Nestled amongst the houses of Miyama was a mansion in traditional Japanese style; the horizontally focused compound composed of wood, stone, and rice paper. It was large enough to cover a fourth of the city block and it, according to the blueprints of the building Henriikka acquired, had an intricate basement system of various floors. Said blueprints were likely outdated as they were from years ago, but it still gave a general idea as to the fortress' structure which was pertinent to Sakura and her allies' plans.
It had been a while since most of the yakuza who called the residence their home had left on their missions and Sakura was waiting in a nearby alley for Clown and the other Caster to arrive so they could infiltrate the compound and save Rin and Luviagelita. They were likely casing the area one last time before they revealed themselves to Sakura. Henriikka's paranoia was frustrating, but she wasn't necessarily wrong to be so cautious. Sakura ran her hand across her head and the fuzz that was all that remained of her hair. She could feel the scar from her head wound that the hair wasn't long enough to completely hide. The magus clutched the Book of False Attendant in her hand, feeling the power of the Command Spells within. No mistakes this time. Sakura was going to save her sister.
A flash of green as Clown's Bounded Field activated, the same one they would use to escape after securing Rin and Luviagelita. Clown appeared along with a woman who resembled the Gorgon Sisters. She was tall with long purple hair that nearly touched the floor and her eyes were covered by a pink blindfold. She wore a black leotard with wide sleeves that were long enough that her hands could not be seen. Her legs were on full display and she had a hood up with a hole in the back of it for her hair to go through. This was Henriikka's Caster, an alternate version of the Gorgon Sisters or, considering there was just one body instead of three, it was actually that this Caster wasn't the whole trio and was instead just one. The Gorgon Sisters were the anomaly from an alternate universe while this was a proper Servant from normal history. Based on the blindfold, this Caster was probably Medusa since she was the sister known to have a glare that turned others to stone.
"Apologies for the wait." Clown said.
"It's no problem." Sakura turned to the Servant and bowed. "It's nice to meet you. I hope we can work together." The hooded Caster nodded in return. "Are you both ready?"
"We are. Are you?" Clown responded.
"Yes."
"Good." Clown reached into his suit jacket. "This is a gift from Lady Henriikka." He handed Sakura a bag full of jewels. "Infuse some spells into them and then we'll go."
"Thank you." Sakura began taking out gems and infusing them with different spells. After she had prepared a satisfactory amount, she put them in her pockets along with the bag of more gemstones. "I'm done."
"Then let us begin." Clown and Caster left the alley with Sakura following behind. They all stood before the gate that blocked entry to the estate and Caster wordlessly used a spell that opened a hole in the Bounded Field surrounding the area without setting off any alarms. The three mages jumped through the gap and over the wall as Caster used another spell which made the trio invisible to the human eye. It was a very basic technique that anyone with even a basic level of magecraft knowledge or the ability to sense magical energy would easily see through. The spell was more than enough for the situation given the yakuza, according to Caster's observations on Henriikkka's orders, were definitely not magi. They were normal humans and the Bounded Field likely had been created by Assassin.
Caster bit her index finger and the blood that dripped from it transformed into multiple small garden snakes as invisible as their creator and her companions. The newborn familiars snuck into the mansion through cracks or the like to scout out the estate.
Sakura and Clown stood by Caster in the estate's yard and waited for the Servant's search for Rin and Luviagelita to bear fruit. Considering the mansion had multiple basement levels and a plethora of secret passages, it took a while.
"I found them. Follow me and be as quiet as possible." Caster spoke telepathically.
Sakura wanted to cheer, but instead she simply smiled and felt her determination strengthen. She and Clown followed Caster as she walked onto the deck and up to a sliding door. She couldn't open it herself without risking getting seen on the security cameras that were everywhere. She had to prompt the door to be opened by someone within so they could enter.
Another spell was cast by the Servant that was weak enough that only a normal human would be affected by it. A moment later, a hypnotized yakuza thug opened the door and stepped out into the yard, leaving an open path for Sakura, Caster, and Clown to enter.
The group stalked through the mansion with soundless steps while occasionally weaving around a patrolling yakuza. They arrived at a wall that was a secret door. Caster hypnotized another thug who opened the passage for the invisible team to pass through. Going down a tight corridor and down some steps, they arrived at a hidden floor in the building. Caster kept on leading the two magi through more secret passages and rooms. Sakura was conscious of every step she took to make sure she didn't make the slightest creak. Each of her breaths was measured and intense as the purple haired girl kept imagining herself accidentally exhaling too loudly and getting the group caught.
