Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was the world the light had brought her to? 

Aqua looked around her surroundings. She was standing on the sidewalk of a populated city. What must have been hundreds of people were either walking around her dressed in a variety of clothes or were inside of their vehicles. Her eyes took note of the ginormous buildings around her. Some of them looking capable of towering over some of the more giant Unversed with ease and others still being relatively tall except not as big as the former.

It looked…strange. Not to say it was an ugly world or anything of the sort. It was just unusual. Growing up in the Land of Departure, she didn’t really see sights like this. Neither did any of the worlds she had been to while chasing after Terra resembled this world. A correct way to describe it would be that it looked like what a world in-between the new and old would look like. She thought that was right. The world she landed in felt a lot more like it was rushing towards the future with all of the enormous buildings and vehicles she could have sworn looked more advanced than any of the other ones she had seen in other worlds. 

Her eyes looked around at the people. A lot of people were giving her looks with surprised eyes or making a tired face when they saw her. Certain ones in particular were also staring at her with excitement in their eyes. They all looked a little bit around Ven’s age or a bit older. She looked down at her outfit and compared it to what everyone else was wearing. Was there something wrong with what she was wearing? She never got any comments when she showed up in other worlds. She peered at all of the outfits others were wearing and told herself to not let it get to her. Not like she would be here for too long anyway. The light had taken her to this location for some reason, so there must be something she was meant to find—

“Oof!” 

Huh? She looked down and saw a young boy who looked like a spitting image of one of her friends. He was laid out beside her leg and dressed in a simple white t-shirt and red shorts with sandals. On his ears too was some weird toy headband with sable ears on top of them that reminded her a bit too much of the ears of a certain mouse-shaped Keyblade wielder. She leaned down to hold out a hand towards the young boy as he shook the dizziness out of his head. When he got a look at her, he put on a relieved smile and took her hand to pull himself off of the ground. 

“Are you okay?” she got down on one knee and examined his body for any kind of injury. “No cuts or anything on your hands? Breathing all okay? Do you feel nauseous?”

“Yes. No. Yes. No.” the boy placed his hands behind his head.

She stood back up and wiped herself off. “Are you sure? I know how you boys act. I’ve got a…let’s call him a little brother. He loves to pretend he’s alright when he’s not.” 

The boy placed a thumb on his cheek and scratched it. “But all I did was run into your leg?” 

He did? She guessed that would explain why he was laid out beside her. She didn’t know why she thought he had been physically thrown towards her. 

Hold on. Was her leg that strong or was he that weak? Whatever. It didn’t matter right about now. There was something more pressing to worry about at the moment. Where was this child’s guardian? He couldn’t have been on his own. He looked well-fed and appeared far too casual to be a boy with no home to call his own. Did they abandon him or did they end up separated because of a simple mistake? For the guardian’s sake, she hoped it was the second option and not the first. She didn’t think she would be able to keep herself from locating them and giving them a piece of her mind if they chose to leave this boy alone.

“Do you know where your parents or any kind of guardian are?” she asked the young boy.

The boy tilted his head and hummed to himself for a few seconds before chuckling. “Nope!” the smile on his face lost its cheerful exterior and became a lot less confident. “U-Uh. I sort of got the idea to play a prank on my mom with a friend of mine and I stopped paying attention to where I was running to after a while.”

Aqua sighed from relief. It was just an irresponsible prank. She held up a finger and wagged it. “You know you shouldn’t play pranks like that. Your mother could be worried about you.”

The boy’s shoulders slumped. “I know.” he looked up at her with his hands balled into fists. “B-But she’s always following me around. T-Treating me like I’m always about to break or something. A-And m-my friend and I thought it would be cool if we lost her for a few seconds to see her reaction. I d-didn’t mean to actually lose her or make her worried.” 

She held out her hand and told the boy to take it. “Come on. You can apologize to your mom after we find her. I bet she’ll be really happy to hear you say that.” 

“Y-You’re going to help me find her?!” 

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?” 

“Why? You don’t even know me.” 

Aqua tapped the boy on the forehead. “It’s because you’re a kid and you need help. And I can’t sit by and watch as someone needs help, can I?”

The boy’s eyes widened and a joyful grin appeared. He nodded his head. “Yeah! You’re right!”

She giggled. When he got all excited like that, it really did look like she was staring at Ven.

The boy took her hand and, together, the two of them started looking around for his mom.

“Sora,” he said during the middle of their search.

She looked down at him, confused. “Sora?” she said. “What’s that?” 

His cheeks puffed and he stared at his own feet with a quickly reddening face. “It’s my name.” 

“Oh!” she said. “Well, nice to meet you, Sora. I’m Aqua.” 

“Nice to meet you too, Aqua-san…” he paused and pressed a finger on his chin. “Does this mean we’re friends now? One of my classmates said when two people give each other their name that means they’ve become friends with each other.”

Aqua giggled. “Let’s save a question like that for another time, okay?” 

Sora nodded and went on to ask her a butt-load of other things as the two of them searched for his mother and hopefully that friend of his that he mentioned too—a Riku. As the two of them went around asking questions and retracing Sora’s own steps, the two of them got to know a lot about each other. Well, it would be more accurate to say she got to know a lot about Sora. She told him some things to satiate his curiosity about her as they walked, like when he asked her about her outfit and if she was a chuuni or when he asked her if she had any friends of her own, but most of the time it was him telling her about his family. 

His father was a chef who once dreamed of becoming a superhero when he was younger. Sora didn’t believe him but said he would be more than fine with taking over the dream for his father since he found the idea of saving a bunch of people from trouble and fighting monsters cool. Personally, she thought he had the potential to be a great hero. She could tell from his heart. It almost made her want to bequeath the Keyblade to him and see what happened. 

