Shirou, Sakura and Rider
Rider listened to the words of the idiot on the other end of the phone with a mixture of confusion, annoyance and relief. She was obviously overjoyed that Sakura was, in fact, unharmed and, although she'd never admit it, she was also happy to hear her master's praise for her. At the same time, though, she was exceptionally irritated at the man's tone and the fact that he would joke about Sakura's well-being in that manner, particularly when Sakura was seemingly listening and knew he was talking to Shirou.
"Rider, what's happening? Where is Sakura?" Shirou asked, anxiously.
"She's fine, Shirou", Rider said, making no effort to avoid the man on the other end hearing her. "This asshole was just joking when he said he'd kidnapped her."
"Who would joke about something like that?" Shirou said, angrily.
Rider listened to the man's words, wondering how best to chew him out for his tasteless joke without ruining the chance for Sakura to reunite with the man she loved, hoping he would soon hand the phone to Sakura herself.
Sakura, meanwhile, listened with excitement, her annoyance at Togan mostly forgotten as she heard him mention the servant she had come here to find. It appeared that, not only had she managed to contact Shirou, but that Shirou had actually found the servant she had feared may be lost forever. She waited, hopefully, for him to hand her the phone and, sure enough, as soon as he had finished speaking, he tossed the device to her, giving her a thumbs-up, before shifting into the form of a brown-haired, golden-eyed man and leaping off into the distance, addressing her as he did so. Sakura vaguely heard what he was saying as she picked up the phone and put it to her ear, something about that having always been his form, but she wasn't really paying much attention.
As soon as the idiot had finished speaking, Rider started up, intending to berate him over the tasteless joke.
"A joke? Seriously? You told Shirou that his wife had been kidnapped. That is not fun...", she began.
"Rider! Rider, it's me, he's gone", Sakura said, having just picked up the phone.
"Sakura!" Rider responded, excitedly.
"I'm fine, Rider. How are you? Where are you? Can you pass me over to Shirou?" Sakura asked, rambling somewhat, overjoyed to be able to speak to her servant once more.
"I'm fine, we're both perfectly safe right now", Rider said, not wanting to explain her situation to Sakura just yet. "I'll hand you over to Shirou."
"Hi darling", Shirou said, brightly. "I'm fine, are you OK? Where are you, we'll come to find you".
Sakura pondered the question for a moment, unsure of how to respond. She had been too busy holding on for dear life to note the route they had taken to get to the castle and, even if she had, she had no idea where Shirou and Rider were relative to them.
Well, it's a castle. It can't be that difficult to find..., she thought.
"Erm, well, I don't exactly know. But, I'm in a castle. A really big castle", she said.
"I... see...", Shirou responded, confused, before turning to Rider.
"She says she's in a castle, but she doesn't know where", he said to the servant.
Rider cursed under her breath. Normally, "in a castle" would be a pretty unique description, but the Nexus was not a normal place, and she had seen several things that could be described as a "castle".
"Well, I've seen several castles around, can she be more specific?", Rider replied with a frown.
"Honey, what does the castle look like?" Shirou asked.
Sakura frowned as she recalled the design of the castle, and what it would most remind him of.
"It's.. it's like Ilya's castle, but bigger", she said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Shirou, too, frowned wistfully, fragmented memories of the little sister he had all-too-briefly known coming back to him.
Is Ilya here? he wondered.
After all, if he had met another version of Sakura, then it was possible that there was a version of his sister who had somehow survived.
"Is Ilya there?" he asked her, hope in his voice.
"N..no", Sakura responded, sadly. "I don't know where she is."
Then, though, she perked up.
"But, I have met her mother! She's really, really nice!" she continued. "I'll tell you about her when you arrive, please hand me over to Rider so I can direct her."
A look of astonishment came over Shirou's face as he heard the words.
Ilya's mother?
Shirou knew very little about his sister's mother. Kiritsugu had never even mentioned her and nor, for that matter, had Ilya. In fact, he hadn't been entirely sure if she even had a mother. Apparently, though, she was here, and Sakura had found her. He was curious to know more. But, more than that, he just wanted to see his wife, to know she was safe.
"OK, darling, I'll talk to you soon", he said, happily, handing the phone over to Sakura's servant.
"Rider, let's get going, Sakura can tell you where it is on the way", he said, taking hold of Rider's hand and heading for the door.
Rider, accepting his words, began to lead him up the stairs and out of the house
"OK, Sakura, tell me where to go, I'll be there as soon as possible", the servant said as she walked up the stairs and towards the door of the house.
"I..I don't know the location, but I'm in a big castle, like Ilya's castle, only a lot bigger", she replied.
