[X] Write in: Ask, if he wants to share, he will. And it'd be really silly to miss out important information simply out of not asking simple questions.
[X] How is your fighting style? (It is imperative for me to know how he fights before being forced to fight enemy Servants.)
[X] Sakura... it must be something about our last conversation...
I would argue against the 'Best Girl' part because he's not, he's a guy, and that shouldn't be taken away from him. But that's a whole other thing.
To keep this on topic, while I voted for Sakura (since I felt it fit the most with how the Quest has gone so far), I am veyr intrigued by the fact that Hakuno refered to Kotomine as... well, "Kotomine".
Given the Apocrypha references, I'm suspicious as to which Kotomine this might be, not to mention the fact that Hakuno seems to have a relatively first hand knowledge of them, since he didn't refer to them as "The overseer" or something...
Now my interest in Kotomine is getting peaked. Changing my vote.
[X] Write in: Ask, if he wants to share, he will. And it'd be really silly to miss out important information simply out of not asking simple questions.
[X] How is your fighting style? (It is imperative for me to know how he fights before being forced to fight enemy Servants.) [X] From the church… Kotomine-san must be asking me about my summoning…
[X] Lancer!Medusa
[X] Write in: Ask, if he wants to share, he will. And it'd be really silly to miss out important information simply out of not asking simple questions.
'At least I don't have to worry about enemy Masters here…' I thought to myself as I approach Homurahara's front gate.
'Oh?' I can hear Caster talking to me inside my head 'Why do you think so, if I can ask?' There is amusement in his voice; his reasons why are unknown to me.
'Masters can't fight each other in broad daylight,' I start 'to do so would risk the exposure of Magecraft and Thaumaturgy to the world, thus it is forbidden to do so during the Grail War.'
'You should by know that many Magi wouldn't care about those,' Caster starts chastising me 'the Association wouldn't care if this entire town is burned to the ground as long as Magecraft remains hidden; don't let your guard down in any moment, we don't know who may be a Master, it may even be one of your classmates' He says the last part almost as if talking from experience.
'…Wouldn't it be too much of a coincidence that three Masters attend to the same school?' I say, trying to not make my disbelief too evident in my voice, but I think I failed that check…
'You could be surprised,' says Caster, seemingly finding my disbelief rather amusing 'I have seen weirder things happen'
After this, he sighs 'Just be careful, it wouldn't be fit for a Hero the idea of failing to save someone just because they were too trusting in an open battlefield.'
His words bring me back to my last night conversation with Caster…
…
"—How is your fighting style, Caster?" I ask, I need to know the way he fights before fighting against another Servant.
Caster seems taken by surprise at my question, but answer anyways. "I am able to recreate any weapon that I have seen, including Noble Phantasms. It's my specialized type of Magecraft, I called it 'Tracing' and as you can guess, that's the reason I was able to become a [Heroic Spirit]."
That… was something unexpected.
"You… are able to recreate any Noble Phantasm you have ever seen?"
"—not only recreating them, I am able to also reproduce the skills of the original user as long as I have the traced copy in my hands. I'm also able to call upon a Noble Phantasm 'True Name', even more; my traced copies are built into a foundation different than Gaia's one, so the World doesn't attempts to erode the mysteries that I create.—
I'm a capable sword fighter, I favor double wielding in combat and I prefer to use a bow and striking from the distance. Is that enough for you, Master?"
That was it.
The capability to create mysteries that Gaia's influence doesn't' attempt to erode was the moment I decided to ask him about his Noble Phantasms, the rest of what he said only cemented my opinion.
But—
I don't want to force him to tell me, it would surely damage our relationship if I decide to do that. I didn't want to start our relationship with me forcing him to tell me about his past.
"…Caster," He then was paying attention; I knew that "Could you tell me about your Noble Phantasms, about you?" Then I added "I'm not going to force you to anything, if you don't want to talk, then its fine"
Caster stared at me with an intrigued gaze, he was curious about me, I could see that.
