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

Resolution

Chapter 4

"Rin, I need more blood."

"Okay."

Rin walked into the portal, leading into Sakura's workshop inside Imaginary Numbers Space. Compared to the original Tohsaka workshop, this was much larger, composed of several smaller rooms branching out from a single, large, central chamber. A similarly circular table was in the middle of the central chamber, with its center cut out along with a narrow-space to allow for coming and going from inside and outside. Said table was currently empty, though, no experiments currently ongoing.

Aside from the central table, there were also shelves for books, tools, mystic codes, and various raw materials, among others, standing evenly-spaced along the walls. Between the shelves were iron trees, their branches allowing beeswax candles to light up the workshop, with more candles on the iron chandelier above the central table.

Sakura wasn't here, though. Instead, she was in one of the side-chambers, the bounded fields protecting its doorway scouring flesh and clothes alike clean of pathogens, leaving the former feeling sore and the latter hot and even gently steaming.

Sakura was already in the reclining chair, having stripped off her blouse and leaving her in a short-sleeved undershirt over her trousers. She nodded once at Rin, flexing her left arm while Rin washed her hands in a nearby sink, before further disinfecting her hands with alcohol. Then she put on a pair of disposable gloves, before pulling the blood collection apparatus towards Sakura.

"Same amount?" Rin asked.

"Same amount." Sakura confirmed. "Four hundred and fifty milliliters."

Rin nodded, before taking a sealed plastic bag and pulling it open to pull out a long, coiling, and most importantly, sterile tube of plastic. Another bag similarly provided a sterile needle, which Rin screwed onto one end of the tube while plugging the other into the apparatus. A sterile glass container was also screwed into the apparatus, to store the drawn blood. Then turning back to Sakura, Rin repeatedly probed the inside of her left elbow with her fingers, and finding a vein, used cotton and alcohol to disinfect the skin.

Afterwards, she took the needle, and pushed it into Sakura's flesh and into the vein, Rin carefully monitoring the blood flow to make sure it wouldn't reverse or form bubbles. Granted, the latter would only be a problem in conjunction with the former, but still. Best not to take any chances.

"So…" Rin began. "…are we having steak tonight?"

Sakura laughed. "Do you even have to ask?" she asked, and Rin laughed in her turn. It was true. Whenever Sakura had drawn large volumes of her own blood, she and Rin had always had a heavy dinner, usually with plenty of red, and thus iron-rich, meat. The better to replenish lost blood, and all that. "Steak?"

"I like steak." Rin quickly said. "Medium rare. With lots of gravy. Mashed potatoes on the side, along with buttered vegetables. Corn bread. Mm…"

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, okay." She said. "We'll have dinner early tonight then, at that steakhouse a few blocks away. That alright with you?"

"Of course!"

Sakura smiled and relaxed, though after a few moments she tilted her head and glanced at the apparatus. She watched as the glass container slowly with dark venal blood, Rin similarly keeping her eye on the steadily-rising blood inside. Already, they were approaching the one hundred milliliter mark, and it'd barely been a minute since the blood had started to flow.

"You're burning through the blood surprisingly fast." Rin observed.

"Agreed." Sakura said with a sigh. "But the conversion process is surprisingly inefficient in practice, or at least it appears that way. I mean…we knew even before we started that even four hundred and fifty milliliters of blood would only yield around sixty milliliters of ink. And according to our source – despite his insistence on using ounces instead of standard measures – sixty or even thrice that milliliters can run out very quickly."

"And…what do your tests say?" Rin asked.

Sakura sighed again. "The standard test subject requires an estimated two liters of ink for a single array." She said. "A rough extrapolation for the final, full-sized array could see that number rise to six or even seven liters."

"Ouch." Rin said with a wince.

"Yeah, ouch." Sakura grimly said. "Then again, neither of us expected this to be easy. Speaking of which, any problems on your end?"

"No," Rin said with a shake of her head before narrowing her eyes. "But then again, your tests about the shroud's effectiveness will only be accurate up to a point. I may be an elemental, but depending on the authority behind future attempts to pierce the shroud, I might not be able to keep it up."

