Fate ½ : Aftermath
Disclaimer: I do not own neither Ranma ½ nor Fate\stay night, Kara no Kyoukai or other stories that might appear here. They belong solely to their creators.I'm just doing this for a bit of fun and no profit is being made.
-
Shiro opened his eyes and looking around he saw Saber who sat near the wall and looked at him.
"You are awake, Shiro." she said and a trace of a smile appeared on her lips, but her eyes remained expressionless as she continued.
"Your reckless act almost cost you your life and could make your sacrifice useless and foolish."
"S-Saber… I'm sorry." The boy winced as he listened to Saber. "But you already sacrificed your dream when you decided to destroy Grail. I couldn't stay aside and watch as you sacrifice another."
Saber's eyes softened and she said.
"Yes, this is why I like you, Shiro. Now, get up, you must provide your body with enough nutrients to recover from strain."
-
"Ah, Sempai, you are awake!" exclaimed Sakura when the boy entered the living room.
Almost as soon as the boy took his place, Taiga hit him on the head with a rolled banner she picked up from the floor. Unexpectedly, a sound of metal hitting the bone resounded through the room.
"Ouch! Fiji-nee, that hurt!" hissed Shiro and snatched the weapon from Taiga's hands. When he unrolled it, he found a metal bar inside.
"Oh, I'm sorry Shiro! I forgot about it. I prepared banners for Archery tournament we'll have in two weeks and brought them to show them to you, but when I heard that you got ill again, I couldn't help myself."
"It's all right, I heal fast." answered the boy as he rubbed his head.
Suddenly Ilya leaned to Shiro and whispered.
"One word onii-chan and she will bother you no more." but Ilya underestimated Taiga's hearing and Shiro's caretaker as Taiga liked to call herself, immediately responded.
"Why you! I allow you to live here only from the goodness of heart!"
"You are a bother!"
"Imp!"
"Tiger!"
-
Shiro shook his head looked at the arguing pair, thinking how childish Fuji-nee could be sometimes, when he noticed something very unusual.
"Where's Rider? I never thought she would miss breakfast." he asked when he saw that Rider's dish was untouched and purple haired woman herself wasn't at the table.
"She's helping me to pack. I'm leaving home, Sempai." said Sakura with a hidden sadness in her voice as she remembered how happy she was when Shiro agreed that she could live with him.
"What?! But I thought you were such a good couple?" asked Taiga, interrupting her talk with Ilya.
Sakura slightly blushed before she answered.
"I, I will visit you often but I can't impose on you any longer. And I think Saber is…"
Sakura's last sentence was interrupted when Rider dashed into the living room with a small suitcase in her hand. "Oh, food is not cold yet, is it?"
"Will you leave with Sakura, Rider?" asked Saber as Rider sat and started to empty out her dish.
"What? Oh…" Sakura's Servant stopped chewing and scratched the base of her ponytail, slightly blushing.
"Yeah, I think I will. That Shi… erm, I mean the walls are not repaired yet, so she'll need my protection."
"If you are leaving then I'll give you a present." said Ilya and handed Sakura a small card with a phone number and name on it.
"She'll help you with your curse, Rider."
-
Rider, still asleep, felt somebody stretch upper hem of her dress and suddenly kiss her nipple, an action that provoked an immediate response.
"What did you do that for?" asked Ranma, her voice higher than usual, from the ceiling she clung to.
Sakura moved Rider's purple ponytail that easily reached the bed and snickering, answered.
"I'm sorry big sister, but today is an important day and I couldn't bring myself to use a bucket of cold water like you suggested."
'Su-u-re you couldn't.' thought the older girl with a note of sarcasm when she jumped down.
In a few days she and Sakura lived in Mato's mansion, after Sakura decided to not impose on Shiro anymore and Ranma stayed with the girl to *protect her in case Shinji returns*, it became clear that no matter how much Sakura tried to treat both of her forms equally, she had a much stronger emotional attachment to her *big sister* than *brother*.
And maybe because of the spiritual bond they shared or just because Ranma felt that her cursed form was one of the very few things that brought Sakura happiness she undoubtedly deserved, but she didn't mind being the Sakura's *big sister * when they were doing something together.
-
"So, what's so big about today?" asked Rider as dismissed her combat outfit, she always slept in, and her favorite black silks appeared.
"Called Toko Aozaki. She said that your glasses are ready. And if we do not hurry up, we'll miss our train to Tokyo."
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Well, let's not make her wait." said Rider as she remembered that before Ilya briefly left home, she gave them a phone number of a mage that could use True Magic and was able to deal with her curse. Asking for something that could replace her blindfold was an afterthought, but brought a lot of fun to Sakura while the plum haired girl decided how her sister's glasses should look.
-
As they walked to the kitchen, Rider decided to get good-humored revenge on the girl for waking her up like that and asked teasingly.
"So, who do you want to come to the archery championship, next week, to cheer for you? A handsome young man or your sister?" and smiled when the girl's cheeks became crimson colored.
