Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Risen from Ruins

Chapter 15

The drive from the Einzbern Forest to the Tohsaka Mansion was made in silence, only the noises of the car operating, of other vehicles driving by, and of the city around them to be heard. Sakura sat next to one window of the passenger seat, while Aoi sat next to the opposite window. Caules sat between them, the young man an awkward buffer between mother and daughter.

He'd made a few attempts to get small talk going at first, but when those had gone nowhere, he'd fallen silent. The silence persisted, heavy and anxious, as they drove through the city and entered the suburbs.

Finally, they slowed as they drove down a certain street, and came to a halt along the curb outside the Tohsaka property. Doors opened and homunculi showed the passengers out. Two stood guard outside the gates, and more formed up in an honor guard on the grounds themselves, forming twin files of white-uniformed bodies along the path leading to mansion itself.

Aoi looked uncomfortable at the sight, realizing in hindsight how during her absence Yggdmillennia had taken some liberties with her family's property. Then she turned towards Sakura, who was standing to one side with a nostalgic air around her. After a few moments, she pointed at a tree next to the outer wall.

"There…" she said. "I remember…I climbed up that tree at night, just to get over the wall. It was…scary…I was just a child, after all. It was dark…and it was so high…and there was no way to get down on the other side…except to fall…to fall…"

"Did you?" Caules asked softly.

"…yes." Sakura said after a moment. "I skinned my hands and knees, maybe even lightly sprained a wrist…I cried…and I almost turned back…"

"…why didn't you?" Aoi blurted out.

"…because you didn't want me." Sakura said before shaking her head. "No…sorry…that's not right…Tokiomi Tohsaka didn't want me…he made that much clear back then…"

Sakura took a deep breath as she trailed off, and turned to Caules. "Our children…" she softly began. "…we'll do better, won't we?"

"Of course we will." Caules resolutely said, and Sakura nodded.

"Yes…we will…" she said, before turning to her mother. Aoi blinked, trembling as she fought the urge to look away, and after Sakura looked away uncertainly, let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in.

Then turning away, she led the way into the property.

"…good bounded fields…" Caules remarked as they followed Aoi into the grounds and towards the mansion. "…though I'm curious why didn't they notice and warn your father about you leaving on that night?"

"I'm guessing since I wasn't due to be taken away yet," Sakura answered. "I was still keyed to the identification protocols, and as family for all that."

"Meaning they saw no reason to warn of your departure." Caules noted. "Huh…that makes sense…"

"They probably noticed me doing so, though." Sakura said. "Tokiomi Tohsaka probably used that in turn to begin his token search come the following day, starting during the when the bounded fields recorded me leaving."

"That would also make sense." Caules said with a nod. "Though…where did you after you left?"

"…train station." Sakura said after a moment's thought. "I checked the maps when no one was looking during the previous days. Mother was busy doing household things, and Rin was locked away with Tokiomi Tohsaka…as usual."

"And then?"

"…I knew someone might come after me." Sakura replied after another moment's thought. "So I took the earliest train, pretending I was going to visit my grandmother on the other side of the island, and rode all the way to the furthest stop."

Sakura paused and laughed. "It's funny, really." She said. "In a First World Country like Japan, where the rate of kidnapping and similar crimes is so very low, people are just fine with little children going around on their own. No one really asked twice where I was going, or even wondered where my parents were."

"…weren't you in Osaka when grandfather's agents found you?" Caules asked after a moment.

"Yeah…I was." Sakura said with a nod. "I slipped and hid aboard a ferry to Hiroshima, and stole some food to pass the time with."

Caules and Aoi paused and looked at her in horror, but Sakura was unrepentant. "I was a runaway waif." She said. "And I was hungry. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Oh Sakura…" Aoi said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Sakura looked away with an unreadable expression on her face. Aoi brought herself under control, gratefully nodding at Caules after he offered her a kerchief to wipe her eyes with. "Once we were at Hiroshima, I slipped out and through the docks…" Sakura murmured. "And again bluffed my way onto a train to Osaka. I wanted to go further, but the money I stole from…this place, wouldn't let me go further, so that was my last stop."

"And then what?" Aoi pressed.

"…I survived." Sakura said after a long moment. "Long enough for grandfather's men to find me. And the rest is history."

Caules and Aoi still looked curious about what happened then, but Sakura's bitter expression convinced them not to press. After a moment, Aoi sadly looked away before once again leading the way into the house, while Caules took Sakura's hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Sakura's face softened at the gesture, and nodding gratefully at him, let him lead her inside.

"It's a joke."

