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

Peaceful Days

Chapter 3

"Hey, where'd everybody go?"

Sakura blinked and turned to see her…doppelganger? No, that wasn't quite right, they were too many differences between the two of them…other self? Too wordy…counterpart…still too much of a mouthful…

…maybe that was the whole point. They might share many things between them, but she and…Kirsikka, as Sakura 'Murderer Blue' Tohsaka went by while she was here, were still two entirely different people in the end.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sakura said. "I thought big sister had told you. She went with Shirou and the kids to pay their respects."

"Respects…oh, I see." Kirsikka began in confusion only to nod in realization. "I guess she's been gone a while…wait, which…people, specifically are they paying their respects to? Also…I see little big sister's gone with them, huh?"

Sakura gave a chuckle. "She did, yes." She said. "As for who they're paying their respects to…well, there's Shirou's father, and…big sister's parents."

"…not your parents?"

"Are they?"

"Hmm…good point…" Kirsikka conceded while scratching her head. "…here's to hoping little big sister doesn't lose control."

"Oh?"

"At her core she's a vengeful spirit." Kirsikka explained while walking over to the closet where the aprons were kept, and taking one out, put it on. "Like the ones that appear in movies like Ju-On…if it weren't for the fact that a) she was a magus – barely – in life, b) I have her circuits in my crest, c) my Imaginary Numbers means I have an affinity for spirits, and d) her murder was never intentional. That's…those are the only reasons she managed to maintain her sense of self."

Sakura chuckled. "That's a lot of big words." She said. "I think it's better to just say that she didn't lose herself because she still had her big little sister looking out for her, no matter what everything else has happened."

"…good point." Kirsikka conceded after a moment. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You can set the table." Sakura said. "After that, you can juice the oranges for the children, and prepare coffee and tea for the rest of us."

"No problem."

The two women worked in silence for next few minutes, but for the sizzling of fish on the stove, and the clatter of China and silverware. Then Kirsikka was juicing the oranges, and Sakura was looking at her curiously.

"She's still alive, isn't she?" she asked out of the blue. "Your mother, that is."

"Aoi Tohsaka? Yes, she is." Kirsikka answered neutrally. "Though she's Aoi Matou now. She married Kariya Matou, and had a pair of kids with him. They're living in Osaka, and from what I know, they're perfectly ordinary. Not magi…though who knows how long that would last, once Zouken bites the dirt and Kariya has to handle all the inheritance business."

"You don't see her as your mother, do you?" Sakura asked.

"Why should I?" Kirsikka snapped back. "I…I guess I can understand her…shutting me out, after I killed my sister. But…to just leave the house one day, vanishing without a word to me or anyone else only to be found having started a…a…a new game of happy family with her childhood friend elsewhere?"

Kirsikka scoffed. "I have an Edict of Banishment drawn up ready to be invoked at any time." She said. "Once I do, Aoi, Kariya, and their children can't step onto Fuyuki without suffering the consequences of the ley lines being turned against them."

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" Sakura asked with a concerned tone.

Kirsikka blinked, cold steel entering her eyes. "Do you really think so?" she asked back.

Sakura blinked in her turn, before an unusual expression of apathy dawned over her face. "No." she coldly said. "I don't."

"Then we understand each other."

"We do."

Again, silence descended, Sakura frying fish in one pan and poaching eggs in another, while Kirsikka busied herself with making orange juice. Once that was done, she added some sugar and ice before placing it in the fridge, and then began boiling water for tea and coffee.

"I'd appreciate you not telling anyone I told you this," Sakura began. "But I do think big sister's no longer as blind as she used to be. Well, she hasn't been ever since the Fifth Holy Grail War, but ever since she met you, she's opened her eyes even more."

"Oh?"

"Yes." Sakura said. "From what I can tell, she's been using Tokiomi as an example of the kind of magus the children shouldn't become. And Aoi…I think the only reason big sister still bothers was because of how that woman ended up in the end. A brain-damaged cripple who spent her last days in a make-believe world surrounded by her fantasies of a happy family."

Kirsikka laughed cruelly. "My sincerest condolences." She mockingly said, and Sakura laughed just as cruelly.

