer always eluded her.

"You want me to tell you the answer to all this?"

Aoko scoffed, her gaze sharpening.

"What changed? Since when do you care about the truth? That's not like you, Touko. Or could it be… that you're asking for someone else's sake?"

"...Maybe so."

Touko fell silent for a long moment before nodding reluctantly.

"Let me guess—it's for Roy, isn't it?"

She didn't reply, only gave a slight shrug.

Which was answer enough.

"Ha!"

Aoko let out a long sigh, as if venting a frustration that had been building within her.

"If you'd asked for your own sake, I'd have stayed silent. But if it's for Roy, then… fine. I'll tell you. To cut to the chase, the idea that this world was abandoned? It's wrong."

"So, what's the right answer, then?"

"The truth is, this world was chosen."

Aoko took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"It's the exact opposite of what you've been thinking."

"No… maybe it's not entirely the opposite. I did wonder if that might be the case but dismissed it as too far-fetched to be true."

Hearing this revelation, Touko's expression finally softened, a faint smile forming as a long-held weight seemed to lift from her.

"Then, everything happening in this world now—is it all according to the Counter Force's plan? Is that why beings like you haven't intervened?"

"The Counter Force?"

Aoko cast a weary look in her direction, rubbing her temples in frustration.

"If only it were that simple…"

"What do you mean by that?"

Touko's expression froze, a hint of confusion creeping in.

"Wait—are you saying the Counter Force isn't behind all of this?"

"Of course not."

Aoko's answer came without hesitation.

This shattered Touko's assumptions completely.

For the past decade, she had considered countless possibilities, all revolving around the workings of the Counter Force.

If it wasn't the Counter Force, then… who could be behind everything?

"There is someone, isn't there? The one who dictates all cause, who manipulates all effect…"

Aoko's words came with a resigned shrug, mirroring Touko's own mannerisms.

But her gesture was tinged with bitterness.

"It's the Root."

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