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

Resolution

Chapter 8

They'd finally done it.

It had taken the Matou siblings about a month, and cost them over a hundred thousand yen plus several favors owed to their family – well, their father, actually – but they'd done it. They knew where their elder sister was living while her house was being worked on.

Not that they were so stupid as to bring their mother to see her, of course. That would almost certainly not go well, and would tempt fate more than what was prudent, considering their sister had the title of 'Murderer Blue' in magi society. A title she'd lived up to, if what the siblings had been told about how her vendetta against the now-extinct Forvedge family of magi from a decade ago had ended. Or for that matter, the sheer paranoia considering how neither sibling could count the number of bounded fields surrounding the upper five floors of the Fuyuki Grand Hyatt, with Murderer Blue only actually living in the penthouse suite itself.

Still…that wouldn't stop them from trying to reach out. Baby steps, though. Learn to crawl before trying to walk, and all that.

Sakura (Matou) winced as she was bowed into the hotel's foyer, feeling a simple bounded field overlaying the entire ground floor. If she had to guess…it was a sensor-type, meant to detect anyone with so much as a hint of magical potential and track them.

In short, her sister knew she was here.

That didn't stop her though. Sakura (Matou) made her way to the concierge, waiting in line for a couple of moments for her turn before stepping up to the employee behind the desk. "Good morning," she said while presenting an ID. "I'm Sakura Matou, and I'm here to see my elder sister, she's currently booked the penthouse suite, I believe."

"Oh, yes…of course…" the woman behind the desk said with a nod, taking Sakura (Matou)'s ID and giving it a look. "…I'll just give a call, please wait."

Sakura (Matou) nodded, looking on in silence as the other woman made a quick call. "Yes, our apologies for the inconvenience Miss Tohsaka, but your sister, one Sakura Matou, is here to see you." She began, before blinking in surprise. "What? Tell your sister to go home?"

"Big sister!" Sakura (Matou) yelled, reaching forward and taking the phone from the confused employee. "Really, must you be so mean? I'm just trying to reach out here."

"…fine." Murderer Blue snapped. "Get up here…give the phone back to the concierge."

Sakura (Matou) did just that, and the other woman spoke to Murderer Blue for a few more moments before putting the phone down. Then she logged Sakura (Matou) into the system, and with a smile, returned her ID and directed her to the elevators.

"Thank you very much!" Sakura (Matou) said with a bow, before hurrying to the elevators. There were only a few patrons at this time, meaning she could have a whole elevator to herself, with Sakura (Matou) patiently waiting as the elevator climbed fifty floors to the penthouse. Well, she tried, but passing through the bounded fields at the forty-sixth floor had her yelping as static ran over her skin, causing her hair to stand on end and giving her goosebumps.

ASMR, as it's also sometimes known.

Then with a ring, the elevator doors opened, Sakura (Matou) emerging into a short corridor with a carpeted floor, and a selection of ink paintings dating back to the Muromachi Period along one wall. Frosted globes on the ceiling lit the corridor up with even and warm light, and then Sakura (Matou) was standing in front of the door.

"Here we go." She thought to herself with a deep breath, before pressing the doorbell, electronic chimes sounding in the interior beyond. A few moments later, the door opened, a black cat sitting on her haunches just a few paces past.

"Hello." Mikasa simply greeted her.

"Um…yes, hello!" Sakura (Matou) said with a deep bow. "Um…Mikasa, right? Sorry for the intrusion!"

Mikasa gave a silent laugh. "Well, at least you remember my name." she said before getting up and stretching. "Come on in…is that food?"

"Yes, I…um…brought food for sharing." Sakura (Matou) replied.

"Huh…then I apologize for Sakura's sake at her rudeness earlier." Mikasa said, walking away. "Make yourself at home while I go and tell her you've arrived."

"Yes, thank you very much."

"Big sister!" Sakura (Matou) erupted in surprised concern at the haggard-looking state of her elder sister. "What happened to you?"

"Overwork." Murderer Blue replied, walking out of her bedroom wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt in white printed with what looked like Godzilla over a pair of khaki shorts. "There's a lot that needed doing, and I only just had the time to sit back and catch my breath."

