During that same night, some hours later, a man with unkempt purple hair could be seen passing through the streets of Fuyuki towards the currently-burning Shinto district while tugging two similarly purple-haired children.

After having returned home from groceries, he was told of the preceding events by his son regarding his sister. Safe to say, Byakuya Matou was pissed.

"How dare that bitch get herself into this mess. If the only other magically attuned pure-blood Matou falls, then Zouken might as well have my head!"

He grinds his teeth, having to remember that the only reason Zouken has him alive still is the sheer fact that he was that old insect's only connection to his more gifted children...

With the old man mysteriously not being in the house, he was forced to drag around his failure of a son and false daughter while finding a way to locate his sister.

"Now what did that bitch last tell you about her location?!" He shouts at his son while gripping harder on the 7-year-old's arm making him yelp.

"Oba-san only told me not to go into Shinto! Oto-san it hurts!"

"I don't give a shit boy! Now, where?!"

"I-I dunno! Sh-she just t told me to steer clear off of the Shinto district!"

"P-please let g-go of onii-san..."

The little girl tries to protest only for it to backfire as Byakuya smacks both children down nearly knocking them into the hill right beside the road they were running on.

"Stay or else no dinner for either of you..." The purple-haired man shouts at the two siblings before running off into the blazing district.

A few minutes later, a horrific chorus of screams could be heard echoing through the night from where they came from only for a cloud to mysteriously rise from the ground and partially cover the moon. The cloud then begins to get bigger and closer at a speed faster than any cloud not caught in a storm had any right to be.

"What the..." Shinji mutters as he looks at it, only for his eyes to widen after seeing that it was an innumerable swarm of bugs rushing in their direction.

Instinctively, he grabs Sakura and jumps off the hillside, thinking to himself, "See Yuji, I'm the cooler superhero here!"

...

Only for him to realize how stupid that action was. He then screams and his sister fell and rolled down the hill. The impact was enough to knock both kids out.

An indistinguishable amount of time passes and Yuji finds himself in the void hearing faint voices surrounding him. With each voice, the volume grew from a barely audible whisper to a roaring scream.

"Help others..."

"Live..."

"A good death..."

"Yuji..."

"Yuji..."

"Yuji..."

"Yuji!"

The pink boy gasps awake before looking around and seeing a pair of purple blobs off in the distance. Rubbing his eyes, he clears up his vision and realizes who those two were.

"S-Shinji-nii? Sakura-chan? Eh? Is it playtime already? But I'm still in the hospital..." He mumbles out in confusion.

Shinji rolls his eyes, saying, "all three of us are, you dingus. Look closer."

Looking down, he sees both of them sport various bruises all over with Shinji's arm even being covered with a cast from when he broke Sakura's fall.

"Shinji-san! Your arm!" Yuji shouts out in panic only to be confused by Shinji's reaction. He had a smug face on him as he proudly boasts, "Of course! Of course, I was the better nii-san than you to be her hero."

"Shinji-nii is the best." The quiet and monotonous girl agrees.

"But of course, who wouldn't adore such a charming and handsome hero such as myself? Ohoho!" He laughs out in the most stereotypical rich person way he could.

He was going to make a sarcastic comment against this but he then recalls a conversation with his mother from nearly two years ago.

"Ma! Why is Shinji-nii so mean! He keeps calling me bad names! I wanna punch him!"

The woman's eyes widen before then glares and flicks on the forehead. "Yuji! You'll send him to the hospital if you punch him!"

Yuji tries to negotiate for a weaker punch but gets shot down before he could.

"No Yuji, not even a weaker punch. You know how freakishly strong you are."

The slightly younger Yuji begins to tear up before sobbing out, "then how do I make him stop?"

Seeing her son cry helplessly, the fiery woman's gaze softens.

"Keep your cool Yuji-Kun. Your Shinji-nii... he... he's been through a lot due to your Oji-san... so if you can... be patient with him... having said that though, he DOES have a big ego for such a small brat... tell you what? I'll help you deal with him so he'll be less mean. Ok?"

"But how?"

The mother then smirks before saying, "we use his ego. Make being a genuinely good person a contest for him."

"Huh?"

"Just trust me on this. Okay?"

Back to the present, Yuji smirks before saying, "Well... I helped this cool old man with a tiger robe fight off an evil bug man who was controlling an army of evil bugs!"

He tries to recreate Shinji's pose earlier but winces as the burns all over his skin began to act up.

