After finishing in the restroom, Sakura happened to glance out the bathroom window.
A streak of rainbow-colored light flashed across the sky.
At first she looked on in curiosity.
Then, a heartbeat later, her eyes widened with joy.
"Mr. Leon!"
She cried out and sprinted out of Einzbern Castle, nearly slipping along the way. She threw herself into the arms of the person she had been longing to see, right beside the half-finished snowman.
"Sakura, I'm back."
Leon caught her effortlessly before she could stumble, spinning her around once in the process.
The scene looked like the reunion of a guardian knight and the princess he had sworn to protect, leaving the two little girls watching nearby unable to hide their envy.
"Mmm... Welcome back!"
Overcome with happiness, Sakura burst into tears.
She didn't even notice that besides Leon, there were now two more visitors—a grown woman and a little girl.
"...Sakura."
Covering her mouth, tears filling her eyes, Aoi Tohsaka softly called her daughter's name.
She wanted to approach.
Yet she didn't dare.
Leon had already told her everything Sakura had endured after being adopted into the Matou family.
It had all been her and Tokiomi's fault.
They never should have decided Sakura's future on her behalf.
They had only wanted to give her a magical upbringing equal to Rin's.
Instead...
They had personally sent her into hell.
"...M-Mom?"
A word that had once been the most familiar on her tongue now felt strangely foreign.
After clinging to Leon for a while, Sakura turned toward Aoi.
Her deep violet eyes were noticeably distant.
Once, they had been a vibrant emerald green—
Just like Rin's.
Because of her height, Rin hadn't been the first person Sakura noticed.
Now the little girl stood with her hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out like an indignant pufferfish.
Even so, sensing the atmosphere, she wisely refrained from interrupting the reunion between her mother and younger sister.
"...Sob..."
The indifference in Sakura's eyes pierced Aoi's heart.
Remembering that her husband—the pillar of their family—was already dead, overwhelming guilt and panic crashed over her all at once.
Her legs gave out beneath her.
She fell to her knees in the snow and broke down in uncontrollable sobs.
Startled, Sakura instinctively looked away.
She buried her face in Leon's chest.
Gradually...
She began crying as well.
The emotions she had once sealed away while trapped within the Matou family's nightmare had been released by Leon—the one who had saved her.
Now, they surged forth with explosive intensity.
The warmth.
The happiness.
The love she had once known.
All of those precious memories rushed back into the empty space within her heart—a heart that, until Leon appeared, had held almost nothing else.
Unexpectedly, although Rin's eyes were also brimming with tears, she stubbornly refused to cry.
Her delicate lips trembled slightly as she clenched her teeth, forcing herself to remain strong.
...
As outsiders, Illyasviel and the two Homunculus Combat Maids quietly stood off to one side.
None of them spoke.
They simply watched in silence.
Raised in comfort from childhood, Illyasviel couldn't truly understand the suffering Sakura had endured.
She carried her own destiny from birth.
Leon likewise chose not to interrupt.
He simply stroked Sakura's now-purple hair in silent comfort.
After a long while...
The cries of the three finally subsided.
Sakura, whose emotions were the most restrained, recovered first.
She gently stepped out of Leon's embrace and walked over to Aoi, who was still quietly sobbing.
Reaching out, she softly touched her mother's tear-stained face.
"Please don't cry anymore, Mom."
"If you keep crying... you won't look pretty anymore."
It was only a simple gesture.
Only a simple sentence.
Yet those few words shattered the emotional dam Aoi had only just managed to rebuild.
She tightly embraced Sakura once more, crying so hard her voice became hoarse.
Because she knew...
Once a mirror has shattered, no matter how carefully it's pieced back together...
The cracks never truly disappear.
The Sakura she had once known...
Would never come back.
Neither would their family.
"...Mom?"
Sakura had no idea how to respond to the overwhelming grief and remorse pouring out of Aoi.
Her small hands hovered awkwardly in the air.
Instinctively, she began struggling, wanting to return to Leon's side.
Feeling that resistance, Aoi slowly loosened her embrace.
The instant she did, Sakura darted away like a startled little animal.
She hurried back behind Leon, clutching the leg of his trousers while cautiously peeking out from behind him.
Even after reuniting with her mother and sister...
Leon remained the only person she truly trusted.
A broken mirror can never fully be restored.
Neither can broken family bonds.
Sakura was still too young to accurately express what she felt.
But the loneliness and fear of believing she'd been abandoned by her parents...
The jealousy of seeing her older sister continue living a peaceful, happy life...
Those scars would never disappear.
Especially for a child at such a sensitive age, when memories left the deepest impressions.
Both love and hatred only grew stronger with time.
Just like childhood memories of grandparents whose faces had long since become blurry.
The sweetness of a piece of candy they once gave you.
The warmth of a gentle smile.
Those moments remained forever engraved in your heart.
For Sakura, her memories of Tohsaka Tokiomi ...
Aoi Tohsaka...
And Rin...
Were exactly the same.
No matter how wonderful those memories had once been...
The pain that followed had replaced them during the very years when those impressions were taking shape.
No one could truly understand how Sakura felt.
Just as Rin could never fully comprehend the inhuman suffering her little sister had endured.
...
They could never return to the way things once were.
"Sakura!"
Unable to bear it any longer, Rin hurried over.
"Don't ignore me!"
"...Big Sis."
Sakura timidly called out before immediately shrinking back behind Leon again.
"What are you doing?!"
"Mr. Leon, help me!"
Rin reached around Leon, trying to drag Sakura out from behind him.
Sakura instinctively resisted, circling around Leon to avoid being caught.
The two sisters ended up running circles around him, turning the emotional reunion into an unexpectedly comical game of chase.
In the end, Rin still failed to catch her.
Leon simply reached out with both hands, effortlessly lifting one little girl in each hand and bringing the chase to an end.
Thus, Aoi and Rin temporarily settled into Einzbern Castle.
Until the Holy Grail War concluded, it would serve as their home.
Although Sakura still instinctively kept her distance from both her mother and sister...
Their arrival noticeably brought more smiles to her face than before.
When she later learned of Tohsaka Tokiomi 's death...
Sakura remained expressionless.
Neither sadness.
Nor anger.
It was as though she had merely heard news about a complete stranger.
Leon wasn't surprised.
After all...
It really did come down to one thing.
Everything had started with Tokiomi.
He had given Sakura a warm and loving family...
Only to personally send the little girl who had known that happiness straight into hell.
Sakura would never be able to forgive him.
But if there was one thing she could be grateful for...
It was that those events had led to her fateful meeting with Leon.
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