-
"Come Rider, we must leave now, or we'll miss the train!" said Sakura when she looked at the clock as they ate.
"Oh, but I'm not finished yet. We can always catch the next one." said Ranma as she looked at her half-empty plate.
"No, Sempai said that he will be on that train!" answered the girl and pulled the older one, who was looking longingly at the remaining food, outside.
-
"Hi ya, Shiro." said Rider when they met Shiro, Rin and Saber near the train.
"Good day." greeted them Shiro, followed by greetings from Saber and Rin.
-
"So, why are you going to Tokyo, Sempai?" asked Sakura as the train carried them to their destination.
Shiro put his hand around Saber, who was sitting near him, and answered.
"Rin is going to London to study magic arts and I want to show Saber how her country developed over several centuries."
"And what is the purpose of your visit to Tokyo, Rider?" asked Saber, slightly blushing from Shiro's open demonstration of his feelings towards her.
The purple haired Servant looked away from the window she was looking in and answered.
"We're going to pick up my glasses from Toko Aozaki because Sakura thinks that I look a bit weird with my blindfold on."
"Toko Aozaki? One of the five mages that can use True magic? Ilya sure knows a lot of people." said Rin thinking that returning to Japan with Shiro and Saber might be a good idea, if only to look at item created by one of the famous magician sisters.
-
"Take care Sempai, Saber and you Rin." said Sakura when they arrived to Tokyo and their ways parted.
"Don't worry. We'll be back in time for your tournament." answered Shiro as he entered the taxi that would drive to the airport, after the girls.
-
An hour later, after receiving very detailed description of how to reach their destination, Rider and Sakura entered an abandoned building that held the office where Toko worked. As they walked in, they saw a young redheaded woman at the desk near the window that was busy sorting out some documents. Near one of the walls, a young girl, with short black hair and dressed in a blue kimono with a sheathed katana in her hand, was standing with an unreadable expression.
-
"Excuse us, but are you Toko Aozaki?" asked Sakura. "We are here for the glasses she promised to make for us."
The redheaded woman stopped searching for something in the files on her desk and turned to them.
"Yes, I am. One moment please."
Toko walked around the desk and took out a pair of glasses from it.
"Here. They are enchanted not to fall off, so you don't have to be scared about accidentally releasing your power. But they can be easily removed if you'll wish to."
"Thanks. And what about my curse?" asked Ranma as she took the glasses and tried to see anything magical about them before she closed her eyes and put them on after her blindfold disappeared.
"I need few days for more then a theory of what happened to you in China. But I already found something that might interest you." said Toko as she took one of the files from her desk and gave Rider several documents from it.
"Hmm, Ranma Saotome, father Genma Saotome, mother Nodoka…. She's alive?! That damned bastard!" Rider fumed, looking at her father's photo with a smoldering glare, as she thought about how she should punish her father for not telling her anything about her mother all those years.
Seeing that her sister wasn't in the mood to read any further, Sakura took the documents from Rider and started to read.
"That's strange. There are two Ranma Saotomes here and both are sons of Saotome Genma."
"Wha…?" the news about a possible brother, or most likely another scheme from her father, shook Rider out of her anger-driven dream about using Genma as a training dummy and she snatched the documents back.
"Lives in Nerima ward, has a fiancée?! Location unknown, married?! They don't even look like me! That fat loaf probably just adopted or bribed these guys to take my place!"
Toko looked at angry woman for several seconds with a thoughtful look and said, while she pulled out a cigarette from pack that she took from the desk and lit it.
"As I said I have a theory. According to archives of the Mages Association, several hundred years ago, a magical creature that looked just like you was summoned near Jusenkyo valley.
When you were summoned as a Servant, you, probably, first appeared there and due to the nature of Jusenkyo and magical experiments that place was used for, you were mixed with, or just received form and memories of a nearest human. And they might've been strong enough to suppress your own."
"So, you are saying that I'm just a copy of one of those guys? Hell no, I think your first guess was better."
"That's all then. Call me in a few days. I might be able to help then."
"Thank you very much." Sakura bowed to the redheaded mage and walked out, pulling her sister, that was grumbling about getting to the bottom of this, with her.
-
"An interesting pair, don't you think?" asked Toko when their guests left and she turned to the katana wielding girl.
"Yes, I hate them already."
Toko raised an eyebrow and asked in manner as if she already knew the answer but asked anyway.
"Why, Shiki?"
Shiki put away her katana and stepped away from the wall before she answered.
"We're kindred spirits. They might not show it, but once, they relished in killing humans."
"A vessel for darkness and a monster from legends, they do match each other well." faintly smiled Toko, before she returned to her work.
-
"Sakura, I'm sorry, but can we go sightseeing Tokyo after I get this mess with imposters and my mother out of our way?" said Rider as they walked through the streets towards Nerima ward.
"Yes, of course. Family is very important and I'm happy your mother is alive, sister." answered the plum haired girl and held Rider's hand tighter as if reminding herself about the only family she had now.