Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night.

A Reversal of Fortunes

Prologue

Ayako Mitsuzuri blinked as she saw the single pair of shoes on the rack outside the kyuudo clubroom. Scratching her cheek for a moment, she sighed, and knelt down to begin pulling her own shoes off.

Putting her shoes on the shoe rack, Ayako quietly slid open the doors into the clubroom, and closing them behind her quickly made her way through the room. "I knew it." She said with an exasperated sigh, as she found the person she was looking for.

Sleeping in one corner was a girl about a year younger than Ayako. She also wore the Homurahara Academy uniform, and her dark hair had been cut short, with a red ribbon tied at her left brow. Beside the girl was a neatly-kept bento, clearly showing the girl had quickly eaten lunch in the room before falling asleep.

Ayako bent down and began to gently nudge the girl awake. "Hey," she said softly. "Sakura, wake up, Sakura. Sakura,"

Slowly, the girl woke up, eyelids fluttering to show irises of a brilliant blue shade. The girl blankly blinked up at Ayako as the older girl straightened up, and then leaning back closed her eyes again.

"Hey!" Ayako snapped, bending back down and nudging the girl again. "Don't go back to sleep!"

"Go away." Sakura Tohsaka groused, refusing to open her eyes. "I'm tired."

"Even so," Ayako said, pulling Sakura to her feet and forcing the younger girl to keep her eyes open. "This is no place to take a nap in."

Sakura didn't say anything, opting to stretch her arms overhead before seemingly regaining her full faculties. "Rough night?" Ayako asked.

"Depends," Sakura asked. Ayako gave a small laugh and walked over to the shooting range. Sakura followed, Ayako speaking up as they walked the short distance.

"Depends on what?" the older girl asked.

"It depends on what you think a rough night is."

Ayako actually giggled at that. "That sounds just like you." She said. "Well, what would you call a rough night?"

"It wasn't really a rough night by any stretch of the imagination." Sakura replied, sitting down against a wooden pillar as Ayako sat down nearby. "More like I haven't been getting much sleep over the past few days. For one thing, the teachers have been putting out a lot of schoolwork for us to do and study over the past few days, and it's really cutting into sleeping time."

"Hmm," Ayako hummed sympathetically while chewing her lunch. "Well I suppose that's true, everyone's been really busy the past week. Still, don't sleep here: it's impolite."

"Yes, yes," Sakura said with a sigh. "Next time I'll go sleep on the roof. Really, I'd expect you to show some leeway to your top archer on the team, but I guess that's for nothing, eh?"

"This and that are entirely different things!" Ayako snapped. "For one thing, I've got responsibilities as team captain and club president and…"

She trailed off as Sakura began to laugh. Ayako scowled as Sakura continued to laugh, but after a moment she joined in, the two girls laughing at the ridiculous line of thought and the argument over it for several moments before calming down. "Yes, yes," Sakura finally said. "I get your point: as club president and team captain you've got to set an example. Well, I wouldn't want to cause trouble for you, so sorry."

"That apology doesn't so sincere." Ayako teased.

"Hey!"

Ayako laughed, and Sakura laughed a bit too after a moment. "Seriously though," Ayako asked. "Has the schoolwork really been affecting your sleep that badly?"

"It's not just the schoolwork." Sakura said with a sigh. "I've got other responsibilities to deal with, both in and out of school. It's a pain, plain and simple."

Ayako smiled sympathetically. "Hang in there," she said. "It can't be helped, right? So you might as well do your best, right?"

Sakura wistfully smiled back, and nodded with a sigh. "Yeah," she said. "It can't be helped. So I might as well do everything I can."

They sat in silence for a few minutes afterwards, Ayako eating while Sakura looked out over the shooting range. "Hey," Ayako began. "If I were to say I would nominate you as the next team captain, what would you say?"

There was no answer, and after a couple of moments Ayako turned to the younger girl. "Sakura…" she began only to trail off with a sigh.

Sakura was asleep, her head slumped down over her chest, the girl sitting back against a wooden pillar. Ayako took a look at her wristwatch, and sighed again. "It can't be helped, I guess." she said. "Well, we still have twenty minutes left, so I might as well just let her sleep it off. She can just owe me one afterward."

"Thanks."

"For what?" Ayako asked as she and Sakura walked down the school corridors back to their classrooms.

"You know what," Sakura said evasively, trying to keep her impromptu naps secret or at least known to as few people as possible.

Ayako snickered. "You're welcome." She said. "Just remember: you owe me for it. And I will collect, sooner or later."

Sakura laughed as well. "Yes, yes," she said. "I get it. As long it's nothing unreasonable, mind."

"That's fair enough, I guess." Ayako said. The two girls came to a halt outside Ayako's classroom. "Well, you are the best archer I've got, so I have to look out for you. And I expect you to do the same next year, when you…"

"Captain," Sakura interrupted with a reproving smile. "The schoolyear's not over yet, so you might find someone else better suited for the role you're referring to."