"That's not healthy." Sakura (Matou) said.

"It's life." Murderer Blue said with a shrug.

"…okay, I guess I can't argue with you there." Sakura (Matou) admitted, causing her older sister to look at her curiously before sitting down in an armchair in her suite's living room.

"Just what do you do for a living?" she asked.

"Oh, me?" Sakura (Matou) asked and continuing after her sister nodded an affirmation. "I'm a schoolteacher at an elementary school in Osaka. I've been teaching for about six…seven, years or so now."

"My condolences." Murderer Blue remarked and causing her younger sister to scowl.

"They're not that bad." Sakura (Matou) protested. "I mean, sure, my students can be such brats at times, but at the end of the day, they're just kids. Well, mostly, the older ones aren't really kids anymore…okay yeah, I'm suddenly thankful I decided not to teach junior or senior high students, considering how rowdy or just plain rebellious the sixth and seventh-graders are."

Murderer Blue chuckled. "Oh yeah, I definitely remember my school days." She said. "I remember this one time when I was in…I think it was ninth-grade, and I had a little spat with a few girls from another class. Socialites…or wannabe socialites, the kind who hang around delinquents and whore themselves out to lonely older men worn out by work, things like that…"

"…considering your reputation, big sister," Sakura (Matou) worriedly began. "I'm…concerned, about how this ended."

"Don't worry, I didn't kill anyone." Murderer Blue said with a small wave of a hand. "Anyway, those little whores tried to send their boyfriends after me. It was…seven-on-one, in an empty lot they cornered me in…come the following morning, those girls were bowing from seiza positions to me in the school quadrangle, apologizing for causing me such trouble."

"What did you do?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

Murderer Blue shrugged. "I beat their boyfriends up." She said. "Nothing too serious, I aside from leaving them covered in bruises. Well, I might have broken a few noses here and there, and left about half of them out cold by the time I walked off…regardless, it seems it sent quite the message. They never bothered me again after that."

"No offense, but you sound like you were just another thug." Sakura (Matou) pointed out.

"Then I'm saying it wrong." Murderer Blue said. "I never went looking for fights, and I didn't go out of my way to show off. Well, except maybe against your cousin, but even then, I mostly just showed him up and helped out those underclassmen he kept pushing around."

"…was Cousin Shinji really that bad?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

"Yes."

Sakura (Matou) blinked and actually looked surprised at such a simple yet profound declaration. "I mean…" she continued. "…I knew he grew up without a mother, and his father died young, but…"

"He was a bully who hazed underclassmen in the kyuudo team by forcing them up to the firing range without any training," Murderer Blue interrupted. "All the while pointing at and making fun of their lacking skill just to look good in front of girls too stupid to see past his – or rather, your grandfather's – money. He made them do his assigned school chores for him, and when they refused he beat them up and warned them to not even think about telling on him. Not to mention was all too happy to buy expensive and flashy things for his girlfriends, but demanded sexual favors in return…sexual favors that resulted in more than one abortion, or girls just dropping out of school and moving away…"

Murderer Blue paused and leaned forward, steepling her fingers in front of her face. "…your grandfather and I agreed on very few things," she said. "But there was one we both agreed on: Shinji was a piece of shit. If it weren't for the fact that Shinji was the last of its bloodline that still lived in its house, Zouken would have thrown him out by the ear. Even then, Zouken never really cared when Illyasviel von Einzbern butchered Shinji during the last Fuyuki Grail war…there was certainly no funeral, and Zouken never bothered to collect that little shit's remains. Come to think of it…oh yes, did you know your grandfather had one question he asked Shinji so many times? Drove him up the wall, it did."

"And…that was…?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

Murderer Blue smiled. "Why can't you be more like Sakura Tohsaka?" she quoted.

"…I…don't know how to feel about that…" Sakura (Matou) uncertainly replied.

"Alright, that's enough…" Mikasa said as she padded into the living room, a tea set floating by in the air in her wake, and gently setting itself down on the coffee table. "…I'm sure there's happier things to talk about."

