towerofanimus | arrival

Entry tags:

arrival | open

Characters: Sakura Matou and YOU
Setting: Dorm Floors, Library, and Cafeteria though meeting her in between floors works as well.
Format: Action, while I can do prose it takes me longer
Summary: Sakura arrives, becomes confused, and then becomes even MORE confused after meeting the people she meets. And then she solves her problems with cooking. That's legit, right?
Warnings: None for the actual post but I know the thread between her and Rin is probably going to get violent. I'll add more if needed.

[Dormitory Floors]

[ After arriving and eating her god awful oatmeal, Sakura enters room 1-01 to find her things and take stock of everything that she's arrived with in her trunk. Not a lot, but it's still comforting to find that she has some things from home. After perhaps talking with a few roommates, she exits her room and wanders on the other dorm floors, mostly to try to find anyone she knows. Particularly Senpai, Nee-san, or Rider, but for some reason she has a feeling that they aren't here. ]

[Library]

[ While she's not a book worm by any means, she knows that being here without any knowledge is a bad idea. Sakura's a smart girl so she hits the books, trying to flip through and find any information about where she's stuck at.

Of course, she's not having much of any luck. ]

[Cafeteria]

[ After all of that, she decides to relax a bit by cooking a meal later in the day. Fried rice is on the menu, served over the best cuts of fish she could find in the Tower's stock with tons of veggies and other goodies stuffed into the rice. She's even cooked a sauce with a bit of spice to it to serve over it. She made enough for multiple people, and she doesn't particularly care who comes to eat, so feel free to serve yourself and join her for a meal. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ She heard. There's no going back now as she faces her fully with a hand on her hip, the other resting lazily at her side. That color of hair. ]

Nee-san.

[ Rin repeats the word as though it were foreign. ] Yes, that's alright. You're still my sister, aren't you?

[ Sighing. ] Unless there's some parallel world where you're not.

Yes. We're sisters.

[ In fact they could even be considered more closely related now than ever, considering that the Matou crest worms had carved their bodies out, rearranging their dna to reflect the matou lineage. ]

Have you been well here?

[ Not that Rin is thrilled over that. Her love for Sakura is resounding--to give up what security of a good and easy life just for her is proof enough, but to see what she's been told to be the truth in other worlds for herself? That was enough to shatter her resolve.

Still, she manages to keep herself together long enough to have a conversation. ]

I take it no one's explained the purpose of this place to you. I'll be brief. [ Without wasting any time with pleasantries or to mask the coldness of the tower, Rin continues. ] The administrators here didn't do us a favor. In fact I wonder if they brought us here just to see us suffer.

I understand. I apologize for asking.

[ Sakura feels like she's treading on thin ice, here. It's like looking at herself, but still not knowing what quite to say. It's nerve wracking. ]

If there's anything I can do to help now... now that I'm here, please let me know.

[ Add in Rin's permanently volatile demeanor and no one can blame Sakura's reluctance. ]

It's troublesome that you're here now. Why--it just isn't fair, you know.

If you wish, I can avoid you... if that would make things easier for you.

[ Sakura's way over her head here. She's trying, at the very least. ]

[ Rin's not sure how to react to that. Her sister has always been selfless, so it should click in her mind that's what she means.

Instead: ] Are you ashamed to see me? Is that it now?

No! No, that's not it at all!

[ She's about to say that she's happy to see her, but that doesn't quite fit either. Sakura's happy to see Rin, but not with that hair and those eyes. ]

Then don't make assumptions about what is easier on me.

[ Really, it isn't Sakura she's angry at. She thinks back on Jason, Ruana, and the other fools who run this tower of souls. Bringing in those from worlds that should never exist in the first place.

This is somehow their doing. Was it because they heard the words she whispered to Saber about destroying them that they've brought something along to distract her? ]

Ugh, this is a headache. Seeing you like that seriously pisses me off.

I'm sorry, that isn't what I meant. I just want to help.

[ Sakura isn't even aware of all of the details of the tower quite yet so she has no idea how to relate to what Rin's feeling. She feels like she's becoming a broken record, unable to say something that means anything. ]

Help.

[ The word calms her down. Snaps her from something that's within reach and brings back towards the same ground which Sakura stands. ]

If you wanted to help, you, you wouldn't look that way. You aren't supposed to, you know. [ Everything comes out wrong, but Rin was rarely tactful with her words when stirred. ]

I can't do anything about the way I look. And I don't blame you, either! We were children, Nee-san!

[ Honestly, it made Sakura a little upset to be thought of like that. She thought the Matou blood might bring the two together, but maybe it's only serving to force them apart.

Does a tragedy have to happen to force these two to see eye to eye? ]

Maybe they just gave you the wrong body.

