Over the years since the adoption, the girl no longer simply known as Shirou, but as Shirou Emiya grew into a confident and beautiful young woman. Most of her female peers got very jealous of her more developed figure. The only exception was the girl she had taken a liking to and an interest in, Sakura Matou… in more ways than one.
Shirou was more than happy to play the part of being the clearly broken girl's confidant and source of comfort. This relationship started between the two girls when Shirou decided to kidnap the other girl into Purgatorio after overhearing the girl known as Rin Tohsaka tearing the school's self proclaimed ladies man(-but-who-is-in-actuality-just-an-idiot-most-people-just-roll-their-eyes-at), Shinji Matou, a new one about his treatment of his adopted sister. After overcoming the initial shock of the kidnapping, both Sakura and Shirou found incredible amusement in both Tohsaka and Shinji's frustration in their fruitless efforts in finding the two girls.
During one of their adventures throughout Fuyuki-City within Purgatorio, the unexpected and unwanted appearance of an Infernal caused something within Sakura to snap out the sheer amount of fear at the thought of seeing her first, best and so far only real friend getting hurt, or worse killed. Activating one of the signature powers of the Umbra Witches, Witch Time, the power to slow down time to a crawl for everything except for a fellow Umbra Witch, in the process of sheer worry and panic. There was nothing more the two Umbra Witches could do than use Witch Time to their advantage and run, since one of them only just had her power awoken while the other could use her powers more effectively but couldn't fight.
Fortunately for them someone intervened and killed the Infernal with a barrage of gunfire. And that someone turned out to be a fellow Umbra Witch, but unlike Sakura and Shirou, she was an adult. And she was armed with a quartet of blue pistols, two of them in her hands and the other two attached to her high heeled shoes.
"Hmm. I originally came to this city for a vacation but I still wind up getting involved in something crazy, and what do I find? Two young Umbra Witches without a teacher." Muttered the new arrival as she took note of the two younger witches while casually twirling one of her pistols in her hand… in English, a language neither Sakura nor Shirou understood very well.
"Wh-who are you?" Asked Sakura hesitantly in Japanese, who was more than a little terrified by the experience, something that Shirou noticed and stood between her friend and the stranger protectively. The stranger however just raised an eyebrow at this, making Shirou suspect that the stranger didn't understand what Sakura just said, which prompted her to try a different approach.
"She said: who are you?" Translated Shirou in Enochian, a language she knew most Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages were taught to, if not speak, at the very least understand. This was something that caught the stranger off guard as she clearly didn't expect to hear someone that wasn't an Angel or an Infernal speak to her in Enochian… and Sakura was just confused at hearing her friend speak what was clearly a language that she didn't, but the stranger apparently did, understand.
"Bayonetta or Cereza. Take your pick." Exclaimed the stranger, now identified as Bayonetta/Cereza, with a smirk in Enochian, indicating that she wasn't just capable of understanding the language but was also speaking it. While this did surprise Shirou somewhat, she didn't say anything until she absentmindedly sent a glance at Bayonetta's shadow, which didn't match the person it was attached to.
"Butterfly. That's what I'll call you." Exclaimed Shirou with a somewhat mischievous grin. That comment made Bayonetta raise an eyebrow.
"Oh? A butterfly am I? Then may this butterfly inquire on why two Umbra Witches so young are in Purgatorio all alone without the supervision of their teacher?"
"The two of us were basically just having fun causing minor mayhem until that Infernal showed up. Being unable to do anything about it, we did what we could, RUN! And as for why we're in Purgatorio unsupervised, MY teacher has been dead for about three years now. She's one of the locals." Deadpanned Shirou, earning a wince of sympathy from the older Witch.
"Hmm. Tell you what, establish a contract for your friend and meet me here again in a few days and we'll see what happens. Ta ta." Exclaimed Bayonetta somewhat ominously as she exited Purgatorio. Shirou just stared at the spot where the older Umbra Witch stood before exiting Purgatorio for a while until Sakura snapped her out her trance with an as loud as possible clap near the heterochromic witch's ear.
