Author's Note: Welcome back readers! And greetings to all those joining us on this chapter's release! As I revealed before in my previous notes. There will be Servant(s), I have been doing hard thinking and looking many suggestions that had sound reasoning. Now I have chosen at least two potential candidates. Of course, I haven't actually fully decided whether there will be more than one Servant. I've decided only to include those from the Extra/CC/Extellaverse in my possible selections.
The Servants in Digital/Extra: Nero, Nameless/EMIYA, and Tamamo. Will not appear in Digital/Lunar Hearth! If you want to read about those Servants, read Digital/Extra, which is the first in my 'Digital Human' series.
Holy shit! There are way too many reviews to answer without taking a whole page! I'll try answering only those with some questions. But I thank everyone so much for the support!
Keimarios: Sent you a PM concerning those types of stories! Digital/Lunar Hearth won't be one of them!
No Fanfic No Life: That would be an interesting meet and chat. So monotone!
Yoshiki-909: As much as Archerko might be a good candidate, I barely know anything about her at this current time period. As such, I'll stick to the Author Note above.
Kinunatzs The Eternal: Hakuno currently is not physically stronger than most Adventurers, but magically surpasses the vast majority. She does have an offensive spell at this current moment, of sorts.
Student: Yep, Hakuno already made the link between the similarities of the Arena and Dungeon. She can easily explore it, provided Bell's strength in dealing with monsters. Can't answer anything else without spoilers!
King of Fans: Excellent reasoning for Servants, thanks for your continued support and recommendation!
Blarg7865: The Servants in Digital/Extra will not appear, only those in the omake or others in the Extra/CCC/Extellaverse are potential candidates. I think Hakuno interacting with Loki will be quite funny. As for skills, no spoilers, but she does still have Code Casts Hack and View Status like her Digital/Extra counterpart.
Xirons20: The Regalia is a powerful object that grants the wearer full control over the Moon Cell. It was given to Hakuno Kishinami in Fate/Extella as the designated Inheritor for winning the Holy Grail War. However, the Regalia does not have full access if it has been split apart.
Enjoy the chapter everybody! The tale of a different wish, a story that changes the predetermined outcome, the journey, the Extra that pushed the world of gods into Extella!
Digital/Lunar Hearth
Chapter 3: Beyond Status
The Digital Human, Hakuno Kishinami, took a bite out of a type of food called a Jagamarukun, a type of bread with filling stuffed within it. She had to admit, it was quite good, the red bean paste seemed to give it a kick that brought out the flavor. Not to mention, it felt satisfying to finally fill her stomach with something again. The last meal she had was inside the Moon Cell, whether that can be counted as yesterday morning or not couldn't really be said.
Regardless, she had to thank Bell for using his own currency in purchasing it.
Speaking of which.
"Here you go, Hakuno!" Bell said with a bright, cheery smile. In his hand was a carved, wooden quarterstaff laced with iron at both ends. The boy himself was garbed in light metallic armor that gleamed a silver hue, underneath, clearly displayed in the areas that metal didn't cover was a set of black shirt and pants, making a sharp color contrast that fit well together.
Hakuno swallowed the remains of her food, then took the quarterstaff, examining it. It was really just a basic weapon, probably meant for self-defense against monsters until Bell managed to get to her side and deal with them himself. Still, he had once again used his own Valis to buy it for her sake.
Bell Cranel was moving more from the list of 'not trusted' to being 'so kind you can literally charge him double for something with a sob story and get away with it'.
There was a word for that… Naive?
"Why?" Hakuno asked, referring to the quarterstaff.
"Thought you might need something to protect yourself, I didn't have much Valis left to get you something better, so I got you this, sorry," Bell apologized unnecessarily.
He sure apologizes a lot.
The teenage girl didn't have a single clue how to even use a quarterstaff, a magus wasn't a stereotypical wizard as presented in fictional stories. All her Code Casts were done by using her magic circuits, directing the magecraft with her hands, things like staffs and wands were just fairy tale interpretations of what society deemed magic users to be like.
"Thank you," She said, not going to deny the gift, he had spent his own currency on it. Though the quarterstaff had nowhere she could place it on her body, except holding it.
"The dungeon is over there, underneath Babel Tower," He pointed towards the tower in question, it was not hard to see, honestly Hakuno had spotted it when they entered the city earlier.
Though it was massive, it towered over everything, literally. However, in comparison to the size of the Moon Cell Core?
It was tiny.