"So, we continue with Plan JW."

"Yes."

Sakura nodded, looking extremely grim. "The ritual requirements for JW…" she murmured. "…they don't make for happy thinking."

"Then don't think about it." Rin said. "At least not right now. But when you do…well, people and society aren't perfect. I'm sure you can find enough…materials,that won't get missed much or for long."

"True enough." Sakura said with a nod before glancing at the filling container. "How much so far?"

"Um…let me see…we're past the two hundred milliliter mark."

"Alright then. We're about halfway through, more or less."

"Yup." Rin said with a nod and a smile. "Once we're done, you can get some rest, maybe have a bite to eat."

Sakura smiled. "Sounds good to me." She said with a nod of her own. Rin nodded back, the sisters falling into a companionable silence for the next few minutes, with Rin ending the collection of blood a few milliliters short of the four hundred and fifty milliliter mark. Quickly removing the needle and using an alcohol-dipped ball of cotton to seal the wound left behind, she simultaneously let the blood in the tube and filters drain to top up the container to the four hundred and fifty milliliter mark.

"Still warm." She joked as she carefully removed the container and sealed it.

"I am alive." Sakura remarked, and Rin laughed.

"True." She said. "Right then…you go get some rest and something to eat, in the meantime I've got to cleanup and disinfect."

"Will do." Sakura said, sitting up and watching as Rin threw the used needle and tubes into specialized containers for proper disposal, before she wheeled away the apparatus for cleaning and disinfection. In the end, Sakura just nodded in silence before getting up and leaving Rin to finish on her own.


"Mm…mm…meat is just so delicious…I love it…"

Rin was having the time of her life, eating a two hundred gram steak cooked medium rare and with extra double serving of gravy. She also had an extra-large side of mashed potatoes, and an equally extra-large side of buttered vegetables. Well, Sakura also had more of the same, only her steak was cooked medium well, and with a regular serving of gravy. Likewise, her sides were regular-sized, with the sisters sharing a large basket of cornbread between them. That, and Sakura had red wine with her meal, while Rin made do with diet soda.

"If it weren't for the fact that it's, well, you," Sakura cheerfully remarked as Rin dipped a chunk of cornbread into gravy before shoving it soaked with enriched meat drippings into her mouth. "I'd be worried about you getting fat."

"Yup!" Rin said, slicing into her steak causing it to ooze red fluid onto her plate, the guardian spirit using another chunk of cornbread to soak up the bloody juice before bringing it up to her mouth.

Sakura laughed. "Come to think of it," she said. "We never did get to find out who has a bigger appetite, you or Saber."

Rin finished chewing and swallowing before tilting her head in thought. "I honestly don't know." She said with a shrug before reaching up to scratch her ear. "And to be honest, my appetite now isn't as…bottomless, as it was back then. At least, I don't think so. I mean…yeah, I think I'm more…normal? Now, than I was back then, as weird as that might sound. If nothing else, the idea of eating corpses sickens me now when back then it wouldn't have fazed me in any way."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." Sakura said, also slicing into her steak, brown juices oozing out instead of red from the meat. "I always was after preserving what little Humanity you had left. Not only succeeding at that, but actually giving back more of your Humanity…I call that a big bonus."

"Fair enough." Rin admitted. "Anyway…back to Saber…well, trying to be modest and fair about it, I think I could match at the very least when it comes to our appetites. Mind you, we'd still eat our host out of their home, even if it is Shirou. That, or we'd end up with a six-digit bill at a restaurant."

"That…sounds plausible." Sakura admitted while scratching at her cheek. "Though, I suppose it's not like I couldn't afford the bill if it came to it…so long as you and Saber don't compete too often, that is."

Rin smiled sadly. "Unfortunately," she said, gently stabbing her fork into the mashed potato. "We'll never find out."

"Yeah…it is…" Sakura agreed before taking a deep breath and giving a smile. "…or not. That is, we might still find out in the future."

"Oh?" Rin prompted.