"Thank you." She said with a vindictive smile. "And not just for understanding…Shirou…big sister…they've been a great help, and they've done a lot to help me move on. But…I don't think they'll ever understand. A part of me…a part of me will always be full of hate for everyone behind everything I've been through. And nothing will change that."

"…darkness exists in all hearts and souls." Kirsikka philosophically remarked. "Mine. Yours. Everyone's. Anyone who says otherwise is mad or lying. Though, that'll set off quite the argument, so don't tell anyone."

Sakura laughed, dispelling the dark air gathering between them. "Your secret's safe with me." She said. "Again, thank you for being someone I can talk to about this."

"You're welcome." Kirsikka said with a tilt of her head. "Anything else I can do to help?"

"Hmm…could you wash what's already on the sink?" Sakura asked. "It would mean less to wash later, after all."

"No problem." Kirsikka said, walking over to the sink. "Speaking of which…well, considering Shirou named your son after his father, I'm honestly surprised that he didn't name either of your daughters after his sister."

"Oh, but he wanted to." Sakura said. "It's just that the girls are twins, so they needed paired names between them. Still, it's on the table, for when we have another little girl in the future."

"Hmm…" Kirsikka hummed with a teasing smile. "…I notice you say 'when', and not 'if'. My, my, such an amorous couple you two are."

Sakura blushed and smiled. "Jealous?" she taunted.

"Yes."

Sakura burst out laughing as did Kirsikka. "Well, you should be." Sakura smugly said. "You won't find someone like Shirou that easily."

"True…though Caules came close…he wasn't like Shirou…but…he didn't have to be…"

"…sorry. I shouldn't have…"

"Nah, it's fine." Kirsikka said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Besides, I've got my little big sister to look after, and if nothing else, I can always just take an apprentice. You know, there's this saying I heard a while back…what was it again…oh yes. A master without an apprentice is a master of nothing."

"I guess that'd be satisfying enough." Sakura conceded. "For a magus, that is."

"Well, I am a magus. A really nasty one, but a magus still for all that."

Sakura laughed at such self-deprecation. "Well," she said. "At least you're honest about it."

Kirsikka shrugged while scrubbing the chopping board. "In this case at least." She said. "Other cases…not so much."

Sakura laughed again. "No one's perfect." She said.

"All too true."

"Right then," Kirsikka said, standing before the children as they stood in the dojo after breakfast. "Since I've been…prevailed upon, to teach you lot something, I am. And I'm sure this will be both a fun and interesting experience for you all."

"Really?" Kiritsugu challenged.

Kirsikka gestured, and suddenly various objects placed around the dojo rose into the air. The smaller and lighter ones included ping-pong balls, shuttlecocks, baseballs, tennis balls, and even a football. Bigger and heavier objects included cinder blocks, I-beams, even junk parts she'd pilfered from Shirou's workshop.

"Telekinesis is one of the simplest mysteries there are." Kirsikka said. "So simple, in fact, that I discovered them on my own as a child, without anyone teaching me or reading about it first. Not to mention so simple that most magi just dismiss it out of hand as a party trick at best. Tokiomi Tohsaka certainly did, and beat me for it too…but that's not important. Anyway, like I said, it's simple, making it easy to learn and master, while also making it one of the most versatile."

Kirsikka paused and shrugged. "As Lady Barthomeloi loves to say," she said. "Simple is best."

"You're telling me the Vice Director can use telekinesis." Rin asked while poking her head through the door.

"Yes."

"…okay." Rin said before withdrawing, somehow not surprised that the Queen of the Clock Tower could and did use telekinesis. Then she shuddered, at the thought of just how powerful Lorelei Barthomeloi's telekinesis was.

"Basically," Kirsikka continued while making her levitated objects dance in the air. "All you have to do is pour prana through your circuits, and use it to reach out and hold onto what you want to handle with telekinesis. No need for arias or complex concepts. Just hold and move with prana. Simple as that, so basically, don't think. Just imagine!"

Then she blinked, and felt a strange sense of déjà vu and wrongness. "Wait, no." she said. "That came out wrong…don't think, just feel!"

Spreading her hands, she slowly gestured, and the levitated objects slowly settled back down to the ground. "Now," Kirsikka said with an encouraging smile. "You try."