His mother was an ordinary housewife who he called the most beautiful woman in the world and someone who always knew how to get him to do what she said even when he didn’t want to do it. From the way he gushed about her, she could tell his mother was his favorite of his two parents despite the high amounts of respect she could tell the young boy held for his father when he talked about him. She was apparently a kind woman who helped him whenever he needed it, cleaned after him when he made mistakes, played games with him all of the time even when she didn’t have the energy to do it, and doted on him as if he would disappear if she didn’t. She also had an unnerving tendency to whisper and squeal in her and his father’s bedroom at nighttime. 

Aqua made sure to tell Sora to never mention that last tidbit to anyone else. 

Things started to get stranger after that. 

He told her about another person who lived with him and his parents. A person he considered to be his other mother even if the person wished he would consider her his auntie or elder sister. She was never one to judge how other people lived as long as it didn’t hurt innocents along the way, but a part of her couldn’t help but feel a slight bit uncomfortable about what Sora detailed about the relationship between his parents and this ‘other mother’ that he called Rider—which wasn’t her real name, but Sora told her he wasn’t allowed to say it in front of strangers. Sora wasn’t able to understand it himself since he was young. To her eyes, however, it was clear he was describing an intimate relationship far more than just simply being a close friend or sister who lived with his parents. It made her slightly lose a little bit of respect for his mother. If she was in her position, she didn’t think she would ever be capable of tolerating something like her husband being involved with another woman while also being involved with her. 

Rider, although, still seemed like a decent enough person from what Sora told her about the woman. She was a quiet woman who liked to use her spare time to read or go riding out on one of their family bikes. She was also the one who took a primary interest in his education and growth. Doing things such as spurning on his father to help her teach him numerous skills and activities meant to strengthen him physically and mentally as he grew up and his body naturally got stronger. A lot of this came down to his father teaching him the same exercises he did when he was young and bringing him to old places he used to work to help out the employees, but a lot less intense, and this Rider teaching him how to read, write, do arithmetic, and other things she thought a young boy shouldn’t be doing until he was a teenager. Though, she could respect the effort the woman was putting into Sora, even though, if his reactions while talking about them were any indication, he couldn’t understand most of what she attempted to teach him. 

She didn’t appreciate it when he told her he could recall her giving him a sip of what he unintentionally described as wine, despite him hardly remembering the day it happened.

Then the young boy told her about the aunt he was related to through her and his mother being related through blood and not just a close friend like Rider. But just like Rider, the way Sora described their relationship to her with all of the innocence of a little boy who didn’t know anything about adult relationships told her this was another woman who sounded far too close to his father than she should be, considering he was her sister’s lover.

Honestly, were his father and mother a bunch of perverts or pushovers?

Sora spoke of how his aunt was a woman who had a tendency to dote on him as much as his own mother did. Unlike his mother, however, she also could go from 0 to 100 in quick time and easily become very severe in how she spoke and acted around him. An example of these times, as he told her when she asked, was when he stole some of her jewelry to show off to his friends to make himself look like he was rich and ended up losing them by the end of the day. 

He insisted he didn’t cry after mentioning it, but all that told her was he probably did cry, but she wouldn’t mention this to him. Men of all ages didn’t like people knowing they were capable of crying before they had a critical moment that snapped them out of this mindset. She could remember Terra going through something similar during their time together at The Land of Departure. 

Continuing off of the stolen jewelry incident. It apparently ended with his mother and her sister getting into a huge argument with each other. The latter not liking how harshly she treated him and the former not liking how she felt his mother was—and this was Sora’s own memory of how things played out—always coddling him. The argument escalated so bad to the point his father and Ms. Rider had to step in and forcefully draw the two sisters apart from each other, and the two of them agreed to stay away from each other for a while. 

Aqua frowned.

Sora really shouldn’t have told her that. Information like that was meant to be kept inside of his family’s own household. Not told to a stranger like her. But it did make sense. One look at him while he was telling this story told her he couldn’t control what he was saying. This wasn’t born from ignorance like when he mentioned the sounds his mother made at night. His eyes were the epitome of fear and he stuttered over his words multiple times. He knew he shouldn’t have been telling her this, yet he still did because the emotion shown in his eyes and body as he continued to speak was nothing except guilt. He blamed himself for being the cause of that argument. 

The thought of that sickened her.

It was obvious there was something deeper going on there. With how he talked about those two, neither of them seemed like the kind of woman who would get worked up over an argument like the way Sora described them. Unless he was misremembering things, which had a likely chance of being what it really was, then that little argument he saw might have not been about him at all. He may have simply been the one who fanned the flames of an already ongoing fire. He shouldn’t feel guilty over whatever baggage two adults may have. He was just a child who wanted to impress his friends. Yes, he may have been lying, and she honestly found herself agreeing with this aunt of his on the matter, but he should never blame himself for something out of his control. He should feel guilty for the things he did do, not the ones he didn’t.

“Huh?” Sora said as she got down on one knee. “What are you doing?” 

She ruffled his hair, causing him to pout. “Sora, do you want to hear a secret?”

“A secret? What kind?” 

“Think of it as a…as a lesson” she snapped her fingers. “It’s a lesson you would’ve learned while you grew up but consider this to be me giving you a head start for being such good company while we look for your mom and friend.” 

His eyes sparkled. “R-Really?!” he jumped up and down excitedly. 

“Yup.” 

“Ha-ha!” he jumped up. “Take that, Riku! I’m gonna be more grown up than you!”