However, he grew concerned when he heard nothing from either of the two. He looks at them and sees a shook expression on both.

"Sh-Shinji-nii ? Sakura-chan?"

The purple-haired boy begins to break down into loud sobbing hearing that.

"E-eh?! Shinji-nii?!" Yuji freaks out at the older kid's sudden outburst.

With a voice somehow more hollow than usual, Sakura mutters out, "worms... wasps ..." as tears begin to fall down her face as well. She was still as a doll as always, but she was very much crying.

"Wh-what's wrong you two?"

The doors suddenly open, revealing a familiar old man with a tiger-striped haori. Behind him were two delinquent-looking men wearing white and red tuxedos and standing next to him on both sides with the discipline of soldiers.

This caught the three off guard and silenced them.

"Ah, nice to finally have found you, young man."

"H-hello Mr. Tiger guy..."

Shinji looks at Yuji and the old man wide-eyed. He really did meet a man in tiger stripes... does that mean he... actually defeated... Zouken?

While envy welled up in him somewhat, as he DID see Yuji as his rival, but... more than that was the overwhelming gratitude and relief he felt after finding out that Zouken was no longer.

Raiga's attention was pulled away from Yuji and into Shinji as he sees the boy limp out of his bed while crying. Despite the pain, the boy pushes through and manages to make his body bow in respect.

"Th-thank you..." he speaks out with a voice only barely above a whisper.

"Oh? Isn't this that boy one of my men saw in a ditch with that little girl over there?" Raiga turns to one of his associates who proceeds to nod. "Right sir. Those two are the kids we saw after seeing that one guy dragged off by the swarm."

"O-One guy?" Shinji asks before his eyes widen in realization. Both fear and hope contradictorily begin to well up within the boy as he verifies the existence of this man.

"By any chance... did... the man have purple hair like mine?" Shinji meekly questions which makes the goon in a Yakuza outfit think. 

"Let me think there boy... yeah... he did..."

With that, the little boy gasps out, "Father!" He may hate the man, but as young as he is, he already knows that his sister and he are going to struggle if the man was killed since while the man was abusive, he wasn't neglectful, and even with that, the man still did love his children. Something he HAS shown in those rare moments when he wasn't being constantly pestered, insulted, and threatened by Zouken. Shinji tries to walk off in a desperate hope to rescue the man out of denial that he truly was dead, but an old wrinkly hand places itself on his shoulder.

 Raiga shakes his head, telling Shinji, "If those bugs are as efficient at tearing human flesh as they are at tearing their flesh, then your father is already as good as gone."

The boy falls to his knees as tears stream out of his eyes to which Yuji goes, "O-Oi... Shinji-nii..." The purple-haired boy then looks at Yuji and tells him, "My... dad... is dead..."

Yuji tries to console the boy, trying to show optimism by saying, "H-hey... i-it's gonna be okay. You-" but Shinji snaps at his pink-haired cousin. "It's not gonna be okay!"

Needing a target for the mess of emotions swirling inside him, Shinji shouts at Yuji. "It's gonna be okay?!  YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO IS IN A HELPLESS SITUATION! YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO'S HAD EVERYTHING STRIPPED FROM HIM! YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO'S LOST HIS PARENTS- ACK!" 

Having had enough, Yuji strikes back. This time physically, rather than emotionally. This sends the boy crashing into his IV fluid stand, ripping the needle off of his arm. The two Yakuza members restrain Yuji by arms as the boy tries to go for more against Shinji. "YOU DUMB JERK! MY MOM, DAD, AND GRANDPA ALL DIED IN THAT FIRE!!"

The two Yakuza members struggle to contain the supernaturally strong little boy who was trying to squirm out of their gasp despite both easily twice his size. Shinji looks in stunned silence at Yuji, the naturally happy kid in front of him currently snarling like a rabid animal after he said what he said.

The ruckus was becoming bad enough that the nurses and doctors nearby began to run over to them to help with restraining the raging pink-haired boy.

But before any more people could join, a loud thump echoed through the entire floor as Raiga slams the tip of his blackened wooden sword, letting loose such a malicious energy that even shocked its wielder. But for the sake of getting his point across, he hides his expression and makes it look intentional.

"Now that I have your attention..."

The old man turns to Yuji and asks him about the identity of the two, and seeing no reason to hide anything, he answered truthfully.

"Shinji is my cousin and... from what mom told me, Sakura is his adopted sister."

