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

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

Chapter 9: Il Mondo (Part IX)

Sakura looked at Shirou in alarmed concern, as the young man groaned and doubled over in pain. She immediately rushed over. "What's wrong?" she asked, placing a hand on his back to offer comfort, while simultaneously priming her crest just in case this was a prelude to an attack by an enemy lying in wait.

Like a certain vampire she'd drowned in molten lead yesterday.

She didn't think it could have recovered so soon – assuming it had even survived – but when it came to vampires, you could never tell.

"…the bounded fields…" Shirou groaned. "…they're…sickening…"

"The bounded fields?" Sakura echoed in confusion.

"…it's like…" Shirou groaned, struggling to get across what he meant. "…it's like the air is full of poison…like there's nothing breathable in it…it's making my insides burn…"

Sakura blinked, and then making a guess, reached into Imaginary Numbers Space to pull out the key. Leaving Shirou for a while, she approached the threshold, and reinserting the key, keyed Shirou into the fields.

Immediately, Shirou sighed in relief, and shakily and slowly rose back up to his full height. "…thanks." He said, curiously eyeing but deciding not to press as Sakura returned the key to Imaginary Numbers Space through a dark portal of some kind. "I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?"

"I think I can guess." Sakura said. "You're spiritually-sensitive, aren't you? Even by the standards of our kind."

"Pretty much," Shirou admitted with a nod. "I guess…I can feel the air of a place where a lot of supernatural stuff happened. Places where a lot of people suffered and died, for example, feel like the air is full of caramel, so thick that it's hard to breathe."

Sakura hummed in thought, and then nodded in understanding. "I can see how that can be useful." She said. "Anyway…I can see you're doing better, but are you really alright?"

"I'm better, yes." Shirou said. "I mean…I can still feel the bounded fields, like something acrid at the back of my mouth. It's like walking in a factory, or a place like that, where they're burning stuff that even if you don't breathe the smoke it's still so strong you can literally taste the ash in your mouth. Well, something like that."

Shirou paused, and lifting his head, regarded the invisible fields of magic erected by the College of Law to seal off the Matou property. "The College of Law has some pretty nasty stuff." He finally said.

"That they do." Sakura said with a nod, and then gestured in the direction of the gates. "Come on, you did say you wanted to see me finishing the job. Unless, you've changed your mind?"

"No, I can handle it." Shirou said. "Ladies first."

Sakura gave a wry smile, and then led the way, Shirou following in her wake. Crossing the threshold and then the gate, they stepped into the Matou property, now even more abuzz with activity than before.

Men and women were hard at work tearing up the ground, throwing sod into wheelbarrows which then took them to nearby furnaces. Others were chopping up the uprooted trees, and then wheeling the logs away to be burned with the sod. Shirou also saw the smoking ashes of previous burnings, being carried away to be thrown into a glowing mass over at the foundry.

And he also saw other men and women, carrying what looked like huge bags of salt. To his shock, he saw them liberally spreading the salt into the ground, and even making sure it got as deep as possible into the broken earth.

"You're salting the earth?" Shirou asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Sakura replied.

"Isn't that a bit…too much?" Shirou asked delicately.

"No." Sakura said, and then smiling as a tanned, dark-haired woman in a black and white business ensemble under a long, black coat approached. "Ah…Shirou, allow me to introduce you. This is Elisa Rodriguez, my chief retainer and personal bodyguard ever since I was a baby. Elisa, this is Shirou Emiya, a magus residing in this city."

"A pleasure to meet you, Magus Emiya." Elisa said with small bow.

"A pleasure to meet you too, Miss Rodriguez." Shirou said with a deep, Japanese-style bow.

"I've come to know Magus Emiya over the past month and more." Sakura said. "In fact, I just had dinner with him earlier. He's pleasant company to have, and clearly of more than the reasonable sort. In that light, it seems fitting that he bears witness as I complete the seal on Makiri Zolgen's lair."

"Of course, my lady." Elisa said with a deeper bow than what she gave Shirou. "All the preparations are complete, and you may perform the sealing at your convenience."

Sakura nodded, and then gestured towards where the Matou mansion once stood. "Well, no point in putting it off," she said while taking the lead. "Let's get to it."