She giggled. “You know, I won’t be able to tell you what it is if you’re jumping all excited.” 

He stopped up and strengthened his body. “Y-Yes! I’ll make sure to listen this time, Sensei!” 

Sensei? That term was unfamiliar to her. Now that she was thinking of it. So was the weird suffix he added at the end of her name earlier too. “Good. Now, listen to me when I say this and never forget it, do you understand me?” 

“Yes! Your student understands, Sensei!” 

“Okay. Remember this, alright?” she placed her hands on his cheeks and looked him in the eyes. “Never let yourself stay in the past for too long.”

“Huh?”

“Always continue to keep moving forward and don’t let things out of your control tie you down,” she continued. “And make sure to always keep a smile on your face. Can you remember that?”

Sora’s forehead scrunched up and he made a funny face. After a few more seconds, his face returned to normal and he nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.” 

“Great. I know you could.” she ruffled his hair again, getting an adorable pout out of him. “Now, let’s go. We have to continue looking for your mother and your friend.” 

“Yes, Sensei!” 

The both of them continued their search. A search that would continue until she noticed the sun beginning to set and cause the young boy with her to start getting scared. However, he didn’t let it get to him for too long. She caught him muttering to himself to stay strong and keep on smiling. She was sure she wasn’t supposed to hear that, though it made her happy all the same. He was already taking her advice to heart. She thought it would take longer for it to stick to his brain, with him being a young child and all. 

For a moment, she thought about handing down the Keyblade to Sora

Was this what that light had sent her here for? Was he the one fated to be her successor? 

She inhaled. “Sora—”

“Sora!” a new and high-pitched voice cried out.

Sora turned around. “Mom! Riku!” he cried. 

Aqua followed his direction. Looking at both of them from ten squares away was a gorgeous woman and a boy who looked around the same age as Sora. The woman looked like she was in her mid-to-late twenties and had long, flowing purple hair and was dressed in a simple white button-up t-shirt with black buttons, a long, white skirt of the same color, and white open-toe sandals with straps. The child next to her had the same headband on his silver-haired head and was dressed in a yellow shirt and blue cargo shorts with sneakers on his feet. 

Her eyes focused on the woman’s hair and then looked back at Sora. Then she looked at her face and at Sora’s face. He must have taken a lot after his father.

The boy ran at Sora, calling out his name excitedly and Sora let go of her hand to go run at him in response. While it seemed like his mother was going to join the two of them at first, something stopped her and chose to meet Aqua’s eyes. It was easy to tell what the woman was probably thinking. No parent would want to see their child around an adult they’ve never met before. She was probably fearful that some strange woman was trying to kidnap her child. 

Aqua took a deep breath and quickly walked towards the woman, hoping to put any reasonable thoughts she might be having to rest, yet before she had the cane to, something made her feet cease movement and shock take over her body. Or two somethings, she would say. 

The first thing was Sora’s friend. She could sense the power inside of him. Someone had done the Keyblade inheritance with him. Was it Terra? It wouldn’t surprise her much if it was him. With what she could see of him, this child had such sincere eyes. Exactly like her wayward friend. Terra would have undoubtedly seen himself in this boy as well. 

The second one sent chills down her spine. No. It terrified her. Her body felt ready to break out into a sprint from the sheer fear she could feel due to it. 

It was malice. Nothing but pure and utter malice. It reminded her of how the Unversed felt. 

And all of it was coming from Sora’s own mother. A woman she assumed would be your average-day person. She grit her teeth and held back from pulling out her Keyblade.

“Oh! Mom! Mom! Come over here.” she saw Sora run over to his mother and start pulling her by the hand. “Come and meet Sen—Aqua-san. She’s been helping me look for you and Riku all day. And where’s Dad? I want him to meet Aqua-san too.” 

The malice disappeared and Aqua allowed herself to breathe. Sora’s mother looked at her with widened eyes before softening them and telling her son to calm down with a serene smile. She walked over to her and with one look into her eyes, Aqua could tell she didn’t believe a single thing that came out of Sora’s mouth about her. She couldn’t blame her either. Throw her into her position and she wouldn’t believe what her son was saying either. You could never be too lenient.

The woman plastered a very obvious fake smile on her face to please Sora and talked to her. “Is what my son told me true? Were you really helping him look for me and Riku?”

Or were you trying to kidnap him? Answer me correctly or I’ll kill you was the unsaid rest of the statement that Aqua could infer from how tense her voice sounded. 

She gulped and nodded. “Yes. We’ve been looking the whole day. In case you’re worried, I should let you know Sora’s been really determined on finding you two all day. He didn’t even cry once, the whole time we were looking. He’s a very brave boy.” 

“Hah! Of course I am. I’m not some baby!” Sora boasted. 

“Really?” Riku elbowed him. “Then why were you so scared of that ‘ghost’ when you stayed over at my house for the night?” 

“I-I was not!” 

“Was too!” 

“Was not!” 

“Was too!” 

“Was not times a hundred!” 

Sora’s mother chuckled to herself as her eyes moved down at the two children arguing, and Aqua found herself doing the same. The purple-haired woman held out a hand towards her. "Thank you for looking after my son. He can be a bit of a handful, so I’m sorry if he caused you any trouble.”

Aqua took the woman’s hand, relieved no trouble was started. “It’s no problem. He was no trouble at all. He’s actually a pretty good kid. He reminds me of…of someone I consider my little brother.” 

“Consider?” Sora’s mother said. 

“Yeah. We’re not actually related to each other. But we’ve gotten so close since we’ve met that the two of us might as well be brother and sister by now.” 