"I see..." The man then turns his expression towards the two to which Shinji and Sakura flinch instinctively from the old man's interrogative gaze likely due to the expression reminding them of their upbringing near Zouken.

"And you two..."

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Neither of you has family members you can reach to right?"

The purple-haired girl seems to finally react to this as her eyes widen slightly. She quietly grunts as if wanting to say something but then deflates.

"Yes, little girl?"

"N-nothing... I just remembered why I was adopted into Nii-san's family in the first place..."

Raiga nods, not wanting to push the girl further about this. Instead, the old man closes his eyes while bringing a hand to his chin in deep thought.

A few minutes later, he loudly declares, "I have decided!" This triumphant declaration by this old man certainly made all three kids look at him in curiosity.

"I'll present you three with two options. You can either get sent to the orphanage to be taken care of there until you grow up and/or find a family for yourselves... or... you can three  all go with me and my men under the Fujimura group."

With that silence hung in the air. All three children were taken aback by those words.

Being the most used to shock out of the three, Sakura snaps out of her stupor first and raises a hand to ask a question.

"But... why?"

"Hmm?" The old man grunts out in intrigue.

"Why... are you helping us..? I... understand Yuji-nii... but why me and onii-san as well?"

Hearing that makes the older man chuckle in good nature. "Why not? Wasuke, Yuji's grampa, has been like a brother and rival to me all these years, and in all the years I've known him, he's never once strayed off of his code of honor. As he keeps on iterating, "If you're strong and able, then help. That way, many will come to mourn you on your deathbed."

The old man scratches the back of his head before telling the kids, "Call it a selfish wish of mine, but I'd want as many people to attend my funeral as I can get. And hey, with you kids around, my granddaughter will finally be forced to step up as an older sister and be more responsible for a change."

"And besides, if I can spit on the grave of that bastard Zouken even more by being a superior grandfather than he ever could dream, then all the better right?"

Seeing such vibrant confidence and earnest answer from the old man, Sakura was moved into silent tears.

"Ah, eh? Are you alright, Sakura-chan?" Yuji asks his adopted cousin.

The little girl nods and sobs out a "yeah."

"So... what'll it be, you three?" The old man asks with a smile.

All three children begin looking at each other as if to silently discuss among themselves. After what seemed like five minutes, the three concluded.

"So?"

Yuji looks to his cousins one last time as all the three nods in unison.

"We'll be in your care," Yuji says with conviction in his eyes.

The smile on Raiga's face widens as he says, "that's what I like to hear!"

On the opposite side, a boy covered almost completely in bandages, stares emptily at them from the side before suddenly looking up as a man in black approaches him.

A few weeks or so passes since that meeting and the three kids were placed in the hospital's playground area for physical rehabilitation.

While Yuji was already more or less running around, Shinji and Sakura weren't so lucky. Shinji sprained both ankles and fractured his left leg and arm, while Sakura's right leg was not doing much better.

Even still, Shinji still wanted to play, much to Yuji's chagrin. With that, he was forced to drag Shinji around wherever he went.

Sakura, on the other hand, wasn't so inclined to socialize. While the two boys ran off to play whatever other games the other children were playing, she chose to sit by the benches and watch. She had a somber look on her face the whole time she was looking at the two brother figures playing with the other kids. 

After watching a bit more and seeing the smiles on the two despite the pain, she felt compelled to at least try and join in the fun. With some effort, the little girl goes to her wheelchair and begins trying to roll herself towards the rest only to be stopped by a couple of children and their mothers looking at her. 

The mothers began gossiping about Sakura, specifically her unnatural purple hair, and her weird empty eyes. Picking up on it, the children look at her as well before laughing at her and mocking her. Despite the blatant bullying, the two adults present only did the bare minimum of chiding the two kids lightly before going back to gossiping.

Instead of crying or talking back, Sakura, someone who knew no love from her immediate family apart from her brother, just sits there and takes it in silence which only seems to worsen the mocking.

Determined to get a rise out of her, one of the kids begins shoving her and poking her in the casted areas. It hurt, but to someone who's experienced hell at such a young age, thus was negligible.

Eventually, the child gets annoyed by her resilience and outright shoves her off of her chair.

"Hey! Weirdo! Don't just sit there!"

"Say something! Stop being weird-"

But the two were cut off when a boy covered head to toe in bandages walked up to them and stared at them.

This understandably freaks them out as the boy sports burns under the bandages.

