Fuyuki City.
Matou Byakuya couldn't help but let out a sigh.
Driving a car lent to him by his former in-laws, he slowly turned a corner down the empty streets of Miyama. The town was under curfew since the incident with the fire. With the government exercising vigilance, not even magi stirred in the evening. That fact in itself was worrying, considering how little the magic community cared for the business of the normal folk.
Honestly, had he not been doing a favour for the dead, he wouldn't even be out and about tonight, hence a second deep sigh.
"Is something wrong… Uncle Byakuya?"
The girl in the passenger seat drew his attention. Stiffening slightly at the child's somewhat dazed yet curious expression, he shook his head. "Not really, no. Just… just a little tired."
Considering he'd expended a lot of his energy to contact the parents who hated his guts the most, it certainly wasn't easy to stay calm. Shinji's grandparents abhorred him and his kin for what he let his father do to their daughter. To ask for any favours after such a scandal… Let it not be said that the new, and now true, head of the Matou household knew he wasn't cut out for the responsibility.
But, in the end, they weren't so uncaring as to forsake him in his time of need. Not only did they momentarily shelter him after delivering the news of Zouken's fate, they even cared for Sakura until the war was declared over. It'd take a while, but maybe mending the rift wasn't totally impossible. For Shinji's sake, and his own, it might be best to do just that.
But before he could do that, he had a job to do.
"We're almost there, Sakura." He said whilst glancing at the girl. "Are you ready?"
"Mm." She nodded. That was all. Covered in bandages that weren't caked in blood anymore may have impeded a proper answer, but a non-committed affirmation was all she could muster. It was as though she was still a puppet on strings just following orders. But Byakuya could still see it.
From the corner of her eyes, there was a bit of red. A slight discolouration, evidence of the time she spent crying herself to sleep. Not just for her liberation but also the excitement of returning back to her home. Her real home. Though, it wasn't only that either.
Glancing out the window, the sight of Shinto's high-rises still grey with smoke sent a chill down his spine. The community centre itself was naut but a husk of a building left smouldering in ruins. Remembering where he'd dropped his brother off on that night before retreating back to his hideaway with Sakura in the next town over, he didn't dare dream of his little brother's return. Not after all that.
As for the boy and the devil woman that saved them all… Byakuya prayed to whatever god existed out there that they were safe. Then again, that may be an oxymoron considering it was their actions that took his family from him… both the good and the evil.
'A real dick move of you, little bro. Leaving soon after you played your part as a hero…'
There was no escaping the price he had to pay. He'd die sooner or later. But for the selfish runaway Kariya to commit himself to such self-sacrifice… It wasn't wrong to say Byakuya was damn proud of the bastard. Tonight, he'd make sure to honour him… even if he'd already done so with several bottles the few nights past.
"We're here." Parking the car before one of the larger western-styled homes, he quickly stepped out before circling around and opening the door for the child. "Let's go, Sakura."
Stepping out of the car, the child's eyes had never been wider. "… This place…"
"Yeah…" he let out a resigned sigh for the third time. "Your home…"
How he very much wanted to not be here. After everything that had happened between the Matou and Tohsaka, approaching them was the last thing on his mind, even with Zouken dead. But even if it felt like offering his head to the chopping block, this was for Kariya's sake.
"Come on. It's been a while, but after everything you've been through, it's all okay now. This… this is what my brother wanted for you."
Sakura initially didn't say anything. Of course, after being given away, she wouldn't know how to feel about coming back. There was a time when she wanted nothing more, but to return to her home, to her family. Byakuya knew, however, that Zouken did all he could to break that wish, to break her will.
It was only through the efforts of one stubborn idiot that she was even allowed a ray of hope.
"… If it's what Uncle Kariya wanted… then I will do it."
Byakuya nodded silently. The girl was still recovering from the trauma. Pushing her any more than this was tantamount to pressing her as Zouken had. In time, she'd be fine to make her own choices again. Until then, he'd let her family do what they could. After everything they'd been through, the Tohsakas at least deserve to be together.
As soon as the two of them left the vehicle, however, they were met by a familiar person standing before the mansion's gates. A woman, one both Byakuya and Sakura knew very well, stared at them both with a stern air about her.
"Aoi." Once Zenjou, now Tohsaka, the recently widowed glared Byakuya down, but he didn't falter. Despite how piercing Aoi's gaze was, he wouldn't back off so easily.
It was when she turned that sharp gaze on Sakura, wordlessly forcing the girl to hide behind him, that he felt something off. Her little girl may have changed, having been subjected to the accursed magecraft of the Matou, but she was still her daughter. Of her love for her child, he was certain it was still there. He just needed to hand her over.