“Okay—”

“Actually, never mind. C-Could you come here for a second? I have something I need to tell you in private about your son.” 

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Okay,” she said. She told Sora and Riku to not move at all and walked up close to Aqua, so she could whisper in her ear. “I’m listening.” 

“Um… I don’t know how to tell you this, but I, uh, I think you’re going to have to deal with Sora’s oversharing problem. He, um, he told me a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have heard about your…about you and your husband’s nightlife.” 

The woman’s face started to resemble a cherry and her breath hitched. She looked back and forth between Sora and Aqua, with her face taking on a myriad of emotions until it settled on shame. “A-Are you sure?” 

“I’m one-hundred percent sure. B-But there’s no reason to worry! He doesn’t seem to know anything about what you’re doing! I just thought I needed to tell you that before you, you know, ended up getting calls from school about him saying things he shouldn’t be.” 

“Trust me. I’ll make sure he never does something like that again.” Sora’s mother's still-red face took on a scary expression and it made her question if the boy was a bit biased when he talked to her about her. “He won’t mention something like this to anyone ever again.”

“Good. That’s good—” 

“I have a question to ask you now, though, Aqua-san.”

She didn’t expect that. “Okay, go ahead. What is it?” 

“You can use magecraft, can’t you?”

Aqua’s eyebrows jumped at the unfamiliar term. Was she talking about magic? It sounded like it. ‘Mage’ was the root word of the word she used. She guessed that must have been what they called magic in this world. “Yes,” she said. “How were you able to tell?”

The woman gave her a sly smile. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but mana is rolling off of you in droves. It’s actually a bit sickening.”

“O-Oh!” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Sora’s mother shook her head. “I just wanted you to know that it would be best to get that under control if you ever head back west. There are some people, mostly men, who would take a lot of interest in a young woman with as much raw talent as yourself.” 

She chose to ignore the comment about “heading back west” and focused on the other thing. Mostly men? Why would that matter?

“Oh?!” Aqua said as she realized. “I completely understand. I don’t plan to stay here for long, but if by some mishap, I end up having to stay here longer, I’ll make sure to keep a lookout.”

“Hm? Last I remembered, I was pretty sure Japan was not in the west. But do what you like.” 

Aqua twitched at the woman’s comment. She was brutal. It’s not her fault she didn’t know anything about this world. She had just arrived and was planning on leaving on the same day. She would have stayed for Sora if it wasn’t for that friend of his already being handed the power. One Keyblade was enough for a friendship.

“Now, I have another question I wish to ask of you.” her voice got lower and Aqua felt the dreadful malice from earlier return. It made her skin crawl and her insides feel like there were spiders crawling all over her well-strengthened bones and sinking their teeth into her soft organs. “Was Sora really telling the truth about you helping him find me? I’ll know if you’re lying to me.”

Aqua could feel sweat fall down her forehead. “I swear on my life and the life of my master that he’s telling you the truth. I’m not the kind of person who would hurt children like you’re thinking. If anything, I hate those people and wish they would rot in the underworld.” 

Sora’s mother narrowed her eyes and gazed at her, no, gazed past her as if she was trying to see into her very heart if she was lying or not. Eventually, the woman sighed and closed her eyes. “I believe you,” she said. “You have very earnest eyes. They remind me of my husband…and my son.” the woman inclined her body. “I’m sorry for thinking the worst of you.” 

She held up her hands and shook them.  “No! No! It’s alright. I don’t blame you for judging me.” she sighed. “If I was in your spot, I would probably suspect the worst as well.”

The woman smiled softly. “Thank you for understanding.” she turned around to stare at her son, who was still arguing with Riku and getting weird looks from everyone around them. “That child is someone precious to me. After all he’s done for my life since coming into it, he’s become someone I could find it hard to live without. A-And the thought of him being forcefully separated from me fills me with nothing but fear and rage.” 

Smiling, she pressed a hand down on the woman’s shoulder. “Again. I truly understand where you’re coming from. Like I said, if I was in your position, I would feel the same way.” 

Sora’s mother flashed her a genuine smile. “Thank you, Aqua-san.” 

She wrinkled her forehead. There goes one of those words again. She wondered if she should ask about it? She discarded such thoughts. She wouldn’t be coming back here anyway. At least not until everything back home was taken care of. She still had things she needed to do. 

After the last words shared between her and Sora’s mother, every piece began to move into its natural place. Sora returned to his mother and both he and his mother and his friend all gathered among each other. His mother talked about meeting up with a ‘Shirou’, who Aqua was sure was supposed to be her husband and Sora’s father, due to Sora asking his mother where his dad was earlier and the fact ‘Shirou’ sounded like a male name. 

As they all were getting ready to leave, Aqua made sure to give one last parting goodbye to Sora.

“Sen—Aqua-san! What are you doing?” he cried as she ruffled through his hair again. “Y-You’re embarrassing me in front of my mom and Riku!” 

“Sorry, but I just wanted to say goodbye and to thank you for being such good company, okay.” 

“Oh. Okay.” 

She playfully placed a finger on her cheek and tilted her head. “Well, both that and something else. It’s something really important.” 

His eyes hardened. “W-What is it Sen—Aqua-san?”

She softly rubbed a hand through his air. “Never forget what I told you today, okay? Even when you’re old and gray, never forget that lesson I taught you today. It’s something you’ll need to know for the rest of your life, you understand?” 

“I understand.” he placed his pinky finger out. “I pinky promise!” 

A pinky promise, huh? It was good to see there was some overlap between the worlds she’s been to and this one. Grinning at him, she held out her own pinky and wrapped it around his. “A promise like this is one you’re never supposed to break. So try not to, okay?” 

