Disclaimer: The works of Type-Moon and Jō Taketsuki are their own despite my most fervent wishes. This is a fan work and if anyone does pay me for it the only thing it will accomplish is to get me into trouble. This is being done purely for fun, constructive criticism is welcome, and flames will be ignored. Please be gentle though, this is the first fanfic I've put on the net.

Sorry that this took a bit to get out. I'm afraid that after the Feast of the Kings my poor muse must have been a bit on the burnt out side because I got hit by a major case of writers block. With any luck now that the interlude is out of the way I'll be able to get back to my previous pace.

Now I've received a few reviews that mention about Erica's comment that Godou will one day stand above all other Campione. The reason I wrote this is that in both the anime and the Light Novels one of the defining aspects of Erica's personality is her absolute faith in Godou. She isn't dismissing the other Kings; she simply believes that her King will one day rise up above them all. Given that Godou IS the main character of Campione! It isn't outside the realms of possibility that her prediction will be correct. Of course since I've added Shirou to the mix that rather throws things off. Also I'd like to point out that she meant 'eventually' not that he'd declare his supremacy over them all right there at the Feast.

SPOILERS

Originally I had Sakura calling Shirou Sempai, but after rereading the game I saw that she always called him Senpai instead. I don't claim to be very good at Japanese, but as far as I can tell sempai and senpai mean more or less the same thing.

I'm drawing on both the Normal and the True endings of the Heaven's Feel route for what has taken place here. I'm not sure what happened to Rider in the Normal ending, but it looks like she just faded rather than surviving like in the True one, but I've decided to keep her about here.

The reason that I say that Sakura is no longer Rider's Master is that Sakura doesn't possess any command seals. Consequently even though Rider is dependant upon her for Prana she is not bound to her by any compulsion to obey. Naturally Rider still regards Sakura as her Master (And Shirou to a lesser degree) but purely on paper Rider is more like an insanely powerful familiar rather than a bound Servant.

I'm not entirely sure if my assertion that Sakura hasn't laughed since entering the Matou family is accurate, but to the best of my memory in both the anime and the original game while she might have chuckled or giggled I don't recall her ever properly laughing. Still it struck me as believable so I decided to write it in.

One thing I want to make completely clear is that the journal that Sakura has received is from the future of this fic. Due to the way in which it was sent to Sakura there is some temporal mishmash effect so that what is written in it will be Shirou's future writings. Don't worry; I have a plan for how this will tie into a future storyline.

I confess that I'm not too sure about the rule of dilution effecting one of the True Magics. I seem to recall reading somewhere that because a True Magic is so far above normal magecraft that it isn't subject to being diluted if it has multiple practioners. If that isn't the case I'm still sure that given how ridiculously powerful the Kaleidoscope is, and given that Zelretch is weaker than his prime, that the Wizard Marshall wouldn't mind teaching it to multiple students. After all what are the chances that any of them will manage to achieve more than the most rudimentary mastery?

Hmmm, Rin, Luvia and a very determined Sakura . . . does anyone else think that the old vampire might just have miscalculated slightly?


Interlude One: To Wait and To Hope.

She sat in the room that had once been her beloved Senpai's and let the memories wash over her. This had been the room where she so often had to wake him up after he overslept. This was the room where she'd first come to him with her unnatural lust burning in her veins. This was the room where she had for the first time in her life made love to someone rather than being violated.

She wasn't alone in the house. Rider was still here, faithfully staying by her side despite all that she'd put her through. They'd formed another contract after she'd come to terms with what had happened and now the former Servant of the Mount was existing on her vast reserves of Prana.

Her name was Matou Sakura, and right now she was reliving memories of the time she had spent with the young man she had loved. The young man she still loved. The young man she had killed.

Oh, she knew that others said it wasn't her fault. That she had been influenced by an outside force, by her adopted grandfather, by the monster nesting in the Holy Grail, by many things. But in the end she knew, she was sure, that it had been her fault. If she had just been a bit stronger, if she had just fought a bit harder, if she had simply not drowned in her resentments and grudges then maybe her beloved Senpai would still be alive.

It had been months since those fateful two weeks. Those two weeks that had seen so many things that she had longed for come true. Those two weeks that had seen so many things she had dreaded also come true.

Now here she was, free of her grandfather, free of Shinji, reconciled with her sister, in the company of one she had come to see as a beloved friend rather than a Servant and living in Senpai's house. In many ways it was what she had always dreamed of.

Only Senpai wasn't here.

Sakura refused to accept that he was dead, she simply refused. Senpai was strong, he was determined and he had loved her. She loved him and so she would wait for him, here in his house she would wait as long as was needed.

She didn't see many people these days. Rider took care of the shopping and things like that and Taiga-sensei dropped by quite often. She missed Rin Nee-san, but she knew why her older sister had to spend time in England at the Clock Tower.

After the whole Holy Grail fiasco became known to the association it looked as though Rin would be publicly lynched as a scapegoat and Sakura would be dissected as a research subject. Of course the problem with that was that Rin could use an incomplete form of the second Magic, Sakura had a personal Prana reserve larger than just about every mage on the planet put together and was protected by Rider, a bodyguard no human could match. The simple fact was that if the Association tried to take them by force they might be able to manage it, but the losses they'd incur in doing so would be apocalyptic.

In the end though Wizard Marshal Zelretch had shown up and declared that he'd be taking some pupils and that Rin would be one of them. At that point everyone had pretty much forgotten about them as the mad scramble to try to secure a chance to study one of the True Magics. In the end all charges had been dropped after it became clear that the old vampire was quite pleased with his new student.

After all nobody with any sense wanted to provoke a Magician.

Getting up she walked through the corridors of the house and made her way to the kitchen. That was where Senpai had taught her how to cook. Before that she'd read about it in lots of books and had her share of cooking classes, but she'd always been scared to have anyone eat anything that she'd made. She'd always been afraid that she couldn't do it, that it would be bad like everything else in her life.

But he'd taken the riceball that she'd made; he'd taken it, eaten it and thanked her for the meal. It was after that that she'd begun to feel less awkward and wanted him to eat more of her meals.

