Chapter 80
The Matou house stood in the night silently, the grey slatted roof dully glowing under the moonlight. The gardens were neatly trimmed, the vines all torn down by a maid, but not a trace of a single animal or insect could be spotted. No light could be seen from any of the windows, the glass panes reflecting the yellow rays from streetlights. Within the living room, a long girl in a white dress and a plain pink jacket sat on the sofa, staring down at the floor as the shadow of the window panes stretched across it.
Without looking, Sakura could tell that Rider had returned home. Materializing behind her, Rider stepped towards the sofa she sat on.
"Mas-" Rider tried to lay a hand on her shoulder, but it was smacked away by Sakura.
"Don't touch me."
Sakura's shoulders trembled, her voice flat, barely a whisper, though Rider could hear it just fine.
"I'm...I'm dirty. Unclean."
A hollow voice, devoid of any emotion drifted out of Sakura's lips. It was completely different from the gentle voice she used when speaking with her Senpai. Her hands tightened around the fabric of her dress, bunching up the white linen.
Rider didn't answer her. Instead she waited. The grandfather clock in the room ticked away, the bronze hands spinning uniformly.
"I thought that I was...free. When you came and drove out grandfather, it was amazing."
"Everyday, from my childhood, spent in that dark, foul-smelling pit. Every night, quivering in the darkness while worms entered and exited my body."
Hundreds, thousands of worms. Each and every single one of them was repulsive and disgusting in the worst ways.
Trails of slime over her naked body, the slime quickly replaced by more worms that swarmed over her white skin. Feeler's drifting across her chin, cold scales swiping past her ear. Strands of her hair were caught in between the multitudes of crawling legs, plucked clean of her scalp. Despite the numerous creatures brushing against the soles of her feet, her stomach and armpits, she didn't feel ticklish at all.
Sometimes, green light lit up the chamber, a luminous glow like fluorescent seaweed below the sea of insects. The light didn't dissuade the worms from squeezing their way through her vagina, into her womb, into her ███████. Energy, disappeared. The worms fed on it incessantly, outside the pit, in the showers, at school, on the bus, while buying groceries, at the archery range, at her senpai's house cooking… In the end, nothing was left, the ravenous hunger the worms possessed unfulfilled, an endless greed needing even more to be sated. A period of rest, less than a day was given, before it's cries for feeding started once again.
Eleven years. Eleven long years, every night spent at a basement under the watchful eyes of a wizened old ma-no, monster. They were no longer just worms, but part of her body now, turning into nerves entangled with her body. A cluster of Magic Circuits that could move, violating her humanity. Her hair, eyes and every cell was different, changed. After all these years, she was a Matou, not a Tohsaka any more. The only thing left was the red ribbon she kept tied to her hair at all times, the only times it was taken off being when she showered or slept.
After the constant, extensive process of torture of the Matou "tutelage", she could barely cast magecraft, her talent was corrupted and wasted away, clipping her wings before she could even fly. At best, all she could do was use one or two basic spells of the Matou absorption magecraft, ugly spells of stealing from others, feeding on their pain.
"Why-why can't I be saved?"
This question echoed in her mind, her being pushed ever closer to the brink of death, a permanent rest.
Until she saw the boy, knocking down the pole again and again, yet tirelessly trying until he was forced to leave by the teachers.
When she entered his house, she no longer felt the phantom slithering of the worms.
From then on, she started walking on the slow process of being "saved", the boy watching over her every step of the way. In the process, more joined her along the path, a vigorous tiger and a patient captain teaching her new things, becoming her guides in various ways.
But every night as she laid on the bed, with Shinji fucking her like an animal, she wondered if she would ever be truly free.
Then the Fifth Holy Grail War came around, and she performed her duty like her grandfather had expected of her. What he never saw coming though, was the appearance of a maid being summoned.
"Servant, Rider. Now that I'm here, be ready to live the ideal lifestyle. I won't allow sleeping in or insufficient exercise. The cleaning and laundry will be done thoroughly by me. Cooking, cooking as well…I'll do it the best I can."
From the moment she spoke, she was in awe of her. Just listening to her made her spirits lift a little, even though she wasn't saying anything inspiring at all. She would later learn of the effect of Charisma, or Summer Sweeper in her case. A composite skill of Prana Burst and Charisma adapted for a maid in summer.
Her amazement reached new heights when Rider completely flushed the basement clean, destroying every single bug that was unlucky enough to be caught in the furious flood of water that seeped into every crack, smashing the bugs flat with the pressure, the currents within the water hurling the bags through the water into the walls and turning them into paste. By the end of it all, the water was stained a muddy brown with numerous black specks, the insects' innards and shells saturating it to the brim.