“Okay!” he replied. 

Their fingers broke apart after and Sora, his mother, and his friend all began to walk away. Sora, while holding the hand of his mother, kept his head turned around and continued to wave at her as they moved and moved until he was completely out of sight. 

She looked down at the pinky that made the promise with him. 

Aqua giggled. Sora, I wonder what kind of man you’ll be when you grow up. 

Chapter Text

What was that sound? 

She pushed herself off of Shirou’s chest and sent some magical energy to her ears.

Was someone…furiously tapping something? Her ears could also pick up on them talking too. They were obviously talking rather low in an attempt to make no one notice the noise they made. Still talking nonetheless.

A frown formed on her face as she looked over at the digital clock resting on the desk near her bed. It said the time was 04:30. And she was confident that today was a Monday as well—a school day. She could feel Medusa sleeping in her room and Shirou was right next to her. That meant there were only three culprits who could be up early in the morning and none of them have been awake now. All of them had school in the morning, and one of them in particular had already been failing in a few of his classes due to reportedly sleeping through some of them as if that was normal.

Sighing to herself, she got out of her bed and threw on a robe and some slippers to go and check the rooms of a certain pair of twins since she already had a good idea on who was the child doing something as detrimental as unintentionally tiring himself out. Prior to exiting the bedroom that was routinely shared between her husband and her servant, she heard a whine release from the mouth of the man she loved. His arms were looking around for the missing warmth which was always with him on most mornings, and was distraught over it. 

She giggled. It looked a bit cute. Seeing the man who saved her act like a child missing a toy they slept with had a mysterious effect on her. She couldn’t understand the feeling, she just knew if there was a chance she could use some kind of spell to revert him into a small child, she would go out of her way to treat him as if he was a pillow made for hugging and take so many cute little pictures of him to keep as a memory for them to look back on when they were old.

Her hand slid open the door and she left her bedroom. Walking down the hall with no urgency in her step, she headed over to the room of a pair of girls who came into the world a few years after Raiga Fujimura delivered Sora to them on the first day of Autumn. She slid open the door to their room and, lo and behold, the two of them were sleeping in the same bed in their snake-themed pajamas.

Groaning, she slid the door back closed and quickly traveled to the living room to confront her son. As she stepped into the room, she noticed he was wearing a simple red shirt and white boxers. Two things he was not wearing when he went to sleep. She would know. Those were the clothes she had recently washed after he pulled a very dirty stunt in an attempt to impress the new girl who had recently moved into the neighborhood with her grandmother. Another thing she noticed was he didn’t notice she was currently creeping up on him at all. He was far too focused on the video game he was playing on one of those Playstations that he begged her to buy him on his birthday because he didn’t want to wait until Christmas. 

Feeling a malicious desire to mess with him before reprimanding him for most likely waiting until everyone was asleep to start playing video games on a school day, she channeled the abilities of a power that lay inside of her body for more than ten years already. Knowing how her appearance changed in accordance to those powers, she placed the most evil expression she could muster and bent down to breathe a shallow breath in his ear. 

“Ah!” he yelped and turned around, meeting her red eyes. “Ah!” he jumped backwards.

She placed her hand over her mouth and giggled into her palm as she saw his chest jump up and down from how hard he was hyperventilating. Her giggles then turned into a full-blown laughter she was trying hard to keep from coming out of her mouth when Sora began to mutter about hallucinations born from madness as if that was a normal thing for a 12-year-old to think about. 

“O-Oh my God! The floor creaked when your foot moved! A-Are you real?” he said. 

Sakura couldn’t hold it in after that. She fell to her knees and started to laugh outrageously, tears forming in the corners of his eyes due to how hilarious it all was.

She froze.

…Did he just imply she was fat? 

She let out a disgruntled moan and stopped channeling that power to pull on Sora’s ear.

“A-Ah! L-Let go of me, you vampire! L-Looking like my mom won’t stop me from calling an exorcist to come deal with you.” 

“I’m not a demon and you shouldn’t tell a vampire you’re going to call an exorcist on them. All that will do is make them most likely want to deal with you quicker.” 

“Y-Yeah right! Like I’m going to believe that! D-Dad! Medusa! Get in here! A-A dead apostle’s broken i-into our house and I’m trying to hold it off!” 

She snorted. A part of her wanted to keep arguing with him over this, but it would be best to simply ignore this and get her point across. He already thought she was a monster out to get him. Might as well take advantage of that fact to get him to learn a valuable lesson about girls. 

“Sora.” she twisted on his ear a slight bit more, not enough for it to be actually painful, but enough to severely annoy him. “You should know by now that you’re never to comment on the weight of a woman. Especially not the weight of a woman who’s taking the form of your mother. Indirectly or intentionally doesn’t matter. Your mother would be really sad if you brought that up to her.”

“Huh?! It really is you!” he winced. “S-Sorry about that, Mom.” 

Why did that get him to realize she wasn’t a dead apostle?! 

Sakura let go of his ear and groaned from the mental pain her son inflicted on her. What happened to her little Sora? He used to compliment her on every little thing and worship the ground she walked on all throughout kindergarten and elementary. Now he was a middle-schooler and going through this weird phase where he treated her as if none of that happened. Was this what goes on with all parents and their children? If it was, she could unquestionably say she detested it.

Sora yawned and crossed his legs, and pressed the center button on the controller in his hand to pause the game he was playing. How he held onto the remote when he went flying backwards was beyond her. Her son rubbed a hand through his brown, spiked sideways hair that she had no idea a completely normal human being was capable of having. She and Shirou liked to joke about how her sister was wrong about Sora not having any kind of place among the moonlit world and his hair was meant to signal he was destined for great things. Similar to a protagonist out of a shonen manga. 