So many memories, so many regrets.

She missed Senpai.

She-

Her thoughts were cut off as she felt a sudden . . . ripple run through the house.

She couldn't think of any other way to describe it. Her magic senses might not be as highly trained, but even so she could feel the waves of energy emanating from somewhere nearby. Those waves were strong, of that she was absolutely sure, strong enough to make her cautious but also strong enough to make her angry.

How dare someone do this here? How dare somebody endanger Senpai's house like this?

Deep within her she felt the last traces of her darkness begin to writhe in response to her anger. She might no longer be connected to Angra Mainyu, but her elemental affinity remained Imaginary Numbers, or simply Shadow, and she had both unimaginable reserves and some basic instruction. While she might not be able to equal the feats that she'd performed while in her insane state she was still pretty formidable on her own, and with Rider to back her up there were few thing short of a Dead Apostle Ancestor that she had to fear.

Tamping down her anger Sakura made her way towards the source of the 'ripples'. She could feel Rider approaching from the other direction, but knew that she would reach the source of the disturbance before her Servant did by virtue of being nearer to it. She was well aware that she was being foolish, that the sensible course of action would be to wait for her friend and bodyguard to arrive before investigating the cause of this. But she refused to let anything endanger this house, Senpai's home. She refused to let even one stick of furniture be damaged, not when she had so many memories attached to them.

She strode into the dining room with her face showing as much resolute bravery as she could fake. The truth was that she was scared, very very scared. She wasn't a fighter like her sister, she freely admitted that, she wasn't brave like Senpai, but if it was to protect Senpai's house and her precious memories here then she could at least pretend to be brave.

Sakura found the source of the disturbance in the main dining room, right above the table as it turned out. It was not something she could properly comprehend, not with normal human senses. It was spherical, yet at the same time it was the flat mouth of a tunnel. It was twisting about but at the same time it was perfectly straight. Quite simply it wasn't possible; even as she looked at it she could feel her mind starting to creak under the pressure of trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Tearing her eyes away from the oddly compelling sight she looked about the room to see if the strange phenomena was causing any damage. Everything seemed to be alright, the wind that the thing was kicking up had scattered some papers and tipped over a vase of flowers, but that was it.

Her thoughts about the state of the room were cut off as another ripple of power, this one far stronger than the previous ones, spread outwards from the special distortion. It wasn't damaging or destructive, it was more like a sudden sharp and strong gust of wind. Its strength was enough to push furniture about and to cause Sakura to lose her balance as she stumbled backwards. For a moment her heart froze as she felt herself starting to fall . . . then a pair of slender arms caught her and a veil of hair a slightly lighter shade of purple than her own drifted across her vision.

"Are you alright Sakura?"

She couldn't help but feel a small smile tug at the edge of her lips as her Servant helped her return to her feet. Rider was a blessing she couldn't even begin to place a value upon. Her dedication and loyalty were enough to sometimes make Sakura think that if not for the disappearance of Senpai then the whole ordeal with the Holy Grail and Angra Mainyu would have been worth it.

"I-I'm fine Rider." She assured her bodyguard as she regained her balance.

She was going to say more, but a soft thud drew her attention. Turning back towards where the strange distortion was she saw that it was shrinking, collapsing in upon itself in a way that distorted space to the point where simply looking at it left her feeling dizzy. It was when she glanced down from it that she saw the book.

It was quite a large one, with a hardback cover of red leather and was quite thick, at least four hundred pages she guessed. What really caught her attention though was the fact that the book seemed to be smoking or steaming. Thick trails of mist or smoke were curling off it as it sat on the table.

She looked up from the mysterious tome and was just in time to see the distortion shrink into itself until it was only a tiny pinprick. Then, with one last ripple of power, it vanished. Sakura felt the wave of power break over her, but it was only about half that of the one that had managed to knock her over, and with Rider still supporting her it barely succeeded in rocking her back on her heels.

"What was that?"

Rider's quiet question brought the adopted Matou's attention back to her. Her former Servant and current bodyguard was dressed in her civilian clothes and wearing the special glasses that restrained her Mystic Eyes. What was really eye catching was the way in which the boots she had on were essentially coming apart. Evidently they hadn't been able to stand up to the forces placed on them when Rider had picked up her speed in order to get here as fast as she could. Hardly a surprise considering they were simply mortal creations.

Looking back at the book Sakura reached out with the basic magical senses that she'd been able to learn through self study and probed at the tome. There didn't seem to be any magic to it, just residual energies left over from whatever that distortion had been.

There was something about that power, something about its metaphorical 'taste'. She recognized it, though it might not be exactly the same, this was the same power that Rin had used against her in the cave where the corrupted Grail had manifested.

This was the second True Magic, the Kaleidoscope.

Was this some experiment of her sister's? Some exercise that had gone a bit wrong? Sakura knew from the letters that Rin sent her, as well as occasional conversations on the telephone, that the Wizard Marshall didn't believe in coddling his apprentices. Indeed the Tohsaka heir had on numerous occasions confided in her sister that she secretly thought that her teacher was deliberately giving her the most perilous education possible simply so that he could be entertained by her efforts to survive it.

Sensing nothing there that would be of any threat to her the shadow user reached over and turned the book over until she could see its front cover.

What she saw there caught her attention. Unlike the pristine back the front was covered in scratches where it seemed someone had used a knife to carve a short message into the cover. Sakura's brow knitted at the strangeness of it.

Then she read the message and her breath froze in her throat.

Sakura.

Shirou + Illya Alive.

Different world.

Found gate, too small, sending message.

Read book.

Love you.

The letters that made up the message were rough and in some places almost unreadable. It had clearly been made in haste and without any time for finesse of precision.

But what it said . . .

Hesitantly, almost fearfully, Sakura turned the cover and opened the book at the first page. Could this be real? Could her hopes, her desperate wishes, really be answered? Could senpai really be alive?

Or was this some sort of cruel joke, some taunt by some unknown but malicious individual? No she had to hold on to the possibility this was real, senpai couldn't be dead he just-

Dear Sakura,

I don't know if you'll ever read this but I'm writing it in the hopes that one day we'll sit together and you'll be enjoying learning what's happened to me while I watch you.