"Fat chance," Ayako said with a grin and roll of her eyes. "Still, in a way you do have a point, so let's not talk about that topic, at least not here. Anyway, classes are about to start, so you should get going."

Sakura nodded. "Yes," she said. "Well, see you later during club time, Ayako-sempai."

"Yeah," Ayako said, waving after the younger girl as she strolled away. "See you later, Sakura."

Sakura smiled over a shoulder at Ayako before making her way back to her classroom. Along the way she passed by and cheerfully exchanged passing pleasantries with friends and schoolmates alike.

Then, the cheer dimmed as someone appeared up ahead, walking in the opposite direction, a girl a year older than her, with long hair tied into a pair of pigtails. That wasn't unusual in itself, nor was the vivid violet of her irises, but the matching color of her hair was very disturbing in its implications.

Sakura after all, could tell it wasn't hair dye, like most people assumed. She, and the violet-haired girl, were not like most people after all.

"Matou-sempai," Sakura greeted the girl with a polite nod, a nod the girl returned.

"Tohsaka-san," Rin Matou returned the greeting with a curt nod, the two girls quickly passing each other. Neither stopped walking, but Sakura briefly looked over her shoulder at the older girl walking away behind her.

Rin never looked back, and after a moment Sakura looked forward again, and stepped up her pace.

Classes were about to start.

The arrow flew straight and true, striking the target dead center. Applause went up at that, and Sakura turned and bowed to the rest of the kyuudo club and team alike. "Hey," one of the newer members said with a raised hand. "Can I ask a question?"

"Go ahead." Ayako said from where Sakura was standing.

"Actually I've been wondering about this ever since we joined up." The boy said somewhat hesitantly. "It's just that…I, I noticed that Tohsaka-sempai and the rest of the kyuudo team and a few older members don't quite use the proper forms, or well, the forms taught to us."

"Why is that, you ask?" Sakura asked with a small smile.

"W-well, yes, I mean, I…"

"No, it's fine." Sakura said with a glance at Ayako, who nodded at Sakura, indicating she should answer the question. "After all, we keep drilling you until you know the proper stances and forms by heart, and here we are looking like hypocrites."

The newbies were silent, but then Sakura held up her bow. "You deserve an explanation, so here we go." She said, stepping into a textbook-perfect stance. "This is the proper stance and form for kyuudo. Thing is, while it's proper, it's not the best stance for everyone. Some can use this form and perfect their archery with it. Others however, find it cumbersome to work their best with it. And so…"

Sakura trailed off, shifting to the stance she used earlier, gasps coming up from the newbies, as they finally saw that while it wasn't quite the proper form, it wasn't a sloppy rendition of it either. It was a personalization of the proper form by someone who already knew it by heart, and simply adapted it to better suit herself while keeping everything learning and using the proper form was meant to do.

"Basically," Ayako added. "Learn how to do it right, that way when you make your personal styles you can do it right as well. Right then,"

Ayako paused and gestured at the shooting range. "You've got your demonstration, now it's your turn to try it out." She said. "You know the drill, so get practicing."

As the newbies bustled about, Sakura shared a nod with Ayako before stepping aside to let the newbies get to the range. For a few minutes she and the rest of the club and team watched the newbies practice, and then blinked as she felt someone tug politely at her sleeve.

Turning her head, she looked at Shinji Matou and raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Shinji gestured to another room to the side. "Let's talk." He said, and while Sakura quirked her eyebrow again she didn't say anything, instead opting to lead the way to the other room.

"What's this all about?" Sakura asked as Shinji closed the door.

"Do you mind setting up a bounded field?"

Sakura stayed silent, and after a moment, Shinji sighed. "I've come with a message." He said.

"From who?"

"My sister,"

Sakura blinked, and then narrowed her eyes. "So what does Rin have to say that she sent her…half-brother, to relay it to me, instead of telling me herself?" she asked.

"A warning," Shinji said. "I already have mine so do you have yours? You'll die if you don't get one soon."

Sakura didn't answer at once. "Is that all?" she eventually said.

"Yes, that's all."

Sakura strode past Shinji, and opened the door. She paused as she passed the doorframe however, as Shinji spoke up. "Nothing to say to her?" he asked with a small, mocking smile.

Sakura stayed silent and frozen for a few moments longer, and then without a word, left Shinji behind.

A/N

Well, here's the rewritten version. As I said in the original, I wrote myself into a corner, so unfortunately I'm going to have to reboot the whole story. Once again, I apologize for everyone invested in the original, but it'd be insulting to continue the story as it was, as it would have necessitated some ass-pulls to get out of the corner I wrote it into. The fault is all mine, so hopefully this rewrite will catch your fancy.