"Right, fair enough." Murderer Blue admitted. "Anyway…I'm…not really the nicest person, not now not in the past, but you, little sister, seem to be much nicer than me. So…tell us about yourself. Also, would you like anything with your tea?"

"No, I'm fine with just tea." Sakura (Matou) said, smiling in gratitude at the change in the subject. "Let's see…I had a pretty average life until now. Well, aside from learning magic, which is nowhere near average, of course. Average grades, average club membership…I didn't really stand out much."

"Were you happy?" Murderer Blue asked while pouring her sister a cup of tea. "Are you happy?"

"As well as I can be, yes." Sakura (Matou) said with a nod. "I'm not saying I have a charmed or perfect life, but I'm content enough, I guess."

"…I'll take your word for it." Murderer Blue said with a smile, and pouring tea for herself, along with a shot of brandy. "Though, I notice you said you didn't stand out much, meaning you did stand out in a way."

"Well…I was a member of the baseball cheerleading team in junior high." Sakura (Matou) admitted.

"Wait, really?" Murderer Blue asked, looking and sounding surprised.

"Yes, really." Sakura (Matou) said, before holding out a hand and projecting a baton. Then holding it lightly with her fingers, twirled it around a few times, before tossing it into the air, then deftly catching it, twirled it around some before tossing it back up into the air. She repeated this a few times, all without looking, and staying otherwise relaxed on the couch.

"Bravo." Murderer Blue said, genuinely giving her little sister a round of applause. "That certainly came as a surprise. I never could have thought my little sister was a majorette."

"I don't know what that word means." Sakura (Matou) said. "I was a cheerleader, although I did become team captain in senior high."

"…okay, fair enough." Murderer Blue said. "Still…very good. I mean, I could probably do the same, but not as relaxed as you seem to be. Wait…are you still…?"

"Hmm? Oh, no. I don't do cheerleading anymore." Sakura (Matou) said. "Well, sometimes I substitute for the team advisors in our school's junior and senior high divisions. But…well, you have to stay fit, right? And cheerleading routines might look easy, except they aren't. They really aren't…so, a lot of my daily exercise routines are basically just me going through my old routines from when I was a cheerleader."

"Resourceful." Murderer Blue remarked.

Sakura (Matou) smiled. "Flatterer." She said.

"It's not flattery if it's true." Murderer Blue pointed out.

"Maybe." Sakura (Matou) admitted. "Anyway, that little bit of standing out ended when I went to college. Again, I was just another student, average in every way."

"You never had any difficulties with your grades or anything?" Murderer Blue asked.

"Well…" Sakura (Matou) said while scratching her head. "…whether it was high school or college, I was never good at math. Or algebra to be specific…funny thing is, I was quite good at physics, something that puzzled my teachers and professors."

"Actually, I would agree." Murderer Blue said with wide eyes. "Algebra is…well, critical to all higher-level science and mathematical disciplines. I'm not sure how you can do well in physics while being bad at algebra."

"X plus y equals forty-two isn't really something I can visualize, not easily at any rate." Sakura (Matou) crossly replied. "A man pushing a wheelbarrow up a hill, though, now that I can see quite well, and figure out how much force he's using."

"…oh, I see what you mean."

Sakura (Matou) beamed.

"What about you, though? Are you happy?"

Murderer Blue blinked and looked up from the dining room table towards her sister. Then she gave a smile that the younger woman couldn't figure out if it was mocking, reassuring, satisfied, or indeed, all three. "Just like you," Murderer Blue began. "I am content."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Murderer Blue said with a nod. "I have plenty of regrets, things that I wonder if they could have gone differently or better if I had chosen or done differently, but I don't dwell on any of that. Keep moving forward, always chasing after my dreams. There's more meaning in that than in wishing to have things differently, even more so if I actually manage to make my dreams reality."

