So, when I started typing up the update for this Quest, there was a tie on both Master and Ally votes, Emilya tying with Artoria, and Illya tying with Ange.
They're both interesting, and now I wish I can write them both. So here's what I'll do, our player characters will be Emilya and Ange, with Artoria and Illya appearing as rival Masters.
As for why I chose Emilya and Ange to be the player characters, I believe I have much more to work with them than Artoria and Illya. That said, Artoria and Illya would have such an interesting dynamic, so I'll probably write a couple of Omake featuring them.
I didn't see the last three people's votes come in until after I was finished writing the update, so instead of rewriting everything again, please have this update and my apologies. It's been a while since I was active in writing a Quest.
Anyway, here's the next update. Feel free to discuss the choices, I won't answer anything regarding their Identity though. It's part of the Fun in Fate to know your Servant's identity.
~ ~ ~
A Girl and Her Servant
~ ~ ~
"I'm Ange, Master of Rider." The girl tipped her top hat at you, before fixing it back over her silver hair. As she slipped on a pair of black-and-magenta gloves she pulled from the inside of her dress, the girl quirks an eyebrow at you. "What, do you want my last name too? I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you."
You expected her to pull out a gun and point it in your face, but the girl simply turns around to head out of the room.
What an odd girl.
"You can introduce yourself while we head to summon your Servant." Her voice carried into the room. You quickly scramble out of your pod, nearly tripping over the exposed wires of the place in your haste to catch up to your Partner.
The doorway led to a brightly-lit, spartan hall. The walls were made of metal with not a sign of rust on the paint. Standing where you are, the path splits into two, the one to your left curving inwards and not letting you see where it led. Ange was waiting for you on the other end of the hall to your right, her Servant (or someone that you think is her Servant) standing beside her.
You trot over to them, the Servant assessing you with searching, icy-cold eyes. Ange has a mask pulled up to the bridge of her nose, which together with her top hat conceals most of her face except for her eyes. Your Partner gestured to the side, introducing you to her Servant.
"This is Rider, my Servant." At her Master's greeting, the Servant clipped her boots together and saluted you.
"Rider of Orange, it's a pleasure to work with you!" The Servant couldn't have been older than Ange or you. Rider is short, with golden hair and silver-blue eyes; she looked almost like a fairy if it wasn't for the expression on her petite face. Her cheeks lacked any real baby fat on them, but less from age and more from either malnutrition or stress. To complete her strange appearance, Rider is dressed in a well-pressed military uniform and an officer's hat that was a bit big on her head, a decorated sword sat on her thin waist and had a rifle slung on her back.
You also couldn't help but notice that she used the term "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu", which was strange considering that the medals, insignia, and Iron Cross on her uniform pinpointed her as German, rather than Japanese. Perhaps it was the work of the Holy Grail? A thought for another time.
"I'm Emilya Fujimura. Same here." You greeted back. All of a sudden, you felt conscious of the fact that you're still wearing your school Uniform. While it wasn't bad looking, it was certainly less formal than the Military Uniform Rider wears, and the top hat, black dress, and cape Ange was sporting.
The Homurahara Academy uniform you are dressed in had a white blouse trimmed in red on the ends of the collar and sleeves, a red ribbon tied around the collar, and a brown sleeveless button-up vest over it. A black a-line skirt protected your legs from the cold, and long black socks led into a pair of mary-janes. You would even go so far as to say that the uniform is both stylish and functional.
The only caveat being that you don't actually go to Homurahara Academy.
As the amalgam of both Shirou and Illya, you had Illya's appearance in age and academic knowledge of Shirou's. This means that you looked young and had average high school-level grades, both not enough for what Fujimura Taiga (your legal guardian) was trying to pass you of, a child prodigy.
The Fujimura's had enough clout to forge your papers for the family registry, but that wouldn't hold under the close scrutiny of the Ministry of Education, so you had to surrender yourself to the fact that you have to repeat years in middle school.
The only reason you had a uniform tailored for you, was so that you can enter the school and deliver stuff to Taiga without looking too out of place.
"I'll lead you to a room you can summon your Servant." Ange declared. Rider stood at ease, her hands folding behind her back. "This place is under a lay line and the owner kindly allowed you to summon yours here."