Then again, she doubted there are many man-made objects on Earth, if few, that could even match the Core's size.
They walked towards it, and Hakuno Kishinami took a brief moment to examine her surroundings. There were quite a number of people heading towards Babel Tower, likely it also served as a center point in the city, along with some sort of economic value. Not that she had experienced in economics, only education provided from the fake memories as a high school student during the preliminary round of the Holy Grail War.
The same round where she became self-aware.
However, it didn't take a keen eye to spot the various visual aspects that some of these people had.
Some were short-statured and gruff, somewhere tiny yet not entirely childlike, some had animal-like features likes ears and tails, it was this mess of different expressive pieces that Hakuno Kishinami realized a fact that truly deviated this world from Earth. She had only read it briefly and described and lectured about it only very few times, but now Hakuno understood.
Age of Gods.
No, that wasn't entirely correct.
The Age of Gods was a time of great magic and phantasmal, where individuals and creatures were so insanely powerful that mankind were the underdogs and children of the world. It was a time of legends, myths, and enchantment.
In contrast.
This world had many similarities to Earth, yes, but Hestia as a goddess should not be in the state like she was now. A god or goddess was a concept beyond mortals, reshaping the world on a whim, not interacting on the scale like a human. While the sentient people around her, especially non-humans, would have been far more powerful than what her intuition was telling her.
No, it wasn't an Age of Gods, it was an Age that never occurred on Earth before. Vastly different in scope despite its initial similarities.
With that in mind, Hakuno Kishinami knew she had a lot to learn, this world was new to her, and she couldn't rely on information related to Earth's history entirely. It could serve as a base, but not as pure fact.
"Hey, Lili," Bell suddenly said.
"Bell, you're a little later than usual," A feminine voice responded to him, and Hakuno Kishinami had to look down to spot the petite stature of a girl in a white hooded robe, chestnut-hued eyes looking upward at Bell Cranel.
Though, the most notable feature was the large bag she carried on her back, a feat that should have been impossible for the girl's size.
Hakuno pushed that fact aside though, there was probably more than meets the eye.
"Lili," Bell began, "This is Hakuno, she just joined my Familia last night. You don't mind if she joins us today do you?"
There was an expression on Lili's face that Hakuno barely caught, it was an examination of her by the petite girl. But it vanished just as quickly as it came.
"No at all, Bell!" She exclaimed with an oddly over-optimistic tone, "I assume we're not going that deep today?"
"Haha, yeah, you got it," Bell laughed a bit, "My advisor told us that Hakuno needs to get some experience first before we go deeper," He replied.
The white-robed girl walked up to Hakuno, "Glad to meet you, Hakuno! I'm Lili, I've been Bell's Supporter for the past week, I hope we can get along!"
"I'm Hakuno Kishinami, please take care of me," Hakuno bowed slightly, causing the Supporter to blink in astonishment.
"S-Sure," Lili stuttered in her reply.
"Great!" Bell said, "Let's head into the dungeon, you make sure to stay behind me, alright Hakuno?"
Hakuno Kishinami nodded as Lili gave both her and Bell a curious expression.
The Goddess of the Hearth, Hestia, absentmindedly cleaned the countertops of the store she worked at part-time within Babel Tower, her thoughts not focused on the job at hand but rather towards the current predicament and mystery concerning her newest Familia member: Hakuno Kishinami.
It had been on a whim, that was for certain. The brown haired monotone girl had a facial expression likened to that of a blank doll, similar to Ais Wallen-what-its, except even more so. In fact, it almost appeared like emotions was just such a foreign feeling for the Second Child of Hestia.
That was until Hakuno actually displayed them.
Raw.
That was the closest analog to what Hestia saw in Hakuno Kishinami's emotional expressions. A raw, potent display that shocked even a goddess like her at the sheer look at it, as if her emotions lacked a method to release itself in increments and instead went full force all at once.
A dramatic contrast to Bell for sure; he wore and showed his emotions so easily, all the time, he was like a rainbow that shined its colors every second of the day.
Hakuno, however, was like a clouded night sky that suddenly burst open with a brilliant star that outshone everything else before dimming back behind the clouds as fast as it arrived.
But, while this was a partial reason why Hestia invited Hakuno into her Familia, there was also another. The human girl had the same look that sought out somewhere to be, for someone to care for her, to belong, and that reminded Hestia of Bell when he sought out desperately for a Familia to join… And her own, when she looked for any Children to give her a chance.
