Chapter 66: Chapter 63: Sakura Matou
Sakura was content with looking at her sister from afar, she assumed somehow it was her fault that the sister who used to smile at her had been giving her the cold shoulder. Still, something different than usual happened, Rin who was always with people or was busy with work expertly avoided conversation with people and deflected groups coming towards her as she went out of the class discretely.
Curious, sakura followed her sister and witnessed her climb the staircase to the roof. Students did not prefer this particular roof section because it was closed off and windy. She wanted to follow the black-haired girl but hesitated and turned around. She lacked the confidence and courage to confront her sister and hence went away.
After this incident, she increased the frequency and duration of stalking, when after a few weeks she didn't get any results except witnessing Rin going to the roof purposefully multiple times a week. She dismissed her suspicion of Rin just liking that place and was now sure that she was hiding something.
So while peeking at the staircase she saw shirou go there 1st and then Rin followed and vice versa. After observing them she concluded that shirou and Rin secretly met multiple times a week. She was curious about shirou and also immensely saddened that her sister had time to meet strangers but didn't even look for her even once after they were separated. while spiralling down in her thoughts she convinced herself
<no! It's not her fault that she is not looking for you. You are Sakura Matou now not Tohsaka. It's not like someone like me deserves to be associated with a shining beacon like her.>
(little Sakura`s image)
"So the heir of tohsaka is regularly meeting with this boy and they even have set up a bounded field on the location."
Said an old man sitting on a rocking chair made of unknown wood. The man was extremely old like he could die the next moment. His skin was blackish as if rotting and his head was completely bald. His eyes had black sclera and the pupils were like dead fish-eyed white. The man looked like he had escaped from a horror movie.
(the old worm`s image)
One look at his face and the children would keep themselves quiet till they grow up. His green yukata moved and the black overcoat slid back as a wittered palm was revealed by him. his palm caressed a wooden walking stick kept beside the chair and he said.
"You keep a look out on the boy that was with her. Now go."
Sakura just left the room like a robot but inside her sleeves, her palms were sweating and shaking. Watching the girl leave Zouken Matou went back to planning, he was the head of the Matou family and one of the most deranged and cowardly magus, with only lunatics like cornelious Alba falling ahead of him.
(Alba`s image)
Zouken being the schemer and coward he is tries to sniff around emiya residence but the bounded field kiritsugu deployed is enough to deter him and with shirou reinforcing the bounded field it transformed into a small workshop making intrusion of his familiars very risky.
With his nature, he didn't take the risk and avoided revealing himself or his intentions to anyone.his thoughts revolved around his obsession making him a very tricky camper that hides like a turtle. He thought
<All variables should be accounted for and I should eliminate those that carry no risk of exposure. The next holy grail war is far away so the threat of magus killer should be minimised by them and his successor`s interest in the grail is not confirmed.>
< I should focus on preparing the vessel for the grail, while everyone focuses on the Einzberg family`s vessel I can use Sakura and use the grail. Shinji still needs more time till his role, the boy is still in delusion about being the heir of the family and blames Sakura for trying to take his birthright and competing with him.>
<Byakuya is surprisingly useful, he can continue the girl's training when I am away and mould his son. Being a wastrel and wasting money is inconsequential as he can act as my proxy.>
As he got up from the chair some of his body parts distorted in weird angles and his head swelled on the side before going back to normal, his skin squirmed as if worms were crawling under it and some black insect pincher and jaws were visible on his sleeves and slowly the bugs melded into his clothes.
He left the matou residence to visit the various spiritual lands under the family that he had rented out. If the magi renting it didn't find the deterrent of a high-ranking magus from the Matou family they might embezzle the land and this also gave him the excuse to feed his familiars and purchase materials for his research.
The Pride-ranked,5 centuries old monster walked towards the basement of the household with his hunched back and the rhythmic taping of his walking stick and the chittering of hungry insects in the basement made an eerie symphony.
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Shirou locked eyes with the girl and he felt as if there was a cat that was scratching his heart making him extremely curious about who this girl was. As soon as they crossed eyes the girl hurriedly shuttled back and went back.
Shirou decided to observe her for some more time before confronting her. Well, finding her information can be a practice for tracking knowledge that kiritsugu cramped into his brain.
Letting this small interlude go by shirou went home and today kiritsugu dismissed Taiga with a holiday and shirou concluded all his sword and smithing practice in the morning and practising projection in school while trying to be discrete has proved abundantly useful as his stagnant mastery was rapidly increasing and he was making advancement in projection things while also keeping eyes on the surroundings.
Shirou cleaned himself and changed into a training outfit and the father and son stood outside on the lawn in the gentle evening breeze. Kiritsugu asked
"Do you feel comfortable enough? Does the crest still hurt" in a business tone and he was
"No, I am fine. The crest feels like I suddenly have another limb that I didn't have before."
Said Shirou mirroring his father, he gave an objective analysis and ignored the bouts of pain that could easily make a boy his age cry. under Shirou's insistence, kiritsugu finally agreed to teach him the basics of time alter. Shirou`s insistence played a part in the magus killer`s decision plus now the boys have the majority of the crest fragment hence it's now usable and it wouldn't hurt to be familiar with magecraft usage of the concept of time.
(A/N: so guys it's info time.
Zoeken's original name of Makari Zouken and he was a genius magus of the association that achieved pride rank at a young age. About the rank, there are 7 of them and pride is the 3rd from the top. For a scale that ranks 1 grand as living legends, they pretty much wield magecraft near the level of magic and are normally not understandable by the general magis.
They are pretty much beyond Grandmaster in the craft of magecraft. An example would be Touko Aozaki. So zouken was up there in his time and his main craft was the eccentric studies tile witchcraft, curses, familiar and etc so he was what you can call a dark magus.
(beautiful touko's pic)
With his skills in witchcraft rituals and curses and familiars to make this cheap ass copy of Nero chaos`s power and extended his life. Another fact is that zouken could easily do the ritual and become a dead apostle but didn't even consider that in his deranged state.
He absolutely abhorred that method and considered it imperfect and not worth of someone like himself.
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Now we move on to information about Sakura, she is traumatised and that's just the basics. For her zouken is now like a force of nature and she considers defying him impossible, she blames herself for not fighting back against her abbusers and considers herself a coward and worthless.
She understands that she should fight back but hates herself for not fighting back and cowering.
Hence she has already developed a mental image of being unworthy and dirty and not deserving of happiness as it is the price for her cowardice. Currently, her days are going by in a daze and she lacks that spark. You people can guess who her spark would be.
And the shit fuckery she would go through will still happen as the mf zouken is still there and shirou would leave soon. The direction would change and for the Shinji sympathisers I am sorry but with his character when I fit him into my plot he becomes more vile as the reveal of shirou being a magus and legitimate one at that would shake him to the core and guess who would take the fall in that coward`s eyes.
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THANKS FOR READING:)
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