"…Well," Then he started speaking "It's not like I was attempting to hide them for you or anything," He then started scratching the back of his head, obviously uncomfortable with the situation "What do you want to know, then?"
…It kind of dawned on me that maybe I could have just asked in a more polite way. Maybe, with the Grail War going, I'm acting a little too paranoid. (Trait revealed! Inquisitive) Ignoring the fact that I may have just made my relationship with my Servant a lot more awkward, I decide to start questioning his NP's.
…
After a little while, I was able to obtain enough information about Caster's Noble Phantasms and a little more about his story.
"…So you were able to develop a natural Reality Marble." It was something unbelievable; to develop a natural Reality Marble while as a human it's something so statistically improbable that it might as well be impossible—
But that could also be said for the Servant Summoning System that the Holy Grail uses… And also, The Grail itself can easily be counted as that.
What truly is almost completely unbelievable is the fact that he is not only a modern hero (something almost completely impossible for this day and age), but that he also came from an alternate timeline—
'What is this? Some kind of visual novel plot!? '
Unaware or unbothered by my completely understandable reaction, Caster speaks once more "My Servant during my Holy Grail War was King Arthur as a Saber, in my timeline King Arthur was a woman named Artoria Pendragon"
I nodded. As unbelievable this whole situation was, I decided to trust Caster's words for the moment.
"To resume, the Grail ended up being corrupted by an evil entity called Avenger, an incarnation for the Zoroastrian representation of evil, Angra Mainyu, All The World's Evil's, was summoned as a Servant during the 3rd War and proceeded to infected the Grail's Systems allowing for the summoning of Anti-Heroes, and no matter what wish was made to the Grail, it would be twisted into a way to grant the wish but doing so in a way that would cause calamity.—
At the end of the War, Saber and I managed to discover the Grail's corruption and managed to destroy it."
'Avenger…' A Servant that was able to infect the Grail to twist the wish of the winner. 'I should do some research on this…'
Leaving that aside for now, there are some things that I would like to clarify about Caster's history—
"While I understand that your Servant in your Grail War was King Arthur, I don't think that would have been enough to make you obtain a sword like Excalibur as a Noble Phantasm, even as a degraded copy."
At this, Caster started scratching his cheek while laughing in an awkward way, "Ah, that, you see, when I got caught in the fire that ravage my home, I was dying, I was seeing Angra Mainyu's cursed flames devouring every one that I saw, the lingering curses were affecting the air, sapping the life out of anyone that could have survived the flames, sapping the life out of me, damaging my soul itself, I believe.
In the end, I was ready to die after running for what felt like hours, though probably were no more than minutes, until I saw the person that would end up becoming my father, he implanted King Arthur's sheath, Avalon, inside of my body in its spiritual form—
That's how I survived, by having Avalon inside of me, it completely healed my injuries, and the one's it couldn't heal, like my fading soul, and it remade them, changing my Origin into 'Sword'.
Years will pass without me even knowing that Avalon was the thing that healed me," At this point, I can't help but be completely engrossed by Caster's story; I can notice that his face betrays nostalgia, sadness… and guilt. "I would only discover it years later after the end of the Holy Grail War; you could call it a 'happy little accident'."
At this point, Caster sighs and seemingly decides to end his tale, I can feel that there is more, but this is far more than I expected to get out of this conversation.
"—Now, Master," He starts speaking once again, "Since I have answered your questions, I think it's only fair for me to have mine answered, isn't it?
I nodded, Caster has told me what I wanted to hear, I'm basically bound now to answer his questions.
He looked straight into my eyes, and he made his question known, "Master, what is your wish for the Grail?"
I sighed; fortunately, this was an easy question for me to answer.
"I want to live"
Caster raises an eyebrow before my unexplained wish.
"—I was born with a degenerative condition in my brain, actually, I only managed to stay alive after birth due to an emergency surgery to save my life only two years after I was born.