"It's there. Rin's room."
Caster stopped and so did Sakura and Clown. They looked at the entrance to the room Rin was imprisoned in.
From Caster's sleeve came multiple snakes born from her blood that all shot through the shoji and into the room. The door was destroyed and Sakura could see the five guards inside being ripped apart by the serpents. The cameras will have seen that, there was no more being stealthy. It didn't matter, there was no way they could take Rin out of the room without arousing suspicion. They just had to get to Luviagelita and teleport out before the yakuza could retaliate. According to the plan, Caster's snakes that had been patrolling would be gathering in Luviagelita's room at that moment. They would grow larger before killing the yakuza watching over Luviagelita and then they would protect the woman until the group arrived to rescue her.
The invisibility hiding the trio vanished and Sakura ran into the room and over to Rin.
Sakura covered her mouth as she shrieked.
Rin was missing an arm, that was something she was told about, but seeing it up close was still horrifying. She was roughly bandaged up with the wrappings around her stump being a dirty red. The yakuza weren't taking good care of Rin and that made Sakura's eyes water and her blood boil. Sakura peeked into Rin's open mouth to see that her teeth and tongue were also gone to make sure she couldn't say any incantations. Sakura was going to kill Assassin's Master.
"Rin." Sakura removed Rin's restraints and blindfold. The elder sister squinted her eyes as they were finally hit with light after so long.
Rin made a sound that vaguely resembled her saying 'Sakura,' but her lack of a tongue or teeth made it come out as just noise. Sakura wanted to pull her sister into an embrace, but they lacked the time and Rin's barely treated injuries meant that doing so might just hurt her more.
"Just hang on for a bit. We just need to get to Luviagelita and then we're gonna get out of here. I'm gonna pick you up, okay?" Rin nodded and Sakura carefully lifted her sister onto her back. "Are you okay like that?" Rin nodded again. "Let's move."
Caster took the lead and Sakura and Clown followed once again as they traveled through more tight corridors. Yakuza began to filter into the halls armed with mass produced katanas and pistols and Caster simply slaughtered all the thugs with more snakes from her sleeves. The serpents constricted and squeezed some men to death while others felt poison enter their veins from venomous bites. The most unlucky would find snakes burrowing into their bodies to blend up their organs and leave no chance for their survival. A squadron of reptiles was now causing chaos all throughout the compound. The wood and tatami mats dyed red with blood and everything reeked of iron.
Sakura had no sympathy for the bastards that had captured her sister, so she felt nothing as she walked across their wrecked corpses towards the room where Luviagelita was being kept. Caster batted at the door to destroy it and the group entered Luviagelita's prison. The blonde was surrounded by snakes that defended her and a pile of what was once multiple humans, but was now an unrecongnizable mound of red. Luviagelita's bonds were already cut up thanks to the snakes. She said something, but her lack of a tongue and teeth made it incomprehensible.
"Lady Luviagelita!" Clown took his master into his arms with a bit too much vigor and she groaned in pain as Clown accidentally touched one of her wounds. "I'm sorry!"
"Teleport us out." Caster said and Clown took a moment to process the comment after he was distracted by his mistake.
"Right, of course." Clown began to activate his Bounded Field which would warp everyone out of the building and into the nearby alley, but then the green barrier faded.
Clown's head hit the ground. He had been decapitated. Behind him stood a woman who had tackled through the wall and killed him.
She held in her hand a katana with a tiger charm hanging from the guard. She wore a pantsuit and had a black coat hanging off her shoulders that was trimmed with white fur. Her short hair was orange-brown and her eyes were those of a killer. On the back of her hand was a full set of Command Spells.
Snakes from one of Caster's sleeves wrapped around Luviagelita and pulled her out of the swordswoman's range while serpents from the other sleeve attacked the enemy. The familairs were all diced up in mere moments as the suited woman swung her sword at speeds far too fast for any human or normal magus. Assassin must have outfitted his Master with projected Noble Phantasms which had boosted her abilities like he had with the yakuza. She was definitely given higher quality ones than the normal thugs that Saber and the Gorgon Sisters were forced to work with as she actually appeared capable of fighting on par with a Servant, though that may have also been because of her masterful swordsmanship. She wielded her sword with a degree of skill that was beyond normal humans and delved into a realm only the likes of Heroic Spirits could surpass. She wasn't on the level of a Saber in terms of sword skill, but that wasn't to put down her ability. She sliced through Caster's snakes with clean swings, her every action honed into an automatic response to certain stimuli. Her motions were robotic in their exactness and yet fluid in how they shifted one to the other. Even as snakes dug through the ground and into the walls and burst out all around the swordswoman to surprise attack the Master from all angles, every serpent was sliced into tiny chunks. A technique-type fighter such as this woman was the worst match for a Caster only somewhat suited to combat such as Medusa. Caster had to overpower or overwhelm the swordswoman to win.