"What the hell just happened and what the hell was that language!?" Demanded Sakura in a rather uncharacteristically impatient tone… in Japanese, prompting her friend to switch languages.
"I think the two of us just got ourselves a teacher. And as for the language, that was Enochian. The language spoken by the Infernals of Inferno and the Angels of Paradiso." Exclaimed Shirou as she blushed a bit out of embarrassment, having basically ignored her friend in favor of her conversation with the older witch.
"WHAT!? HEAVEN AND HELL ARE REAL!?" Shouted Sakura in surprise… and possibly slight disbelief.
"Yes? Kind of? Not really? More or less?" Stated Shirou hesitantly while wincing at the sheer volume of Sakura's shout. "Whatever, if we're gonna go through with this, you're gonna need an Umbran Watch."
"Is that what that watch you're always wearing is called? And why would I need one anyway?" Asked Sakura curiosity.
"Well… personal and sentimental values aside… they also serve the purpose of an inhibitor or a limiter of sorts… for want of a better way to describe it." Stated Shirou with a rather uncertain expression on her face.
"A limiter? Wouldn't it be better to always have access to one's full power at all times?"
"No." Stated Shirou firmly in response to Sakura's curious question, accidentally causing her friend to flinch. "In fact, if Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages didn't use their respective watches as limiters, their respective powers would have killed them very quickly. You see, the usage of one's full power puts a literally lethal amount of strain on the human body. Even if my physiology was altered at a young age I still can't handle my full power for more than about a minute."
"Oh. I understand. Do you think that we should accept that woman's offer?"
"Probably. Even if she can't teach either of us magic, she can probably at least teach us how to fight."
"Sounds like a plan."
Over the course of a few days, the two Umbra Witches managed to get more than a few things set up in preparation for their reunion with their potential teacher, Bayonetta. The first thing Shirou did was fixing her old teachers Umbran Watch and giving it to Sakura. After that, Sakura's contract was established, and like Shirou, she struck a deal with a Heroic Spirit instead of an Infernal, specifically the Kitsune Tamamo-no-Mae from Japanese mythology. The deal between the Heroic Spirit and the newly awakened Umbra Witch was essentially the same deal that Shirou struck with Morgan Le Fay, carrying and giving birth to a reincarnated Tamamo once she deemed herself ready, in exchange for access to Tamamo's powers. Sakura and Tamamo's contract caused, just like Shirou's contract with Morgan, a few changes to Sakura's appearance and physiology, making her part-Kitsune. The most notable changes was Sakura's hair gaining two additional colors. Her bangs turning from purple to the shade of pink as her namesake and two sections of her hair rising up and turning into an orangey color, as if mimicking fox-ears on the top of her head. Another change caused by Sakura's contract with Tamamo was her eyes, the pupils turning into vulpine slits whenever she got angry or excited.
What the two witches didn't expect to happen was Sakura screaming in what clearly was excruciating pain as the changes because of the contract with Tamamo became visible. Much worse than Shirou's transformation, which at most felt like being stung with needles all over her body repeatedly over the course of a few minutes. While Shirou didn't know what was causing the pain, Sakura did. The Crest Worms inside of her was rapidly (and obviously, very painfully) being purged from her body. Once the transformation and purge was over, Sakura felt very sore in her whole body, but relieved, no longer feeling the agonizing sensation of the Crest Worms moving around inside of her. The experience rendered Sakura completely exhausted, which caused her to collapse, prompting Shirou to catch her friend and her to a bed and let her rest.
After a few days of rest and recovery, the two Witches met up with Bayonetta in Purgatorio where they came to the agreement that Bayonetta would be the two younger witches' teacher for three years. Teaching them how to fight, since she couldn't teach them the traditional magic of the Umbra Witches, while simultaneously going on adventures all over the world.
