Sakura hated bugs.
She never once did in the past. She thought they were… well, odd. Some more so than others. It was normal for a child her age to care little about their purpose in life and be more affected by how they felt to her senses. Many stink. Others were squirmy. All of them were weird in their own little way. But she never hated them for it.
She did like one though. Butterflies.
Innocent, gentle, fragile yet beautiful. No matter how many times Sakura chased one in the park or garden with her sister, she always thought them the most likeable insect in the world.
Whenever she saw them trapped as another spider's meal, however, she'd remember she hated insects.
Bugs that bit down on her skin. Worms that crawled all over her body. Slugs that violated her very being, inside and out, over and over and over and over.
Sakura hated bugs.
They were a cruel reminder to her that the world had and always will be cruel. No matter how hard she fancied herself as a beautiful and innocent butterfly, one so gentle and fragile that she could never hurt another, the bugs would always ensnare her, torture her, break her.
Body, mind, and soul, the bugs took away everything.
She had nothing left. No innocence, no thoughts of escape, no will to continue resisting. Hence, she just laid there, letting her grandfather's creations have their way with her as they continued to seek out her core. All so they could shatter her and make her hollow. Empty.
Empty as a vessel.
She should've been scared. She should've been angry. She should've panicked. But no. All she felt was emptiness.
In fact, why bother resisting? Why hope for a brighter tomorrow? Every time she tried, she'd always get tossed back into the pit. She was always reminded that she was nothing if not a trapped butterfly.
There was nothing she could do but blankly stare at the fight ensuing before her.
Enraged by Uncle Kariya's deception, her 'grandfather', or rather, the rotting pile of amalgamated meat and bones Uncle Byakuya had been throwing into the basement, continued its onslaught. Lashing tentacles after waves of the endless swarms continued to bear down on the two Servants and her dear uncle.
Uncle Byakuya had been left ignored after being knocked aside, but Uncle Kariya continued to stand tall. Taller than she'd ever seen him before. Sakura didn't understand why.
'Why continue to resist? Why bother disobeying grandfather?' Time and time again, after being subjected to the torturous 'lessons', her fragile hope corroded away. Her dear wish to see her mother and sister again waned, like beach sand being violently eroded by a storm of nightmares and horrors. All because her body and mind learned one thing from those 'lessons'. 'There's no reason to fight on… No one's coming to help… So… why bother… with this…?'
Sakura couldn't understand. Why did her Uncle Kariya fight? For her? That couldn't be true. After all, if he really cared about her, why did she kill her father? Why didn't he sound sad at all?
Why did he smile like a grandfather when he admitted taking away yet another part of her past?
Sakura couldn't understand the man. Especially now when he was faced against overwhelming odds.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Berserker howled for violence, the kind that a gentle girl like Sakura could never come to inflict on other people. Sword swing after sword swings, bluish-white light akin to lake water on a cool summer's day lashed out, eviscerating any and all of Zouken's attacks. Be they boney and thorny fleshy tentacles or ferocious bugs, they were all cut down. But of course, a single blade couldn't hold them back.
"To think you actually summoned a Servant so skilled, you useless little shit—!" Zouken, seemingly recognizing the skill of the black knight, howled with the fervour of his hungry familiars. "DEVOUR THEM!"
At his beck and call, the many boils and bulbous sacks adorning the basement walls now popped and birthed even more. Another wave was ready and even more, were well on their way.
Sakura could feel some of the mana being drained from her being to aid their creation, but Zouken's stores were still vast. Connected as she was to him in her little cocoon, she could somehow tell. Whether by the latent talent in her magus blood or maybe just the child growing used to being violated by magical worms, she could feel it. This was not the full extent of Zouken's power.
'This… is impossible…' Knowing this only served to reinforce her earlier thought. 'Winning against grandfather… is impossible…'
And then, she felt the warmth.
"You damned bitch!" Crimson flames eating through the surrounding flesh roots were reflected in Sakura's deadened eyes, lighting a faux spark of hope within. In the many eyes of her grandfather, however, it ignited the only fury.