"What?" Caules asked in surprise at the non sequitur.

The two of them were standing in the middle of the Tohsaka library, a warm and richly-furnished room with an old world air of quiet learning and contemplation to it. The windows were draped with crimson curtains held back by gold string, while their boots sank into the carpet below. The wallpapered walls were lined with hardwood shelves stacked from end to end with hardback tomes, some of them dating back centuries. Most of the titles were in Japanese, but there were also Chinese, German, English, French, Italian, Latin, and other titles. Most were on magecraft, but even then were plenty of materials on other subjects, and not just academic but literary ones at that.

It was an impressive collection, when the ones in possession of it could barely claim two centuries of history as magi. Sakura didn't look it though. Instead, her face was twisted with bitterness and spite.

"It's a joke in bad taste." She elaborated for Caules. "All these materials on magecraft, and it's nearly useless to me."

"I'm…not really sure how that's a joke." Caules cautiously ventured.

"I'm a magus born to a family of jewel magi…who absolutely cannot use Jewel Magecraft." Sakura replied. "The moment I put my prana inside a jewel, its elemental affinity will tint my prana, and render it useless at best for me, and at worst, turn it into a ticking bomb that could rend me limb from limb at any moment."

Sakura paused and made a sound of disgust. "It's a bloody comedy." She hissed. "Somewhere out there, someone has it out for me."

"…I disagree." Caules said after a moment, and causing Sakura to turn sharply towards him. He just raised an eyebrow at her. "If someone or something out there is on the out for you, then you couldn't have pulled off your great escape over a decade ago. You'd have become vampire fodder, we'd never have met, or you could simply have died on the street."

Caules paused and shrugged, before smiling at Sakura. "There's always a silver lining." He said.

Sakura stared at him peevishly for a few moments, before giving a grudging smile. "Point." She said. "Thanks."

"No problem." Caules said with another shrug. "Besides, even if you can't use Jewel Magecraft, I'd argue you got the better end of the deal even compared to your older sister."

"Huh?"

"How many Jewel Magi are there in the world?" Caules asked. "Hell, in the Mages Association alone, the Department of Mineralogy is full of them. And while Average Ones are rare, they're not that rare."

Pausing, he regarded Sakura with a tilted head. "Now," he continued. "How many magi possess Imaginary Numbers?"

Sakura snorted and laughed. "Oh Caules…thanks…really, thanks a lot." She said, sounding and looking more cheerful than she ever did on this day. "I needed that."

"Yes, you did." Caules agreed with a nod. "And you're welcome. I just do my best, that's all."

"Hmm…that you do." Sakura said before taking a deep breath. "Right, right…silver linings…alright, all this might be nearly useless to me, but that doesn't have to be the case for our children. They're going to need this when the time comes."

"They will." Caules agreed.

Sakura nodded. "We'll leave this here." She said. "We'll only take what we need. Find the relevant materials for the plan, and leave it at that. We – or our children – can always come here if they need materials for Jewel Magecraft."

"There's a good idea." Caules said with a nod. "I'll take care of it. You go and do the same for the workshop."

Sakura nodded, and clapped Caules gratefully on a shoulder as she turned to leave. "Thanks, Caules." She said. "For everything…"

Not waiting for a reply, Sakura strode away, Caules smiling after her until she was out of sight. And then sighing, the young man adjusted his glasses, and turned back to the library around him. "Now then," he said softly to himself. "Where should I start? Hmm…over there…"

The Tohsaka workshop was fairly typical as far as workshops go. Located in the basement, it was a musty room with a ritual circle in the middle, along with workbenches, a desk and a seat, extra chairs, along with shelves along the walls. Boxes and other stores of tools, materials, and the like sat on the shelves, along with the most precious tomes and written materials.

More materials were neatly stacked along the walls and in the corners, along with rolled up scrollwork. Sakura took it all in with a hard expression on her face, one which fell as she gave a sigh.

Had things been different, this place would be so much more familiar.

It would be as it should be, the heart of Tohsaka's mysteries, the place where our pride and power is greatest.

Now…to me…it's just…

Shaking her head clear of such wistful thoughts, Sakura made her way across the workshop. As she proceeded, she could feel the bounded fields of the place caressing and examining her. They recognized her blood, and the crest carved into her arm.

For those two, they welcomed her, and yet there was a touch of confusion regardless. They didn't know her, after all.

Pulling back the chair at the desk, Sakura sat down, and relaxed for a few minutes. She let the musty air and the half-light of gas lamps put her at ease, and then sighing, leaned forward to rest her elbows against the desk. Rubbing her face a few times, she looked around at the desk, and then began opening and pulling out drawers and boxes.