“So, what are you up in the morning for?” Sora asked. “You, Dad, and Medusa usually don’t get up until it’s seven or eight in the morning. And it’s five or something right now.” 

Sakura placed her hands on her hips. “It’s four in the morning, actually. And you want to know what day it is too or do I have to tell you?”

“Uh…” he brought up a hand and started scratching his chin with a finger. “It’s Monday?”

“Correct!” she raised her voice. “And you know what that means?”

“Um…no?”

“It’s a school day and you’re up way too early—” 

“It’s not.” 

Sakura stopped and widened her eyes. The disappointed expression she had on her face vanished. “Excuse me?” she said. 

Sora tilted his head. “I thought Stheno and Euryale or Medusa told you and Dad?” he placed his hands in his lap. “D-Did they not do it or something? Because one of them was supposed to have mentioned that all divisions in Homuhara Academy are being shut down for the next few days because of some ongoing investigation.” 

Ongoing investigation? What could that be about?

“Apparently there were some people hiding out inside of the school with expensive cameras and no one knew about them the whole time.” Sora shivered, answering her question unintentionally. “Thank God those guys ended up getting caught. Knowing there was some stranger living inside of the school at the same time Stheno and Euryale were attending class makes my blood boil. If something had happened to either of them because of those freaks, I might have lost my mind.”

Sakura felt as if anvils were pressing down on her shoulders. Why didn’t Medusa tell her or Shirou about this? The kids were one thing. Knowing Sora, he most likely wanted everything to be over with and move onto the next day, and the girls most likely emulated Sora, as they always did when they were involved in very uncomfortable moments. Medusa, however? She couldn’t make the same excuses as the other three. If anyone should have brought this to her attention, it should have been her servant of more than ten years who served as a close friend and lover. Two children who had come from her had to deal with such an insane event and, while she didn’t think Medusa disliked Sora or didn’t see him as her own family, it wasn’t hard to see she possessed more of a fond spot for them than she did Sora. Sakura didn’t judge her for this, as she possessed the same feelings for the children of their household but in reverse. So, it was surprising to her how Medusa didn’t tell her master and friend or the father of her children about it. 

“Wait a minute.” Sora snapped his fingers and continued unintentionally answering her questions. “Medusa didn’t know about it. I remember it all now. Stheno and Euryale were going to run to her and tell you what happened since she was the only one who was home when we came back home earlier that day, but I convinced them to not say anything about those weirdos sleeping in our school.” 

Sakura felt like she had been punched in the face. “W-Why would you do that? We’re the adults in this situation. You should’ve told us about this immediately.”

Sora shrugged. “I guess I just didn’t want you to worry too much.”

“Y-You didn’t want us to worry?” she sighed and sat down next to her son. She placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed a finger at him. “We’re the adults. You can’t make that decision for us. Me. Medusa. Your father. Each of us are supposed to be worried about these sorts of things.” 

“B-But!”

“But nothing.” the finger she placed in his face stiffened. “Sora, I am very disappointed in you for doing something like that. The next time you find yourself in this kind of situation, you are to immediately tell one of us about it. It doesn’t matter who. Do you understand me?”

He looked down at his lap, refusing to look her in the eyes anymore. 

“Sora?” she said. Her son didn’t respond. He only shrugged her hand off of his shoulder. A sigh of exhaustion left her lips. “Sora? Sora, please don’t ignore me when I’m speaking to you. It’s rude.” 

He turned around in her direction and faced her. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” his shoulders slumped and his face fell. “I didn’t mean to make you mad or anything. I was just trying to be nice.” 

She gently pushed his face back up. “Don’t say that. I’m not mad at you. Just a bit surprised and overwhelmed. I may not like you and your sisters keeping something like that to all of yourselves without telling anyone, but it doesn’t mean I’m mad. You know this. This is far from the first time you’ve done something I don’t agree with.”

“I don’t know. You seemed pretty mad during those other times too.” 

She frowned. “Well, I wasn’t. And if I did come off that way, then I’m sorry. I don’t want you to feel like I get mad at you over simple mistakes.” 

He shook his head. “N-No! Don’t say that. It’s alright.” he chuckled. “The more I think about this anyway, the more I do realize keeping my mouth shut and convincing Stheno and Euryale to stay quiet about this too was a bit dumb. I mean, I wouldn’t like it if you, Dad, and Medusa hid the fact Riku mugged all three of you from me.” 

She nodded, proud. “Yeah. You get it. If that was—wait a minute? What kind of…” she placed her hands over her mouth to hold back her laughter. “W-What kind of c-comparison is…” she wouldn’t be able to hold it in. “What kind of comparison is that?! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha..!” 

She fell to the ground and as she laughed, she found herself thinking back to a time long ago. A time where the thought of sharing these moments with a child she called her own would be nothing more than a distant dream. 

“Matou-san, I…I truly am sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this.”

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening.

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

“There seems to be some kind of scar tissue inside of your uterus.” 

This couldn’t be happening.

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

“And it seems that due to this scar tissue, a kind of adhesion was born. This adhesion is blocking off your uterine cavity and, due to this, your fertilized eggs aren’t able to sustain themselves since they have no place to go.” 

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

“And I know this is probably hard to hear, seeing as you're a young woman.” 

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING. 

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING.

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING. 

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING. 

“But I think it’s best if you spare yourself the pain and give up on thinking a miracle will happen.”

NO! 

NO! 

NO! 

NO!

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

NONE OF THIS WAS—

“You’re infertile. Giving birth to a child isn’t possible.” 