"Yes, my lady." Elisa said, falling into step behind Sakura.

Shirou said nothing, only nodding in agreement as he too fell into step behind Sakura.

Arriving at the blackened masonry that marked the edges of Makiri Zolgen's underground lair, they found it completely buried under a solid mass of lead that shimmered faintly in the light of xenon arc lamps. Elisa came to a halt a few steps away, and holding Shirou back with an arm across his chest. Shirou obliged, nodding in thanks for the guidance to Elisa, who nodded back at his gratitude.

Sakura continued until she stood right on the edge of the lead filling up the pit, and then she rolled up her sleeves. Taking a series of breaths to even her breathing out, she then opened all her circuits, and flooded prana into her crest. Blue circuitry lit up across her skin, flowing over her body and down under her clothes.

Raising both hands, she nodded at the men on the other side, who responded by pouring molten silver onto the lead. Lead hissed and melted at the touch of the molten silver, lead's melting point so much lower than that of silver. The molten metal hissed and bubbled with toxic fumes, and then Sakura was pouring her prana into the molten silver, accompanied by a five-count aria.

By fire was silver refined of the earth,

And by my blood given power over the real and the unreal.

So I command by right of blood given,

And bidding you to obey,

Grant us peace!

The molten silver trembled at Sakura's words, before the power and mysteries woven into its being answered their maker. The molten silver now flowed as though it had a will of its own, melting and filling grooves in the lead's surface, and outlining a twelve-pointed mandala on the lead filling the pit. Then with a burst of escaping heat, the silver flash-cooled into solidity, and completing the seal capping what was once Makiri Zolgen's workshop.

"That was it?" Shirou asked as Sakura approached, unrolling her sleeves.

"Yes." Sakura replied. "It might seem overly simple and straightforward, but as you well know, I've been conducting rituals to prepare the silver for this very moment for a month. So much so, that a five-count aria is enough to complete the seal."

"…I'll take your word for it." Shirou finally said.

Sakura smiled, and then gestured for Shirou to follow. "As you can see," the former began while leading Shirou to the foundry. "We're salting the earth as a precaution to prevent life that could potentially be tainted by Makiri Zolgen from rising up here."

"I can see that, yes." Shirou said.

"But that's not all the precautions we're taking, as you can see here." Sakura said, picking up the pace towards the foundry.

On arriving, she put on a leather apron and gloves, followed by a gas mask, ear protectors, and a helmet. Elisa and Shirou followed her lead, and then climbing up an inspection catwalk, showed them – well, more Shirou than Elisa – the ongoing work.

"Ashes from burned sod and trees," Sakura explained, her voice muffled by her gas mask. "Along with the wreckage of the former Matou mansion, are subjected to extreme heat. Enough to melt iron, and burn just about any organic material present."

"Not enough to melt brick or other masonry, though." Shirou remarked, and pointing to where he could see red-hot brick floating in the bubbling, semi-molten mass of slag seething in the foundry's heat.

"Yes, but enough to melt silver." Sakura said, and pointing in her turn to where receptacles were waiting to dump silver wafers into the slag. "Those wafers are made of the same metal I sealed Makiri Zolgen's lair away with. By adding them to the slag, any contamination will be deadened to keep the slag safe for transport to final disposition."

"Meaning…?" Shirou asked while glancing in Sakura's direction.

Sakura met his gaze before answering. "There's an active volcano around four hours' drive from this city." She said. "The lava pool at its crater will ensure these vectors of Matou taint will never be able to threaten anyone ever again."

"…thorough." Shirou could only say.

Sakura inclined her head. "That's the idea." She said, and turning back to the foundry. "I know and understand it's a significant cost in precious metal, especially as this is one eight fine silver, that is, jewelry-grade silver. But needs must; better to spend much today and avoid trouble tomorrow…"

"…than to cut corners to save on money today, and spend more fixing worse consequences tomorrow." Shirou finished with a nod. "Yeah, I see your point."

Sakura nodded back, and spent several more moments staring into the mesmerizing, hypnotic, even, haze of heat that surrounded the foundry. "And that leads me to the next point," she said, turning back to Shirou. "It's not that I don't trust you, but I need to cover all angles. I'll need you to sign a geis to bind you to secrecy over everything you've seen and learned about today."