While attacking with more snakes and adding in offensive spells from the Age of Gods, Caster removed her blindfold and her eyes were revealed. Beautiful square pupils stared at the enemy Master and she should have begun turning to stone, but she didn't. Some petrification creeped upon her, but it was barely anything when its effect should have near-instantly turned the Master into a sculpture. Considering Assassin knew about the abilities of Saber and the Gorgon Sisters, including the Mystic Eyes the Caster trio owned, he likely prepared certain Noble Phantasms and Mystic Codes to equip his Master with that would give her Advantage against Saber and the Gorgon Sisters if they ever betrayed them. One of the Master's Noble Phantasms was weakening the effect of the Mystic Eyes of Petrification. While Caster put her blindfold back on to conserve magical energy, one of the snakes that wrapped around Luviagelita hung over her and opened its maw. Blood, the healing blood of Medusa, poured out of its mouth and into Luviagelita's. The blonde's wounds began healing, though the likes of her lost tongue and teeth could not be repaired so easily. Another snake slithered over to Rin and gave her the same treatment, healing her injuries excluding her lost arm and mutilated mouth. Both women got to their feet, though Sakura was hesitant to let her sister stand on her own in her condition. Sakura pulled out the bag full of jewels and both Rin and Luviagelita took multiple handfuls. They started charging the stones with magical energy while Caster continued to occupy the swordswoman with her snakes and spells of various elements.
The enemy Master dodged spells and diced up serpents while she closed the distance between herself and Caster until the Servant was in range. A series of slashes were dodged by Caster while she tried to retaliate with punches boosted by Monstrous Strength, but they failed to hit as well. As the close-ranged exchange continued, the Master got the upper hand and cuts began to appear on Caster's body. Medusa would probably have done better if she weren't forced to be a Caster over a more combat focused class.
"We gotta jump in or that Servant is dead." Rin said telepathically.
"Luviagelita and I will help, you stay back." Sakura said.
"Sakura, I ca-"
"You don't have an arm, Rin. You can't fight."
"Kirei trained us to adapt, I'll be alright."
"Your balance will be off, your whole fighting style will be thrown out of whack."
"Sakura, I'll be fine. You have to trust me."
The word trust broke something in Sakura's mind and she remembered her previous conversations with Saber and her musings on her life with Rin.
"Okay, but be careful." Sakura smiled at her sister and Rin smiled back.
"Get ready to move." Luviagelita crouched low into a grappling stance. "You two take the swordswoman's attention and I'll get a hold of her to keep her in place, then you can take her out with some powerful spells along with Caster."
The sisters nodded and when there was an opening to jump in, the three magi attacked. Right when the enemy Master was going to swing their sword at Caster, both Rin and Sakura used their moving stance to close the distance with the swordswoman in a blink and with no tells. The enemy Master had solid instincts and quickly began turning and diverting her slash to bisect the sisters along with Caster in a single swipe. Sakura used the locking stance of Bajiquan where she hooked her front leg around the swordswoman's. Sakura grabbed the enemy's leg with her own and yanked it to the side. The surprise pseudo-sweep ruined the yakuza's balance and threw off her slash so it wouldn't even reach Sakura or Rin while Caster easily dodged it.
Rin acted simultaneously with her sister's leg lock and used Eight Postures of the Buddha Guards to punch with the fullest power she was capable of. Her foot dug into the tatami to draw force from the ground through leverage and her upper body twisted as she focused her entire body weight into her fist. The blow struck true and dug into the yakuza's chest with enough force to make the air behind the swordswoman get fired back and blow a hole in the wall behind her. The technique should have made the swordswoman's heart burst, but that failed to occur due to the durability of the Noble Phantasms she wore and the fact that the strike was imperfect from Rin's own imbalanced body born from her lost arm. To add a little something to the hit to make up for the dampened power of it, Rin used her magecraft martial arts to infuse the strike with a lightning spell that coursed through the yakuza's body and made her muscles freeze.