—REAL! IT WASN’T REAL! 

The black-haired doctor with glasses closed his eyes and lowered his head. “Once again, I know this may sound reductive, but I truly am sorry for you, Matou-san.” he squeezed his crossed hands together. “I truly do wish things could be different for you.” 

Sakura clenched the fists on her lap. 

Why? Why did this have to happen to her? Was this her punishment for what she did during the Fifth Holy Grail War? For letting Shinji and her grandfather use her in such a manner as they had? Getting her senpai to throw away the reason he lived and making him kill his own servant to save her? Making someone as amazing as Medusa and her elder sister stand beside her every day of her life? Oh, who was she kidding? There was not one singular answer. It was all of the above. This is what she deserved. Someone as evil and disgusting as her didn’t deserve to bring life into this world. After all, what would the child grow up to be if left in her care for too long? Obviously go on to commit the same kind of crimes as its mother or choose to be as weak-willed as her mother. Having her as an influence would surely destroy their chance of living a normal life and not even Shirou, Rider, or Rin could do anything about it. She was the worst of them all. She may not have been born to their blood, but she was in every way as sick and twisted and pathetic as the rest of the Matou family. She was as obsessed with a desire she didn’t deserve as her Uncle Kariya. Delusional and pathetic like her Shinji. As sick and twisted, deep-down, as her grandfather. Getting to experience something as sacred as motherhood was not a privilege she deserved. Which was okay. It was better than bringing a child into the world with a mother like her. Someone like her sister or Rider would be better parents. It was them who she should be hoping got the chance to start their own families. Rider needed one after all the years of suffering she underwent and her sister would be the perfect mother for a young child. Shirou could be the father to those children either. She didn’t mind. She knew about both of their feelings for him. Unlike her, he was quite the catch. It made sense he was popular. When he became a father to either of their children, she would need to let him know she one-hundred-percent supported it. No, she needed to let him know she did more than support it. She needed to let him know she—

“Matou-san!” 

Her head jerked and she focused on the doctor in front of her. “O-Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you may have been saying. Please forgive me.” 

The doctor peered into her eyes with a strong sense of severity. “Matou-san… I think it’s time you went home. You had spaced out for a few minutes. I think you may be a bit tired.” 

“Y-Yes!” she stood up and bowed to the doctor. “Thank you for having me.” 

“It’s no problem. If you need anything else, make sure to call.”

Sakura quickly left the doctor’s office after that and headed back to the entrance room, where she saw Shirou sitting calmly in one of the seats. He saw her and stood up with a face full of confusion.

“So, what did you find out?” 

She relayed what she heard from the gynecologist. The look on his face from hearing the news…was not what she expected. He didn’t look sad or happy about the outcome. He just absorbed it as he would any other piece of information. No. That wasn’t it either. There was some kind of emotion showing on his face. But it wasn’t an emotion born from himself and his own thoughts on the matter, they were born from looking at someone else and their own face. 

“Sakura.” he placed his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes with sorrow. “Are you okay? Hearing something like that after how hopeful. It’s…never mind. We shouldn’t talk about this in the open anyway. Let’s head back home and then—” 

“I’m fine.” 

Shirou looked like he didn’t believe her. 

“Seriously, I’m fine!” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

She couldn’t add much after that. It would make her look like she was trying too hard. Then he would be able to sniff out her lies easily.

Shirou’s brow furrowed and he simply stared, trying to get something out of her. Fortunately, he failed. He eventually smiled at her and told her he was relieved. 

The both of them headed outside to the car parked outside and returned home to the Emiya residence back in the northern end of Fuyuki. 

As they drove back, she had tried her best to keep the predictable tears she could feel building up under control.

She was already happy with the people she loved. It was no reason to be so worked up over something not made for her.

It had been two years since the visit to the gynecologist. 

Two years since she realized someone like her didn’t deserve to serve as some poor child’s mother.

Honestly? She was fine with it. 

At least that’s what she told herself. 

That day made her realize something. She wasn’t cut out for the job and there were too many variables getting in the way. Even the idea of adopting was out of her mind. Whether the child was her blood or not, there were too many things getting in the way of them having a happy childhood. 

At least that’s what she told herself. 

Almost as if the world wished to spit in her face, however, she somehow ended up in a very unpleasant situation for everyone around.

“R-Raiga…” Shirou’s voice carried nothing but pain inside of them. “How…how did this happen?” he choked up and swallowed down the saliva likely building up in his throat. “How did Fuji-nee end up in that situation? She would never join a group of people like that. Never!” 

She withheld her own tears and rubbed his back. Shirou and Fujimura-sensei. Neither of them deserved to be separated from each other like this. Never like this. 

Raiga Fujimura, the eighty-something old man, gestured towards the small bundle in his arms. “It’s because of this little one right here. He got sick. Real sick. It was looking bad for him. We all made our peace with the fact he was going to die except that mother of his. She kept looking and looking for a way to save his life. Hoping that she would be able to see him grow up to be a man.” the old man stared at the child in his arms solemnly. “And it ended up with her getting caught in something she should have never involved herself in.” 

“What’s their name?” Shirou asked suddenly. 

Raiga raised an eyebrow. “Listen, kid, if you think you’re gonna be able to—”

“I have no interest in any attempt to dissuade me right now. What’s their name?” 

Raiga stared into Shirou’s eyes. “You…you look a lot like that father of yours right now.” his expression distorted into something full of grief. “If I tell you the name, can you promise me you’ll make sure you won’t get yourself killed? I still have something I need you to do for me.” 