"YES!" the children chorused before rushing over. Kirsikka smiled wider as she spotted Kiritsugu trying to lift a cinder block on his first try.

Lol…talk about trying to run before learning how to crawl.

Then she blinked, and turned to the sound of laughter, as the twins had various balls dancing in the air around them. "Problems, big brother?" Oniyuri taunted.

"Guess we're the better magi, huh?" Shirayuri taunted in her turn.

Kiritsugu grit his teeth, beginning to sweat as circuits lit up one after the other. He growled low in his throat, fingers clenched into claws, and then with a snarl, broke a cinder block in two. "HA!" he yelled in triumph and punching a fist into the air. "How's that?"

"Not bad." Kirsikka said with a round of applause. "Yes, you could that with telekinesis. That said, do try not to break these things. I only borrowed some of them from your father."

"Oh, sorry auntie." Kiritsugu said, properly contrite. "I won't do it again."

Kirsikka nodded, before levitating the broken cinder block over to repair it. "Anyway," she began. "Like I said, telekinesis is very versatile, because you're basically just using prana to hold and move something. Anything else is just a matter of applying your imagination to all the ways you can use telekinesis. For example…"

Kirsikka trailed off, and crossing her arms over her chest, levitated herself into the air and across the dojo. "See?" she asked.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kiritsugu yelled in awe. "Amazing! You're like Magneto from the X-Men! I want to try!"

"Well, why don't you?" Kirsikka challenged before looking over at the surly-looking twins. "That goes for the two of you too. You think you've got what it takes?"

"WE DO!" they yelled.

"Prove it."

Ten minutes later, Rin walked by to check in again…

…and her mouth fell open at the sight. Kirsikka was sitting on thin air in one corner, reading a book, while the kids were…flying around. All of them had balls or even cinder blocks flying around them in orbits like electrons around an atom's nucleus, practically playing tag with each other (and Little Rin).

Nor was Mikasa left out of the fun, the familiar threading as though swimming in air instead of in water.

"Well, they seem to be enjoying themselves." Rider observed, causing Rin to jump with a yelp. It drew attention her way, followed by yells from the children.

"Auntie Rin!" Kiritsugu shouted. "Look at me look at me look at me! Tele…telekinesis is amazing!"

"We're flying!" the kids chorused.

"Join the club!" Little Rin sniffed, setting off angry responses and causing the game to resume with Little Rin as 'it' this time.

Rin sighed, gave the mockingly-smiling Rider a flat look, and then applying the same principles the kids – and before them, Kirsikka – used, levitated over to join her sister in the corner. "Surprise." Rin dully said.

"I'd have been very disappointed if you couldn't figure out telekinesis on your own." Kirsikka responded.

Rin sniffed. "Child's play." She said before looking over at the kids. "They seem to be having fun."

"Is that so wrong?"

"No, it isn't."

"Alright then."

Rin sighed and shrugged, and then smiled while watching the kids playing while flying around.

Not exactly the most dignified use of magecraft, but who the fuck cares?

"What's that?" Kirsikka asked after lunch, as Rider brought her to where Rin and Sakura were poring over a notebook.

"Planning for the beach trip." Rin said, and then she blinked as Kirsikka was suddenly huddled together with them.

"Where and when?" she said.

"Shirou's in charge of the where." Sakura said. "He'll be seeing Old Man Fujimura after work for any suggestions. Naturally, we can't have a when until we have someplace to go, but we'll prepare what we can. Say, a menu?"

"BBQ…?" Kirsikka proposed.

Sakura beamed. "Naturally." She said. "But what kind?"

"Yes."

Sakura blinked, briefly looking lost. "So…pork?" she asked. "Chicken as well, I suppose. But what kind? Teriyaki or yakitori?"

"Why not both?"

"…okay."

"…if we're going to BBQ both pork and chicken," Rin said after a moment's thought. "Why limit ourselves to those? I can already think of more than a few other things to cook on a grill…steak, salmon, milkfish, squid…mmm…"

Rin trailed off while licking her lips, Sakura jotting down the items on the notebook. "Anything else?" she asked.

"Burgers, sausages, and hotdogs." Rin quickly said.

"Okay…anything else?"

"We need to pair all those with other kinds of food." Kirsikka admitted. "Chashu salad? Oh, how about potato salad?"