"Hey, now. Do you kiss your children with that mouth? Then again, it seems you'd rather eat them with it, yeah?" With a teasing smile on full display, her eyes turned hungry as Avenger swung her katana to the side. A swathe of flames immediately incinerated the cocoon enveloping the girl but left Sakura safe.
The sudden freedom dropped the girl to the stone floor. But instead of the usual icy slime, it somehow just felt warm to the touch.
"Stand up, girl." The woman's boots and voice had Sakura meeting the crimson-eyed gaze. "Why the look of defeat? Don't tell me you've given up all hope while your saviour continues to battle for his life?"
Sakura spared a glance over to her dear uncle. The man who'd shown more love and care for her than her own father ever had in the past few months had been forced to take a knee while blood spurted out of his arms and cheeks. A light squirming and a hand to his belly informed the girl that the worms within him must've been acting up.
But why had they not eaten him through yet? They were Zouken's. Why hadn't grandfather activated them to eat him alive?
Sakura didn't know. And she didn't care. For all the struggle taking place before her, she could hardly see any good to come of this fight. Not for her or her Uncle Kariya.
"It's useless…" the girl mumbled under her breath. "Disobeying grandfather… it's useless…"
"Hoh? And you would call my power useless even now?" As if to demonstrate, the redheaded woman swung an arm. A ring of fire burst into life around them, searing a few tendrils that tried to sneak behind her into ash. The bugs dive-bombing from above were all turned into smoke the moment they got too close. Blood splatters evaporated into steam before they could even stain Avenger's cloak. "From where I stand, your so-called 'grandfather's attempts are the useless ones. Had he the right mind, he wouldn't bother with all the big talk and have just taken you hostage."
"… Maybe… you're right…" But even if she was… what could Sakura do but listen and obey? How could she even dare think fighting against that monster of a man?
Her dazed eyes looked up to watch as Berserker yet again weathered another tentacle-insect swarm. Waves upon waves of the monstrosities were battered and slain by the tempest he was throwing with his sword. But with her Uncle Kariya now coughing blood, even if he continued to level a glare at Zouken, even Sakura could see the writing on the wall.
He would die a futile death. Because, like her, he was weak, a coward, and nothing more than their grandfather's plaything.
Why had Zouken bothered with letting Uncle Kariya take her place after giving up on this war, to begin with? Why had he rushed her uncle's treatment with the worms, knowing full well that it would destroy his son's body in less than a few weeks? Why bother with it all if a broken and weak man was going to be the result?
Because Zouken could do it. Because, to him, they were lesser than his bugs.
Sakura hated bugs. It reminded her of how cruel the world was. If only she could've lived out her fantasy of being an innocent butterfly, dancing along the park with her sister, ignorant of the horrors of the world… she wished she could return to that blissful life…
"Hmph. To think it'd be Lancelot of all knights…" Avenger scoffed, earning Sakura's curious stare. "Really now, your martyr of an uncle is quite the lucky white knight, isn't he?"
'Lucky? A white knight? In what way?'
While it was true that he tried to save her, Sakura's cripple of an uncle wasn't at all inspiring like the fairytales. In fact, once he threw away his own luck when he came back for her, Sakura could only think of him as an idiot for doing so. Even now. Because why bother with a girl as downtrodden and abandoned as her?
'It's not like mother or father… or Rin even bothered to try to bring me back…'
And yet… he was the only one… The only person to smile her way… to offer her hope. To offer her salvation, promising a return to the happy days she'd long believed she'd lost.
Despite the fiery atmosphere created by Avenger's power, Sakura felt something cold trickling down her cheek. The sharp contrast of temperature had her touching on the tears that escaped her.
'Eh?' the girl was surprised. 'Why…?'
Having been broken down by the horrible torment, having experienced living hell since stepping into this house, she'd expected to have lost everything, hope and all.
"It seems you've yet to lose that spark of life in you, child." Avenger's soft words belied her devilish smile. "Hold onto that, lest you wish to fall into hell like me. Like your uncle."
As the tears poured on, the girl continued to watch, to hope against hope, waiting for her uncle to pull through.
'Do… your best…' Sakura bit her lip, for the first time crying out not in pain but in desperation. "Do your best, Uncle Kariya!"