Rider frowned as she walked out of the door with Shirou, looking around to see if she could find the castle that had been described.
"How do you not know? Are you a prisoner?" she asked, worried and remembering the words of the man she had been talking to before.
Sakura giggled at her servant's concern.
"No, don't worry, I'm fine. I just never had the chance to work out where I was on the way here. I'm sure you can find it, though", she said, almost proudly.
Rider, unable to see the castle from where she was, turned to address Shirou.
"We're going to have to go to the roof to find it", she said.
With that, she grabbed hold of him and jumped upwards, onto the roof of the Matou mansion. Then, she began to look around, noticing several castles on the horizon. Rider, recalling Sakura's description, focussed on the largest of the castles. Rider only had a vague memory of the Einsbern castle, but what she was looking at did look familliar. And, it was big. Far bigger than was usually expected for a castle. Which fitted the Einsbern family perfectly. Most of all, though, she could sense some sort of magical spell, that seemed to be acting to prevent her seeing it.
"Shirou, is that it?" she asked, pointing her finger in the direction of the castle.
Shirou looked in the direction Rider was pointing, only to see.. nothing. He looked back at her, a confused look on his face.
"What? There's nothing there", he said, clearly confused.
Rider laughed. Evidentially the Einsbern magic was strong.
"Then that is definitely it. If you cannot even see it then the protections surrounding it must have been made by a powerful magus", she replied.
Then, picking up the phone, she addressed her master.
"Sakura, we found it, I think. I'll be there soon", she said.
Then, grabbing hold of Shirou, Rider began to jump along the rooftops towards the castle. Sakura, meanwhile, headed out of the room she had been in, trying to recall the location of the castle's front door, holding her phone to her ear. Rider approached the castle at lightning speed, carrying the still-confused Shirou.
"Rider, where are we going? There's nothing there", he said as they approached.
"Shirou, it's just hidden. Trust me, it's there", she replied.
Finally, as they neared the castle, the spell ceased to work, causing it to become visible to Shirou. He looked in shock as the castle suddenly appeared in front of him where an empty space had been before.
Seeing the look on his face, Rider smirked.
"See, told you", she said with a voice full of sass.
Walking towards the front door of the castle, Rider addressed her master once more.
"Sakura, how should I get in?" she said.
Sakura, meanwhile, was still walking towards the door, her ability to navigate the maze of corridors not sufficient to arrive before her much-faster servant.
"Hang on a minute, I'll let you in when I get to the door", she replied.
Rider approached the door, placing Shirou back down on the ground beside her, and waited. After a little wait, the door opened, and she saw the smiling face of her master.
“Rider!” Sakura exclaimed full of relief, excited to see her servant, alive and well. Well, for a given definition of alive anyway. She ran forward and embraced Shirou and Rider, pulling them into a group hug.
Shirou and Rider smiled with relief, returning the hug happily.
“Sakura, I’m so glad I found you again”, said Rider with a smile.
Shirou, meanwhile, simply returned the hug silently, too overjoyed at the fact that he had found her to reply.
“Yeah. Same to you”, Sakura said to Rider.
Rider smiled and continued to hug Sakura, as did Shirou, the three of them simply standing there, enjoying the affection. After a while, they finally broke the hug and began to talk again.
“Sakura, you said something about meeting Ilya’s mother”, Shirou asked.
“Mhmm, this is her castle, right?” Rider added.
“Yeah, her name is Irisviel, and she’s letting us stay here. You won’t believe how amazing the room is, Shirou. It’s out of this world”, Sakura said excitedly. “You won’t believe it until you see it.
Shirou smiled at her, but raised an eyebrow.
“Really? “Better than that hotel we stayed in for our honeymoon?” Shirou asked with a slight smirk, clearly expecting her to waver at his tease. However, the immediacy of Sakura’s response surprised him.
“Definitely!” She poked him jokingly, eliciting a smile from him. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m pretty sure she’s royalty. Or at least high nobility. And you shouldn’t underestimate your mother”, she said, poking him again.
“Well then”, Shirou responded in awe, surprised at his wife’s certainty and insistence. “Royalty huh? Then, lead the way, princess.” He gave Sakura an exaggerated bow, causing her to laugh.
“Yeah, Irisviel is probably waiting for us. We should go find her and introduce you two to her”, Sakura said.
Meanwhile, Rider had been standing back silently, internally laughing at Sakura and Shirou acting like they were newlyweds, even after all these years. Finally, she spoke up. “I’d like to meet this Irisviel too, Sakura.”