I'm alive. Against all reason and expectation both I and Illya are alive.

I faced a choice when I approached the Greater Grail, I could destroy it using a Traced Excalibur but doing so would have been the end of me, there'd have been nothing left. That was the logical thing to do, destroy it so that Angra Mainyu could never get out.

But I didn't want to.

I didn't want to disappear, I didn't want to die.

I wanted to protect you from everything; I wanted to live with you.

It's only because I hesitated then that I'm still alive. If I'd gone through with it I would have died, but I hesitated.

Both me and Illya are still not quite sure of what happened, but as far as we can tell it was a combination of the huge amounts of Prana in the cavern, the left over traces of the Kaleidoscope that Rin used and the Grail's original purpose. Long story short Angra Mainyu, Illya and I were all sent to another world.

I killed him there. There wasn't much else I could do. Archer's arm was overtaking me and I was going to die soon anyway, so I used the last of my strength to kill him so he couldn't hurt you ever again. That should have been it for me, there should have been nothing left of me.

But I survived, I survived and I healed.

In this world that Illya and I have found ourselves upon things are different. As far as I can see the spirits of Gaia and Alaya never fully developed, this may be because as far as I can tell the age of Gods never ended in this world. Somehow the journey between worlds altered Angra Mainyu because when I killed him it triggered something.

I don't know the details, but millennia ago a powerful witch Goddess cast a great curse; one that made it so that when one slays a god they gain a portion of their divinity and become what is called a Campione. There are many benefits to becoming one, but the one most relevant to me at the time was that becoming one heals all of your wounds.

I'm completely healed now; Archer's arm has become a part of me and no longer is any threat to my life. I'm healthier than I've ever been and more powerful than I ever imagined. I've got a mansion for a house, a sister I never knew I had and the most competent set of souls imaginable as servants. Everything would be great except for one thing.

I miss you.

I miss Rin, I miss Taiga-neechan, I miss school, I even miss Rider even though we didn't have too much of a chance to get to know each other.

But I miss you the most.

That's why I've started writing this journal; it's my way of connecting to you even if I can't see you. I am trying to find a way back to you, but until then this will have to do.

Now, what have I been up to since I arrived? Well it all began when I ended up in Naples Italy of all places. I . . .

Sakura continued to read as the words on the page described how Shirou had been living. Without even knowing it she sat herself at the table and continued to calmly read as she turned page after page.

Some of the pages described great battles and the following events, others told of obstacles and tragedies, still more were filled with descriptions of average days of going to school and researching the magic of this strange world that Senpai had found himself in.

She didn't notice as the hunger grew in her belly. She didn't notice as the sun set and Rider turned on the lights. She didn't notice as her former Servant gave her a glass of water to drink and she absentmindedly took it. She didn't notice the pins and needles in her legs and how they gave way to simple numbness. She probably wouldn't even have noticed had the room been set on fire.

All of her attention was focussed upon the book in her hands and what it represented.

Senpai was alive.

The thought repeated itself again and again in her mind even as she carefully read each page and then turned them over with slow deliberation.

It was well into the hours of darkness before she set the book down, having finished reading the journal through for the third time. As soon as she did so she became aware of how many of her body's signals she'd been ignoring. She was hungry, tired, in need of the toilet and to top it all off she couldn't feel her legs. Moving carefully she staggered to her feet while waving off Rider as she approached to see if her mistress needed her.

Her body seemed to move on automatic as she attended to its needs going first to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. Without any thought on her part she mechanically went through the motions of washing her hands and then preparing something simple to eat. Only one thought ran through her head.

Senpai was alive.

She sat back down at the table and slowly ate the simple meal. The taste of the food didn't register with her, she didn't even notice when she put more salt on I than she normally would have preferred. Quite frankly if she had been eating raw red hot jalapeños she wouldn't have noticed it. The entirety of her attention was focussed upon one thought.

Senpai was alive.

She finished her meal and mechanically went through the acts of washing up the dishes and clearing up in the kitchen. Bit by bit as she did so her mind and heart managed to pull themselves out of the tight orbit in which it had been trapped. Before it had been as though she was stunned by the sheer impact of what she had learnt. There had been no joy or shock because she'd been unable to properly process any emotions at all. Instead there had been the simple fact of her beloved Senpai's survival and the realization of it repeating itself again and again in her head.

Senpai was alive!

She sat on the porch that looked out into the garden and stared at the night sky. Here it was far enough away from the main city that the light pollution didn't prevent her from seeing the stars as they came out and the moon was a bright three quarters full. It was a warm night, warm enough that she felt no need to don something warmer.

It was starting to hit her now, the full meaning of what she had learnt. She could feel tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. They were hot and stinging, but she welcomed them. She'd wept so much when she'd realized that Senpai wasn't in his home when she woke up. Those had been tears of grief and regret, tears laden with self hatred and fear of a world without the one she loved.

These tears were different. They stung her eyes and tickled as they ran down her cheeks, but they weren't as bitter as those she had once wept. They were tears laden with joy and relief. These tears were the release of that horrible pressure that had been growing in her for the last few months, a pressure she'd refused to even acknowledge as she'd desperately clung to the belief that Shirou would return. Now that knot of tension was unravelling and the pressure within her was finding joyous glorious release.

Senpai was alive! Senpai was alive! Senpai was alive!

Even as the tears fell down from her face she felt something bubbling up inside her. She didn't fight it, she welcomed it, she released it.

With tears running down her face Sakura threw back her head and laughed for the first time in more than ten years.

It had been so long, ever since she'd been cast out by her family and been given to Zouken to serve as his 'resource'. In the years since she'd regained the ability to smile and even giggle when with Senpai and when faced with Taiga's antics. Those brief moments of good humour had been infinitely precious to her and she had cherished them. But laughter, that had been lost to her in that basement when torture and defilement had stolen her innocence and childhood.

But now she laughed, a rusty unused laugh, but one that was filled with relief and joy.

Senpai was alive!

