You know realize that without Shirou living, Shinji would be taking Sakura out to watch movies. To spare himself the embarrassment, but still. Think about that.
Also, MATOU MASTER RACE
Sakura: Action Hero
Written by: NAHTCUW
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“Sakura? Sakura!”
“Eh? Sorry, what were you saying, Mitsuzuri-sempai?” Sakura said innocently, as her head jerked upwards in surprise.
“I was just checking up on you. It’s not like you to space out for that long, so I was a little worried.”
Ayako spoke the truth. While Sakura did sometimes space out, probably due to fatigue she often displayed, she rarely did it for a dozen minutes. The other members of the archery club had started giving her odd looks as she stared off into space, back against the wall, before the captain decided to see what was going on.
“Sorry sempai, I was a little…” Sakura searched for the word a moment, until it finally clicked, “preoccupied.”
“Hm? Something on your mind, Sakura?” Ayako asked, always straightforward. “You can talk to me about it, if you want. I am your senior, after all. I can spend a few minutes listening to my cute little junior.”
“Ah, well…” the problem with that was that Sakura was preoccupied with something she wasn’t allowed to talk about. Something she didn’t want to talk about, either.
And even if she did want to talk about it, it was kind of hard to explain. How was she supposed to talk about her magus grandfather telling her that if she won a secret war for the Holy Grail alongside an ancient superhero, she’d be freed of her ‘training’ of being raped by big phallic worms every night, and she’d be given absolute freedom to do whatever she wanted to?
She had the feeling that even if she wanted to tell someone, no one would believe her. They’d tilt their head, put a hand on her shoulder and ask her either if she hit her head or why Shinji put her up to it.
“Sakura?” Ayako’s voice brought her back from her thoughts, and she hurriedly finished her reply.
“It’s not really something I can talk about, sempai,” Sakura said. Hopefully, Ayako would just realize she didn’t want to talk about it and back down.
“Okay, what did Shinji do to you this time?” Ayako asked, putting both hands on her hips.
“Nii-san did nothing bad,” Sakura answered hurriedly. “In fact, he’s been rather nice lately. He brought me to go watch a movie with him and everything.”
Immediately after she said it, she put a hand over her mouth. Shinji didn’t like it when she told others of what they did together.
Ayako, during that action, gaped.
“Shinji took you out to watch a movie?” She said, after a moment. “…Are we talking about the same Shinji?”
“Sempai, please, not so loud. I promised Nii-san I wouldn’t tell anyone…” Sakura said, looking around. Thankfully, the other club members were dutifully training, and none of them heard her.
“Alright, alright,” Ayako said, leaning closer and lowering her voice. “So, what kind of movie was it?”
“Ah, an action movie,” Sakura said with a small smile. It was the first one she had shown the archery captain in the last three days, as well. Sakura Matou was well known for almost never smiling. “One with Bruce Willis.”
“…He took you out for an action movie? Jeez, that guy, doesn’t he know how to treat a lady at all?” Ayako said, letting out a huge sigh.
“Oh, that’s all right. I enjoyed it. And, well, Nii-san doesn’t really have any male friends to go with him and he’s embarrassed going alone, so…” Sakura let her voice die down, and looked to the ground almost guiltily.
Ayako looked at the saddening display her junior was making, and sighed heavily.
“That’s his own fault, Sakura,” Ayako said, putting a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “Anyway, I’m going to go back to shooting. You should probably get a few shots in before classes start too, or you’ll get rusty.”
“Hm, sempai,” Sakura said, nodding gently.
But as Ayako left, Sakura went back to thinking of Zouken, and the Holy Grail war. She was summoning tonight, yet her grandfather had just mentioned her victory prize of total freedom this morning.
He probably enjoyed seeing her squirm at the last minute. She had her mind set on not fighting, on giving her servant to Shinji, because she believed she would gain nothing from the Holy Grail War. But now, things were different. There was a prize.
Even then, her chances of victory were close to nil. She believed herself a fourth-rate magus, she had close to no combat ability, and the worms inside her were already slowly draining prana from her.
She put those thoughts aside a moment, as Ayako beckoned her towards one of the shooting stands. She took her bow and a few arrows, and walked up to her position.
She knew that if she joined the Holy Grail war, she was almost sure to die. So… she’d go with the original plan. She’d let Shinji have her servant. He was better suited at fighting than she was, he’d be alright. She’d pass up her one chance at freedom.
She notched an arrow and pulled it back, aimed carefully at the target, and let fly. The arrow lazily flew, and hit almost at the bottom of the target. Sakura looked at it expectantly for a moment, but nothing happened.