I'm diagnosed that my condition is only going to go worse; the first true symptoms should be a slow but constant loss of my motor functions, followed but a constant loss of memories during random stretches of time, similar to the Alzheimer, after that, I will start losing the rest of my mental capabilities and, finally, my brain will have deteriorated enough to be considered 'Brain Dead'—
Have I mentioned that up until the third step I will be mostly conscious of what is happening to me? Not that it matters at the fourth one, that's it…" I let out a mirthless chuckle; I only wanted to be able to live my life, I may not have any special plans about how, but…
"—so, "I recomposed myself, it was not the time to think about it, it was not the time for weakness "Once I learned about the Holy Grail War, and the Command Seals appeared in my hand, I decided to put my own life in risk… for the sake of saving my own life." It was a contradiction, fighting in a lethal tournament with barely any rules being actually respected, where most of its previous participants had died, being a way to preserve one's own life? It was ridiculous!
… And it was what was happening right now.
"…So when the time came to summon my Servant, I asked to the Grail for a Hero. I asked the Grail to give me someone who would be willing to help me in my goal, to send someone… that was willing to fight by my side, as my Hero…!" I exclaimed with a voice higher than I originally intended, but what was done was done.
I didn't dare to look into Caster's eyes, preferring to keep my gaze in the ground.
I gulped, it was now or never… "With you knowing that, I ask of you Caster—
Are you willing to be my Sword, my Hero, for the rest of the Holy Grail War?"
The seconds felt like hour to me, and then—
I felt someone ruffling my hair, at the same time that he chuckled.
"Are you really that hopeless as a Master?" He asked in an amused voice, "I already forged my contract with you, and unless you really were someone which objective would be the suffering of all mankind or something like that, I will stand by our contract until this Grail War ends—
After all, I am the Hero that you asked for, didn't you?"
I was stunned for a moment before moving to remove his hand from my hair; still, I was completely sure that I wore a smile on my face on that moment.
"I…Thank you, Caster."
He sighed one last time before he started speaking once more, "What I am going to do with a Master as hopeless as you? I can see that look in your face that says me that you are going to do something stupid even without a Servant to protect you. If you end up doing something potentially lethal, then I'll better be here if I am here to make sure you manage to survive"
His words were harsh, but I was able to feel that he meant what he said.
"—But before anything, I have to ask you," he looked to me once again, "Are you willing to trust me, Master?"
It was a simple question, with a simple answer. I immediately straightened myself up, and answered with all the confidence I was able to muster.
"For now, I do. Let's work together then, Caster." (Caster Bond up!) …
Now I was able to see that Caster seemed more at ease with me around, I guess we are now a true Master and Servant team.
Thinking about last night, I remembered something important—
'Caster, if I send you to investigate the Grail's state, would you be able to find anything wrong with it if there were something going on with the Grail's System?'
'I could, but it would take me time, and I would be able to do so with more efficiency if I had my 'Workshop' active and in connection with the local leylines, but as you can understand, that would take me even more time, and besides, remember that with the Matou Master without a Servant, both of you would be an easy prey for any enemy, Servant or Master, that was able to identify you both as Masters without their Servants close.'
So it was between investigating now, but with fewer resources to do so. Laying the foundations for a future investigation, but not doing it right away, and neither of at least until Sakura summoned her Servant…
…Which option should I choose?
[] Investigate the Grail's Systems right away (DC 50/70/90, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[] Wait until Sakura summons her Servant (You will not investigate this turn. Caster is still without a Workshop. You are protected by Caster; events will go on normally until Sakura summons her Servant.)
Well, this went on for far longer than I thought it would do.
At first, when I was making the Caster scene, I wanted it to be a quick thing so I could move on to Kotomine and Hakunos's relationship.
But then, without any warning, the electricity in my house and neighborhood went down (truly, living in a southamerican country is a unique experience).
Now this would be a problem only because of time lost and some boring time, but the thing is...
When the electricity wwent down, it also went my computer. Which is where I write. Which I hadn't save since the begining.