He wasn't lost to her; she wasn't just exercising a delusion and waiting for one that she would only ever meet in the afterlife. He was out there and he was trying to get back to her.

To her side she saw Rider moving, the book open on her lap. So she had read it as well, that was good; it meant that she would understand. She'd know why wonderful elation the likes of which she'd never experienced was running through Sakura.

"Senpai is alive."

She didn't shout it in triumph or squeal it in joy, even though she wanted to, instead she just said it in as calm and composed a way as she could.

"Yes."

Just a single word, but it was enough to bring another gale of rusty laughter from Sakura. It felt so good to hear it confirmed, to hear someone else say that it wasn't just some fantasy her mind had concocted out of desperation. It was real, it was true.

Doing her best to calm herself the shadow user let herself fall backwards until she was lying on the porch and staring up at the wooden ceiling. Senpai was alive, that thought brought her such joy that she couldn't even think of how to put it into words. Senpai was alive, but he wasn't here.

He was in another world, a world where gods still walked the earth and where the laws of magic were different from here. He'd found a way to send her the journal as a message, but other than the scratched message on the cover there wasn't any hint in the book as to how he'd managed it.

He'd scratched 'found gate, too small' as part of the message. That hinted that he'd found some sort of portal or passageway between the worlds but it hadn't been large enough to go through. The way that the message had been carved into the cover also spoke of haste, of him not having enough time to even find a pen with which to write.

What did that mean? Did it mean that such portals were hard to find? Did it mean that he might not find another?

The elation that had filled her earlier began to trickle away as worrisome thoughts began to occur to her.

What if he couldn't come back? What if this portal that he'd used was the only one that he'd ever find? Would that mean that she'd never see him again? Would she be doomed to know that he was alive but forever outside her reach? One after another the questions mounted up in her mind and her earlier elation ebbed and was replaced with growing doubt and fear.

No! No, she couldn't let despair take her again. Senpai was alive, that alone was reason enough to be jubilant. If he was having trouble getting back here then she would help him.

She paused, startled by the thought that had come to her. She'd help him? For the last few months she hadn't even left this house as fear of herself and fear of others had led her to simply wait here patiently for her beloved Senpai. But now . . . now there was no fear.

Why should there be? She couldn't afford to allow herself fear, not when Senpai needed help. She knew that she had much to answer for, much to atone for, but she would do that after she had been reunited with Shirou.

There, in the moonlight with her tears drying on her face she made the decision not to wait, not to rely on him, not to burden him with all her hopes. She would seek him as well, just as he sought to be reunited with her so would she seek him in return.

The decision was made, and she already knew how to go about it.


-()-


Rin looked up at the clock that was on one wall and noticed that it was only about another few minutes until Sakura would arrive.

All around her other people chattered as they spoke to friends and family, into those new 'cellyphone' things or simply to total strangers. She'd been expecting it, but none the less after the relative quiet of the halls and rooms of the Clock Tower the hustle and bustle of Heathrow airport was something of a jarring change.

She wasn't too sure why her sister had suddenly chosen to leave Japan and come to Britain. Quite frankly the Tohsaka heir was surprised that the purple haired girl had ventured out of the house that had once been Shirou's, ever since the Holy Grail War she'd been content to live there waiting for the return of her love.

That led her train of thought to the boy that had been lost at the end of the fifth Heaven's Feel. She had been sad when she'd learnt that Shirou hadn't made it out of the cavern before it collapsed. He'd saved her sister from Angra Mainyu and he'd clearly managed to destroy the corrupted Grail, and for that she blessed his memory. But his death had seemed to have . . . not broken but rather cracked something fundamental within Sakura. She seemed unable to accept that he was dead, that he was gone. Ever since she'd awoken after that terrible day she'd remained in the Emiya residence and steadfastly clung to the belief that if she simply waited long enough then Shirou would one day return.

Rin knew that such a mindset wasn't entirely healthy, but in all honesty she wasn't quite sure how to help her sister. Sakura had endured so much in her lifetime, she'd gone through tortures and defilements that should have left her mind shattered into ruin, yet in spite of that her sanity had remained intact and she had been able to endure all that her adopted family had put her through. In the end it had been Sakura's own emotions towards Shirou that had led to the anger and resentment that she'd kept bottled up for years being released, and the result had been her descent into madness.

Against all odds the adopted Matou heir had managed to regain her sanity, but that healing seemed . . . rough to Rin, as though even though it had healed there were still some jagged points left untreated. Yet at the same time that healing was strong, very strong. Consequently the Tohsaka heir found herself unable to decide whether or not trying to help her sister was a good or bad thing.

With a shake of her head she shook herself from her ruminations and back to the present. The simple fact that Sakura had left her self imposed exile and was coming here had to mean something, she just had to wait a bit more to find out just what that was.

Rolling her shoulders to try to ease the ache in her muscles Rin allowed herself to indulge in a brief but pleasant fantasy involving her choking her teacher to death with his own intestinal tract. Of course she was well aware of the sheer ridiculousness of her daydream. Leaving aside the fact that the object of her ire was a Magician with enough power that even at her best she wasn't much more than a flea against him he was also a vampire. She wasn't sure that he was capable of being suffocated even if he flat out let her go through with it.

She knew that intellectually, but emotionally the thought of his face turning purple and his eyes popping out as he struggled to draw breath served to relax her slightly frayed nerves.

Not that he was a bad teacher of course. She was well aware that in the few months that she'd been his pupil her prowess had advanced in leaps and bounds. The problem was that he had a somewhat extreme sink or swim attitude towards his lessons, and if you sank then crippling or maiming could be the best you could hope for.

Or humiliation, don't forget humiliation, especially if it would amuse the old vampire. Just the other day he'd demonstrated how to forcibly return otherworldly creatures to their home dimension, if they were only loosely tied to this one. Then, so as to provide a practical application of the lesson, he'd locked her and her two fellow students into the classroom and summoned a number of strange reptilian creatures.

At first Rin had thought that the fearsome looking creatures had been after the flesh on their bones, two minutes later she found herself wishing that that had been the case. Being eaten alive might have been a preferable fate when compared to what came next.