Shirou met Sakura's gaze evenly through their gas masks' lenses, and then nodded as well. "I understand." He said. "Though, I want to check the geis scroll personally before I sign it."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't." Sakura said. "Come on, let's get to the command tent, and you can check the geis scroll for yourself. And then we can have a spot of tea between us before we go home."

"Then lead the way, Sakura."


"Of all the stupid things you've ever done in your seventeen years of life," Ayako raged as she met with Issei and Shirou in the former's office come the following morning. "This has got to be the stupidest! And I was there when you tried to take on that monster of a Berserker! You know, the one so strong that even your Servant, Saber, the strongest of them all, always struggled against!"

Shirou did not look impressed. "And I was there when you took potshots at Lancer with a bow and arrow." He shot back. "An ordinary bow and arrow, I have to say."

"That's not the point here!" Ayako exploded.

"Then what is?" Shirou demanded.

Ayako slammed her fist against Issei's table. "You went to Edelfelt's house!" she shouted. "You had dinner with her! Where her power and knowledge are at their strongest outside of her family's home in Europe! And worst of all, you signed a magical agreement with her! You might as well have sold your soul to her!"

"Okay, now that is just going too far." Shirou unhappily said. "Yes, going to Sakura's house was a huge risk, but in the over a month that I've known her not once has she given me reason to suspect her of anything!"

Ayako's face took on a sickly smile. "Known her?" she echoed. "So that's how it is, huh?"

Shirou now looked very suspicious. "What are you saying?" he demanded.

"Oh, I don't know." Ayako responded. "I'm just wondering, though. Was she very, very good to you, Emiya?"

Shirou's eyes went wide. "Are you seriously thinking she seduced me?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, what else am I supposed to think," Ayako sneered. "When you always seem to be siding with that…that woman, and forgetting all about our friend, Rin, traitor!"

"Mitsuzuri, get a grip!" Shirou shouted. "I'm just trying to keep the peace here!"

"No, you get a grip!" Ayako shouted back. "After everything Rin's done for us, this is how you repay her? I swear, Emiya, one of these day I am going to…!"

"ENOUGH!" Issei finally exploded, and getting to his feet slammed his hands into the table. "This bickering among ourselves is pointless!"

Both Shirou and Ayako turned to Issei at his outburst, and while Shirou quickly relented, Ayako just sneered and stormed out of the room, and slamming the door behind her. "She'll be alright." Issei said at the concerned look on Shirou's face, as the latter looked in Ayako's direction. "She just needs to cool off."

"…I guess she does." Shirou said with a sigh, and running a hand over his face. "And it's not like I don't understand how she feels, considering how close she was to Rin."

"Hmm…that said," Issei continued. "She does have a point."

"What?" Shirou asked in surprise.

"You may not have sold Rin out and spat on everything she's done for us," Issei replied, and causing Shirou to wince internally at Issei's word choice, and how it implied he didn't completely trust Shirou either. "But going to Edelfelt's house, eating dinner with her, and even signing a geis scroll…speaking frankly, Emiya, it's all a stupid degree of risk, even for you."

"You know I examined the geis scroll before signing it, right?" Shirou asked. "As in, look it over while reinforcing my eyes as a 'sword that perceives hidden text' for any fine print written in invisible ink or whatnot that can trap me. And despite what people think, considering how Fuji-nee raised me and her family's…uh, line of businesses, I know when people are trying to use fancy words and tricky sentences to scam me or someone else."

"In other words," Issei said. "You're not stupid."

"Well…yes."

"Humph…" Issei snorted while sitting back in his seat. "…I trust you, Emiya, which is why I'm going to tell you this: I think you might be starting to get too close to the enemy."

Shirou sighed. "Thanks, Issei…" he said. "I think."


Sakura tossed the mystic code into the air, a golden ring revolving around a piece of quartz floating into the air even as the force of Sakura's toss expended itself. Rainbow light shimmered around the floating piece of jewelry, and then projected a slightly blue-tinted hologram of Luvia around it.

"Sakura," Luvia said.

"Luvia," Sakura said with a polite nod. "You wanted to talk to me."

"Yes, this is…personally-important, to you, I guess." Luvia said.

"Oh?"