In the moment of seeing that, Hestia cast aside her doubt and just threw the question out there for Hakuno to answer, to join her Familia, which the human teenager did just that.
Now, while Hestia was sure that she and Bell can help bring out Hakuno's emotions more often given time, the pressing issue lied in the Falna given to the girl by her.
That night, Hestia was connecting her divine blessing that was Falna to Hakuno Kishinami's body and soul, but something was different. It was difficult to explain, but it was like the Falna couldn't recognize the girl. While it easily bonded with the human girl's body, the connection to the soul was scattered, broken, separated?
Hestia felt her bond reaching out for Hakuno's soul, but found lines, so many lines, lines of indistinguishable origin that a goddess like herself had no clue what they were. They felt like Hakuno's soul, and in that manner, the Falna identified and connected with them.
It was a bit scary, Hestia didn't know if trying to update Hakuno's Status would even work. The blessing known as Falna worked through the soul to enhance the body's recent experience and training, it was why the Familia's god or goddess had to update the Status to take full effect, as they had to connect the blessing through the Child's soul.
Of course, Hestia could be worried for nothing, as she could still feel both Bell and Hakuno's blessing just like normal if she focused, in that way perhaps everything would be fine.
Then again, Hakuno's Familia symbol actually had an additional part to it than what would normally have been. A cube of sorts that hung above Hestia's hearth, looming over like an observing sentinel. That had come to be possibly due to the magical item Hakuno had her in possession, a strange ring.
Hestia would have questioned Hakuno about it, but the Second Child looked so exhausted the goddess decided otherwise.
Well, she'll try to update Hakuno's Status tonight, that'll answer a sleuth of her questions.
The Dungeon, as Hakuno Kishinami immediately realized, was eerily more similar to the Arena than she initially thought. Only that it's underground, surrounded by cavernous walls lit by bright artificial sunlight instead of being underwater in a chimeric sea brightened by digital frames that made the flooring. That was perhaps one of the few differences between the two, the decoration, otherwise, it was monsters instead of enemy programs, item chests instead of item folders, and magic stones instead of PPT currency; item drops remained the exact same method though.
All this was explained in a brief overview courtesy of Lili, while Bell watched for any monsters, his hand poised on the handle of a black sheathed weapon the size of a knife or dagger.
The Supporter had commented that Bell seemed more focused than usual, and lightly joked that it must be because he believed Hakuno relied entirely on him for protection.
She wasn't wrong.
It was too similar, too familiar, this whole Dungeon seemed like she stepped into just another Arena creation of SERAPH. The first floor of the Dungeon had been mostly a vast singular hallway, the second was more akin to what she was used too.
It unnerved her.
While they haven't come across any enemy programs- monsters; Hakuno Kishinami felt so vulnerable without the nearby presence of a Servant at her side.
If she called out, would by some miracle a Servant answer?
The Command Seals were still there, dormant and grayed out they may be, the absolute orders were still a sign of a past contract to a Heroic Spirit. Also, a Regalia on her finger was an object originating from the Moon Cell, just like her, so it must have some sort of functionality to it that she has not identified.
Could it perhaps briefly connect to the Moon Cell and access it to summon forth a Servant? A far-fetched theory, one that was more unlikely than possible, especially because Hakuno Kishinami never actually summon her Servant, rather a Servant responded to her plea to deny her death in face of deletion by an enemy program, and that was inside the Holy Grail War's preliminary round.
That was how Hakuno Kishinami managed to contract a Servant, by sheer dumb luck and a whole bunch of pain through a near-death experience.
Hardly what one would call a proper summoning, as such, Hakuno didn't know squat about summoning a Heroic Spirit in the correct method.
A sound shook her out of her thoughts.
The magus turned towards the direction the noise came from, out from the walls, as if spurging forth from a womb of rock, were small green creatures reminiscent of fictional storybook monsters.
"Goblins!" Bell named them, he unsheathed his weapon, an onyx black dagger with hieroglyphs that glowed blue with magical energy.
Hakuno blinked, she didn't expect Bell to have anything like that in his arsenal. Perhaps such enchanted weaponry was common?
A glance at Lili told Hakuno otherwise, clearly, the Supporter eyed the dagger with a sense of wonderment, and also a tint of something else she couldn't figure out.
The Digital Human focused her attention on the goblins which now stood up, claws raised to attack. Bell Cranel charged at them, and Hakuno Kishinami took immediate notice of his movements.
He was so slow, incredibly slow.
She looked towards the goblins and it was the same thing, they were slow, very much so. Hakuno Kishinami followed every moment down to the minor detail, and the realization came to her.