She had no idea how many worlds Zelretch had had to search through in order to find a species of reptile that fed on fabrics rather than flesh, but she hoped it had been a big big number.

Needless to say her encounter with the clothing eating creatures had been one of the most humiliating experiences of her life. As it emerged the wretched things had been absurdly resistant to both magic and physical damage, meaning that the only way to get rid of them had been to send them back to their own dimension. By the time she'd finally managed to banish the ones that had been pestering her she'd lost her jacket, half her blouse, a good portion of her skirt and both her socks. And since she didn't have a change of clothes with her she'd had to make her way back to her rooms in that condition.

ARRRGH! Just the memory of it was enough to make her blood boil with rage.

Her sole consolation had been that Luviagelita Edelfelt had faired just as badly as she had. Indeed due to wearing more voluminous clothes than Rin the Finnish Mage had found herself as the favoured target of the voracious little monsters. Watching her lose more than sixty percent of her clothing before she got rid of all the monsters had almost made the entire incident worth it. Unfortunately her enjoyment of that turn of events had been spoilt when the blonde magic user had effectively clicked her fingers and had her butler appear with a new set of clothes.

Ah, the rich really did live easier lives.

Damn, she'd done it again. Letting her mind wander when she was bored was a bad habit that she was falling into lately. She supposed it was the result of all the stress from her lessons, sometimes it was relaxing just to allow one's mind to drift as it would rather than having it race.

Looking up she saw the first people beginning to exit from the departure gate at which she was waiting. That meant that they should be coming out soon.

Ah, there they were. Two purple haired beauties that couldn't help but catch the eye walking side by side. Rider didn't have to have come by plane, she could have astralized and followed Sakura in spirit form, the more financially viable option in Rin's penny pinching mind, but the Servant's former Master had insisted that she travel with her in material form.

Well, that wasn't something to be thinking about now. Instead Rin waved to both of them to come over to her.

The sisters met and immediately embraced. They had been parted for only a month and a half, but ever since their reconciliation they'd been trying to make up for all the wasted years between them.

"It's good to see you Sakura."

"It's good to see you Nee-san."

It was a simple greeting, but one that was laden with emotion.

Stepping back for her sister Rin took the time to take a better look at her. Was it her imagination or had Sakura grown a little taller since she'd last seen her? No, that wasn't it; it was something a little subtler, something just on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

She wasn't slouching.

It was such a simple thing that it took a moment for Rin to realize it. In the entire time that she had known her the younger of the sisters had always had a slight slouch to her posture, as though she was perpetually hunched against the world. It wasn't anything big; in fact if one weren't to look for it you could very easily miss it. Of course given what Sakura had had to endure in the Matou house for her to develop such a habit was only to be expected.

But now the purple haired teenager wasn't hunching in the slightest, instead she was standing straight as an arrow. And there was a look in her eyes, something that Rin had never seen there before.

Determination.

That was strange. The Tohsaka heir had seen many emotions on her sister's face, but drive was definitely a new one. Sakura could be described as one that endured rather than one who stove, in that regard the sisters were at practically opposite ends of the poles. Even her capturing of Shirou's heart had come from her quietly enduring her life rather than pursuing him.

Quite simply the adopted Matou generally didn't strive; she was the immovable object rather than the irresistible force. That was simply her nature.

But now . . . now Rin could see it in her. She wanted something, and she was more than willing to bleed to get it.

"Why have you come here Sakura?"

The question was asked in a low voice, but even with the sounds of the crowds the question was clearly heard.

"I want Wizard Marshal Zelretch to take me as a pupil."

The calm answer had much the same effect upon Tohsaka Rin as being hit over the head by a pink monkey wielding a live salmon. Her brain froze for a second as it tried to deal with the utter absurdity of what her senses were assuring her she had heard.

This-this made no sense. Sakura disliked performing magecraft almost to the point of hate. She had no problems with the users of the art such as Shirou or her sister, and she had no dislike for its effects such as Rider or the Bounded Fields around the Emiya household. But when it came to using magecraft herself . . . well it was easier to get blood out of her than it was to persuade her to use the skills she had learnt.

Well, perhaps that was putting it too harshly. Sakura would use magic when she needed to. That had been the reason Rin had been able to leave her as the supervisor of Fuyuki, that and the fact that she had what was arguably the most powerful familiar on the planet in the form of Rider. Still that didn't change the fact that her sister had never shown any sort of interest in furthering her magecraft outside a few very specialized areas, and the Kaleidoscope was certainly not one of them.

"S-Sakura, do you know what you're asking!? Master Zelretch doesn't just take students because they ask him to. Do you have any idea how many heirs from the noble houses have begged him to teach them despite his reputation? He just turns them away. And why do you want to learn from him anyway? Haven't you read any of my letters? Don't you know what he did to me last week?! He put the memories of an analogue of me in my head, one that was a lesbian! I spent more than two hours lusting after Edelfelt before I worked out how to get rid of it!"

Rin paused there, she hadn't meant to say that last bit, it had just come out on its own on a tide of frustration.

"I need to learn how to go to other worlds." Sakura explained in a calm tone. Perhaps even a bit too calm now that Rin thought about it.

Under normal circumstances the black haired girl's words would normally have at least drawn a slight blush from her sister. And normally when faced with Rin on a rant she would have been more hesitant in her words. Instead she was as calm and immovable as a mountain.

The Tohsaka heir suddenly felt her heart flutter as a thought occurred to her.

"Why?"

"Senpai is alive and I'm going to find him."

Damn, it was as she'd feared. Zelretch had given her and her fellow two students a lecture on some of the psychological dangers of using the dimensional magic. It seemed that Sakura had come to the realization that Rin had been hoping would elude her for some time yet.

"Sakura . . . even if you found another Shirou in another dimension it would just be another person with the same face. It wouldn't be him."

She knew it was one of the dangers, the thought that someone lost to you could be in another world. It could be so easy to delude oneself into thinking that that someone else was them. And it seemed that Sakura had fallen into that trap.

"I know Nee-san, I mean Senpai didn't die. He's alive." Reaching into her bag the younger sister pulled out a leather bound book and turned its face towards her. "He sent this to me through some sort of portal."