"Things are coming to a head over here in London." Luvia explained. "While at this point it's virtually-impossible for your sister to get acquitted of the charge of negligence and incompetence as Second Owner, a plea for leniency in light of her actions regardless of that fact will probably be well-received."

"I see." Sakura said with a slow nod. "I suppose that is good news. While Rin might as well be a stranger to me, she's still my sister. A chance to know her would be appreciated."

Luvia nodded in understanding. "That's not all, is it?" Sakura prompted.

"No," Luvia said. "No, it isn't."

"…go on." Sakura prompted again.

"Your sister has problems." Luvia said.

"Yes, that much is apparent…" Sakura began, only to trail off as Luvia shook her head.

"No, you don't understand." Luvia said. "Thanks to all the help I've given her with regard to her case, I've managed to earn enough of Rin's trust to get her to start opening up to me. And one of the first things I found out was that if not for our intervention, Rin would have pled guilty to all charges, and while she'd still have sought leniency, she wouldn't have minded a harsh punishment either. Even if execution or worse was in the cards, she was prepared to face them, all out of a sense of responsibility for her whole family and its crimes over the generations."

"…that goes beyond a sense of responsibility." Sakura said after a moment. "Especially since all the evidence points to Rin being ignorant of the facts behind the first three charges, and thus innocent of them unlike the rest of our Tohsaka ancestors."

"Indeed," Luvia agreed. "In fact, I'd even call it a martyr complex."

"…how?" Sakura breathed after another moment.

"You can blame your mother for that, apparently." Luvia said in disgust. "You see, I mentioned as much to Rin, and how even by magi standards she's sacrificing too much of herself. That it's no longer dignified or nobly self-sacrificing, as much as it had become self-parody."

"And what did she say?" Sakura asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"She said that happiness was never an option for those born in magi families." Luvia replied. "She even expressed surprise that I thought otherwise, and from further conversations, I later learned that she thinks that friends and family are all matters of convenience for magi. That we must be prepared to sacrifice or even just discard them if that is what it takes to achieve our ends."

"What the hell?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"Well, to be fair to your sister, it seems that she doesn't completely believe in them," Luvia said. "And she struggles with a great deal, at least on the inside. Still, I looked into it, and found where she got such stupid ideas from."

"…our mother." Sakura said with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, Aoi Tohsaka nee Zenjou." Luvia said with a snort of contempt. "I've seen her, by the way. Spoken to her a few times, too. Never have I seen a more pathetic excuse for a woman in my life to date, and I've seen plenty."

Sakura was silent, and then Luvia tilted her head. "Not going to defend her?" she asked.

Sakura smiled and raised an eyebrow. "She might have borne and birthed me into the world," she said. "But she was never there in my life. She might as well be a stranger to me."

"…hmm…cold, aren't we?"

"…I've never lacked for a maternal figure in my life." Sakura said after a moment, her thoughts briefly turning to a certain tanned and dark-haired woman who had always been there as far back as she could remember.

"Hmm…a fair point…" Luvia conceded.

"And where exactly did Aoi Tohsaka get such stupid ideas on what being a magus is about?" Sakura asked. "Also, as far as I know she's no magus, nor has she any potential to be one, for all that she has the ability to enhance the magical potential of any of her children."

"Apparently, she got it from her husband." Luvia replied.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, it seems Tokiomi Tohsaka had a very…idealized, idea of what being a magus is about." Luvia said. "Completely amoral, and totally utilitarian, to the point that bonds of blood, friendship, and honor, among other things are only worth as much as they contribute to the achievement of one's goals. The worst part, though, from what Rin's told me of the man, and our own investigations, is that Tokiomi Tohsaka not only had a very idealized idea of what being a magus is about, but also that he lived his life so very close to that idealized idea."

"…I shudder to think what might have happened to yours truly had Edelfelt not claimed their due sixteen years ago." Sakura said.

"At the very least," Luvia began. "You'd have your mind twisted much like your sister's has been. At least, in part: while your father might have shamed us all with his stupidity, your sister is far from completely irredeemable. She can still be taught the right way of doing things, and how being a magus doesn't mean we cannot love, be it friends or family, or enjoy life and the good things it offers us."