"What are you doing here, Matou Byakuya?" Aoi beat him to it, asking with a cold tone.
"What does it look like? I'm returning your child." He automatically went on the defensive, but tried to relax and retain some confidence. "As the new head of the Matou clan, I hereby render all Zouken's business null and void. Any and all dealings your clan had with my father is to be undone. The ones he had no right in taking," he gently nudged the girl to stand beside him. "Returned as soon as possible."
Sakura did her best to step forward. The things done to her had rendered the child meek and afraid. Had this been a year back, she would've run to her mother in teary relief and said parent embracing her child just the same. For a moment, the look on Aoi's face was of sheer shock, maybe joy.
It didn't last when a flash of fear and shock overtook her expression. "Leave."
"… … Eh?" Sakura's voice eeped in surprise.
"… Huh?" Byakuya was just the same. "What are you saying, Aoi—?"
"I said… leave." She said softly, sending a quick glance back at the house. For a single instant, she emanated an air of uncertainty but reverted to stern indifference once more. "Leave and never come back."
"What… what the hell…?" Byakuya's response was one of sheer disbelief. "I came all this way to return her—"
"What is it that you come here for, Matou?" she said stiffly, raising her voice ever so slightly. "Do you mean to gloat over the misfortune that befell my house? Or perhaps you came to mock us one last time before having us removed?"
"I desire no such thing!" Exasperated, he retorted. Trying to maintain a semblance of calm, he breathed in before muttering back. "I'm not Zouken. I… I am only here to fulfil my brother's last will."
"… Kariya?" the woman's expression softened upon stating his name. "Last… will?"
It seems she wasn't slow on the uptake. The implication alone was news enough to her who used to be so close with the guy. Byakuya envied the fact that someone was still able to make such a face for his brother.
"As per my brother's wish for the Grail, or used to be, your daughter is to be returned to you upon being freed from Zouken… as well as Tokiomi. Seeing as Kariya made sure neither would impede on your lives again, he asked me to return her. He also made me promises… that our family, or what remains of it, will never be allowed to harm… or separate the child from the family she loves."
He eyed her expression that spoke differently from her earlier words. Frozen in a state of shock, she looked to drift between crying and breaking down.
"For the sake of that idiot that died trying to reunite your family, the least you could do is welcome her with open arms. Don't tell me that, after all this time, this is as far as your familial love goes?"
He knew it wasn't. The woman his brother fell for wasn't so shallow-minded of an individual. Nor was she uncaring in the slightest. Though a child of mages, Zenjou Aoi had been the more humane of their clan. A picturesque mother and wife. And he could see it in her face.
She'd long since missed her child, afraid and angry that Sakura had to be left to the care of a monster. That much was true. Never a day went by that she wouldn't wish for her child's safe return. Even in the few times, he'd met with their family as Zouken's proxy, he could sense the sorrow of a woman at a loss.
It had been the same for him with his wife and Shinji. An underlying fear of what would come to those he loved due to the talented magi bastards ruling over them. And with Zouken gone, likewise, for Tokiomi, it was now possible for Sakura to not return home. She and her mother and sister would be allowed a normal life. As Kariya wished it to be—
"… You dare… … me?!" Aoi's muttering suddenly burst into shouting. "YOU DARE MOCK ME, MATOU BYAKUYA?! First, you stole my daughter, and now, not only do you rub it in my face, you have the audacity to make fun of my husband's death?!"
"Kuh, what are you on about?! If anyone's to blame for your husband's demise, it was his mistake for overestimating himself in the first place!"
Byakuya was aware of Tokiomi's haughty personality. It was to be expected of a talented magus to have such confidence he himself would never have, but it didn't matter in war. You either lived or died, it was that simple.
That he fell to Kariya's doing was only because the man didn't think he would be caught off-guard.
"Listen to me, woman," gathering himself, he tried to remain calm in the face of her child. "I'm only here to return her. Nothing more. And I'm not about to leave after Kariya sacrificed himself to fulfil his wish! His life to undo Tokiomi's mistake of selling off your daughter is—"
"Wish?! Hah! What wish?!" she scorned his words, spitting them out like a madwoman. Seething, her breathing came out like a hiss through girt teeth. "You've spouted nothing but lies! Tokiomi would have never done something like this! It was you, Matou… You were the ones who destroyed my family! … … … And it was that bastard Kariya… who stole my husband away from me! DO YOU DENY IT?!"
Another glance was sent to the mansion's closed doors. Byakuya would have noticed it, had he not been caught up in the heat of the moment. With a narrowed gaze, he growled, "You ungrateful bitch—!"