As Rin read the short message scratched into the cover thoughts raced through her mind. Was this really a sign that Shirou was alive? She'd gone back into the collapsed ruins of that cave so as to at least find his body so that Sakura could have some sort of closure, but even with Rider helping they'd been unable to find either his or Illya's bodies. Could it really be true?

Or . . . or was her younger sister succumbing to delusion? Could she not have herself carved this message into the book and then convinced herself that it had been sent by her dead lover? Might it and everything within it not be a sad and false hope that Sakura had created in order to ease her pain?

"I was with Sakura when the book arrived," as though sensing her doubts Rider spoke up, "It was definitely some sort of special warping that sent it to us. My knowledge of the Magic you are studying is limited, but it did seem like one of the phenomena that you've described in your letters."

That allayed some of her fears. One thing that Rin could place total faith in was Rider's loyalty to her former master and current partner. Even if this was some sort of self inflicted fantasy the Servant of the Mount would do whatever it took to ensure Sakura's safety. And in such issues as her mental state the Tohsaka heir was sure that Rider would not leave them to fester.

Slowly opening the book she read the first page.

Could it be real? Could the red haired heroic idiot really be alive? She'd have to read this more completely later, right now though she had to try to get her sister to understand the problems that she would run into.

"I-I don't think he'll accept you. When he took me and my fellow students on he said that he would only take on three. I don't think he'll be willing to change his mind on that."

"Then I'll ask him again. And if he refuses I'll ask again, and again, and again. I shall continue to ask until he agrees and while I'm doing so I will steal your notebooks and study the Second Magic that way."

For a moment Rin was rendered absolutely speechless. On the one hand Sakura had pretty much stated her intention to pester one of the most powerful and dangerous individuals in the world until he agreed to train her, an act that was both brave and foolhardy in the extreme. On the other hand she had also said that if that didn't work then she'd be stealing Rin's research instead, which was akin to telling someone that you'd be harvesting their organs in the near future.

Had it been anyone else that had even suggested it the Tohsaka heir would have immediately hit them with enough spells and curses to leave them stuck in bed for the better part of a year. The two factors that prevented this were her love for her sibling and the fact that even with her recent progress Rin was well aware that she was still a long way from being able to match Rider.

Pushing that from her mind she focussed on the most pertinent point, that her sister wanted to be a pupil of her brilliant but somewhat eccentric master. There were so many things that Rin could have said to that, but even as she thought of possible arguments she simultaneously thought of how Sakura could respond.

Too harsh training? Hah, Zelretch might be a bit on the cruel side with some of his pranks, but compared to what the Matou heir had been enduring since she was six years old it was nothing.

That it might be dangerous? Rin could already see that her sister was more than ready to face anything that came her way as long as it let her get closer to her reuniting with Shirou.

Compatibility? Granted Sakura elemental affinity was more suited to either the Heaven's Feel or possibly the Denial of Nothingness than it was to the Kaleidoscope, but Rin doubted that her sister wanted to master the magic, she just wanted to find Shirou. Simply put she didn't care about that.

Taking a deep breath the black haired mage deliberately took hold of her emotions and forcefully calmed herself. She had to be methodical about this, given that her sister was probably in a somewhat fragile state right now. The first thing to do was probably to get her request to Zelretch out of the way as soon as possible. Once he turned her down then Rin could persuade Sakura to act as her assistant or aid. After all now that the Tohsaka heir was aware that Shirou was alive she had no intention of just leaving the red haired hero wannabe to fend for himself.

Yes, that was probably the best path to take. Once the Wizard Marshall had refused to take her sister as an apprentice Rin could hopefully channel Sakura's newly acquired drive into a more constructive direction.

First things first though.

"Let's get you and Rider to your hotel. Then we can discuss things properly."

As the trio of young women walked out of the airport the apprentice of the Kaleidoscope mentally patted herself on the back as she began to refine her plan. Considering how quickly she'd come up with it it was a pretty solid course of action. With any luck she'd be able to pull it of and this time next week Matou Sakura would be registered as her new assistant.


-()-


"Very well, I shall accept you as my fourth student."

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg took a certain level of pleasure in seeing Rin's mouth drop open and her eyes practically bug out of her head. Most of the time it was rather hard to get that kind of reaction out of her, but it was so entertaining to see that it was definitely worth the effort.

The purple haired girl in front of him blinked, then smiled radiantly as she bowed to him in traditional Japanese style.

"Thank you for taking me on sensei; I shall do my best to be a diligent student."

Oh, he knew she would. He could see it in her eyes. This was a girl with a goal, something that she wanted. He didn't know what it was or how learning his craft was related to it, but in all truth he didn't really care. What was important was that that kind of drive was just the kind of thing that he wanted in a student.

Learning the Kaleidoscope was not an easy or safe feat, by any stretch of the imagination. Merely surviving the simplest use of the sorcery was in itself a major achievement. Then once even a measure of minor power in it was achieved there were always the mental risks involved with the operation of parallel worlds. When downloading power and knowledge from dimensional counterparts it was all too easy to lose one's sanity in the flood of that came from tapping such limitless resources.

All in all it meant that if a student was to hope to succeed they had to possess the necessary qualities. Genius was one such quality, and it was a trait that Rin and Luvia had in spades. They were able to roll over those obstacles that sprung up in their path through a combination of sheer talent and bloody minded determination.

Talent and drive, those were the important things, and in a pinch one could make it without talent if one was determined enough.

Not that determination was all that this girl had to offer, far from it in fact. He could see it in her, the vast amount of Prana from her connection to Akasha. It was magnificent to see, though he could himself gather similar amounts by harvesting power from multiple other dimensions it was still somewhat humbling to see such a single huge power contained in a single form. The only time he had ever seen such reserves in a single creature had been when he'd faced the TYPE-Moon, Brunestud of the Crimson Moon.