See the problem?
So, when electricity came back, I had to write everything all over again, which may also be a good thing, because I managed to come with some ideas as for how the conversation will go, so it was all nice and fine.
When I was writing this today, lights whent down again.
At least this time I did saved the file...
Anyways, moving from that and into the chapter.
I decided to cut it into to parts, which the next one should come tomorrow, if nothing goes wrong.
About Caster's decision and Hakuno's paranoia about his new Servant, I had some ideas about how to handle this, so from all the others, I decided for this one.
Why? pretty easy, I couldn't find any reason for Nameless to hide his True Name and history, which to make things clear, he didnt say anything about neither Sakura, nor Rin, nor Illya.
He didn't even mentioned the name of Fuyuki, just about the fire, Avalon, the Holy Grail War itself, and about Artoria. Nothing more, he isn't going to completely trust Hakuno with those things yet.
And about Hakuno's paranoia.
Here's the thing, he is now basically in a Murder-Death-Kill tournament where the more renow your Servant has, the more powerful is going to be.
And what he gets is literaly the one Servant that doesn't even have a name, has crazy NP's that shouldn't have, and reacts in strange ways to ceirtain suspicious mentions, furthermore, he doesn't has any idea of who his Servant actually is, which would calm his nerves with the feeling of knowing who is the guy whom he will inevitably trust his life to.
Add this his normal upbringing as a Magus (were betrayal and secrecy between 'allies' is as common as breathing, and you have a ticking time bomb ready to explode.
It was a really good write in. If you had went for any of the other options, there would had been some penalties from any of the two.
Onto the vote between Pierce (The final boss of EXTRA), Kotomine (Do I need to say anything about him?) and Sakura (Which some of you seem to already start waifu-ing).
If you ad went with Pierce, you would had obtained some basic Healing Magecraft, C Rank at most, and some more 'Investigative-y' Magecraft, for example, a spell that I shamelessly stealed from MAGUS Quest (down on my sig) called Nullification, and finally an useful B+ Rank Mystic Code.
With Sakura, you would have practiced basic Magecraft with her since you revealed yourself as a magus, ending with her teaching you some Elemental Manipulation, D To C+, and some more knowledge about the Matous and their Magecraft, which would have given Hakuno some ideas, and finally some Rune knowledge at D+ To C+.
And finally, Kotomine, as you can see in the Character Sheet in the 'Skills' section recently integrated, has started you in the beatiful art of the 'Super-Bajiquan' and some 'Breathing and Walking' knowledge that may come handy in the future, and for last you can decide to have some Spiritual Healing training, D To C, or some little orthodox healing Magecraft, E+ To D+.
And that should be all, so, please post if you notice something that could have been done better, vote and... Um, that should be all I guess?
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
The one constant in every grail war is that things will always go to shit in the worst way possible. It either happens now or later. Normally it would be better to wait but since our servant is Caster preparation is far more important to us. Better to take the risk now and have Caster at his absolute best as early as possible because the longer we wait the more time the other masters will have to prepare and respond in turn.
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
Alright so I was going through matrixes. Now the matrixes should only tell us about stuff we know IC(I think)... So how and why exactly do we have this knowledge of Sakura?!?
Alright so I was going through matrixes. Now the matrixes should only tell us about stuff we know IC(I think)... So how and why exactly do we have this knowledge of Sakura?!?
You aren't the only human male in Homurahara's that knows of Sakura, there are many more, and some of them with quite the visual capacity and perceptiveness.
The way this piece of information reached your ears is because of rumors.
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[X] Wait until Sakura summons her Servant (You will not investigate this turn. Caster is still without a Workshop. You are protected by Caster; events will go on normally until Sakura summons her Servant.)
About that paranoia. Information is good of course, but with an Avenger confirmed running around, there's a good chance the results won't even be conclusive enough to risk sticking our neck out for it.