"Really?" You asked. That was strangely generous of them, especially since it's the Holy Grail War. Magus are known to be secretive about their workshops, and having one under a lay line- the place where magical energy flows through naturally- is cause for even more security. For them to allow a stranger to summon a Servant, a familiar of sorts that is several times stronger than an average human in every possible way, was a huge risk to their well being. "Any reason why?"
Ange's eyes shifted to the side before turning back to look at you. "They said something about it making the Holy Grail War much more interesting to watch."
You felt a chill crawl down your back. You rubbed your upper arms with your hands, wondering if there was a breeze coming from somewhere. Ever since your merge, you felt particularly vulnerable to the cold.
"Well, let's get to it then." You say instead, allowing Ange to take the lead. She nodded, and walked down the hall, Rider close behind. You passed by different rooms with sliding metallic doors, a departure from traditional workshops. Magus are often detached from modern conveniences like smartphones and television, preferring appliances that they understood from every single detail. It stems from Magus being very cautious of things they do not know, so they prefer simple things like lamps and telephones. That said they aren't afraid to take risks, as exploring the unknown is the only way they can reach the Root, the objective of every Magus.
It is exceedingly rare for a Magus to know about computers and digital electronics, so it is a surprise to see a workshop with computers and monitors.
"It's here." Ange stopped by a door after a moment of walking in silence. She tapped a digital panel on the side of the door with the back of her left hand. "Place your hand with the Command Seal over this scanner. The owner allowed us use of this room."
You licked your suddenly dry lips, stepping up beside Ange. She moved to give you some space as you gathered the courage to proceed. Placing your right hand on the panel, your Command Seal lit up and the door opened with a loud swish.
Of course you expected that to happen, so you weren't surprised at all. Ange thought so too, though it's hard to read her with that mask on, but she
might have been shaking a bit.
Rider was outright grinning.
The room was dark, with low-light neon embedded on the edges of the room where the walls met the ceiling and floor outlining the shape of the room. You took a step inside the room, lights filling the room as soon as your foot touches the tile.
A Summoning Circle was already set up in the middle of the floor of the perfectly square room. Several items of note were on the far end of the room, set aside neatly so as not to disturb the carefully drawn Magical Construct.
"Welcome!" The mechanical voice of a girl shouted near your ear.
This time, you really were surprised and jumped back in fright. Ange caught your arm before you could slip and fall onto the Summoning Circle. Her grip is strong and tight, pulling you taut with just one arm.
"Thanks," You said, looking around for the source of the voice. You spotted it a moment later, seeing a star with wings floating a ways away from where you were before you jumped.
It was very much a star, the five-pointed cartoony kind drawn by kids and professionals alike, inside a circle. It had three pairs of wings consisting of a single feather on each side, which was contorting as if it had emotions.
"That's rude, I do have emotions." The star said.
Wait, did you say the last part out loud?
"Hmph, well, I guess it's your first time seeing a wonder like me! So you don't know how to react properly!" You don't think there's a proper way to react surprised to something, but telling that to a star is useless. "I'm Ruby, and I'll be helping you summon your Servant today!"
"You are?" You wonder. Turning to Ange to ask, she shook her head, anticipating your question.
"When I summoned Rider, Ruby didn't help me. Seeing as this is a Magus workshop, the one who lent it to us probably sent… her to help you." Ange only paused as she tried to think of what to address Ruby.
"That's right~" Ruby sang, twisting and contorting its metal body in the air. "My Creator saw something special in you, and wanted me to record the Summoning Ritual. They even allowed me to help in tweaking the Summoning to get the Servant Class you want."
Wow, that's… Huge. Being able to pick which Class you want your Servant to be is an advantage any Master would want. The memories from Illya showed you her deliberately picking Berserker because of its class's capabilities.
"…"Ange had her arms crossed in front of her, standing at one corner of the room with Rider, far enough away from interrupting the ritual, but close enough to hear what you and Ruby were talking about.
"I can help you summon any of the seven standard Servant Classes, but even if I do, we won't know who we'll summon from that class until we do it. Even Servants not normally summonable can be called with my help! Though, it is a bit tricky." Ruby bobbed up and down. "Ah, if my performance is good enough, I might even find a willing contractor in you for a job well done!"
You might have imagined it, but you thought you saw sparkles come out from Ruby at that declaration.
"If you want to summon someone out of the standard classes, you would need a Catalyst. You're in luck, as My Creator provided an entire set for you! You can pick any one that you like, and I can even explain to you a little about it." Ruby pointed with one set of her wings at the items on the far end of the room.