[ So long as this tower gives her reason to doubt what she sees with her eyes, then she'll grab a hold of it. ]

Yeah, that makes sense. They just placed you in the wrong body and it just needs to be straightened out. [ It doesn't strike her that she's speaking "jibberish" to someone who fails to understand. ]

[ It's a good thing that Sakura's trained herself to keep her emotions on a tight leash. ]

Do... Do you hate me because I look like this? I wouldn't blame you. But even if you do hate me, I won't ever hate you in return.

No, I don't hate you. [ Her temper flares slightly at the thought. Isn't what she's saying meant to be that of a loving sister? ] We're family, just...

[ Just not in this way. She can't settle with confirmation that there's a world where her little sister went through that. Everyone spoke of this world, one where Rin had hair as dark as the sky and goals as admirable as the heroes they called to fight at their side. Such a place could never exist in her mind, but here Sakura is instead. ]

It's alright. [ Taking a deep breath, she holds it far longer than necessary. ] I'll do what's right to fix this. That's my responsibility.

I'm safe and healthy. There is nothing to fix.

[ To Sakura, her pain is her own, and while she should feel grateful, instead she feels something that's a mix of guilt and annoyance. Sakura wasn't proud of anything she had done. She wasn't proud of her hair or her eyes, but it was all part of her. She had done her best in learning how to accept it, why couldn't anyone else? ]

No, it can be fixed. It will be fixed.

[ The thought of harming Sakura is drowned out by the end result. If she destroys this body enough, then the administrators will have no choice but to return her to the right one.

Isn't this the job for a Servant?

It doesn't cross her mind for more than a second. Allowing her blood to spill on the hands of another? No, everything she's done she's done for Sakura Tohsaka.

All she needs to do is make it brief. No matter who witnesses it, let the other inhabitants here who happen upon the scene see with their own eyes why no one should bear arm up against her. ]

Sorry Sakura, I'll make it quick.

[ At first, Sakura has no idea what Rin could be talking about. But then, the word quick... she wanted to kill her?

Well, it couldn't be helped. Sakura couldn't count the number of times when she had wished for Rin Tohsaka's death. Wasn't this the same thing?

So instead of trying to run away, Sakura closes her eyes calmly, trusting in her Nee-san's words. ]

[ Rather the opposite. All Rin's suffering was for her sister and to see that it was for naught? That alone was enough to eliminate any concern in her mind. What was right. What was wrong. The ideals held no distinction and morals muddled with failures as she raises a hand.

An appropriate death, she thinks. From the ashes her sister will be reborn in her proper body, one free of the crest worms and of Zouken Matou. Flame dances around her fingers with an incantation spoken softly under her breath, the crackling enough to drown out the sound of anything else, as a wall of inferno speeds towards her. Hot enough to make the paint curl up on the walls and certainly hot enough to be felt under the soles of Rin's own shoes. ]

[Luck would have it that Saber was nearby when this occurred. Being as in tune to the certain feel of her master's prana and that of Rin, she knew they were together. And then she felt something else and reacted.

A black form, almost a shadow one could say, burst past Sakura and placed itself between her and the incoming flame. Black armor, visor down, and uncaring about the fire as it washed over her, Saber blocked her master from the fiery death Rin intended for her. The knight's armor didn't even sizzle with the Magic Resistance she possessed.

Her sword wasn't drawn nor was there any killing intent, but Saber was Not a Happy Camper.]

I thought I made it very clear to you that I would not allow you to kill Sakura.

[ Sakura had already braced herself for impact. Saber's voice jerked her back into reality. ]

Saber, wait, please don't...

[ She wants to say "please don't kill her" but she feels her tongue go limp and useless. She had failed. Again. ]

Tch, Saber.

[ Snuffing out the flame within the palm of her hand by clamping her fingers down into a fist, she glares through the smoke at the figure in black. ]

It doesn't count in this tower as a death, so killing her is natural. I'll do it over and over again until she's actually Sakura. You can thank me once my work here is complete.

It is Sakura. My Master. Did you forget the Second Magic, Rin?

I will make this very clear. If you harm her, it does not matter the moments you and I have - I will take your head. Do not make me do this.

[And still she did not summon her sword.]

[ This is all because of her. All of this fighting... she had ruined the relationship that Saber and Rin had by just existing. She couldn't talk Rin out of whatever she was feeling nor could she tell Saber that she was absolutely forbidden to kill Rin. ]

I don't... Please don't do this.

[ No, of course she hasn't forgotten. Being forced to see something that she knew exists, to see her sister as damaged as she, was too cruel even by this tower's standards.

Saber's Master.

At least now she knew the side which she stood by and that was enough to encourage her to pursue this. Ignoring Sakura (because if she starts to listen now, the frightened part of her will influence the decision already made), she shook her head as though to dismiss them both. ]

I'm not harming her. [ Vague enough to not clue in Sakura, but she knows that Saber knows. ] I'm only fixing it. A temporary bit of pain, but in the end it'll be better for us all.

So stand back Saber before I'm forced to involve you anymore than I have to.

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