The two kids then ran screaming, "Agh! Zombie!"

The two mothers accompanying these two kids ran off after the kids as these too were recovering patients and so they feared for the children's safety.

Sakura stares wide-eyed at her savior's back as he faces the fleeing children, unable to be recognized by the face.

At that moment, she said her first words since exiting her hospital ward. 

"Why... did you save me?"

In response, his savior merely says, "I want to smile like him," without elaboration before leaving far too quickly for Sakura to catch up on her wheelchair.

A few months later, after the three of them had fully recovered, they were picked up by a black car that drove them into the heart of the city where they laid eyes upon a modest-sized Japanese mansion which the car parked in front.

In front of this house was a familiar red-haired boy and man-in-black, standing by the doorway. Alongside them was a brown-haired girl in her late teens whose smile grew the closer the trio got to the house.

Being the three kids is old man Raiga and his men, also walking toward the abode.

"Thank you for agreeing to this on such short notice, Emiya."

Despite how cold and calculating the man in black's gaze was, it immediately softens after hearing these words as his scowl turned into a pleasant smile.

"Don't worry about it, Raiga-san. What are friends for anyway?"

The old man nods before turning to the three children standing before the house.

Yuji is the first to ask a question. "Oi... Raiga-ojii-san, I thought we were bunking with you?"

"No, that'd be too dangerous for you, considering our line of work. Rather, what I told you was that we'd adopt you. As for where you're staying. You'll be safer here with the Emiya household."

Meanwhile, it seems that the brown-haired girl from earlier can no longer resist and charges toward Shinji and Sakura, prompting the purple-haired girl to hide behind her adopted brother.

"Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! You two are so adorable!"

The brown-haired girl begins essentially teleporting around from the sheer speed she was moving in while she inspects the two purple-haired individuals.

"S-Stay back!" Shinji sputters out while doing his best to act like a wall for Sakura to hide behind.

"Taiga, my dear granddaughter. You're scaring them. Give them some space."

"But-but-but-" She says while being pulled away by another gang member.

She then whines out, "But I want to meet my new younger sister and cooousiiiiiins."

Yuji and Shinji's left eyebrows raise as they look back at Raiga. "Sister? Cousins?"

"Taiga-onee-san..." the plum-colored girl tastes how that name is in her mouth before continuing. "What does Raiga-ojii-san mean?"

"Eh? You didn't explain it to them?" Taiga asks quizically towards her paternal grandfather who sighs after hearing Yuji double on the question.

"Explain? Explain what?"

The old man seemingly ages at a rapid pace as he sighs. "You see... Yuji-Kun, Shinji-Kun, Sakura-Chan... while signing for your adoption papers, we found out about Fuyuki's stupid adoption rules. The short version of it is... each direct family unit may only legally adopt one person... meaning, we had to split you three among three of the main contributing families of the Fujimura group."

The trio looks at their adopter with horror in their eyes. The old man keeps a stoic face in front of them but realizes he has to explain further when he begins to see the purple spectrum begin to tear up and get ready to cry.

"Bah! Don't give me those puppy dog eyes. It's not like much would change anyways."

This sudden burst calms the children down, but soon the calm is replaced by confusion.

"Due to how dangerous life being affiliated with a Yakuza group is, you will all be provided a home here by that nice man over there, Mr. Emiya. Now say thank you."

With relief flooding the three, they manage to gain enough composure to do as they were told and bow in gratitude to the man-in-black, with the red-haired boy staring blankly at them from the side. In unison, the 6, 7, and 8-year-olds all say, "Thank you Mr. Emiya, we will be in your care."

The man gives a full smile as he says, "No need to thank me, children. I'm just trying to help wherever I can."

After that affair was done, the old man then continues his words. "With that said, I'm not going to distance any of you from each other with your adopted parents as instead of any singular parent, three families from the Fujimura group adopted you and agreed to share responsibilities, meaning technically everyone in the Fujimura group has custody over you."

"And don't worry about your names, you may not change them."

The three then bow to the old man in genuine gratitude.

With everything thus far settled, Kiritsugu calls out to the three and tells them to come inside for some food.

After setting down a tray of cookies and milk, Kiritsugu leaves the three alone with his son in the living room.

As the four kids munch on the crunchy vanilla-flavored treats, the red-haired boy looks at the three with a blank but consistent gaze.