She clutched her head a moment, her tiredness catching up with her. With all her nights spent in the worm pit, she barely had enough time to sleep properly. She took a deep breath, and looked up again.
Just, she looked up a bit off target. Her eyes instead fixated the school roof, where a student wearing a red coat was staring at her.
Directly at her, not anybody else.
But that wasn’t right. Rin Tohsaka didn’t care for Sakura Matou. She only ever greeted her as a necessity, the courtesy one shows a fellow student.
Just as she thought that, the red-clad student left her spot and exited the roof, obviously due to noticing Sakura’s eyes on her.
It was odd. The Tohsaka heir had definitely been looking at her. She wouldn’t do that, normally. If she truly didn’t care, she wouldn’t have looked at her that way.
Even from that distance, Sakura could tell. The way Rin looked at her, it was sad.
“Does she… still care?” Sakura whispered, moving away from her shooting stand. The question ate at her from the inside. They had been separated eleven years ago. Did her elder sister still truly care about her? Is that why she had been watching her?
But Sakura Matou could not ask. There was a pact between the Tohsaka and the Matou. They are not to interact, as magi, in between the Holy Grail wars.
Of all the things that could have come up, Zouken’s words from the night before were the first to come to mind.
“Did I forget to tell you? My, how shameful of me. I am truly getting too old. If you win the Holy Grail for me, I will set you free. I will not force you into any more training unless you wish it, I will not poison your food unless you wish it, and I will not stop you from breaking our family laws whenever you wish it. That, my granddaughter, is what you have to gain from the Holy Grail War.”
That last part was Zouken’s true message, but she only realized it now. If she won, she was allowed to break the family laws.
Then… she could ask her estranged sister if she truly remembered, if she actually still cared.
Her chances of victory were close to nil. She was a fourth-rate magus, had close to no combat ability, and the worms inside her were already slowly draining prana from her.
Those were her disadvantages. They put her behind her sister, behind most magi.
But then, all she’d have to do is outdo them. In her tired, sleep-lacking mind, a plan already started to take form.
First though, she may have to sleep through a few classes. She usually wouldn’t out of respect, but she was planning for a busy night.
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“Byakuya’s shotgun?” Zouken said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Now, why would you want something like that?”
That was where her preparation started. Her adoptive father, Byakuya Matou, was a victim to one of the masters in the fourth grail war. He survived, but begged his father to get him some kind of protection for the future. Zouken obliged, and pulled some strings to get him a shotgun.
She couldn’t afford haphazardly using her magic, so that shotgun was going to be Sakura’s main weapon for the upcoming war.
“I… I am not a very good magus, grandfather. I need something to defend myself with, in case I meet other masters. My spells are fairly slow to cast, and no magus expects another to use guns, so…” Sakura said, looking straight down at the floor in fear. She had never asked her grandfather directly for something before. She was unsure of how he’d react.
She had slept as much as she could at school, but if anything her alertness made her more afraid of her grandfather. If he somehow thought her proposition foolish, or distasteful, she would be punished. Her grandfather was a magus, as well. The likelihood he’d find it foolish was rather high.
For what seemed like the longest time, Zouken’s eyes stared directly at her. It almost felt like he was looking completely through her, into her very thoughts. But finally, he laughed.
“Well, why not. It’s certainly not an orthodox tactic for a mage, but it did work well for a master last time,” Zouken said with a toothy smile. Sakura relaxed a bit, taking a deep breath. “Will you be needing anything else?”
“Eh?” Sakura said, surprised by Zouken’s willingness to help.
“Don’t be surprised, now. My cute little granddaughter has decided to fight in the Holy Grail War. The least I can do is try to bring up her chances. Come, ask anything. This old man will show you the meaning of cheating,” Zouken said almost proudly, as if they had become accomplices.
“Well, I do have an idea, but… it’s fairly complicated, and I don’t even know if it’ll work…” Sakura said silently, once again afraid she’d say something stupid and gain Zouken’s ire.
“Hm… We shall see if it’s possible. Explain it to me while we head to the basement,” Zouken said, with a small chuckle. “Your servant awaits summoning, after all.”
Just as he finished speaking, the old man started hobbling over to the basement door. Sakura shortly followed, and started explaining her idea to him. The more she explained, the wider Zouken’s grin became.
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“Tsk, girls always take too much time,” Shinji said to no one in particular, as he walked back home under the gaze of the setting sun. “There’s always just one more thing to do, one more shop they have to browse.”
In truth, Shinji was complaining for the sake of complaining. He liked spending time with myriad girls his age. He knew that they didn’t really like him but rather his money, but their presence was nice.
They did know how to have fun, too. He had left the karaoke place with a wide smile plastered on his face, and it hadn’t left yet.