"Let's see if there's anything of use to us here." She thought.

Working alone for over an hour, Sakura went through the materials inside the workshop one by one, and discarded most of them as useless or redundant to her. Almost all the tools present she had in her own workshops, whether in Trifas or at the Clock Tower.

The jewels were useless to her, as were the mystic codes made from them. The tomes and other written materials here were shockingly old, some dating as far back as the 17[SUP]th[/SUP] Century, and probably belonged originally to her Finnish grandmother. They were on Jewel Magecraft, however, and as such were also useless to Sakura.

She did find her father's journals, though. And it was a struggle not to burn them…for now. They might have something useful in them, after all.

No…she wouldn't burn them. She wouldn't burn that foolish man's written legacy just yet. Not yet…

…she'd find anything of use in them, transcribe and synthesize them by her own hand, thus preserving them for future generations…

…and then she would destroy his written legacy.

Just as he deserves.

One by one, each of the journals vanished into Imaginary Numbers Space…

…and then there was the true treasure of the Tohsaka lineage of magi. A chest, an ordinary-looking chest of wood bound with rust-spotted metal, just sitting and gathering dust in one corner.

At first glance, it wasn't anything special, whether open or not. But for someone like Sakura who dealt with spatial manipulation on a regular basis…

…it only took a single glance to realize there was more to the chest than what met the eye, and a few minutes of examination to realize just what that was: the chest was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Infinitely-so, at that, something that could only be achieved by means of High Thaumaturgy, infinitely-close to the realms of True Magic.

"Tohsaka could not possibly have made this." Sakura thought as she ran a finger along a rust-spotted band of iron on the chest. "Edelfelt possibly…but given Nagato Tohsaka's history with the Wizard Marshall…plus what was inside…"

There wasn't much on the inside, just a broken fossil of all things, as well as a child's toy – or a mystic code that appeared like one – and which was heavily-bundled with seals and wards of every configuration and paranoid levels of security, along with a sheaf of papers. It took several minutes for Sakura to even begin figuring them out, no thanks to the Escheresque details of the schematics drawn on the paper, along with mathematical equations and formulas that actually hurt to think about, but after several minutes and wiping away a nosebleed, Sakura had a shocking hypothesis as to what it was.

The broken fossil was tossed into the trash bin.

The papers, the toy, and the chest all vanished into Imaginary Numbers Space. She would work on them later, but if the papers were what she thought they were, Sakura knew she could only really set up a theoretical start on them. But she didn't mind. Because even if she couldn't make it reality, her as of yet-unconceived children or grandchildren might just do what she could not.

And for their sake, Sakura would forbear her own pride and ambition.

It was with that thought in mind that Sakura began cleaning up her own mess, having finished what she came to do down here, in the Tohsaka mansion.

"…did you meet your sister already?"

"Yes…yes, I did."

Aoi silently poured tea for herself, her daughter, and her future son-in-law. They were in the library, and Caules was off alongside one of the further away shelves, books neatly stacked at his feet. A voice that sounded like her husband's urged Aoi to approach the young man, and tell him off about touching the family's books. Until he was married to Sakura, he had no right to touch them.

And even then, he could only touch much less know what the family head decided for him to know, no more and no less.

Aoi shut it out, not without significant internal effort on her part, but she managed. Somehow…it was still there, the voice of her husband, but it wasn't as compelling now…at least, for now.

"And?" she asked.

Sakura didn't answer at once, though the way her right hand moved protectively to her left arm was telling in itself. "…did you fight?" Aoi asked in a whisper.

Sakura made sure to meet her mother's eyes before answering. "Yes." She said.

Aoi looked away, her eyes shut with pain at the thought of her children having to fight each other. While no magus herself, she knew what battles between magi involved, and how bloody they could be, especially when things like crests were involved.

"Was it worth it?" she asked after a few moments.

"…yes." Sakura said after a moment. "Yggdmillennia gave me everything…everything. I wanted for nothing. They gave me a home…love…respect…family even, despite not sharing blood with me…so when they asked that I take up the crest and all it came with for their sake…how could I say no?"

"Even if it meant fighting your own sister!" Aoi cried. "Spilling your own blood! Sakura…how can that ever be worth it?"

"…it's fairer than what Tokiomi Tohsaka chose to do." Sakura spat back, and evading her mother's question entirely.

"…and?" Aoi asked bitterly. "When you have children of your own, will you have them fight each other? Kill each other, just to decide who should have the crest?"