You walked towards them, examining each of the items with Ruby providing a history of the object in question.
The first was a sword- Xiphos, Shirou's memories helpfully provided- with a tassel on the end of the hilt, and a blade decorated with gems embedded into the blade. You picked it up and tried to run your magic over it, trying to examine it for yourself.
You're not Shirou, and neither are you Illya. While you may have the memories of the two, you are fundamentally different from both. This means that while you have their memories, you are not them. That means that you don't have their world views, their aspirations for the future, and their drive.
That means you don't have the vast knowledge of weapons that Shirou is naturally gifted with.
All you can gleam from examining the Xiphos with your magic, was that it was used extensively, cared for deeply, and had an underlying current of power hidden in it.
"That's the Guardian's Xiphos." Ruby commented. "While not her main weapon, this was used by a hero who died before, and came back to protect a stranger that gave half their life to them, tying both to one fate. She travelled the skies, battling many titans and meeting plenty of people, but her shield and her heart never wavered. This Catalyst is for the Shielder Class- The Servant of the Shield, they boast near impregnable defense, never allowing anything to get past to their Master."
You placed the Xiphos back into place, before picking up the next item. This one is strange, as it was just a piece of tattered cloth. A prod with your magic tells of a different story though, as it was made with a material you've never even heard of. You placed it against your eyes, and to your surprise you can see perfectly well with it.
"Ah, the Tattered Blindfold." Ruby seems to droop as she told you about the Catalyst. "Her story is not a happy one. She was among the many made to protect a lie, blind to the fact that their purpose to exist was a farce. As she struggled to find meaning in her existence, she stumbled through pain, loss, and parting. At the end of her road, she entrusted the protection of the future to the two left. Those who know her story will never forget her. Her skill with Swords is barely matched, earning her the title of Saber. Though…"
The somber tone the Mystic Code took urged you to treat it carefully as you set it back in place, seeing as she didn't want to continue. You moved to the next one, a pair of eyeglasses that appeared as special as the blindfold. The eyeglass didn't distort your vision like you expected it to, so it wasn't eyesight correction glasses.
"Those are Bulletproof Glasses." Ruby seems back to her usual self, if flying a bit less excitedly. "They're not broken, they're made that way. The Hero who wore them didn't need glasses, but used it as a security blanket against a trauma in her past. Very few people know her real name, but her skill with rifles and bows are unparalled in her world, qualifying her for the Archer Class."
There were more items to go over, so you set the glasses down and examined the next one. It was a long polearm with a green ornamental dragon biting into the blade from the shaft. An examination with magic drew a gasp from you. This was the legendary-
"Oooh~ That one!" A blush appeared on Ruby's star, which if you think was a person, probably qualified for their face. "That's the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, taken from an alternate world visited by My Creator! He wouldn't tell me how to find it, but he told me interesting stories about it!"
"Interesting stories?" You may not know Ruby for very long, but you're beginning to think that anything Ruby finds interesting, it was on a whole new level of strange. Especially since the Mystic Code is contorting in ways you didn't think a circle could contort.
"Yep! My Creator grabbed this from the museum of an alternate world where the Heroes of the Three Kingdom are all women. And instead of this Lancer being known for having a huge beard, in this alternate world, she is known for having long hair and huge… hehehe~"
As Ruby laughs perversely, you try to wrap your head around how a world where the heroes of the Three Kingdoms were all women would work. The complicated character relationship of the vast story was made even more confusing with substituting the genders of a lot of them, and it made your head hurt.
Better move on to the next one then.
This one was a bloody, cracked, red gem. When you held it, magic seems to flow from your hand into it, and it lit up for a moment before dying down.
"Ah, I feel sorry for this one." Ruby stopped fantasizing and seems to ponder the Catalyst. "Normally, the Hero who owns this Catalyst is an ace among aces, prodigy among prodigies. An amazing mage, she managed to make the impossible possible by reaching out to her enemies and make them her close friends, usually by beating them up either physically or magically. She understood her opponents and opened up to them. My Creator took this Catalyst from a world where that hero lost everything she cared for, breaking her from the inside. A different kind of Caster."
With care, the gem was returned to the cushion it was on, symbols flashing across its surface for a moment before dying.
After the gem, the Catalyst was a tunic, cut and tailor fit to a woman's proportions. It was sky-blue in colour and had white trim forming a motif.
