21 Restart

"Shirou!"

The voice of an immature girl rang out among the midst of the ruckus and cacophony of the hospital staff.

Soon, a little red rocket launched itself straight at Shirou, tackling him and forcing him back down onto his bed.

Brushing away the long black twin-tails from his eyes, Shirou looked up to see Rin's signature fringe a couple centimetres away from his forehead.

[Choose!

A. Reverse the situation and push Rin down instead.

B. Move your head upwards and kiss Rin.

C. Push her off because she's an annoying tsundere.]

As the prompt filled Shirou's head, he already knew what option he would choose.

(A/N: Spoilers, it's not C. Although, if he was devoid of emotions, that would be the chosen option.)

Looking straight into Rin's eyes and keeping them locked there, he slowly pushed upwards with his arms, being careful not to hurt her. Once they were off the bed by a certain amount, he executed a swift movement which placed Rin underneath him.

Rin, caught off guard, let out a cute yelp as her face turned bright red. She could feel Shirou's hot breath on her face, and that only helped to accentuate her blush.

Unable to keep her gaze on Shirou's face any longer, she turned her head towards the side.

As soon as she did so, she locked gazes with Sakura.

Just like a balloon which had just been deflated, she lost all of her tension and the blush on her face retreated. She slightly averted her gaze, as she struggled a little bit under Shirou.

Shirou, noticing the awkward atmosphere, slowly let go of Rin and sat back down.

"Sakura…"

"Rin… nee-san."

Sakura seemed to grit her teeth and force herself to say 'nee-san' at the end, but it was so subtle that only Shirou picked it up.

Rin and Sakura maintained eye contact throughout the proceeding silence.

It was Rin that broke it off first, with tears in her eyes. Sakura's blank yet somehow sincere eyes had affected her too much.

"'Nee-san' you say… I'm not worthy of such an address."

Rin started seriously sobbing, and Sakura was attempting to comfort yet didn't know how. Finally, she settled on hugging her close.

This only caused Rin to cry even more, thinking herself undeserving of such an innocent and caring younger sister.

She had warped reality to her own liking, denying any of the thoughts that would result in her definition of 'weakness'.

It was basically the same as denying the relationship between her and Sakura. Yet Sakura had never done the same, despite being on the brink of insanity. It was very possible that the only thing that kept her going was thinking about her older sister.

Rin, who had matured quite a lot during the past year, was starting to understand these things as she came to a sudden realization.

The realization that this wasn't her true self. Deep down, the truth was that she didn't want to abandon her sister. She didn't want to be separated with her, and she definitely didn't want to kill her. It may sound like she was simply running away from her guilt again, but this time it was the plain truth, with no spices added.

The pressure and the responsibilities that came as a package with the book Tokiomi gave her had warped her.

She started thinking that Sakura must have been living a better life than her because her training as a Magus was 'tough', and the fact that she had to fulfil Tokiomi's wishes.

If Shirou had never saved Sakura, then perhaps she may have stayed that way. However, it was different now. She no longer had to carry the burden all by herself, and she didn't need to put up a strong front anymore either. However, that would only happen if Sakura forgave her.

"Sakura… do you think maybe we could… start over again? I know it's selfish of me, and I'm sure you probably hate me, but… please?

"I think… that's alright. I was told by Grandfa- Zouken that I should think that you and Mother were non-existent so… I don't think I hate you. My memories of our childhood have mostly faded away already… so if we don't restart, I don't know what we can do with our relationship."

"Sakura…!"

Rin was overcome with emotions. She dived into an embrace with Sakura, hugging her tightly while sobbing into her shoulders.

Sakura reciprocated the hug, and felt a new-found warmth spreading from her heart, replacing the previous coldness implanted by Zouken.

After a good couple minutes, Rin had fallen asleep while still on Sakura's shoulders.

The doctors had cleared away almost immediately after they first saw Rin, since they recognized her firstly as the Tohsaka's ojou-sama, and secondly, as Sakura's older sister.

Since Sakura's body was extremely weak right now, she wasn't able to fully support Rin's weight and plopped back down on the bed, struggling.

Shirou moved in to help, lifting Rin up like a duffel bag and placing her on his own bed.

"U-Um… thank you. For everything."

"No problem."

Shirou's cold personality was back. As if sensing his change, Sakura immediately dimmed down and lowered her head, as if she didn't want to get in his way.

Glancing one more time at the sleeping sisters, Shirou left the ward still in his hospital robes.

Immediately, he bumped into Takechi, who was just on his way to check on them.

"Huh? Emiya-kun? What are you doing out of bed? Your body has been asleep for an entire year!"

"As you can see, it's still perfectly fine. Now please, get out of the way."

"No, it's absolutely not fine! If you move your body too much, it will just break down!"

"Just… get out of the way!"

Shirou was about to materialize Byakuya when he heard a nearby nurse discussing something.

"Here, it's this guy, Emiya-san. He comes in for check-ups every now and then. There's clearly nothing wrong with his body that we can see, but every time he comes, his condition gets worse."

"Hee~, that sounds so mysterious. Unlucky, you have to deal with such a patient."

"Tell me about it! Although, he is quite an ikeme- AAAH!"

Before the nurse could finish her sentence, Shirou had already grabbed her collar and looked at her with interrogative eyes.