Ever since she was summoned here, Sakura had kept to herself outside of a very select few— RITSUKA, her Master, Mash, Atalante, the blacksmith, and the kitchen crew. There were passing "hello" to others but other than that, she made sure there was some distance between herself and everyone else. She didn't hate anyone here or anything, she just… didn't feel she belonged.

'Why me…?' She kept asking herself. Her summoning granted her some meager knowledge about being a Servant and such, but the first requirement always threw her off— someone who has accomplished great deeds. A hero worthy of being seen as one, a person who was looked up to… so why her? In the end, she failed in doing the one thing that mattered most to her and yet here she was, being one of the many summoned to Chaldea.

She shouldn't be here— but she was.

"Miss Sakura, what are you thinking about?" She was taken out of her thoughts by the innocent voice of one Nursery Rhyme who happened to be passing by. Sakura didn't even notice her until she spoke. "Your face is all serious. Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, I was just… remembering things," Sakura gave a small smile as she patted Nursery Rhyme's head.

"If it's something on your mind, why don't you talk to Master about it?" The Caster suggested with a big smile. "Whenever any of us are feeling sad, he's always there to cheer us up."

While definitely a sensible suggestion, Sakura felt like she couldn't just unload all her problems so soon. As much as she liked him— which was undoubtedly influenced by her own friendship with RITSUKA —she didn't want to say a little too much too early. They were still strangers to each other… Regardless, Sakura thanked her for the advice and watched Nursery Rhyme wave goodbye before she skipped along her merry way.

'…If not Master, then maybe…'

Finding RITSUKA was easy, actually talking to him was hard. Along the way to the training room, Sakura had been trying to figure out how to breach the topic to him. During their time here, they've only really talked about how their days here had been or RITSUKA wondering what happened following his death. She had yet to tell him the exact nature of her death for plainly obvious reasons…

He was still in the middle of using a training dummy when she walked in and didn't want to interrupt him yet. Fortunately, RITSUKA didn't notice her arrival and she waited off to the side just out of sight as always… out of sight… as always…

"Is something bothering you?"

"Huh? Oh…" Her thoughts this time were interrupted by Ritsuka, who had come in after her. "It's nothing, Master. I was just watching him." Her eyes drifted back towards the other RITSUKA. "Even here, he's still trying his best, isn't he?"

Ritsuka nodded at her observation, glancing at his counterpart too. "It technically does not matter but still, I take it it was part of his routine back then?"

"Naturally, we were soldiers. It was part of everyone's day to swing by the training room," Sakura shared with some nostalgia in her voice. "He never trained alone though. He had a partner with him as far as I could remember."

"You mean—?"

"You have a younger sister too, correct?" She knew she was going back on what she told herself earlier but it was better than talking about the other thing. Not yet.

Fortunately for her, Ritsuka recognized her wish to change the topic. "Yup," he nodded with a smile. "I'm like twice her age but we're still close. Well… were as it is."

"And she's one of the reasons you're putting yourself through all this…" Sakura muttered to which Ritsuka nodded again.

"There's still a chance she and everyone else could be saved," he said with a slight frown. "But even if I didn't have a sister, I'd still go through all this because saving them is something I could do… something only I could right now."

Sakura couldn't help but wonder if she could say the same; back then, she only grew stronger and joined Fire Moth for Rin's sake. 'And look where that got me…' She felt her fist clenching as she recalled the events leading to her death— what happened to her younger sister she did everything she could to protect… If she was faster— if she had done things another way… would it have ended differently?

Sensing her growing frustration, Ritsuka thought to ask her something. "If given the chance, what would you wish for with the Holy Grail?"

The question made her pause to think. She also received some knowledge of the Grail upon her summoning— an omnipotent artifact with the ability to grant a person's deepest desire. If only they had something like that in their world, maybe their world could have been saved. That would be the wish of a better person though; maybe it would be a runabout way to get rid of the Honkai but her wish was simple. "I wish to be happy with Rin. That's all I ever desired."