They were slow because she had grown so experienced to the high-speed movements of the Holy Grail War that both Bell and the goblins were sluggish sloths in comparison. A Master's job was the issue out commands to their Servant, and one couldn't do that if their eyes did not keep up with the speed such Heroic Spirits displayed. Granted, even with her adapted sight and reaction time, Hakuno could sometimes still not see the Servants engage in combat after orders were spoken.
That didn't mean that the Digital Human had the physical ability to actually utilize such a keen advantage, though her ability to analyze, predict and keep up visually with the speed didn't mean she herself could react to it.
Hakuno Kishinami was vulnerable, weak, and fragile.
But she had ways to fight.
Inner magic circuits flicked to life, od transforming into prana, usable magical energy.
Her quarterstaff dropped to the ground, but she didn't need it. Hakuno raised her left arm, hand opened wide and fingers outstretched as she aimed towards a goblin coming at Bell, her right hand clutching her left arm. He didn't need the help, but the magus girl at least wanted to test to see if this worked just as well on monsters as it did on enemy programs.
"Code Cast: Hack!" Hakuno shouted.
She felt a tiny amount of her magical reserves dwindle, like a drop of water that dripped out of a large basin. The prana traveled up her arm and shot outward towards the goblin, the magecraft invisible to the naked eye until it made contact with the monster, in which a yellow burst of electric-like sparks seemed to implode from the inside, before the goblin exploded in a display of black and violet mist that evaporated soon after, leaving nothing behind, not even a magic stone.
Hakuno blinked; that was far more effective than she expected it to be. The goblin had been practically vaporized from the inside out by the forced prana of the digital magecraft. It likely was the case that these monsters on the Dungeon's second floor were far weaker than the first floor of the Arena, as such even a Code Cast meant to stun an enemy program or Servant was considered lethal.
Bell Cranel sheathed his weapon and turned to Hakuno Kishinami not with suspicion or envy, but overwhelming optimism.
"Hakuno, you know magic as well? That's great! Think of how far we can get with more magic at our side!" He exclaimed with joy, "You didn't even need a chant!"
A chant? Well, Hakuno is familiar with magecraft that needs an aria or short chant, but most digital magecraft she's aware don't need any of the sorts.
He seemed quite positive about her ability, trusting her to a large degree that reminded Hakuno of herself towards Rin and Rani's help. Because of that, Hakuno determined that perhaps her fellow Familia member was also worthy of her trust. Not so much as to tell him everything, never about the Moon Cell, Holy Grail War, or her artificial origins, but Code Casts were fine.
Bell trusted Hestia as well, in that, Hakuno would put her small trust in the goddess as well.
She desired friends, but maybe more, something that perhaps a Familia would give her.
"Wait, Bell," Lili said. "You have a magic like that as well!?"
"Yep!" Bell said. "I obtained it last night when my goddess updated my Status! Here, watch!" He pointed an open palm towards an empty corner. "Firebolt!"
Suddenly, a small bolt of flame erupted out of his hand and transferred through the air at the intended location, singeing it with heat before evaporating a few short seconds later. It was quite the ability, in Hakuno's perspective, and would have made short work of a goblin earlier as well. But it seemed more costly in magical energy than her Code Cast.
It also seemed to have some recoil on Bell's part, as he had to force himself a step back to gather his footing.
Lili clapped her hands excitingly, "With you and Hakuno having those spells we should be able to easily head down the deeper floor!" She exclaimed.
Bell looked at his hand for a moment, as if in thought, before looking to Lili, "I believe you Lili, but for today we won't go deeper than floor three. Hakuno still needs to get used to how the Dungeon works."
"That's fine," Lili replied, walking small leeways to pick up mildly glowing dark purple rocks that were the magic stones of the recently deceased and evaporated monsters.
Hakuno picked up her quarterstaff, best not leave it here. "If I see how different floor three is to floor two I can know if I can handle deeper ones tomorrow."
The snow white haired boy nodded, "Alright! After Lili picks up the stones, we'll make our way to floor three!"
Upon entering through the door of the abandoned church that made the home of the Hestia Familia, Hakuno Kishinami felt a bit more relaxed than she had all day. It was the dusk, the sun was noticeably falling down under the horizon which gave the sky a beautiful shade of orange that Hakuno reminiscently remembered back from the Moon Cell's preliminary round, which had recreated the natural occurrence to fit its faked world to further trick unbeknownst Masters.