While Yuji and Sakura didn't mind, or rather, were too emotionally tired to care, Shinji was a different story. He becomes more and more weirded out by the amber-eyed kid. And despite not saying anything because he was trying to outlast Yuji's patience in one of his little concocted games, five minutes was his limit.

"What?! What do you want from us?! You're creeping me out!"

"Shinji!" Yuji scolds his older cousin.

"It's true! He's been staring at us for forever now! If you wanna say something, just say it!"

The boy remains quiet but eventually, he puts his cup of milk down and asks, "Who are you?"

Ah... so he just wanted to know...

"Er... well... I'm Yuji... Itadori Yuji." The pink-haired boy goes first tentatively, unsure how to act in front of the empty-eyed boy.

"Er... Matou... Shinji?" The wakame-haired child follows up after Yuji took initiative still unsure what to make of the redhead in front of them.

"I'm... Matou... S-Sakura..." The youngest in the room greets last after seeing both of her older brother figures talk.

After taking in all their names, the boy nods before gesturing himself. "Emiya Shirou. Nice to meet you all."

"Nice to meet you too Emiya-san," Yuji says with a huge smile on his face.

The red-haired boy goes quiet before looking Yuji dead in the eyes, asking, "You were there... weren't you?"

The question hits the room with a silence so oppressive that it was almost physically painful.

Yet, as vague as the question was, everyone in the room understood what he meant. It was like the very flames of that hellscape crackled behind the boy. The vibe

That silence continues for what feels like hours when in reality it was merely fifteen or so minutes.

And just as powerfully as that silence hit, like a thunderclap, Taiga storms in, shouting, "HEY KIDS, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A DELICIOUS CHOCOLATEY GLASS OF CIRCLETINE?!"

Everyone inside the room visibly flinches at the sheer volume of that introduction but seeing an out from the awkward silence Shirou seemingly generated, both boys took the chance and ran off with Taiga. "Circletine!"

Sakura stays behind. Whether preferring the company of the quiet kid over whatever hyperactive mess those three would become after the chocolate drink.

"You stayed." The young man quietly speaks in a matter-of-fact tone which cuts through even the sound of what seems to be an explosion and hyperactive laughing occurring on the other side of the wall.

The purple-haired girl lowered her head as she meekly replied. "I hope I'm not a bother."

"You're not. It's just... unusual."

"I-I'm sorry..." the little girl quietly mutters huddling up to herself.

"Why? Is being weird wrong?" He spoke with the same even tone he's done so this entire time.

Misery is replaced with confusion at that question.

"W-what?"

Shirou explains his question by handing out an example. "You see, the neighbors also called me that when I was still moving in. They silently called me the weird kid with empty eyes."

Despite having a mostly monotonous expression thus far, Sakura's eyes widen and shone hearing those. Here is someone who could relate to her. Someone... like her...

"W-what did you do?" She asks with a sudden amount of interest which caught the red-haired boy off guard. Nonetheless, he complies and continues his little story.

"Well, dad said that they were just calling me weird because I'm different from them and that's alright."

"It's... alright?"

The boy nods before looking off to the distance. "As long as you're not hurting anyone, it is. Besides, it's not like you can just... stop being weird... right? Just be your weird normal self. That's what I'm doing I guess."

With the finality of those words, both children fall silent. The crashing sounds and manic laughter from the other side numbed into dull thuds and distorted ringing.

Shirou then hears the sound of a stifled sob. He turns around and sees Sakura crying into her wrists.

"Did I say something wrong?" The boy asks, still as emotionless as the Arial 14 font.

"No..." the girl whispers amid her crying.

"Then... why are you crying?" He asks sitting next to her.

"I'm... happy..." she mutters out, looking up with a genuine smile accentuated by dribbling tears and snot.

For the first time this entire time, the boy's eyes shone in awe. This smile... it was just like the same smile Kiritsugu had... during that night...

While most would feel happy at this moment, the boy frowns. Envy strikes his heart once more. As he watches the girl break down into tears of unbridled joy of being accepted by a stranger she feels relates to her... he couldn't help but feel envious. How does someone smile like that? How can HE smile like that? Was it by saving? Or by being saved? Now he has more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, in a dark alleyway somewhere else, the body of a man with purple hair which had become a similar color due to asphyxiation begins to spazz out as a vile worm oozing with black mud-like pus crawls into its mouth, through its throat, and into the heart cavity. The once fully rolled up white eyes turn black before rolling back down to reveal a pair of ghostly white pupils.

----- After Story Notes -----

Sorry for taking so long dude. Life, man.