It's not too big a thing this time around, but when there's some further reaching implications of a vote, like in this case the conversation parter also coming with some skills and stuff, it'd probably be a good idea to at least hint at that fact.
Also, if you're reaching the point where you're splitting up the post because of the length of the various scenes going on, you might want to consider letting the ones currently going on play out and then focusing on the narrative in real time so to speak. There's less of a risk for things to baloon out that way.
Edit: Oh and given that it has come up, I suppose I should join in with nominating Astolfo as best boy.
[X] Wait until Sakura summons her Servant (You will not investigate this turn. Caster is still without a Workshop. You are protected by Caster; events will go on normally until Sakura summons her Servant.)
About that paranoia. Information is good of course, but with an Avenger confirmed running around, there's a good chance the results won't even be conclusive enough to risk sticking our neck out for it.
It's not too big a thing this time around, but when there's some further reaching implications of a vote, like in this case the conversation parter also coming with some skills and stuff, it'd probably be a good idea to at least hint at that fact.
Also, if you're reaching the point where you're splitting up the post because of the length of the various scenes going on, you might want to consider letting the ones currently going on play out and then focusing on the narrative in real time so to speak. There's less of a risk for things to baloon out that way.
Edit: Oh and given that it has come up, I suppose I should join in with nominating Astolfo as best boy.
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind for the next votes.
The reason why I decided to let the scene go for so long in the first place was because, being a really important scene, I felt that it was a necesary scene, both because character reasons and because it showed the results of the previous choice.
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind for the next votes.
The reason why I decided to let the scene go for so long in the first place was because, being a really important scene, I felt that it was a necesary scene, both because character reasons and because it showed the results of the previous choice.
First off, I might as well clarify that I don't think there's anything wrong with letting the scene go long, if anything I'd say it was the right choice. Problems are more likely to show up either when you have multiple important scenes vying for equally huge amounts of attention, or when you got so many little things going on at the same time that the jumping between them ends up leaving the update feel disjointed.
As for the conversation itself, it's solid. I mean, a lot of it was repeated information for me, so for me it was more about the reaction/character bits and there were enough of those to keep the exposition from going dry. Regardless the information is still something important that should be in the story. Both so that the characters can engage with it and to get people up to speed that may not happen to know any given bit of lore.
First off, I might as well clarify that I don't think there's anything wrong with letting the scene go long, if anything I'd say it was the right choice. Problems are more likely to show up either when you have multiple important scenes vying for equally huge amounts of attention, or when you got so many little things going on at the same time that the jumping between them ends up leaving the update feel disjointed.
As for the conversation itself, it's solid. I mean, a lot of it was repeated information for me, so for me it was more about the reaction/character bits and there were enough of those to keep the exposition from going dry. Regardless the information is still something important that should be in the story. Both so that the characters can engage with it and to get people up to speed that may not happen to know any given bit of lore.
Thanks for the advise, I'll try to keep it in mind.
About the dialogue, I'm happy that at least it didn't felt too exposition-heavy, I attempted to make those bits as constant as I could to at least make this a little more bearable, I wanted to make this less about some exposition heavy dialogue and more about those reactions and how it would afect the characters, like the Angra Mainyu situation that Caster told Hakuno about.
...Though, I will not deny that I wanted to make Caster's skills and abilities as clear as I could. Due to numerous past posts, and because the fact that there is a lot of fanon running around about Shirou's Projections.
It seems that there is a misconception in the idea that his projections are eroded by Gaia's interference, when in reality, his Projections are actually outside of Gaia's foundation, and thus, they aren't eroded, so I though on making this clear if anyone had a plan for those in the future.
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
Depending on the encounter can go very well, very bad, or a mix of both.
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
Scheduled vote count started by UNKNOWN01 on Nov 12, 2020 at 9:35 PM, finished with 14 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Tell Caster to set up his Workshop before anything (You will not investigate this turn. Caster now has a Workshop active, which will allow him to extract the Mana from the local leylines and will allow him to start with using his Item Creation Skill, you are left defenseless until Sakura summons her Servant, will roll 1d100 on encounter.)