The enemy Master flew through several walls and into a hall. She wasn't given a chance to land before Luviagelita loped towards the yakuza and grabbed her head. The swordsman's head was pulled to Luviagelita's shoulder from behind and they dropped. Luvigelita hit the ground in a sitting position while the yakuza's neck was slammed into Luviagelita's shoulder in a technique referred to as a stunner. The enemy Master reeled from the hit to her throat, even if it didn't do any real damage and Luviagelita pushed her target onto her stomach. The blonde put her back onto the yakuza's and grabbed the swordsman's arm and pulled it behind her. This was a Fujiwara armbar and the arm being restrained was the one that the enemy Master held her blade which meant she was no longer able to swing it. Sakura, Rin, and Caster all readied offensive spells aimed for the yakuza's head to blow it to chunks. Unfortunately, the yakuza's boosted strength allowed her to easily overpower Luviagelita's hold, yanking her arm free and pulling the blonde with the limb which made her slam face first into the floor. The swordswoman jumped out of the way of the spells which incinerated the spot where her head one sat. The enemy Master was back on her feet and ready to keep fighting.
Both Sakura and Rin used their moving stance simultaneously again which meant they'd be able to perform more synchronized attacks. It also meant that the swordswoman could attack both of them at once. The yakuza had predicted the sisters would use the same high speed movement technique and attack in combination and preemptively slashed horizontally. The blade would hit Sakura first. Rin might have been able to parry the slash with her bare hands. She could use her magecraft martial arts to armor herself while 'hearing the move.' Rin had mastered the art of detecting attacks before they happened to react to opponents that were too fast to see. Sakura had learned the basics of the technique, but she hadn't mastered it. She could barely perceive the oncoming blade. She had no chance of dodging or deflecting or anything. She could jump into Imaginary Number Space to avoid it, but then the edge would head right for Rin. Could Rin handle avoiding the sword while in her condition? Was one arm enough? Sakura didn't know. Rin said Sakura needed to trust her. Would this be a moment to trust her?
"Move!" The telepathic word was spoken by Rin and Sakura responded by shifting into Imaginary Number Space. She felt the alternate reality assaulting her body and making every pain receptor in her body activate. She didn't care, she was focused on Rin.
Rin pushed off the ground and jumped into the same direction the blade was going so she'd move with the force of the blade when it made impact rather than against it. Rin's one hand was reinforced and infused with defense magecraft. The hand connected with the sword and the spells enhancing the limb were broken through. Four fingers and the upper half of Rin's hand were cut off. This delayed the slash a bit as Rin's body kept moving further away from the blade. The edge reached Rin's gut and cut across it. Rin managed to avoid getting cut in half, but her belly was cut open. Rin's arm covered her gut to prevent her organs from spilling out as she was flung back from the force of the slash. She crashed through multiple rooms and Sakura chased after her through Imaginary Number Space.
"Rin!" Sakura left the alternate space while Luviagelita and Caster engaged with the swordswoman. Dropping to her knees next to her sister, Sakura began using healing magecraft fueled by a Command Spell from the Book of False Attendant on Rin.
"Keep fighting the sword bitch." Rin said telepathically while she clenched her teeth and began funneling magical energy from one of her jewels into healing herself. "I'll be alright."
"I can see your guts, you're not fine!" Sakura was crying hysterically.
"I can keep myself stable. You need to deal with the sword bitch."
"I can't leave you! God, what's wrong with me?"
"Nothing's wrong with you. You were protecting yourself."
"But you got hurt! You're bleeding everywhere! Why'd I dodge? I should have taken the hit to protect you!"
"Don't say that. You would have died."
"That's fine!"
A soft impact to Sakura's cheek. The bloody remains of Rin's hand punched Sakura to no significant physical effect.
"Don't ever say it would be okay for you to die."
"But," Sakura gripped the damaged hand. "I don't want you to die."
"And I don't want you to die. One of us dying for the other isn't a solution here."
"I want to protect you."
"I protected myself. I'm hurt, but we're both alive. It's okay to watch out for each other, but we also have to trust each other to survive on our own."
"Trusting you got you hurt like this!"
"And I'm alive! If you didn't trust me, you'd be dead! Is that better? It's better for you to be dead and for me to have to suffer knowing you died for me for the rest of my life?"
Sakura couldn't think of anything to say. She had failed to realize that in their manufactured codependency, Sakura and Rin had developed not only the same desire to protect each other, but the same willingness to give up their very lives for each other, and would be equally distraught at being the only one of them to survive into the future.
"Sakura, I love you and you love me. We need to both survive and that means protecting not only each other, but ourselves."
"You're right. You're right."