Sakura gasped, eyes lighting up as she put her hands together. "That is an absolutely wonderful idea!" she said. "I have a recipe for potato salad I've been wanting to try for so long. So yes, let's have potato salad…and chashu salad, of course, we'll need some greens in our diet. What about fruit though?"

"Watermelon?" Rin offered.

"Perfect!" Sakura said, happily jotting it down. "Anything else?"

"…mussels?" Kirsikka asked after a moment. "We can cook it in a simple soup and serve it with all that meat."

"That's not a bad idea." Sakura said with a thoughtful nod. "A simple broth would do wonders to balance the richness of so much meat. Yes, let's have that."

"Crabs?" Rin asked in her turn.

"Okay." Sakura said, before looking up at Rider. "Oh, Rider…I'm sorry, did you have a suggestion?"

Rider chuckled and shook her head. "Well, yes, I actually do." She said while taking a seat a polite distance away from the three sisters. And wasn't that…nostalgic, and not in a necessarily good way?

"I suspect we'll be out of meat before the day is out," Rider continued. "And well before dinner at that. So, I say we should prepare something simple to tide us over. Ballast, you could say, until dinner comes around."

"You've been reading too many English novels to use language like that." Rin dryly remarked. "But, it's not a bad idea. Yeah, let's go with that. Only what kind of sandwiches?"

"Ham and cheese?" Sakura offered.

"Egg salad?" Kirsikka asked.

"Tuna spread?" Rider proposed.

"…yes." Rin said, and then all four women were giggling while Sakura jotted it all down, along with two additional flavors of sandwich: chicken spread and ham spread.

"One more thing," Rider said while pushing her glasses up her nose. "The important dish of them all, and which you all seem to have forgotten."

"Oh?" Sakura prompted.

"White rice." Rider said, to much laughter even as Sakura jotted it down.

"Throw in some potato chips there, just for variety or something." Rin added while wiping an eye.

"How very eloquent of you, big sister." Sakura mocked while jotting it down.

Rin shrugged. "I try." She said. "Come to think of it, what about drinks? Bottled water, obviously, as well as fruit juice for the kids, but what about the rest of us?"

"I'm fine with soft drinks, or even just fruit juice." Sakura said. "But, if you want something stronger, I don't mind. Not too strong, though. Magi – or a Servant – aside, we have children with us."

"Beer then." Rider said.

"I'm fine with beer." Rin said.

"You can't go wrong with beer." Kirsikka agreed.

"Beer it is then." Sakura said with a nod and writing it down. Nodding in approval, she looked at the list of items, and pursed her lips. "Now then, we have to organize all this, and in the case of some of the items on the list, prepare the various ingredients. Not to mention condiments like salt and pepper, steak sauce, ketchup, mustard, and everything else."

"Plus cooking equipment and utensils." Kirsikka said. "Though, we could always just use disposable plates and utensils."

"Hmm…tempting, but I want to set a good example for the children." Sakura firmly said with a shake of her head before explaining. "We all have a responsibility to protect the environment, and using disposables would only add to the trash. So, we'll just have to bring our dirty things with us back home to wash. Even if it only minimizes our trash, every little helps."

"Good point." Kirsikka conceded, somewhat confused but also impressed by her counterpart trying to be a good example to her children in more ways than one.

"Well, I guess I can't argue with you on anything you've said." Rin admitted. "Rider?"

"I'm Sakura's Servant, remember? I'm actually obliged to not argue with her. Who do you think I am, Archer?"

"…that was low…but true." Rin grumbled while Kirsikka shrugged.

Rider just smirked in response.

A/N

HF Sakura and EaN Sakura (Kirsikka) bond in this chapter, unsurprisingly over their shared grudges against their parents. Granted, the latter is much less bitter compared to the former, who has largely let go but for the deepest, blackest parts of her soul, but still.

Aside from that, the chapter is more lighthearted, with the kids learning telekinesis from their aunt – who unwittingly (or not, considering she's used a Kaleidostick) references Prisma Illya – before playing around with it. Tokiomi would have a fit at such…undignified behavior. Not that anyone here would care about his opinions, assuming they don't just leave him a bloody smear and body parts scattered across the room.

Wow, that went surprisingly dark.