[X] Wait until Sakura summons her Servant (You will not investigate this turn. Caster is still without a Workshop. You are protected by Caster; events will go on normally until Sakura summons her Servant.)
'—Caster, how much do time it would take you to set up your Workshop?'
Caster seems to muse about you question for a moment before answering, 'It should take me at least six to eight hours for my Workshop to be in a fully linked state with the Grail's Systems for me to be able to look into their condition, but on the other side, it could also give me the capability of discovering which Servants have been summoned—
In normal circumstances, it would only take me at most three to two hour to be able to work at maximum capacity. Keep in mind that what you are asking me is something that the Grail will see as an intrusion in its Systems and will doubtlessly attempt to not only slow me down but to stop me from even looking into it, so it may take me more time.'
…It was almost six o'clock in the morning, so assuming that he would only be away for 'only' six hours that should mean that he should be back at 1 p.m., at most…
'…Caster,' with my choice made, I addressed my Servant 'set up your Workshop before anything, I want to be able to have a full image of the Grail's status. And besides, we will need you at full power as soon as possible.'
Caster listened to my instructions before speaking inside my mind again, 'If you think that's the best choice… Be careful' …and with that, I could feel his presence starting to move away from.
I sighed, I could only hope that Caster's warning were wrong, if only because, otherwise I may have made a fatal mistake…
Once I reached the main gates of Homurahara, I attempted to pass under the radar, as I always did, but alas, as always, it would be impossible for me—
"Senpaiii~!"
In a sing-song voice, Homurahara's Purple Devil made act of appearance.
"There you are, Senpai~!" She was quick to take notice of me, latching onto my arm.
This was almost completely normal, this was almost a daily routine at this point, this was nothing outside of the usual… except for—
'Keep walking—'the look in her eyes told a different history.
And so I kept on walking, under the jealous stares from the male half of the student body present in the main gates—
('This is guy for real!?' shouted a random jealous student.)
('Why do we are without girlfriends and that guy's is the one with a childhood friend!' said another student, one which will probably end up becoming a Buddhist sage… with the pace he was going, not even Mara nor a certain lewd nun would be able to help him.)
('Wait guys! Isn't she like the super sadistic school idol!?' said one well-informed NPC in the background.)
('What, seriously!? Tch! Is he a masochist or what!?' that last one deals a critical hit against Hakuno's Hp)
…Ignoring the jealousy-infected students, I kept walking alongside Sakura until we reach a less crowded place.
"—I am going to summon my Servant today after school and I wish that you are present when I do that" Without wasting any time, once we are sure nobody can hear us, she drops her request onto me.
To do that would mean to go to the Matou mansion, a home for another Magi bloodline…
I look to Sakura's face, she is clearly trying (and failing) to look stern but I can clearly see nervousness filtering through her façade', she is clearly aware of what she is asking…
I sigh; there is only one answer when she is like that…
"Alright, I'll be there," Her entire form immediately relaxes as she breathes a sigh of relief "But after that, could we go to the church? Kotomine-san asked me to come there before the sun sets to properly register myself as a master, he also mentioned something about a gift…" I say, remembering Kotomine's call before I went to sleep.
Sakura perks up at the mention of the man, "Kirei-san? Did he know about you being a Master too? And he didn't told me!?" Sakura suddenly shouts about the 'unfairness' and 'betrayal' of Kirei Kotomine—
'I almost forgot that these two are almost best friends at this point…' Was this an anime, I would have sweat dropped at this situation…
Of course, this wasn't an anime, so I didn't.
Finally she calms down, as she mutters in a low voice 'he is the overseer, it can't be helped…' and while she is clearly annoyed by this, she seems to have accepted it.
"Anyways, do you have any idea about what does Kirei-san wants to give you?" She asks.
"I have no idea what could it be, but he was a friend of my parent's, so I guess it may be something related about that?" What I do is less answering her question and more asking a question myself.