"I'll be okay for now." Rin craned her head to look where Caster and Luviagelita were fighting the swordswoman. Sakura looked as well and saw that the fight had long since moved to an entirely different floor of the underground mansion. "You can leave me here for now. I'm not in any immediate danger as long as I keep healing myself and Caster can feed me her blood later to fix me up. Go fight. They'll need you to finish that yakuza bitch." Rin smiled and Sakura forced one of her own.
"I'll go. Don't be afraid to call for me." Sakura stood up and felt the blood on her cheek from her sister's punch.
"Don't die."
"I won't."
Sakura ran to a hole which her allies and the swordswoman made during their fighting. Sakura could hear sounds from the ongoing brawl through it so Sakura jumped down and sensed for where everyone's magical energy was. She followed the signal and thought about what method she would use to get the jump on the yakuza woman. The most obvious tactic would be to combine her ability to enter Imaginary Number Space with the moving stance for a surprise attack. The swordswoman had already seen both those techniques and had shown the ability to adapt to her opponents capabilities after a single showing. Whether she understood enough about Sakura's Imaginary Number Space jumping to counter it was unclear. Sakura would have to get creative.
In an area where many rooms had been destroyed leaving only an empty space covered in wood chips and paper scraps, the swordswoman was continuing to fight with Caster and her Master. The yakuza was clearly struggling to deal with the constant combos of Luviagelita's wrestling and Caster's various spells.
Before the yakuza had the chance to notice Sakura, she entered Imaginary Number Space. The pain caused by existing in the alternate realm was becoming more tolerable to Sakura, though it was still so intense that she would be reeling from the recoil it caused her body later without a doubt. Sakura readied ten gems infused with an offensive spell and she threw them into a sphere shaped array around where everyone was fighting, the jewels freezing in place until needed. The distance between Sakura and the enemy Master was made nothing thanks to the moving stance.
Sakura surfaced into normal space right as she reached for the unprepared swordswoman's arm in order to use Six Grand Opening - Elbow Thrust. Despite being caught off guard, the yakuza still pulled her arm out of reach before adjusting her position in preparation to stab Sakura. The katana's tip thrust for Sakura's heart and in that moment she telepathically told Caster and her Master to jump away. Both complied and got out of the range of the frozen jewels and right before she could get impaled, Sakura entered Imaginary Number Space while having the sphere of jewels exit the overlapping realm. The gems completely surrounded the yakuza and thus left her no direction to escape to when all the stones exploded into a combined mystical conflagration.
"Ein Körper ist ein Körper!"
Blinding light flooded the entire floor of the building and destructive power great enough to harm a Servant assaulted the yakuza. Sadly, the woman seemed to possess a charm or the like that granted some weak form of Magic Resistance as she was hurt, but not as severely as she should have been. Her clothes did get a bit tattered and her skin was reddened at the least so she was definitely feeling that last blast.
Sakura re-entered regular space and immediately grabbed the yakuza's arm and lifted it above herself while pushing herself up close to the enemy Master. Pulling the swordswoman in, Sakura struck her elbow into her target's chest right at the heart while she hit her opponent's supporting leg with her own for a two pronged offense known as Six Grand Opening - Elbow Thrust. The attack focused on internal damage that could somewhat bypass the external protections of the swordswoman's Noble Phantasms. As she executed the attack, Sakura held the Book of False Attendant in the hand she elbowed with and used one of the Command Spells to add extra power to the attack. The yakuza grunted and spit up blood and Sakura didn't let go of her opponent's arm as she prepared to hit her again.
"Assassin! Get over here!" The yakuza spoke for the first time and Sakura preemptively let go of her enemy and jumped away.
Spacetime began to distort as a Command Spell on the swordswoman's hand lit up before fading. A man with dark skin and white hair appeared. It was Assassin.
And he was a mess. Bloody and beaten, his right arm in particular barely even resembled a human limb. It looked more like a torn up sausage. His fight with the group leaving Fuyuki hadn't gone well.
"Thank you Master, my shield broke right when you saved me. I would have died."
"Listening to your cries for help made me distracted. I got hit in the chest because of it." She only got hit with Sakura's elbow thrust because she was distracted by Assassin's cry for help? Was that true of just an attempt to demoralize her enemy?
"I see we've been betrayed." Assassin clicked his tongue. "I saw this coming, but I didn't think it'd be so soon."
"Stop whining. We need to leave."
The purple haired Tohsaka didn't plan on letting Assassin and his Master escape when they were both weakened. Sakura used the combination of the moving stance and entering Imaginary Number Space again while Luivagelita and Caster fired off multiple projectiles of magical energy.