"It's called the 'Champion's Tunic." Ruby told you. "Again, My Creator took this from another world. The Hero of this Catalyst has quite a tale. She once failed to stop a calamity from destroying her princess's kingdom, but returned a hundred years later to finish the job, cleansing the corrupted Sacred Beasts of her friends, and banishing the Calamity from the land and rescuing the princess, earning her a spot as a Rider."
You moved on to the next one, a simple card on a table. It was predominantly red and black, with a symbol of a top hat on a mask with one eye socket flaming. It read 'TAKE YOuR hEaRT'
"This one is also interesting!" Ruby exclaimed. "This one is the signature of a gentleman thief who stole, not riches, but the corrupted Desires of their target! Nobody knows their identity, or how they do this, but rumours say that they can change an evil person's heart! He is a shoe-in for the role of Assassin in the Grail War."
There are two more Catalysts, and the second-to-the-last one is an old fashioned key.
"I'm… honestly not sure about this one. It's just a Basement Key." Ruby wondered. "My Creator said that it's the prized possession of a man who raged against the creatures that took away his mother. He vows to eradicate every single one of those terrible creatures, who treat them all like cattle in a pen, turning into the very creatures he hates, much to his horror. These traits are allowing him to be summoned as a Berserker."
Finally, the last one was an arrow-riddled gilded full plate. Even now, you can see the shafts of arrows sticking out of the holes where they pierced the metal.
"The Armor of the Mad Prince." Ruby said, shivering. "The… Spirit who wore this armour had a terrible past. His cowardly king of a father hid as bandits raided the palace, doing unspeakable things to his mother. His anger at what was done to his mother allowed him to kill the bandits, but his rage against those not of his country never died. His anger grew so large, that it engulfed his country and those surrounding it and plunging them into war, but so mad was he, that he didn't see his very own men plotting against him. He died, never seeing the war he so carefully crafted. Summoning him as a Servant will fuel the Catalyst and forming an Avenger."
When Ruby finished explaining, she turned to you.
"It's up to you now. I'll help you summon the Servant you want, so just tell me which one it is."
You nod.
"Go ahead and summon anyone you want." Ange said to you, contributing to the discussion. "It doesn't really matter to me which class you pick, it would only be detrimental if you couldn't get along with your Servant. If you can do that, we have a higher chance of winning."
"Would there be a difference if our Ally chooses to summon with or without a Catalyst?" That question came from Rider, earning a cursory glance from her Master.
"Why yes there is!" Ruby straightened up in attention, flinching at the gaze Rider gave her. "Summoning without a Catalyst often summons a Heroic Spirit from this Dimension. And like I said earlier, with my help, this little girl can even summon Heroic Spirits not normally from that Class! Like Jeanne d'arc as an Avenger, when normally she would be a Ruler!"
"But you said you can only Summon a Servant from the Standard Seven Classes." Ange pointed out. "Neither Avenger or Ruler is in the Seven Classes you talked about."
A twitch mark appeared on Ruby's 'face', who whirled to shout at Ange. "I said it as an example! I never said you can actually Summon Jeanne d'Arc."
Ange looked un-amused, her gaze trained at Ruby. Realizing that she won't get anything out of the exchange, Ruby turned back to speak to you. "By the way, you know my name but I didn't get yours."
"Oh, I'm Emilya Fujimura." You said to her. Ruby extended a handle from her core, holding it out towards you. Maybe she's asking for a handshake? You indulged her, gripping the handle and shaking it like an arm.
"It's a pleasure to be working with you, Emilya-chan!" Ruby… twinkled. That was the only way to describe it, because stars flew from her wing. Was she winking? "Anyway, let's summon your Servant! Have you picked yet?"
You'll pick-
[] to summon without a catalyst, and it would be
-a Saber
-an Archer
-a Lancer
-a Caster
-a Rider
-an Assassin
-a Berserker
[] to summon with a catalyst, and you'll use-
-the Guardian's Xiphos (Shielder)
-the Tattered Blindfold (Saber)
-the Bulletproof Glasses (Archer)
-the Green Dragon Crescent Blade (Lancer)
-the Bloody jewel (Caster)
-the Blue Tunic (Rider)
-the Calling Card (Assassin)
-the Basement Key (Berserker)
-the Arrow-riddled Chestplate (Avenger)