Sakura didn't answer for a moment. Instead, she slumped down for several moments, and then taking a deep breath, raised her head to meet her mother's eyes. "…yes." She admitted. "If all things are equal between them, then yes. I'll have them prove who should rightfully lead, even if it means a mortal combat to the death. It's fairer than simply deciding who should lead based on something as arbitrary as accident of birth."

Aoi gasped and reeled back in shock and disbelief, but in the next moment Sakura looked away. "But what are the chances of that happening?" she asked. "Rin and myself…we're the kind of once in a century genius…our children will be great, but not like we were. Different…somehow…if so…"

Sakura took a deep breath again before looking back at her mother. "Then whoever deserves to lead will lead," she said. "But I won't leave the others to fend for themselves, or discard them like mere trash. I'll be sure to give them a fair share."

"Sakura…" Aoi tearfully said while shaking her head. "Please…believe me…you…you were never…"

"Yes…I know." Sakura softly interrupted. "To you…I was never trash. But to Tokiomi Tohsaka…I was someone who was never meant to be born."

Aoi bit her lip, but unable to find the right words to say, could only look away once again.

"…Caules and I are still reviewing what relevant materials we've recovered from the Tohsaka library and workshop," Sakura reported to their grandfather. "But it's not looking very hopeful. Everything that concerns the Grail and its construction is, well, fragmentary."

"That," Caules added. "Or it's general information everyone with the right to know already knows, and if it's detailed information, it's something we can and have already inferred from our teams and the like on the ground."

"We'll continue our search and reviews," Sakura continued. "But…"

Darnic hummed and nodded unhappily as his granddaughter trailed off. "Do what you can." He said. "Though, don't let it get to you. If I remember right…yes, during the Third Holy Grail War, as the bloodshed for the Grail escalated to a degree never seen before or since, the original Tohsaka mansion was burned to the ground. As unfortunate as it is, it is unsurprising that you can only find fragmentary originals and inference-based studies made by those who lived since that time."

"Yes, grandfather." Sakura and Caules chorused, and with a dismissive gesture, Darnic ended the communication.

"…well, that went well." Caules remarked as their grandfather's hologram vanished.

"Agreed," Sakura said with a nod. "Though, here's to hoping the teams going over the Matou mansion are having more success than we are."

Caules hummed unhappily. "I'm not really very confident at the idea of assimilating the accumulated research of a Dead Apostle, are you?" he asked.

"…considering I was going to be fed to the Dead Apostle in question, my answer would be no." Sakura said. "That said…"

"Yeah," Caules said with a nod. "We need to know everything we can about the Grail, otherwise we risk blowing ourselves up – and Trifas – the moment we begin priming it."

"Or worse," Sakura said with a sick expression on her face. "We ignite the ley lines. What a disaster that would be."

Caules hummed his agreement. "…we just have to be careful, I guess." Sakura eventually said with a sigh. "Even if it is a Dead Apostle's library, it's still five hundred years' worth of knowledge compiled for posterity's sake. Knowledge, after all, is neither good nor evil. It's how it's used that determines that."

"Well, no argument there." Caules agreed.

"…mother must be trying to be funny." Sakura groused.

"…this was your room?" Caules asked.

"Yeah…it was…a very long time ago." Sakura said. "To think she had the help clean and fix it up for two…I have half a mind to go back to the airship for the night instead of spending it over here…"

"Sakura…" Caules chidingly said.

"Yeah, I know." Sakura said with a sigh. "It'd be rude when we already accepted her previous invitation to spend the night here. And I suppose we should be grateful she let us share a room."

"…the bed's a bit small, though." Caules observed before giving a wry smile. "At least by comparison to what we're used to."

Sakura smiled and laughed wryly herself. "Yeah, now that you mention it…" she said. "…huh…come to think of it…it's going to be a tighter fit than whenever we usually share a bed…"

"Hmm…looks like it…"

Sakura looked teasingly at Caules, and with a vaguely coquettish pose to boot. "So," she said. "How about taking advantage of the snugness tonight? Also, while the walls here are pretty thick, we could try needling my mother in a…certain, way…how about it, Caules?"

Caules coughed, and shakily adjusted his glasses in a desperate effort to regain his composure. It wasn't doing much good, considering how red his face was. "…anyway," he began in a transparent effort to change the topic. "How did you leave the house? I mean…did you climb out the window, or something?"

Sakura chuckled at Caules' efforts, but obliged regardless. "Yes and no." she said.

Caules stared. "What?" he asked.

"I went downstairs first." Sakura said, walking over to sit on the bed with a wistful air around her. "Then since I couldn't open the front doors, I ran around in circles for a bit, before I used a chair to reach a living room window and open it."