"She's my sister…she's an Edelfelt too." Sakura said with pride and confidence. "Our spirits don't break that easily."

"Hmm…though that makes me wonder," Luvia mused aloud. "Who could have broken your father's spirit?"

"That assumes he had an Edelfelt spirit to begin with." Sakura sourly said. "For all we know, it could have skipped him and gone straight to me and Rin."

"That is also possible."


The rest of the day passed without incident, though Sakura was sure that Ayako was giving her the evil eye whenever she could. In hindsight, that should have come off as a bad omen of some sort.

"What is this?" Sakura asked as she arrived at the rendezvous point.

"We caught them with an underage girl in the surrounding area this afternoon." Elisa said, referring to the group of young men with dyed hair and garishly-colored clothes, gagged and tied up on the ground. "As you know, we're scouting out the area in preparation for your New Moon ritual next month…"

"Yes, yes," Sakura said while eyeing the men, and feeling…repulsed, by their mere existence for some reason. "So what's so wrong that they're in such a state? I doubt you'd have gone this far if all that was needed was to alter their memories."

"We – I – am pretty sure they were trying to force the girl to come with them against her will." Elisa explained, before holding up a set of vials, each good for a single injection. "We also found these on them, along with a set of syringes."

Sakura's gaze hardened, and holding out a hand allowed Elisa to hand her one of the vials. Sakura then held it up, while analyzing its contents by magical means, as well as their properties. "Are these what I think they are?" she asked.

"That depends on what you think they are." Elisa replied.

"Heroin?"

Elisa nodded grimly. "Yes," she said. "It's heroin."

Sakura narrowed her eyes, and then reinforced her hands while imbuing them with the earth element. The pushers/would-be rapists' eyes went wide as she then crushed the vial she was holding to powder, the liquid inside dribbling down to the ground.

"Execute them immediately." Sakura ordered with a dismissive wave, the residue on her hands already breaking down at nonverbal actualizations of her mysteries. "I'll take care of the corpses later."

The pushers/would-be rapists started struggling, muffled shouts and pleading coming through their gags, but Sakura paid them no mind. Elisa nodded at her men, who forced the pushers/would-be rapists to kneeling positions, and then drawing her sidearm, Elisa executed them one by one.

Single shots to the head, ending their lives quickly and painlessly, cleaner ends than what they actually deserved.

Meanwhile, Sakura proceeded to where a middle school-age girl was sitting by herself, dark hair braided up into a pair of pigtails. She was a bit plain-looking, though Sakura wondered if that was thanks to the glasses she was wearing, as they seemed too big for the girl before her.

"You alright there, kid?" she asked softly.

The girl looked at Sakura, then at the cooling corpses in the distance, and then down to the ground. "Yes." She quietly said.

"Really?" Sakura asked again. "Do you need anything? Water? Something hot to eat?"

"…I'll be fine." The girl quietly replied again.

"…if you're sure…" Sakura uncertainly said.

The girl nodded, then glanced back at the corpses lying next to spilled blood and brain matter in the distance. "You killed them." She said.

Sakura sighed. "Yes, I did." She said. "Not that anyone's really going to miss a trio of thugs like them."

"…what now?" the girl then asked.

"Now, you get to go home." Sakura said with a reassuring smile.

The girl stared at her. "Who are you?" she asked.

Sakura just raised a hand in the girl's direction, replying even as the latter's eyes turned blank and then closed shut in sleep. "I am simply a figment of your imagination." Sakura said, before nodding to the men guarding the girl. "Keep her safe, we'll drop her off with the police later."

"Yes, ma'am." They chorused.

Sakura nodded then walked away, pulling out a pair of jewels. One, a piece of jade with which to get rid of the pushers/would-be rapists corpses. The other, a brilliantly-cut piece of pink agate mounted on a golden chain as a pendulum, with which to find the right spot for her New Moon ritual come the next month.

"Now then," Sakura said softly to herself. "Let's get to work."


A/N

Thanks to [USER=87080]Cubia[/USER] again for helping with this chapter, in particular, the POV involving Luvia and Sakura talking about Rin and the psychological damage that Tokiomi and Aoi inflicted on her. In hindsight, I'd forgotten to thank him for help with a few previous chapters too, so here it is: thanks!