"Even with…everything, being a magus brings with it?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

Murderer Blue hummed. "I won't pretend it isn't a hard life." She eventually admitted. "And it's certainly the cause of a lot of those regrets I mentioned just now. But…there's no stopping it. To chase after the truths and secrets of the mysteries of the World…it's an insatiable thirst. There's always more to know, more questions to ask, more answers to find, more wondering about what I might find on the other side of the figurative door…"

Murderer Blue paused and laughed. "It's also like a sword hanging over my head," she said with a smile, one that quickly turned sharp even as her eyes gleamed with delight. "Always threatening to fall and take my life away…but…that's what's so fun about that."

"I don't know, big sister." Sakura (Matou) said worriedly. "It sounds a lot like addiction to me."

"It does, doesn't it?" Murderer Blue asked back with a grin. "Addiction to a dangerous life, addiction to forbidden knowledge, addiction to power, even…"

Murderer Blue paused and shrugged. "It doesn't matter." She said. "I never give up. I can't give up. After everything I've done to get to where and become what I am today, I can't live a normal life anymore. It's just not possible."

"You can always try." Sakura (Matou) said. "There's nothing wrong with trying, is there?"

"No…but why try when you know you already know the outcome?" Murderer Blue asked back. "It's like asking a bird never to fly again, when they've already flown so many times, felt the wind over their wings and in their faces, that they're no longer scared of falling to the ground. Yes…like the great Da Vinci once said, once you have tasted flight, your skies will forever be drawn skyward, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

"Da Vinci…the Italian painter, right?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

"Yes." Murderer Blue said while tilting her head. "He was also an architect, engineer, scientist and sculptor. A lot of what we think are modern innovations actually go back to him, like the parachute, calculators, double-hulled ships, even tanks and robots."

Murderer Blue paused and shrugged again. "Well," she said. "What the mundane world thinks are modern innovations, anyway, considering he was one of us. A magus, more than that, a magus who stood infinitely close to the level of a magician. Even the Barthomeloi were honored to have him stand with them, as was the Lord of the Kaleidoscope. He even did what Paracelsus could not, and find a way to make mystery benefit the mundane."

Then Murderer Blue tilted her head, her expression turning sad. "They also say he knew your family, as it once was." She said.

"What?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

"Before he sacrificed his Humanity on the altar of his ambition and turned himself into a vampire," Murderer Blue explained. "Makiri Zolgen met Da Vinci, who apparently saw him as a brilliant and promising magus. And he was right. Makiri and I do share the same rank, after all, Pride, though unlike him I have a color and a title to go with it."

"…where did we go wrong?" Sakura (Matou) asked.

"I do not know." Murderer Blue answered. "Only that past a certain point, Makiri Zolgen made the fateful mistake of deciding his Humanity was a burden and an obstacle to his ambitions, and turned himself into a monster. A monster that ruined both his family and haunted mine for over a century, until I put it out of its misery."

"Somehow…" Sakura (Matou) softly began. "…I get the feeling that if…Makiri Zolgen…he saw everything his mistake would end in…he'd thank you for…making things right again."

"Hmm…" Murderer Blue hummed. "…I wonder about that…"

Sakura (Matou) snorted. "Guess we'll never know." She said. "Back to my question, though, you said you were content. Looks like we're not all different when all is said and done, huh, big sister?"

"Happy in genius, and happy in mediocrity."

"You don't have to put that way!"

Murderer Blue just laughed.

A/N

Time skip one month, with the Matou finally finding out where Sakura lives. Meanwhile, Sakura is burned out from all her work, not that she can't kick their asses if they make trouble for her.

For those who only remember Da Vinci as their 'waifu' from FGO, yes, he was a male in life. It's just that he became female as a Heroic Spirit, because it better reflected what he saw as his ideal form. Da Vinci was perfectly fine with this, though, because to him/her, genius – or rather, omnipotence – knows no distinction between gender.

And yes, he did find Makiri Zolgen a brilliant man, although this was before he got all wormy and started eating people and raping little girls for the lulz. Sakura (Matou) is probably right that Makiri Zolgen would thank Murderer Blue for striking down his degenerated future self…plus a bit of critical commentary about her lack of subtlety and brute-force methodology.

He might be amused/approving of her use of cats as acolytes, though.