Afterwards, she had gone on to clean the entire mansion with unspeakable methods that Sakura and Shinji were unable to witness while staying at Shirou's house. The neighbours several blocks away woke up from the disturbance, and several police cars visited the household, but they were quickly convinced by the maid that nothing was wrong. The maid also wondered why they left in such a hurry, and why they couldn't look at her directly. Was there something weird about her? Taking a look at herself, she could only see the uniform of a maid.
"Damn, to think that there was such a hardcore fetishist living in there. The maid cosplay sure was incredible."
"We got to see something good today. Hopefully they'll keep the noise down after the warning though. They're certainly quite enthusiastic to be able to be heard by the neighbours and get complaints."
The two grinning cops drove away, reminiscing about the goddess they had just met.
When Sakura and Shinji had returned, the feel of the entire house was different. The foreboding she felt whenever she stepped past the threshold was no longer there. The rotting smell that came from the certain parts of the house had disappeared. There were no more strange sounds coming from the walls, the skittering and screeching of something from the ceiling, small bodies lurking behind the plaster. It was all gone.
For the first time in her life, he wasn't there. Her grandfather was finally gone. The shadow that had always stood behind her, was washed away.
At first, she couldn't believe it. She expected her grandfather to show up at any moment, standing on the stairs, waiting for her in the ruined basement, calling her name outside her door. But he never appeared, and her heart felt lighter and lighter with each passing day.
To make things better, even Shinji changed. Day and night, he was coached by Rider, her Saint Graph compelling her to physically train him until he either broke or succeeded. With how her training went, he was on the floor every night, his entire body soaked in sweat, and sometimes blood or dirt, depending on the type of training she gave. He could barely even roll around to face the sky or turn his face from the ground breathe, let alone rape Sakura. Sakura wasn't just going to leave him lying on the ground like that though. It was up to her to drag him into the showers and bathe him. In a way, she enjoyed taking care of him like that. He couldn't offer any resistance in his state, and showering him like one would with a baby was actually kind of nice. Rider also chipped in advice on how to wash him and dry him, as well as dressing and the like. She was a maid after all, and did have some knowledge regarding these things.
Rider also trained Sakura, but only lightly trained her physically when compared with Shinji. Instead, her Coaching skill went towards teaching her "100 must-learn maid techniques and more", in her own cleaning, to lawn mowing, to laundry, everything that Rider knew was taught to Sakura. Although she already knew how to do these, it was somewhat, refreshing, to see new methods of doing these chores. It was also a bit worrying though when she saw some of the things Rider did in the name of efficiency.
Like that, a week passed, her life progressing in a direction she could never have imagined, even in her wildest dreams. Her brother working out everyday, a sister-like figure accompanying her at home, and being able to visit her Senpai as well. It was a blissful week. Even Rider messing up at cooking and forcing her to step in was fun as well, though she was slightly frustrated from seeing so many ingredients wasted.
Then one day, her heart twisted.
Her blood raced as her pupils widened, a rosy patch appearing on her white cheeks as she clutched the kitchen counter nearby for balance.
"Master?!"
Rider rushed forward to support her, leaving Shinji outside to lift the absurdly large weights chained to cars.
"Ri-rider, I'm fine. I just need to rest."
Through the haze covering her thoughts, she already knew what this was. Already, she could feel them squirming in her body, igniting the flame of passion that she had tried so desperately to quench every night with her fingers.
Why are they activating now? They should stay dormant after I've satisfied them last night, it can't be that fast…
She was soon answered by the appearance of her grandfather.
"Sakura, I trust you haven't forgotten about me in my absence?"
The old man smiled, a revolting expression that peeled the skin over his teeth.
"You still have to fulfill your role in the Holy Grail War. Remember who you belong to. If you forget, then who knows what could happen"
With that, he vanished into a shower of worms and gravelly laughter.
"Khhh…"
With Rider's help, she returned back to her room to rest and deal with the problem.
After that, she no longer felt safe anymore. The cloud over her head returned with doubled force, and she started actively participating in the war.
"I thought, I could be free, to live with Senpai, Rider, Shinji and Taiga together happily. Even though it was just for a week, I was happy."
*sniff*
The knife in her hands fell to the floor as she released it, curling up into a ball on the sofa.
"Hnnngg...it's useless...sniff"
I can't be saved.
After awkwardly standing there for a few minutes while listening to her sobs, Rider could only step forward and wrap her arms around her shoulders in a rare gesture of physical affection, the first time she had done so since being summoned. Even as an Alter, she recognized what she should do in this situation.
The two spent the next hour there in silence until Sakura fell asleep, with Rider carrying her to her bed, watching over her silently as she slept.