“Oh, Shirou”, she said with a smile, before turning to Rider and nodding. “Okay. But I’m not really sure I’ll be able to find her that easily. Well, let’s try anyway!” She finished cheerfully.
With that said, Sakura led Shirou and Rider down the halls, looking for Irisviel. As they walked, Sakura asked Rider the question that had been nagging her.
“Rider, our connection is very faint. I’m not sending you prana and I can barely feel your presence. Are you still connected to me?” she said.
Rider frowned, and looked down to the ground in embarrassment.
“Um... I—I met another version of you. She was so lonely, and so happy to see me, I couldn’t refuse to contract her, it would have broken her heart”, she responded with a strong hint of guilt.
Sakura blinked in confusion. “You what?” She asked.
Rider frowned again.
“I formed a contract with another version of you. That’s why the contract is broken, I think”, she replied.
“Wait wait wait. Can we, um, back it up? Another...me?”
Before Rider could say anything, Shirou spoke, backing her up.
“Yeah, a version of you from another world. She got pulled in here a few years ago. Unfortunately, though, her Shirou was left behind when she came”, he said, clearly saddened. “She’s… not the most stable person, and she was very lonely.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t turn her down, she was so lonely. It would have broken her heart if I did. Her Shirou is here now but, as Shirou said, she’s still rather unstable”, Rider added.
“Oh.” Sakura said simply, still processing the multitude of new information. “That’s—rather unfortunate.”
“It is, yes”, Rider responded, sadness in her visage. “I can’t abandon her right now. It would break her heart if I did”.
“Hm.” Sakura pondered this as she walked. “Well then, what do you think we should do about this situation? We have to leave, and you can’t leave, right?”
“I.. I’m not actually sure”, Rider said, thinking for a moment before continuing. “Hmm…. There is a version of Rin here, maybe she can help send the other Sakura and her Shirou back home. She has her own Rider there, I don’t need to go with her.”
“But how soon will she be able to get out? We can’t stay here forever, we have children at home. Maybe she can come with us?” Sakura replied.
Rider pondered the question for a moment, before responding.
“Hmm, perhaps, if we could bring her Shirou along as well then our world is as good as this one, maybe even better”, she replied, pausing for a moment to think before continuing. “She might object to leaving the other Rin here alone, though.”
Then, Shirou piped-up.
“She doesn’t like me either, right now. I had a bit of a… mix-up when I first arrived.”
“A mix up?” Sakura pushed him for more information.
“I.. I thought she was you. A..and…”, he said, trailing off with embarrassment.
“And..?” Sakura looked at him curiously, tilting her head, narrowing her eyes a bit
“I..I kissed her”, he said. “I’m so sorry, I thought she was you. I was so happy to see you again.”
“I see...”, Sakura said, walking up to him. She gave him a slap on the face. “That’s for cheating on me.”
After that she grabbed him in a hug and kissed him on the lips voraciously. “But I forgive you, don’t worry. You’re my Senpai, after all.”
Sakura’s face cracked and she began to laugh. “I haven’t called you that in ages, it feels so weird, hahaha!”
A nostalgic smile came over Shirou’s face as he returned his wife’s hug and kissed her passionately. He was so happy that he had found her again, and that he could stay with her for however long they might be stuck in this place.
Rider, meanwhile, simply watched on, also smiling. After some while, she finally spoke up.
“Shouldn’t we find this ‘Irisviel’? I don’t know how long it will be before the other Sakura calls me back”, she said.
“Yes, we should”, Sakura said, breaking off from the hug with obvious reluctance.
“Ummmmm...I think that she’s...this way?” she continued, choosing a random hallway. “Probably”, she added, under her breath.
They walked off down the corridor, chatting happily to one another until, after a while, Rider heard some voices in the distance.
“I hear someone over there”, she said, pointing in the direction of the voices she had heard.
Trusting her servant’s instincts, Sakura headed in the indicated direction, asking Rider for further directions at each turn. After a little while, she saw the woman she was looking for, standing over a man lying in a pool of what looked like was his own blood and arguing with the woman whom Togan had brought to the castle, apparently over whether she could go out or not.
Sakura looked at the sight with horror, worried about the man's situation. However, aware that there was nothing she could do, and that Irisviel was a healer, she held back and took a closer look. The man appeared to be stable, at least, it seemed like there was no need for them to do anything.
Shirou, of course, was not so willing to hold back.
"We have to help him!" he said, the sight of the hurt man causing him to pay little attention to the woman who looked like a grown-up version of his sister.
"Shirou, it's fine, Irisviel is a healer. And he seems to have been stablised already", Sakura said in response, holding him back.