“I will,” Shirou answered. “The person who preyed on Fuji-nee's fears, I want them to pay for what they’ve done. But if it comes at the risk of my own life, I’ll turn around. There are too many people who need me to live for them.”

“Good.” Raiga nodded. He smiled serenely. Then he reached into his pocket and handed over a notebook to Shirou. The smile he previously had on was gone, replaced by utter rage at the person behind this tragedy. “The bitch’s name is Sessyoin Kiara. Everything we’ve been able to gather about her is in there. Don’t waste it.” 

Shirou nodded. “I won’t.” he handed the notebook to Medusa, who was standing behind, overlooking this whole conversation with a neutral expression. “Now, what’s the other thing you came here for? You said I still have something I have to do for you, right?” 

“Yeah.” Raiga held out the baby in his arms to Shirou. “I want you to take him.”  

Sakura felt like her heart had stopped. 

“W-What?” Shirou said. “Why me?” 

Raiga smirked. “Because who else could it be? If we tried to give this child away to anyone else, you’d surely throw a fit about it. After all, this child is the son of the precious woman who raised you after Kiritsugu’s death.” 

“What about his father?” 

“What about him? Did Taiga never tell you whenever she visited? The bastard bounced out of here the moment he found out she was pregnant. Just like a rotten fucking coward.”

Her red-haired husband snarled. “No. She never mentioned this to me at all. All she said was that she and the father had some disagreements on how to raise the boy.”  

“Oh, yeah, they had some fuckin’ disagreements, alright!” Raiga Fujimura slammed his hand on the table, gritting his teeth and breathing through his nose heavily. “That dirty piece of shit! If I ever get my hands on that skinny little fuck before I’m on my death bed, I will wring his neck!” 

“Get in line, old man,” Shirou said coolly. 

The two men calmed down after this interaction and shifted the conversation back to the child. A conversation that came with an offer Raiga was still waiting for Shirou to give an answer to. Instead of asking who may as well have been his grandfather in everything but blood, he turned his head towards her and asked her if he should do it. 

It confused her. Why was he asking her this? Whatever answer he gave Raiga, she would be more than fine with it. Then something clicked in her brain. If Shirou became the father to this child of Fujimura-sensei then she would naturally become its mother. The two of them had married not too long after that horrible visit to the gynecologist. He was asking her if she would be okay with him bringing a child into their home and living together as a family. 

She wanted to say no. She desperately wanted to say no. She wasn’t fit for the job. Inside of Shirou’s eyes, though, there was a gleam of an emotion she hadn’t seen on his face in a long time. 

Hope. 

She bit on her lip, feeling the taste of her own metallic taste of her own blood on her tongue, and told Shirou she would be fine with taking in this child.

God, she hoped she didn’t make a mistake. 

“My, what’s going on here? Some mother-son bonding?” Rider said. 

“A lap pillow? Haven’t seen you get one of those in a while, Sora.” Shirou chortled.

“Ugh. Who would think you were still such a baby. Lap pillow—yuck. What kind of example are you setting for your little sisters?” Stheno said, rubbing her short ponytail.

“Thinking Sora would try and set a good example for us is like expecting him to live up to that promise of killing a thousand monsters that he said he would do last summer,” Euryale said, rubbing her long ponytail. 

Sakura chuckled as Sora bristled in her lap. He pushed himself up and frowned at his sisters. “Come on, you two are still stuck on that? I made that promise because the two of you wanted to show me off to your classmates.” 

“Yes!” 

“Absolutely!” 

Sora closed his eyes and groaned. “Aw, man. And here I was thinking I was going to tell Riku and Kairi I’d have to cancel on Sunday because I wanted to bring you two with me to the water park.” 

“D-Don’t think you can bribe us with simple promises like that! We aren’t that weak!” 

“Y-Yeah! G-Go die, Sora!” 

“Alright. Alright.” Shirou walked in front of the twins and held his hands up. He beamed. “Sora, what were you doing up so early in the morning? You’ve got school today, you know?” 

Sakura seen this as a time to intervene— 

“You’re not gonna ask why Mom’s up too?”

“I remember my bed getting colder two hours ago?” 

“Fair enough.” 

—and never mind. They were faster at this than her.

Sakura coughed into her hand, gaining attention on her, and told the other two adults in the room the kids didn’t have school today and the real reasons behind it. As soon as she was finished, Shirou sighed and walked over to bop Sora on the head. He then gave him some words of his own, which sounded marginally similar to the ones she told Sora earlier, and patted him on the head. Rider, on the other hand, did not have such a generous reaction as her and Shirou did. She told him she would be making him read some novel a first-year middle school student should not have had the ability to read yet, and told her own children they would also be punished for going along with Sora’s lie and not telling her the truth.

It was beautiful. 

Emiya Sakura—formerly Matou Sakura and Tohsaka Sakura—felt something in her eyes and rubbed them. As she rubbed whatever was inside of her eyes away, she felt the back of the hand she used had felt wet. What? How come her eyes were wet? Were these—

“Tears?” Sora unknowingly finished her sentence again. He got off of her lap and started to examine her with fear in his eyes. “You okay, mom?” he asked, quiet. She could tell he was trying to not bring attention to it. Right after she had told him doing stuff like that was wrong. She ran a hand down her face and gave him one of the happiest smiles she could muster.

“Of course I’m okay,” she said, leaning in close to whisper. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“But you were just crying…”

“Of course I was.” she crossed her arms and brought him close to her breast. 

“M-Mom!” she heard him scream into her chest. "W-What are you doing? I'm not a kid anymore!

“I know.” 

"T-Then why are you—"

"Because I'm happy. What other reason would there be?"