"That's rather simple," Ritsuka chuckled in response. "But not a bad one. Not bad at all." It was not a wish anyone could argue with; at least no one sane. It may be a selfish wish but still a pure one. "But is that all you desire?" He then asked, his eyes flickering towards RITSUKA for a moment.

'...Guess I can't dance around it any longer.' "Master, do you know what it's like to be in the shadows?" She asked in turn. "My line of work, it usually required me to… clean up a few stains in the way of Fire Moth— and I was good at it." Ritsuka didn't say anything but was listening to every word she said. "Because of that and other reasons, I prefer staying out of everyone else's way."

And that extended to even here in Chaldea.

"But there were exceptions." It wasn't a question but a statement of fact from Ritsuka.

"Of course there were. Rin was one of them, but there were a couple of others like…" Well, it didn't really need to be said who one of the "others" were. "...He was around with a friendly smile and willing to spend time with me despite what I do. He does so with everyone to be frank but it was always nice to have someone see you."

Her lips tipped up into a small smile but as she expected, Ritsuka saw right through her mask. "But he never did see you, did he?"

"...No, he didn't," Sakura quietly confessed. "Even when I was standing in front of him, he was never looking at me. Even here, he is still thinking about her." Again, there was no need to name names; Sakura was confident Ritsuka already knew who she was talking about. "I never stood a chance, did I?"

"...From the way he spoke of her, no," Ritsuka bluntly replied. It admittedly hurt to hear that in the same voice as RITSUKA but at the same time…

"Thank you for saying that." Her smile grew wider— only a little bit, but still wider. "After all this time, that's what I needed to hear." Nursery Rhyme was right in advising her to see him; she already knew he was the type to hear her out without making any judgment but it was another thing to actually speak to him. "Thank you… You really are as nice as hi—" "Alright, that's enough."

A sharp annoyed voice from behind made Sakura jump and turn to see another Servant there. She recognized her to be another Assassin but couldn't place her name yet. Ritsuka, on the other hand— "Oh, Kama. What are you doing here?"

"I was just looking for you. I need your help with something, Master," the white-haired Servant aloofly answered before making a barely noticeable glance at Sakura. "Come on, let's go."

"Hey, wait. Help with whaa-aaah!" Without another word, Kama grabbed Ritsuka by the wrist and dragged him out of the training room. Sakura could only sigh and watch him go.

However, the commotion had gotten the attention of a certain someone who came over to check on what was happening. "Sakura, what's up with Master?" RITSUKA asked as he approached her.

"Nothing important, the others just wanted his attention," she answered with amusement in her voice.

"I see… And do you need help with anything?"

"…No, not anymore," smiled the Assassin.

Once again, Ritsuka found himself in the summoning chamber and hyped himself up for another shot in the dark. Chanting the lines that he has long since ingrained into his memory, the room soon lit up and the three bands signalled a new arrival.

"Hello! Assassin, Pardofelis, at your service! I don't really like fighting and prefer sticking back… HUH?! RITSUKA?!" …This was how things were going to be for a while, wasn't— "Nyaa!? Wait a sec— " shrieked the catgirl as she got out of the summoning circle; another three bands flashed and before they knew it, another new Servant was with them too.

"Caster, at your service. My True Name is Mobius and I do hope you'll be a fine test subject, Mas… Wait… Are you two not…?" The green-haired woman narrowed her eyes at him, recognizing him from somewhere.

Meanwhile, the other new Servant was bemoaning her appearance. "Aw man… She's here too?" She cried while hiding behind Ritsuka. "You'd think death was a good way to get away from her!"

Well… seems like things were just going to get more lively in Chaldea.

A/N: Aight, the next chapter is done and sent to the editor after days of procrastination. Now I'm free to write some funny moments with Sakura... wait, why is it starting with angst? ...Damn it... Well, hope this is a good continuation to this subplot. Whether it ends here is a coin flip but other way, expect one of the Servants to get in the way anytime she grows closer to Ritsuka.

As for the two at the end, I added the list of Flamechasers I wanted to use here to the Wheel of Names and it gave me those two so now they're here. Yay! See you all next time!