Not that this girl was in the same leagues of course. Though her reserves might be on par her ability to access and use them was limited by the quality of her magic circuits and body, and needless to say both were vastly inferior to those of an Ultimate One. Still it was probably more Prana than any single human had possessed in history since the Age of the Gods ended. Throw in the fact that her elemental affinity of Imaginary Numbers was so unique that it was classified as a Sorcery Trait and she was definitely an interesting pupil to have.

And when you got right down to it that was why he was taking her on, because it could prove interesting. Both Rin and Luvia were proving to be most entertaining to educate. Both were brilliant and driven, but it was also their rivalry and personalities that made their tutoring such a pleasure. His third student, a young lord from one of the more minor research departments. Though talented and intelligent he was rather dull and overshadowed by his two fellow apprentices, so much so that Zelretch couldn't remember his name and had mentally labelled him as simply 'Number 3' for the sake of simplicity.

Hopefully his taking on a fourth would serve to either motivate the young man enough to make him interesting or simply get him to give up. Although . . . if Number 3 wanted to give up then maybe it would be amusing to keep teaching him. Hmm, there was some potential there.

"B-b-b-but."

Ah, it looked like Rin had finally found her voice, if not completely then at least enough to vocalize her confusion. Still, best not let her get a full head of steam going or it might be pretty hard to stop her.

"Your sister will make a fine student Rin; to not aid such potential to flourish would be most unworthy."

Well that sounded a bit better than 'because I want to'. The Tohsaka heir would probably see through his words after thinking about it some, but that was okay as long as it kept her quiet for now.

Turning back to the purple haired girl he stole a glance at the taller purple haired beauty that stood behind her. He'd seen Servants before of course, during his travels to other worlds he'd occasionally stumbled across realities where some version of the Heaven's Feel ritual was being conducted. On those occasions he'd stayed in the shadows preferring not to get involved. Consequently this was the first time that he'd been so close to a fully powered Servant and he had to admit that the experience was interesting.

As the overseer of the formation of the Holy Grail system he'd been there when the first 'war' took place. Back then while seven Servants had been summoned they spent most of their time in an astralized state while the various quarrels between the Masters went on. Given that the 'war' ended before there was any real conflict Zelretch hadn't had the opportunity to see what the Servants had been properly capable of.

Another excellent piece on the board that would hopefully spice things up.

"Now lessons shall begin tomorrow. You are several months behind your fellow students, but I'm sure Rin can help you catch up. The materials you'll need to get on your own-"

As he rambled on about the future lesson plans and the necessary preparations he allowed himself an internal smile.

This could be interesting.

Now, why did he have the feeling he was forgetting something important?


-()-


The room was a small but luxurious one, one of those set aside in the Clock Tower so that the great and the powerful could meet and talk in relative comfort and privacy. It was in rooms like this that alliances between houses were made, where backdoor deals were cut and where plots of intrigue were spun.

Today this particular room was the meeting place for four of the most powerful lords in the Clock Tower. The room had been sheathed in Bounded Fields and spells that ensured that their words would be kept secret

"This is ridiculous," the first growled as his hand thumped the arm of the comfortable chair in which he sat. "The girl is a valuable research specimen and yet she's being taken on as the Wizard Marshall's latest apprentice."

"Agreed." Said another as he nodded his head, "To my knowledge the girl is one of the few to have managed to come so close to reaching the Root in the last few centuries. Both the Kaleidoscope and the Blue have both been able to gain access to it even if they haven't entered, but this girl was directly connected for a prolonged period. Just imagine what could be learnt from her study."

"Such study is impossible and you know it." That came from the third member of the little get together, his voice tinged with frustration. "Not only are her personal reserves in excess of anything on record she is also guarded by the last surviving Servant of the Fifth Holy Grail War. If we somehow managed to get a Sealing Designation approved for her we'd probably lose more than half the Enforcers if we tried to force it upon her."

"But think what could be gained!" insisted the second as he leaned forwards in his chair, "The route to Akasha might still be imprinted upon her flesh. Even if it isn't just imagine the wealth of knowledge that could be extracted from her. Could the Prana that she gains through her connection be different from the World's ambient Prana? Has that connection altered her physical structure in some way? What does she remember of the connection? Can it be recreated? There's so much that could be learnt from her, are we just going to cast that opportunity away?"

"As a student of the old vampire you know that she's out of our reach," the third retorted. "None of the department heads or the Directors will be willing to place a Sealing Designation upon her if it means crossing him. Even the Queen would not and you're well aware of how she feels about bloodsuckers."

That comment brought silence as the rooms occupants thought about the terrifying young woman that was the Vice Director of the Clock Tower. Her hatred of Dead Apostles was said to be almost religious in its fervour, and yet despite that Barthomeloi Lorelei had never made a move against the Wizard Marshall. The exact reason for this was subject to widespread rumour and quiet debate, especially since the user of the Second True Magic had returned to the association, and many theories had been proposed ranging from the complex to the absurd.

The two generally accepted theories were that either the Queen was restraining her hatred in respect to the long standing accord between Zelretch and the Mysterious Director of the Clock Tower. The other theory was that she simply wasn't willing to go up against a wielder of a True Magic for the simple reason that she felt that she'd inevitably emerge as the loser from such an exchange, possibly in a humiliating fashion given Zelretch's sense of humour.

Whatever the case may be the simple fact was that even among the upper echelons of the Clock Tower there were none willing to move against Zelretch that possessed both the power and the will to do so upon their behalf.

"And what if she does learn the Kaleidoscope? With her reserves she might well be more powerful than the Wizard Marshall was at his height."

Now that was a frightening thought. Nobody was certain of exactly how Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg had come up with the Second Magic in the first place, but it was generally accepted that it had been due to the man's eccentric genius. However he had only been a human when he did so, albeit an absurdly brilliant and gifted one. He had become a Vampire after his miraculous defeat of the Crimson Moon, and even then his powers were only a fraction of what they had been at his height.

But this girl possessed enormous, inhuman power even before she began her studies in his art. The very thought of the potential heights she could reach given time were enough to make them shudder with both greed and dread.

"Even if she is capable of such it will still take her years to reach such a degree of skill."

The words of the hitherto silent fourth broke into their debate.