In short, Shinji was having a good evening, and it’d hopefully stay that way. He’d just go home, maybe rope Sakura into watching a movie with him before her training, go to bed, and actually show up at the archery club the next morning.
He stopped walking a moment, looking at a shop to his right. He might bring something home. Of course, he’d have the largest part, but he could share a bit of it with Sakura.
But Sakura was doing something that night, he faintly remembered, something about a ritual having to take place or something.
So, he opted against it. If she was busy being a magus, he had no need to share anything with her.
His mood immediately dropped. His sister was off being a magus, the one thing he wanted to be. She had circuits, could do those ritual things, while he had nothing. Rather, he had everything except what he wanted to.
And she didn’t even want to be a magus. It was unfair.
With those bitter thoughts in mind, he made a beeline back to his house. Nothing felt out of place, and he walked up the stone steps and opened the door. As if to punctuate his arrival, all that was left of the sun disappeared over the horizon.
“I’m home!” He called out, but no one answered. “Oi, I’m home! Sakura, where are you?”
He looked around the first floor, but found nothing. There was no mark of anyone there, at all. That was odd, usually the training started later.
He walked to the stairs, intent on searching the second floor, but stopped in his tracks as soon as he looked up.
It was Sakura. Wearing dark sports pants, a white shirt and a grey hooded jacket, she was standing on top of the steps. Behind her was Zouken, a scheming smile on his face. Next to the old man, there was a woman wearing dark and somewhat skimpy clothing of black and purple, and a blindfold.
But Shinji did not notice any of that.
What he did notice was the shotgun in Sakura’s hands. And the other thing he noticed was that Sakura was walking down the stairs, towards him.
“Yo, Sakura…” he weakly said, backing away from the stairs.
She almost seemed to ignore him though, as she turned to the right and picked up something off the floor. Upon closer inspection, Shinji learned it was a large sports bag. Sakura put the shotgun inside, carefully, and slung the bulky bag over her back.
She then turned to face Shinji. She walked up to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes, surrounded by dark circles due to lack of sleep, looked directly into his.
“Nii-san, I’m going to go out for a bit, and I don’t really know when I’ll be back,” she started slowly, almost as if she were talking to a child. “Don’t worry about me. But remember to set your alarm clock properly, to make yourself breakfast and supper, brush your teeth twice a day, and don’t skip school. Fujimura-sensei and Mitsuzuri-sempai are already mad at you.”
“Hah? Sakura, just what the hell are you saying?” Shinji said, rather befuddled.
“Oh, and don’t go out at night anymore. It might be dangerous,” Sakura said, before noticing what was in Shinji’s coat pocket. She pointed at the object, and quietly asked, “ah, Nii-san, may I borrow those?”
“Ah, uh, sure, I guess. As long as you bring them back in one piece,” he said confusedly, and Sakura picked the object out. She turned away, and headed towards the door. The darkly dressed woman followed her silently, like a guardian.
For a moment, Sakura’s back looked familiar.
It looked like the last time he had seen Kariya’s, when he had been about to go talk to Zouken.
It looked like Byakuya’s, his father, as he silently said he was going fishing, but ended up jumping off the bridge.
It looked like it was the last he would ever see of her. For some reason, that scared him.
But, before leaving, she turned back one last time. She took the item she had borrowed from Shinji, unfolded them, and put the sunglasses over her eyes.
“Don’t worry, Nii-san,” she said, her voice somehow stronger than he had ever heard it. She opened the door and took a step out, and gently pulled the door in, back towards its original position. Sakura, however, had the last word before it slammed shut.
“I’ll be back.”
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Ten years ago, in Fuyuki city, there was a fire. It wasn’t in Shinto, though, so Sakura and Shinji were unaffected.
No, the fire was in Miyama. It was the more modern part of town, the one with more people living there.
It was disastrous. Hundreds died, more were wounded. The entire area became a living hell, as fire and screams engulfed everything that still lived.
In this fire, a man was searching. He was searching for someone, anyone, to save.
This broken man had his wish granted. He found a young boy, and saved his life using an ancient mystical artifact. He took the boy in his arms, and started to carry him back.
However, the area on fire was still a dangerous place. As he walked, buildings collapsed. Support beams fell. The ground gave way, and made treacherous crevasses.
The man, whose sole wish was to save someone, died in that deathtrap. The boy died with him, though later, as the man gave his all to protect the boy until his dying breath.
That man’s name was Kiritsugu Emiya. The boy’s name was Shirou.
As they both died, they wished one thing: that the person in their arms could have lived longer. The boy wished for the man who looked so happy. The man wished for the boy he tried to save.
But the wish-granting engine had already been destroyed, and their wishes went unanswered.
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