"And then out the window," Caules made the logical leap to complete the events of that fateful night. "Across the yard, up the tree, and over the wall to freedom."

Sakura chuckled and nodded. "Pretty much." She said.

"…I haven't had Japanese food in a long while." Caules remarked as he took his seat at the dinner table.

"Tell me about it." Sakura agreed. "And I'm supposed to be Japanese too, at least by birth. And whenever either me or you have Japanese…"

"…it's restaurant stuff." Caules finished with a nod. "Well…this should be an interesting experience. Home-cooked Japanese cuisine…"

Aoi smiled at the conversation, the first true smile she'd made ever since her rocky reunion with her youngest child. "Then," she said. "I hope it's to your liking."

"I'm sure it will be, ma'am." Caules said, before gently elbowing Sakura.

"Y-yeah…I'm sure it will." Sakura said, before fumbling with her chopsticks. Caules wasn't doing much better though, and after a few moments Aoi came over to their side of the table to help. "…thanks…"

"It's no problem, dear." Aoi happily said, before walking over back to her side of the table. Meanwhile, Sakura and Caules examined the saucers of pickled vegetables before them, and shrugging at each other, sampled the offered appetizer.

Sakura's eyes immediately went wide. "…oh, that was good." She said.

"I agree." Caules said, immediately taking another bite. "These are homemade pickles, yes?"

Aoi beamed an affirmative, before quietly asking a maid to get more servings of pickled vegetables. The first serving was finished quickly, the maids arriving with a second serving just in time. "You're not going to eat, ma'am?" Caules asked.

"Hmm…I suppose I should join in…" Aoi agreed, before picking up her chopsticks and helping herself to some pickled vegetables as well.

The second serving quickly came and went, and then the maids were serving steaming bowls of miso soup cooked with tofu, seaweed, and spring onions. It was pleasantly hot and savory, and Sakura only briefly struggled before giving in. "Hey," she hesitantly began. "Um…can I…that is…?"

"Would you like the recipe, Sakura?" Aoi preempted her.

"Yes."

Aoi beamed again. "I'd be happy to share it with you." She said. "In fact, I'd be even happier to teach you how to cook it."

"…thank you very much."

Aoi smiled even wider, while Caules set down his half-finished soup. "You do realize you're going to have to import the soup stock, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do." Sakura admitted. "But it's going to be worth it, won't it?"

"…if the soup comes out this good, then yes." Caules admitted in his turn.

"Do you know your way around the kitchen, Sakura?" Aoi asked curiously.

"Up to a point," Sakura replied. "I'm not really a chef or even an excellent cook, but I know how things are done, and the basic rules around the kitchen."

"But you can cook?" Aoi pressed.

"Yes." Sakura said with a nod. "But nothing like this…basic stuff…and European, of course. I…I was never expected to cook on a regular basis at a home setting, just enough to know if something was going wrong in the kitchen, so…"

Sakura trailed off uncomfortably, but Aoi looked curious. "If not at home," she began. "Then where were you expected to cook at?"

It was Caules who answered. "Outdoors," he said. "Part of our training is winter survival."

Aoi's eyebrows nearly met her hairline. "Winter survival?" she echoed.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." Sakura quickly said. "Basically, it's a two-week camping trip into the Carpathian Mountains in wintertime. We're allowed to bring outdoor winter gear with us, and have ample supplies. It's just that we're expected to…forage, and live off the land if we're to pass those two weeks in relative comfort."

"…I'm still not quite sure about that…" Aoi cautiously said.

"Then," Caules said. "Perhaps we can tell you about one of our winter trips? I'm sure that'll be enough to convince you it's not even nearly as bad as it sounds."

"That would be nice, yes."

A/N

So now we have the barebones of how Sakura ran away, and which city she was in when Yggdmillennia (or others in other runaway Sakura fics of mine) found her.

In all seriousness, winter survival training isn't really as bad as it sounds. It's not like what Einzbern had Illya do, i.e. run and summon a Servant for her life or be eaten by hungry wolves. It really is just a camping trip in winter, on the Carpathian Mountains. Camping as in by tent, mind. No warm hunting lodges or anything of the sort, and while their starting supplies can last two weeks with proper rationing, there will be tight belts unless the campers live off the land.

There might be no worm rape in Yggdmillennia training, but it can still be quite harsh, harsher than even Rin's own training. Remember that canonically, Yggdmillennia training at one point involves raising a pet and then having it killed in front of you to drive home the 'magi walk with death' lesson.