DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fate/stay night, it's many spin-offs or Drifters. Both are products of Nasu-sensei and Hirano-sensei.
This story is also a spin-off of fellow Fate/Extra author Boyzilla's "Digital Human" series, which includes Digital Extra, Digital Supreme Being, Digital Kaiju and etc., all of which I highly recommend. Especially the second one. All hail Hakuno Kishinami!
The Moon.
It is a symbol, both of worship and of mystery.
In the language of the Tarot, the Moon represents an illusion or misconception.
In religion, it is the mark of the goddess of the hunt.
But in another time, it was a fierce battle ground, where 128 individuals fought for the purpose of gaining control of the Moon and its magnificent power.
That is to say, the power to grant any wish.
The year is 2030.
A lone girl has claimed victory in this grand conflict, but with it, a terrible cost.
It was an odd sensation, to be sure. One moment, she felt as if she was sinking to the depths of a bottomless ocean, growing heavier and heavier with each passing second and no longer capable of thought. Her mind had become a total mess, with certain details fuzzy. In the next moment, she found herself lying in the middle of a white corridor lined with doors, each more different than the last.
She tried to recall what little she could, only able to remember the bare minimum.
Her name was Hakuno Kishinami. She was a Magus - albeit a rather poor one - that had no memory to call her own. She had no past or history, merely her name and the fact that she had somehow been pulled into the Moon Cell Holy Grail War.
That was as much as she could remember before a more pressing concern came to mind.
"Where is..."
Gently, she pulled herself up, stumbling as she did so. She had never felt this weak before.
She glanced at her surroundings, not quite sure how to proceed. Instead, she used this time to collect her thoughts. The haze on her mind was beginning to thin, if only barely.
Before awakening in this corridor, Hakuno Kishinami was on the verge of death.
Her body was being erased, bits and pieces breaking off like chunks that could no longer remain attached. She watched, helplessly, as those pieces broke down into nothingness. Everything was growing dark. She couldn't breathe or think. It was as if something was pressing down against her.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came. She spoke, but no words were offered. Yet something, perhaps the desperation and the intense desire to live, had sparked life in those otherwise dull eyes. A red mark on the back of her hand lit up like a candle.
She saw something approaching. Her sight blurred, unable to make it out properly.
And then-
*bzt*
Hakuno winced, feeling something snap inside her head. Swaying, she used the wall for support. A thin layer of sweat had caked her skin.
"I was...in the Moon Cell's Core." she mumbled to herself, trying to catch her breath. "But, what happened after that...?"
Hakuno tried to remember, but everything after that moment turned blank. There was something missing, but what? And who was it that saved her? Was it someone she knew? Her Servant, perhaps? When she attempted to recall their face, she only saw a black shadow coming toward her, reaching out and trying to grab her hand. the same one that was glowing.
She looked down at her hand. The same one that had the markings. They had faded, barely able to be seen, but there it was.
The mark of a Master: the Command Seal.
Hakuno sighed and shook her head. She could be in enemy territory, but standing around would do her no good. She realized that she needed to advance. And so she walked forward, progressing down the long corridor.
Each door she found was unique, inherently different from each other. One door was made entirely of stone, looking more like a slab of rock placed under a stone arch than anything else. Another door was made of wood, marked by an iron coating where the doorframe would be.
She was tempted to touch them, but she felt something off about them. She felt that, if she were to touch them, she would be pulled inside. She could feel something behind those doors. A foreign presence that made no sense to her.
She wisely chose to ignore them and continue forward.
After a minute of walking, Hakuno stopped. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, making sure she was not seeing things.
There was a man in the middle of the hallway. Middle-aged, judging by the gaunt look of his cheeks and his frost-white hair. Thin-glasses sat atop his nose while his face was entirely buried in a newspaper. He was dressed in modern clothing: a black vest over a white dress shirt, gloves and black dress pants.
But what caught her attention was the fact that the man was sitting behind a desk, littered with various items from a computer to a type-writer machine to stacks of papers and so on.
He was human, but Hakuno felt something strange about him. It wasn't hostile, but it was clear by this feeling that he was no ordinary man.
"...excuse me." she called out hesitantly. "Do you know where I am?"
The man lowered his newspaper. His eyes were sharp, focusing on the girl in front of him. She could only gaze back, unbidden by his otherwise intimidating stare. They just continued to look at one another, never breaking eye contact. Hakuno was tempted to think that maybe they were playing a game to see who would blink first.
After another minute, the man broke eye contact and folded his newspaper. "Hm, how unexpected." the man said, voice deep. It was cold, but there was also a strange warmth to it as well. "I didn't expect to find someone like you to come here."
"I'm sorry?" Hakuno offered, not really getting it.
The man waved a hand. "No matter." he brushed the matter aside before he took out a paper and pen. "Name, please?"
"Isn't it a bit rude to ask for someone's name and not give your own?" was what Hakuno wished to say, but the presence this man displayed was unlike anything she felt. No hostility, but surely a man she didn't wish to make an enemy of. It didn't take long for her to realize that this seemingly-ordinary man was someone she did not wish to make an enemy of.
Instead, she complied. "Kishinami. Hakuno Kishinami."
The pen struck the paper in swift strokes. When he was finished writing, the man set the paper down and pressed a stamp down at the bottom. "Done." he said before he looked up. He wasn't staring at Hakuno, but rather through her as if there was someone behind her. Yet when she turned around, Hakuno saw no one. "Next, please!"
'Next? What?'