"Yeah…remember that incident we learned about a couple of years go?" Sakura asked. "The one where Grand Magus Aozaki pried open a…crease, in reality?"

"Oh yeah…" Rin thoughtfully said. "…didn't she encounter another version of me and Shirou, if younger, along with Saber, who somehow managed to stay in the world even after the Grail war?"

"Somehow?" Sakura echoed. "Come on, big sister. You know the how. I mean, it'd be a huge and constant drain on your reserves, but you – or rather your counterpart – should have the capacity to support a Servant even without a Grail's backup."

"Huh…good point…" Rin admitted before grinning. "…and more importantly, we might still be able to figure out who has a bigger appetite, me or Saber, in the future!"

Sakura grinned and held up her wine glass. "Looks I better set aside a few million yen, just in case." She said, and causing Rin to laugh.

"That's not a bad idea." She said, returning Sakura's toast as they shared another laugh.


"Why are you here?"

The following day had dawned bright and hot, the Sun shining down from a clear and cloudless sky, its rays burning away the darkness and shining light across the city. And yet, there were some shadows it could not pierce, much less sweep aside, such as those of the bounded fields of the Tohsaka property. To be sure, it was a far from literal darkness, but that only made it worse, as it clouded the senses, both natural and otherwise, in subtle ways.

So subtle, that the men working to rebuild the Tohsaka mansion and its surrounding grounds unknowingly did so blindly, never truly seeing what it was they were building. The same went for every other passersby, or Kariya himself, who wondered if other magi would be any more successful at seeing what should be the most obvious aspect of Sakura's schemes.

He doubted it, though. He was an amateur spell-caster, even at his age, but even then, he could sense how the bounded fields were rooted into the ley lines flowing under the property, directly feeding off the land's bounty of mana.

"I was just passing by." Kariya verbally replied.

"You'll forgive me if I find myself doubting that, stepfather." Sakura telepathically replied.

Kariya clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Fine, you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth." He snapped. "I was on my way to my childhood home, happy?"

"That sounds even more questionable," Sakura replied in the same manner as before. "Considering your past with your family."

Kariya snorted. "You don't know me, Sakura." He sneered.

"I know enough." Sakura replied with the mental equivalent of a shrug. "For instance, I know you won't be the type to be nostalgic about the place, not when you have mother with you."

"…do I seem the type to gloat?" Kariya asked after a moment.

There was a long moment of silence, and then Sakura walked out of the shadow of a nearby lamppost, dressed in casual clothes: a white, long-sleeved, button-down blouse tied with a black ribbon at the collar, along with a black, knee-length skirt over matching shoes and leggings. She approached, and looked at her stepfather evenly, Kariya meeting her eyes without flinching.

"Standing in the dark and ranting about how you're alive and have made your dreams a reality," Sakura began. "While Zouken is both dead and its dreams as dust on the wind…yes, that does sound like you."

"As it does you." Kariya snapped, before mentally wincing and bracing for Sakura lashing out what happened last month.

Instead, she just smiled impishly, something that caused him to jolt at how it reminded him of Aoi in their youth. "Yes…I suppose it does…" Sakura said. "…but, if you were on the way to Matou, why are you still here?"

"…I was curious." Kariya said after a moment, looking away from Sakura and towards the Tohsaka property. "What are you doing, Sakura?"

"None of your business." Sakura said before tilting her head. "Suffice to say, though, that if Tokiomi Tohsaka were still alive, it'd drive up the wall as much as it would you having married my mother."

Kariya hummed unhappily at that, but didn't deny it either. It was true, after all, and he couldn't exactly deny he enjoyed the notion of Tokiomi turning in his grave or screaming and flailing in the afterlife, knowing that Aoi had abandoned his memory and returned to Kariya.

More than that, even, but had children with him.

"Whatever it is you're up to," Kariya finally said. "It's something you don't want the world to see. Now why would that be the case, I wonder?"

Sakura just smiled wider. "I'm a magus." She said, and Kariya snorted again.