"I have performed some research upon the girl. It seems that she was the blood sister of the Tohsaka heir, but her father gave her up for adoption to one of the other Mage lines in the city they watched over so as to prevent any questions as to who would succeed him."

That was an interesting bit of information. If the girl had been given up to another family then it meant that she had been inferior to the girl that her family had kept. Of course Rin Tohsaka was already beginning to develop her own reputation in the Clock Tower. Despite those of eastern ethnicity being held in a certain degree of contempt even her most avid detractors could not deny the sheer genius of the young woman. Her sister could not possibly be as gifted, not if her father was willing to hand her over to another family.

That opened possibilities in all of their minds.

"Perhaps they could be manipulated?" suggested the first, "Even if they have reconciled such a division leaves scars. If we were to influence them to reopen those wounds and the girl left . . ."

"Then she'd still be guarded by a bodyguard beyond our ability to deal with as well as possessing more power than we could hope to stand against." Finished the third in a laconic tone.

"True, but she would not be beneath the protection of the Wizard Marshall. With his protection removed it would be far easier to rally support for placing a Sealing Designation upon her. And with enough resources even her bodyguard and power could be circumvented. I'm certain that the Department of Spiritual Invocation would be willing to sacrifice more than half their number for the chance to study such a specimen as an incarnated Heroic Spirit."

That suggestion brought another moment of silence, though this time the air of the room was contemplative as various ideas ran through the fours minds.

"Then our path is obvious," declared the fourth as he stood up, "We shall make no overt moves, but shall attempt subtle manipulations to drive a wedge between the sisters and force Lord Zelretch to choose between the two of them. It's well known how he favours the Tohsaka heir, so he is unlikely to cast her aside for her less talented sister. Once his protection on the Matou heir is revoked we will then use our own influence to secure her as a research subject."

"Might he not choose to keep her? Zelretch has been known to collect those that interest him, and a girl with a connection to the Root as well as a Heroic Spirit for a bodyguard might well prove enough of a novelty that he will be reluctant to part with them."

The third's suggestion was considered for a moment, but then the first shook his head.

"It's a possibility, but unlikely. Zelretch tends to be somewhat fickle in his interests, even if he does choose her over her sister it would still simply be a matter of time before he leaves on one of his otherworldly excursions. When all is said and done all we need is patience and to ensure that the girl does not grow so powerful that when the Designation is placed upon her it cannot be enforced.

All four of them nodded to each other as the plan was agreed upon.


-()-


Rin collapsed into her bed with an exhausted groan. Today . . . had not gone at all like how she had expected.

Lethargically rolling over she reached to her bedside table and grabbed the book that Sakura had reluctantly allowed her to borrow. Getting her to let it out of her sight for even a single night had required a fair bit of fast talking as well as no small bit of emotional blackmail, but in the end the adopted Matou had agreed to allow her sister to have it for the evening.

She hadn't yet had a chance to read through it properly. Heck, she'd barely had a chance to read the message scratched onto the front and the first page. Things had been so hectic, one thing leading to another seemingly without pause. This would be the first time that she'd been able to have a chance to properly read through it.

Sitting back on her pillows she opened the tome and began to take in what was written there.

Hmm, this bit looked interesting. It was about the various powers that Shirou had managed to gain in the new dimension he was in.

Shirou, block headed Shirou who could be stubborn enough to make mountains weep, and now he'd somehow managed to get the powers of gods? It was like some sort of bizarre cosmic joke.

Let's see, this one had an odd name.

Rule of the Underworld, what could that do?


-()-


Annette Verenti Fensworth was not a member of any of the great noble houses. Her family was only about five generations old, nothing of any great note amongst the ranks of the Clock Tower. The Fensworths had only barely begun to establish a family line of research and were possessed of only moderate wealth when compared to the majority of the association. All in all there was very little about her family that in any way stood out.

Annette was determined to change that. She knew that she herself was only of slightly above average talent, but she was determined to make up the difference with her own efforts. She intended to follow the example of Lord El-Melloi the second. In all truth it had been his example that had given her the hope to carry on. He was from a family with only three recognized generations of magical lineage, and yet he was now one of the most respected professors in the organization as well as a Lord.

The Fensworth heir hoped to be able to emulate his success with her own efforts. To prove that though her clan was modest that it could still make some impact upon the Clock Tower.

And if in doing so she might end up catching the eye of her idol, well then . . .

Annette was brought out of her thoughts about potential future romances by a sudden eruption of noise from the dorm next to her own.

Of course she knew who it was that was staying there. Rin Tohsaka had gained quite the reputation after not only having been taken on as the apprentice of the Wizard Marshall, but also due to the now legendary argument that she'd had with the heir to the Edelfelt family. Apparently it had been over some room in a dorm, but by the end of it the room in question had been a wreck, as had the outside hall, the stairs leading to the ground floor and the reception desk.

Needless to say that after finding out that she was living right next to such a . . . forceful individual Annette had ended up having a few uneasy nights before she finally decided that the Japanese apprentice was unlikely to blow her up along with the rest of the floor.

Of course right now she was beginning to wonder if that assessment had been entirely accurate.

It had taken her a moment to recognize what the sound that had disturbed her was, and now that she had pinned it down she was rather wishing that she hadn't.

Because, if she had to be completely truthful, she would describe what she heard as 'insane gleeful demented cackling', hardly the most flattering description. However it was completely true. Upon hearing that mirth the first image that had come to mind was of Rin Tohsaka standing in an attic, dressed in a dirty lab coat, her hair and eyes wild and strange electrical apparatus' in the background with lightning playing across them as she laughed that exact laugh. Quite frankly if there had been a stitched together corpse hooked up to electrodes Annette wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised.

Shaking her head to dispel that absurd image the Fensworth heir made a mental note to lay off the classic horror films she indulged in at the weekends; clearly she was overindulging if she was having such flights of fancy.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder what it was that had set Tohsaka off like that.


Just to make completely clear, the journal that Sakura has received is from the future of this fic, I'd say about three or four months. Due to the way in which it was sent to Sakura there is some temporal mishmash effect so that what is written in it will be Shirou's future writings. Don't worry; I have a plan for how this will tie into a future storyline.