"I am the bone of my sword." A sword with a spiral blade appeared in the functioning hand of Assassin. "Caladbolg." The weapon was thrust and whatever scraps of Assassin's magical energy that persisted after his previous fight funneled into the Noble Phantasm and overloaded it to make it a Broken Phantasm. Space distorted and spiraled from the mystical drill. It bored a hole through normal reality and into Imaginary Number Space. The spinning wall of warped space created acted as a barrier against Caster and Luviagelita's spells while also serving as an attack towards Sakura since the sword penetrated into two overlapping spacetimes.
Sakura had already gotten in close using the moving stance so she was nearly within the grasp of the twisting space. She needed to get away. The thrust was slow due to Assassin's enervation. Sakura dodged back and to the side, out of the range of the Broken Phantasm. The whorling space shot forward like a lance towards Caster and Luviagelita who also dodged. They were lucky this wasn't Caladbolg at full capability or they would have gotten sucked in and mutilated. The ceiling, walls, and floor collapsed from the destruction and the entire area was covered in a cloud of debris. Sakura fell to the floor below and landed on her feet. She tucked and rolled around the falling bits of ceiling. When things calmed down she tried to sense for Assassin and his Master's magical energy, but she couldn't find them. They had hidden themselves and escaped.
While coughing up a lung from the dust, Sakura looked around for Luviagelita and Caster. She quickly found them with the Servant having created a canopy of snakes to shield the duo from the collapse of the roof.
Instead of asking if they were okay, Sakura immediately had a harrowing thought. What if Assassin and his Master were going to find and kidnap Rin again?
The legs of the Tohsaka girl reinforced and she jumped up two floors and began to sprint. She felt Rin's magical energy and there were no other energy signatures around her, but that didn't mean she was safe. Assassin and his Master were hidden from detection so they could have been right next to Rin, ready to strike. Sakura kept swallowing spit until her throat was raw as she ran. She kept stumbling which only delayed her more; made her limbs more twitchy and imprecise. Memories of waking up in the hospital and learning that Rin had been captured looped in Sakura's head.
"Rin!"
Rin was right where Sakura had left her and was in the exact same condition. Sakura looked left and right, up and down, forward and back. She observed every angle a dozen times. She was waiting for the moment that Assassin would appear. She felt each drop of sweat that slid down her skin as her every sense was in overdrive. She had to be ready for when Assassin arrived.
He never did. He and his Master had really left. The fight was over. Sakura's body went limp and she dropped to the ground.
"Sakura?"
Rin was wrapped up by Sakura's arms as the younger Tohsaka cried her eyes out. The embrace was gentle in order to make sure that Rin didn't feel even the slightest bit of pain. It had been so long since Sakura last felt her sister's warmth, or smelt his sister's scent. Sakura nuzzled into her sister's collar and imagined they were children again. Rin wordlessly accepted the hug and the two sisters just had a moment together. No fighting. No fear. Just an instance of happiness and relief between two siblings.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too."
Steps. Sakura turned and saw that Luviagelita and Caster were there. Caster held the corpse of Clown in her arms. Sakura had forgotten about Clown.
"I'm sorry." Sakura said.
"What are you apologizing for?" Luviagelita seemed angry.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't be sorry, you didn't do anything wrong. It's our job and right to mourn, not yours. Moving on, Caster, heal Rin."
"Rin?" Sakura tilted her head. "You're on a first name basis?"
"Never you mind that. Caster, do the thing."
A serpent slithered out of Caster's sleeve and dripped blood from its fangs into Rin's mouth. The hole in Sakura's sister's gut gradually closed and the bleeding of Rin's hand ceased, though the upper half of the hand was still gone. That made Sakura bite her tongue.
"Thank you." Rin said.
"As long as we are allies, I intend to treat you both well. It is only appropriate." Luviagelita turned around and began to walk off. "Let us recover our stolen things. I need to find my gems and you, Rin, need to get your Azoth Sword and pendant. Come on, haste makes waste." Luviagelita reminded Sakura of Rin. They were both a lot sweeter than they came off and were easily flustered.
Sakura helped her sister to her feet and the group headed off to search for their pilfered goods. The fight had not been without losses, but Rin had been recovered and that was what mattered most to Sakura. She hoped Saber would survive her mission. She was technically Sakura's sister too. Considering how wrong Assassin's mission appeared to have gone, Sakura was worried, but she decided to put her trust in Saber.