Hakuno's thoughts were brief when a door opened up beside her. It swung open with no sound. Inside the doorframe was a black void. Wind began to drag the young girl inside. She could offer barely any resistance before she was swept off her feet and thrown inside. The door closed.
Not too long afterwards, a bloody young man stumbled into view, dressed in red and holding a sword.
The man at the desk gave him a look of evaluation before taking a piece of paper, writing on it, and then stamping it. It read: Toyohisa Shimazu.
"Next, please!"
DIGITAL DRIFTER
Hakuno landed on her face, tasting grass and dirt all together at the same time.
Ordinarily, someone who had been through battles that no ordinary person couldn't possibly dream of participating would have reacted quickly and braced themselves for impact. But the sudden transportation and the haze on her mind had left her woefully unprepared. She coughed haphazardly as she pulled her head away, spitting out the clumps that found their way inside before grounding her tongue against her teeth in some sort of vein attempt to rid herself of the disgusting taste.
It wasn't until she had been bombarded by a cold chill that Hakuno realized something. In that corridor, she felt nothing. No warm or cold air that clung to her body. There hadn't even been any sounds whenever her shoes tapped the floor. Yet now she could clearly feel the cold breeze that pushed up against her. Her clothes were terribly thin, and it was obvious that it was winter or somewhere close.
Her surroundings indicated that she was in a forest. Treetops blanketed the sky, with what few gaps she could find showing a starry-night sky. At the foot of the trees were a variety of mushrooms. The ground was also wet, meaning that there was either a source of water nearby or it had rained recently.
Hakuno sighed and pulled herself up to her feet, this time more steady than before. Her body was starting to recover, but she needed to find someplace warm. In the distance, she could make out a few lights in the distance. Perhaps someone could offer her housing there.
A thunderclap above her head made her wince.
There was a storm coming.
The lights that Hakuno Kishinami had seen did indeed belong to individuals living off the land, but they were not the natives.
Rather, the natives were living in the opposite direction of where the young magus was heading, though they had all extinguished their lights and had retired for the night. The lights, instead, belonged to a group of newcomers that had appeared not too long ago, strangers to this land in more ways than one. They resided in the ruins of some old castle, surrounded by desolate trees that separated the ruins from the bountiful forest that led to the village.
The clouds overhead were dark and angry. It didn't take a genius to know that a storm was brewing.
For one of the two stranger's parts, though, he had already prepared for the incoming storm. A shroud made entirely of leaves, woven together from string and animal skin, provided excellent protection. While his "friend" slept soundly inside the warm safety of the castle ruins, he remained wary and kept a watchful eye on the entrance to their current accomodations.
This young man, effeminate in appearance, had the eyes of a warrior and held a bow in hand, ready to fire an arrow at any given moment. Any sign of danger or the appearance of a potential threat, it mattered not. The arrow was already primed.
His eyes were like a hawk, capable of detecting even the slightest movements. Arrogantly, he believed that he could even spot a mouse from his hiding place as it scurried off to its burrow.
When the storm struck, visibility would dampen considerably. He would not be able to defend the ruins properly in such a situation, so he thought it might be best if he turned in for the night. He was fairly certain that the villagers had no actual quarry with them, and even if they had, he would have expected them to take up arms and drive them out from the castle.
Before he packed up, the young man detected movement. Immediately, his bow was drawn. A girl had come into his sights, dressed in foreign clothing. Her features gave him slight pause, however.
A small smile touched his features.
The girl wandered further in, clearly hoping for shelter as she looked up at the angry sky above. While he was happy to see such a familiar-looking face, the bowman was still cautious. In order to test her, the young man let loose a warning shot. She gave a nice reaction, backpedaling when the arrow struck a few centimeters away from her feet.
"That is as far as you go!" he called out in his native tongue, wishing to confirm his thoughts. "Stay where you are!"
The girl, hesitant and anxious, gave a shaky nod. The young man made himself known to her as he came into sight, bow still in hand and arrow already knocked. All he need do is pull it back, and if she showed hostility, give her another warning shot.
"Girl." he said. "What is your name? Speak!"
"K-Kishinami Hakuno." she replied, stuttering. "I-I'm very sorry for trespassing. I was looking for shelter, a-and..."
He stared at her, slightly befuddled. There was some disappointment in his chest upon hearing her family name, as he had hoped she would belong to a family he may have known. Shame, but he was still happy to know that he and that one-eyed buffoon in the castle were not the only ones stripped from their country.
"Are you armed?"
"No."
Determining that she was not a threat, he loosened the tension in his bow and strapped it to his back. "Come." he ordered. The girl followed after him. "You are very lucky. Had it been the kabuki in there, you would have had to deal with something worse."
"Um..."
"Kishinami, was it?" he asked, earning a nod. He looked back at her and pulled down his hood, exposing his features. He half-expected her to look on with surprise and call him a woman, or perhaps claim him beautiful. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but she gave no other reaction. "I am Yoichi. It is nice to know that Oda and I are not the only ones from Japan stuck here."
She tilted her head.
Yoichi felt his heart skip a beat. He could have sworn he felt an arrow pierce his chest right then and there, yet he didn't feel a thing.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A bit on the short side, I know, but I wanted to make it more manageable.
Also, in regards to Servants, I will be posting a Poll asking which ones Hakuno should call on for the story. I was originally going to go for Musashi, Penthesilea and Sakamoto % Oryo, but then I thought about, "oh, wait, how would End!Jeanne react to Fate!Jeanne?" and now I can't decide.
Help.