Without any answers, she then decides to end our conversation, "I guess we should start moving to our classrooms, the bell must be about to ring and it would be better for us to be there when it happens…" I agree with her suggestion. "…Thank you for agreeing to come to my home, Senpai. I know how bad it must sound the idea of going into another Magus residence, so I thank you for trusting me." She then proceeds to show a tiny smile and then gives a quick bow before going towards in her classroom's direction.
With Caster's words still in my head, I can only hope that today is a quiet day…
…Against my original expectations, the day was mostly quiet and peaceful.
Once the final ring sounded, I found myself at Sakura's side in direction to her home.
It would be fitting to call the Matou residence a mansion due to her size, a two -storey European styled manor with access to a basement and an attic, with architecture with gothic inspirations, it resides in the foreigner's district of Miyama town, close to my own house, which was close to the border between two districts.
As I approach I can feel myself entering a bounded field which is probably made to make intruders and normal thief's stay away.
Just as I get to the door, Sakura then turn around with a simple greeting, "Welcome to the Matou residence, Senpai." It's at this point that she seems to realize something, and, with a sly, teasing smile on her face, decides to go for the kill "Ne, Senpai~? Have you noticed how does this looks~? "She then decides to make a dramatic pose, with the back of her forearm covering a part of her face, and makes a loud, dramatic sigh.
"I, the beautiful Kouhai, have invited you, the masculine and masochistic Senpai, to my humble home for a 'special event' inside my house, but will end with you finally snapping and confessing your deep buried feelings for me~"
"Not happening-Wait a minute, what do you mean by 'masochistic'!?" I, as expected, have an outburst the moment she mentions the masochistic part.
"—But Senpai~! You always go to Kirei-san's church just to be plummet to the ground~! And you always enjoy doing any sorts of degrading task for me~! But don't worry, I love you just like you are, and if you want that type of relationship, I'll happily accept my role as the one who has to say all sort of hurting words to my beloved to make him feel like a dirty and lowly worm~!"
…Stunned beyond words, I attempt to make sense of what my Kouhai has just said.
"I-Don't-I," After attempting to come with words to answer to such a claim, I just resign myself to stopping trying to counter her words, because that way lies madness and I would like to have a decent amount of SAN when I get back home "…Let's just enter for once."
Sakura flashes a victorious smirk, as she opens the door to the Matou manor.
"I'm in home!" Sakura announces to the individual who passes the majority of his time inside the residence.
A voice answer Sakura's announcement. "Ah, Sakura, you took your time in coming home today!"
The door that leads to the dining room opens, and with it appears a figure with white hair, wearing a casual outfit of a grey sweater and some comfortable black pants behind a beige long coat, which while he looks in almost his sixties, he's far younger than that. "Ah, Hakuno-san, you're here too?" He asks in a curious, yet pleased way.
I greet the figure with a respectful bow, just before I answer—
"Yes, I am came here with Sakura today, Kariya-san"
The figure, now identified as Kariya Matou, starts walking in my direction, supporting the weight of his own, clearly falling body, with a walking stick.
Wearing a friendly smile, the older Matou starts speaking "It's good to see you, Hakuno-san, I haven't see you for quite a while," but then his smile falters, his face making clear that he is remembering something "but I would wish that it was in better circumstances…" He then takes my bandaged hand, with his abnormally wrinkled ones for someone of his age, and reveals the Command Seals below the bandages. "Sakura wouldn't have taken you home today if it wasn't because you are involved in this…"
"You knew?" I am not surprised because he was able to tell, I am surprised that he was so quick about it.
"I know how to recognize a Master when it comes the time for a Grail War, I was in one myself." I find myself surprised by his proclamation, and even more for his next words "After all, how do you think I ended up like this?" he says, pointing to himself.
Sensing the atmosphere, Sakura quickly intervenes "We will have the ritual in an hour, this way I should be at my best in mana capacity."