Correct, trick, as the preliminary rounds were a means to cull a large number of Masters, nine-hundred and ninety-nine participants were locked in a three-day cycle of repeating days, their memories wiped and replaced with a high school student vague fake set. The goal of winning the round revolved around if the Master can determine whether or not they figured out they were stuck in a loop.
Only one-hundred and eight Masters, Hakuno included, managed it.
The rest were never heard of again.
Still, even with the grim reminder, the Digital Human enjoyed the beautiful spectacle that was the sunset.
"Goddess?" Bell asked out loud to see if Hestia was here.
"Bell!" Hestia's voice responded instantaneously as the sound of feet running across wood echoed, then the small-sized Goddess of the Hearth appeared leaping at Bell.
Who was not at the correct spot.
Hakuno Kishinami found herself being tackled to the ground, enveloped in a hug.
"Ah, welcome back, Hakuno~!" Hestia sang out Hakuno's name with a warm friendly tone to it. She glanced at Bell Cranel, "You avoided my loving embrace! Though, I was going to give Hakuno one anyway."
"Haha, goddess," He laughed it off like casually.
Apparently, this was Hestia's daily thing.
The goddess stood up, allowing the magus girl to stand as well.
"I bet you two are hungry!" Hestia exclaimed. "I made some soup, even bought a few pastries as a celebration for Hakuno joining our Familia! Of course, we can eat after I update your Status!" She clutched her hands together, her smile bright and cheerful.
"That sounds good," Hakuno replied.
"Update Hakuno first," Bell said, "She used magic today, I'm sure she got a boost from that!"
"Eh, magic?!" Hestia said in shock. "Was that grimoire, I mean, nevermind! Congratulations!" She hastily dropped the subject of the item, Hakuno knew then and there that Hestia must have done something with the object.
"Oh, is that book still around?" Bell said. "I need to return it."
"You don't need to worry about that! Someone came pick it up earlier, said it was there's, so it's gone now!" Hestia lied through her teeth, even the Digital Human knew that.
Bell Cranel believed it.
A few moments later…
Hestia stood right on top of Hakuno Kishinami's back, who lay on the bed once more like the previous night. This would be the first time the magus girl had received an update on her Status, something that she was somewhat anxious about. Bell Cranel, in the meantime, was in the other room, leaving just Hakuno and Hestia together alone. A blue glow emitted from behind the human girl, followed by a series of strange sounds.
She felt something reach into her, but it couldn't find what it was looking for.
"Again…" Hestia trailed off. "I don't understand, how does that even work? How is that even possible?" She questioned repeatedly.
"What's wrong?" Hakuno asked.
"I'll show you what's wrong!" She said with frustration, not at Hakuno, but at whatever the issue apparently was. The blue glow dimmed down and the Digital Human felt a parchment sheet on her back, followed by a motion and a mystical sound. "Alright, pull down your shirt, and look at this."
Hakuno sat upright and did just that, then examined the parchment right beside the goddess.
Name: Hakuno Kishinami
Level: 1
STR: ?
END: ?
DEX: ?
AGI: ?
Magic: Undefinable.
"Undefinable! Hakuno! Undefinable! I barely even know what that means!" Hestia exclaimed, slamming a finger against the parchment multiple times. "How can your magic attribute be undefinable? And why are all the other ones shooting question marks across the heavens?"
Hakuno Kishinami didn't really know, she was familiar with Servant Attribute ranks, not whatever system Falna used to determine her physical and magical stats. The attribute known as 'Dexterity' was new to her, and the attribute known as 'Luck' was not present.
"I don't know," Hakuno replied truthfully.
Hestia sighed, then placed a hand on the girl's back, "Alright, let's keep this a secret, even from Bell. I don't want him over worrying about you, he does that. Especially keep this a secret from anyone outside out Familia, even the Guild! Got it?" She said
The Digital Human nodded, "I understand,"
"Good," Hestia smiled. "I'll try to figure this out, you just make sure to stick close to Bell. If you get in danger, don't be afraid to run away. Now, how about some food? I'll update Bell's so quick you won't have time to finish the first bowl!"
Hakuno smiled at the cheerful nature of Hestia's personality, "Okay," She answered, and made her way through the door to the other room.
Hestia's smile faltered, and the goddess took another glance at the Status page.
"But… I don't know what to do…" Hestia trailed off, before crumbling the parchment and evaporating it with magic. At the very least, nobody should ever find out about Hakuno's true Status.
She'll protect her Familia too!