"Well, at least you're honest about what you are." He grudgingly replied. "Your father would have used all sorts of flowery words and big talk…you? You just say it as it is. Maybe you aren't as much like him as I thought…

Sakura smiled even wider at that. "That is the highest praise." She said, before pressing a finger to her lips, and then pressing it against Kariya's cheek, much to his surprise. "Take care, stepfather, strange as it might sound. Now, if you don't mind, I have more important things to do. Good day."

Sakura gave a curt, European-style bow, before turning away, and walking back to the nearest shadow vanished into the darkness. Kariya sniffed and looking back at the Tohsaka property, narrowed his eyes.

"No," he thought, thinking back to his and Tokiomi's youth and remembering a woman as cold and enigmatic as she was beautiful. "Now that I think about it…you're not like your father or your mother…but you do resemble your grandmother…"


"I'm back!" Rin yelled several hours later, as she joined Sakura in her workshop after finishing an errand her little sister had asked her to do.

"Welcome back." Sakura said, not looking away from her work, blood boiling in alembics as iron seethed with heat in crucibles. "You didn't run into trouble, did you?"

"Just a bit." Rin admitted, wandering over and craning a curious look at Sakura's alchemical apparatus, feline instincts overcoming Human rationality, despite the fact this wasn't the first time she'd encountered Sakura conducting alchemical work. This eventually needed Sakura to gently pull Rin's hand away before she could burn herself. "Sorry…anyway, back to that stuff you asked me to look into…yeah, I ran into some trouble. Nothing I couldn't handle, just a bit of bureaucratic crap, usually various pencil pushers asking too many questions or trying to get things stuck on piece of paperwork or another…"

Rin trailed off with a sound of disgust, her tail whipping around behind her as though in disdain. "Anyway," she continued with a cough, while her irises briefly flickered from blue to gold, their pupils turning slitted like a cat's just as long. "Nothing a bit of nudging from mystic eyes couldn't fix."

"…thanks."

Rin sniffed. "Don't thank me yet." She said. "I haven't gotten to the real stuff yet…right, yeah, it looks mom and stepdad are planning for staying a while. They've rented a house on the other side of the city, and paid six months' worth of rent in advance."

"They'll bear watching." Sakura said, leaning closer to the alembic, a bit dangerous, but not as much as most would expect, given she was wearing a gas mask as well as a reinforced polymer visor over her eyes.

Rin raised an eyebrow at that. "You don't plan on taking more proactive action?" she asked in surprise.

"Only if they poke their noses where it doesn't belong." Sakura said with a shake of her head while simultaneously leaning back. "Until then, let's act like civilized people and leave them be."

Rin snorted. "That," she said. "And the Edict of Banishment has already been issued, right? I mean, it won't take effect until the end of the year, so might as well wait until they wear out their welcome, right?"

"My thoughts exactly." Sakura said with a shrug and a small smile. "Why rush things when you can just sit back and let them reach their logical conclusion at their own pace? If they leave before then, all well and good. And if they don't, well, that's just too bad."

"Final Destination ti~me!" Rin sang before giving a mischievous giggle.

"Anyway," Sakura said with a wider smile. "Thanks for looking into it. I'm rather busy, as you can see."

"You're welcome, but it's no trouble at all." Rin said with a wave of a hand while walking away. "If you need any more help, just call."

"I will. In the meantime, just enjoy yourself."

"Of course."


A/N

And Sakura's schemes continue to turn their wheels, this time involving lots of her own blood distilled into ink of all things. And iron. Well, blood already has iron in it, but you can never have too much iron, as the universe so aptly demonstrates. Habitable worlds like Earth have iron cores, as do the brightest stars in the sky. Iron within, iron without – a galaxy, a universe, rooted in iron.

Anyway, Kariya and Sakura are able to interact with less violence this time, as they do find some common ground in their shared disdain for both Zouken and Tokiomi. That, and Kariya is beginning to realize that his stepdaughter is less a Tohsaka, and more an Edelfelt, only brunette instead of blonde.

Of course, (Magical Cat Girl Kaleido) Rin has mystic eyes. Because why not?