Kariya-san and I nod at this; "I will prepare my suitcases, tomorrow I will be gone from the city" After he says this, he then looks to me with worry clear in his eyes, "Hakuno-san, I'll told you the same I told Sakura… be careful, I don't want to come back and discover that you died in this madness." And with that, the older Matou retires back to his chambers.
Sakura then looks to me, "I'll be preparing myself for the ritual, if you need me, I'll be in the basement." And with that she goes her ways too.
A few moments after that, I can feel Caster talking to me through our bond 'Master, I have already set up my Workshop, in the basement where you summoned me, and connected it to the Grail Systems, Has anything happened?"
I mentally shook my head 'No, nothing has happened Caster. Can you come to where I am?'
'I'll be going then.' And with that, the communication is set off.
Now I have an hour before the Summoning begins…
What should I do…
(You have four (4) actions)
[] Speak with…
- [] Kariya-san
-- [] About His Holy Grail War.
-- [] About his state.
-- [] Write in?
- [] Sakura
-- [] About the summoning.
-- [] About her Wish.
-- [] Write In?
[] Spend time in the Matou Libraries.
- [] Read about..
-- [] Runes
-- [] Elemental Manipulation
-- [] Formalcraft
-- [] Familiar Magecraft.
I'm sure many of you guessed before this chapter, but I'll clarify a little:
Yes, Zouken Matou is dead, outgambitted (thought not outsmarted) by Darnic during the Third Holy Grail War.
I wanted to focus a little in Sakura during this chapter because I felt that I hadn't made her as much justice as I could in previous chapters.
I kinda wanted her to be less of 'Real life BB' that only has one mode, and more of a composite version of many of her appearences during the series (with a little of Kama and Pravarti sprinkled in it).
Anyways, in the next one Lancerdusa is summoned, we do some things arond the Matou household, and we set on our way to meet with YOROKOUBE and get a nice perk (And ending what I call the 'Character Creation' section of this quest, with the last bits of available backstory of Hakuno are revealed)
I will roll an E- to C+ Rank for any magecraft you decide to focus on.
And with that said, please give me your opinions and sugerences about how to be better at writing if you can!
[X] Speak with…
- [X] Kariya-san
-- [X] About His Holy Grail War.
- [X] Sakura
-- [X] About the summoning.
-- [X] About her Wish.
[X] Spend time in the Matou Libraries.
- [X] Read about.. -- [X] Familiar Magecraft.
I want to know more about the last war but let's not ask why the man is crippled, that is probably not something we want to know or he wants to talk about. Sakura time because Sakura and familiars are a great way to gather info. Won't be able to use them to spy on the other masters (not the competent ones anyways) but just knowing what's happening in the city without having to go out ourselves is certainly useful. Like say have one spy on the airport to see if any suspicious or odd looking foreigners are arriving. If we're lucky we may even catch a glimpse of the other masters fighting.
[X] Speak with…
- [X] Kariya-san
-- [X] About His Holy Grail War.
- [X] Sakura
-- [X] About the summoning.
-- [X] About her Wish.
[X] Spend time in the Matou Libraries.
- [X] Read about.. -- [X] Runes
[X] Speak with…
- [X] Kariya-san
-- [X] About His Holy Grail War. -- [X] Any advice on what and who we should be on the lookout for from a veteran?
- [X] Sakura
-- [X] About her Wish. [X] Spend time in the Matou Libraries.
- [X] Read about..
-- [X] Elemental Manipulation
I'm not sure how much of a point there is in asking Sakura about her summoning, literally right before it happens, and the of all the places to learn about familairs, I don't think I'd pick the Matou's notes on the matter.
[X] Speak with…
- [X] Kariya-san
-- [X] About His Holy Grail War. -- [X] Any advice on what and who we should be on the lookout for from a veteran?
- [X] Sakura
-- [X] About her Wish. [X] Spend time in the Matou Libraries.
- [X] Read about..
-- [X] Elemental Manipulation