"… I'm right here, mother…" Finally speaking, the girl's soft words forced the adults to look at her.
The girl who was until now stood silent stared at her mother desperately. She didn't understand. Why was Aoi not saying anything to her? Why hadn't her mom even acknowledged her presence there? Why?
"Sakura…" her name was said so softly, even Byakuya struggled to hear it. But as the girl took a hopeful step forward, the woman's expression twisted to doubt. "Are you… are you really… that Sakura?"
"Eh?"
"My child… she wasn't this meek… Her hair… wasn't as disgusting as yours!"
"That's enough, Aoi—!"
"SHUT UP!" Tearful yet sick with bile, the hurtful words continued as the child took a step back in fear. "She, Sakura was… she was a kind girl. Always smiling… always! But you… You look nothing like her. That pale skin… those empty, lifeless eyes… You… You're not Sakura… Aren't you just… the Matou's doll?!"
"Aoi!"
"Ah! I see… Then, this means… my child has… she's dead, isn't she?"
Byakuya tried to intervene, but the woman said it before he could stop her. The broken smile contradicted by wide-eyed madness tearing up… to another adult, it may come off as insanity taking root. To a child, however…
"But—! But I'm right… here!" Sakura tried to hold back her own tears. She tried. And failed. "Mother, I—!"
"DON'T BULLSHIT ME! YOU'RE NOT HER! STOP ACTING LIKE YOU ARE!" Directing her anger and disgust at Byakuya, she muttered again. "Leave! Go! And take her with you!"
She seemed to have run out of energy, but the anger and fear, the frustration in her words, no matter how quiet, was still there. Tohsaka Aoi was well and truly done with them. Byakuya wasn't with her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! Have you gone mad? She's your child?!"
"She… is no child of mine. Now… Leave!"
He would've had to argue. He would've fought against her, for once in his life, stood his ground. Just for the sake of his promise to Kariya. But…
"Uncle Byakuya…" her voice, Sakura's, was weak. It was just as weak and tired as her mothers. The grip on the hem of his coat, more so. She didn't look at him, only staring at the concrete pavement. The warm path to her former home was naut but cold stone now. "Let's go…"
"But—!" she tugged as hard as her weak grip could without letting go.
"Please…"
With that, he could do nothing. His main goal… was to bring the parent her child. But… with the child herself wanting to go…
Staring at the woman who disowned her child, Matou Byakuya only had one thing to say. "I… knew my brother made mistakes… but I would never have guessed… his biggest one was falling in love with you. Of all the things to give his life away for… it just had to be you…"
"Leave." She repeated, not meeting his spiteful gaze. "Leave. And never come back."
A fourth and final sigh escaped him. Cradling the girl's hand in his, he marched off to the car, lifting the broken-hearted child in his arms and depositing her in the passenger seat. Even as he strapped on the safety belt, Sakura never spared the woman another glance.
He gave Aoi one last look in the rearview mirror. The cold mask remained even as she closed the mansion gate behind her. Indifferent through and through, Byakuya was internally mortified. He'd failed. What's more, not through his own indecision or hesitance. It was out of his hands now.
A sniffle escaped the child. Through what remained of his fatherly instincts, his free hand gave her a comforting head pat. The first of many, for… what else could he do now?
Byakuya couldn't leave her alone. The girl suffered the same treatment he and Kariya went through under Zouken's care. She deserved some sense of happiness, a modicum of normalcy after everything Kariya went through for her.
That was supposed to be her mother's job. But now, it was pointless to think of Tohsaka Aoi as worth any of his respect.
This wasn't fair. Not to his little brother, not to the recently orphaned Sakura. But then again, it was his responsibility now, wasn't it? No doubt Kariya would hound him in the afterlife if he just left her on the curb.
"Don't worry about it, Sakura. Who cares about Tohsaka anyway?" He laughed, hoping to improve the mood. It didn't, but her sniffling turned muffled. She was trying her best to listen despite enduring heartbreak. "Hey, do you want to see your cousin, Shinji? He's overseas right now, but we can fly over to him in England for a quick visit. I mean… he'll be your brother from now on, so what do you think?"
She didn't speak, but he felt her bob her head in his palm. Byakuya held back, sighing further lest he disturbs what peace was left. A wry smile flitted on his face as they drove away from the deplorable city.
'Guess, I'm now a single father of two.' It was a tall order from being a mere puppet of a worm monster, but at least he'd get a start on righting his wrongs. 'Here's to hoping Kariya doesn't roll in his grave.'