Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Chapter 25 – Strategy Meeting:
The week ran like the wind.
The main topic of conversation was Hakuno and his Cards. It was an unspoken rule to not reveal someone's Card's identity online out of fairness. Doesn't matter how perfectly a secret is kept, the moment someone shows which card they use, at the very least, two other people will know its identity due to possessing the same card.
So, those that knew of the Cards he used kept away from the threads.
There were even polls.
'Which Hakuno would you date?
-The beautiful red swordsman wielding flames
-The rock star Archer that uses swords
-The fox boy with traditional Japanese clothing'
The Ranker did not wish for such popularity, but he didn't dislike it. Though he could live without the incessant amount of fan emails.
It was a fun topic to discuss, at the very least. This was the first time an Admin battled in a stream, and with the identities of EX Rankers unknown, it was a novelty to say the least.
The activity increased as a result. More matches were taking place, especially team battles and team formation. The hunt for Sabers went as far as Sayuri receiving at least five invitations to join other teams. Of course, she turned down every offer.
With such an event, Mizuki decided to invite all three of her teammates to come over to her house and strategize their next moves. Of course, that would take one hour at best, so they could just hang out and have fun the rest of the time.
Saturday came along.
The house was neat and tidy. Mizuki wasn't a messy person to begin with, but living alone sometimes could lead to not cleaning certain spots of the house, or leaving objects scattered around.
She invited her teammates to come over and eat lunch together, and stay until dinner. She had gone to buy groceries the day before, so, it was probable she would have anything they wanted to eat. On the off chance she didn't, nothing stopped them from ordering food and splitting the price four ways.
With a ring on the doorbell, Mizuki moved to the entrance and opened the door. Her guess was correct: Sayuri was the first to come. Shortly after, both Mongami and Lizzie arrived at the same time, having met up five minutes before by chance.
The four girls moved to Mizuki's bedroom and sat around the table.
Obviously, all four wore casual attire.
Mizuki had a white, sleeveless blouse on, along with a deep magenta skirt with deep crimson stripes.
Sayuri wore a white jacket over a plain, black t-shirt, with a matching white mini-skirt and black leggings.
Mongami's clothes were slightly more masculine, but they still had a feminine charm. Black, tight trousers that reached the ankles, simple shoes, a red sweater, and her long black hair styled as a long pony tail, tied by a red hairband.
Lizzie, just like an idol, wore a gothic Lolita style dress, black and white. Cute on her, and made great contrast with her red hair.
The problem was that, no matter what the layout ended up being, Mongami and Sayuri would butt heads.
"Moron."
"Sadist."
"Weakling!"
"Loser!"
"HEY!" Lizzie raised her voice. It had just the right intensity, probably a talent of hers due to being a singer. Mongami and Sayuri stopped, realizing they were acting like kids. However, that didn't stop them from turning their heads in opposite directions. Sayuri and Mongami were next to each other, technically speaking since the table was circular.
"This might not seem a good idea, to have them next to each other, but it's better than having them across each other and someone suddenly jumping." Mizuki explained to the new member. Lizzie was angry, but in a cute way, arms crossed and puffed out cheek.
"Mou… They shouldn't start fighting for no reason."
"Tell that to her."
"Look who's talking."
"Why you-!"
"Include!" Lizzie pulled out her spear. Sayuri immediately froze, hands up, showing no resistance. Mongami didn't look scared, but was surprised by the reaction. And of course, she didn't want to get hurt either.
"…Isn't that supposed to be the leader's job?" Sayuri wondered.
Lizzie lightly spun her weapon over her hand and withdrew it back into Card form. "It's a job for everyone in the team. If we let you two keep butting heads, it'll end up penalizing us. And if the Leader doesn't stop it, someone else should." Lizzie sat back down. Mizuki kept staring to her in amazement and nodded with enthusiasm.
"Alright, team. We have to strategize! I'm not cooking lunch until we figure this out."
"Twisting our arms, huh?" Mongami chuckled under her breath. "Alright, alright. I can respect that. So, where do we start?"
"What is our Team's Rank?" Lizzie wondered.
In response, Mizuki pulled out her laptop and opened in order to check the site. After a quick search for the team's name, she found the profile.
"Apparently, Rank E+."
"E+?" Sayuri was somewhat surprised, but at the end, it only made sense. Both her and Mizuki were Rank E, and Mongami and Lizzie were Rank D. The E Rankers did manage to defeat Mongami, and Mizuki had a couple victories under her belt. So, at the very least, it had to be an average between the Members' Ranks. "How many more battles would we need to become D Rank?"
"Probably one or two." Mongami deduced. "We'll definitely Rank Up if we battle a Team."
"Those have been popping up more often, so we'll probably find a challenge easily enough." Lizzie deduced, thinking with a hand over her chin.
"So… should we fight a Team next?" Sayuri didn't know if her suggestion was the best or not.
Mongami was about to scoff, but recalled the sudden appearance of a spear last time the two clashed. "…I think that can wait."
"Eh?"
Mongami was the only one who sat more relaxed when compared to the others. "Between us and Boss's Cards, all we're missing is a Caster. That isn't urgent in any way, since that's probably the weakest Class."
Mizuki tilted her head. "How so? Aren't they the only ones really proficient and strong at Magic?"
"Yeah, but not only are they fragile and weak physically speaking, most Classes have Magic Resistance." Mongami reminded. "All three of us have a Knightly Class, which automatically gives us that skill."
"I see…"
"So, I suggest we get ourselves a Rider."
"A Rider?" Sayuri was confused. "Why a Rider specifically?"
Mongami raised finger, as if calling for attention. "We should have tricks up our sleeves. Riders might not be the strongest, but they usually have some weird Noble Phantasms up their sleeves. And usually, more than one." Mongami's explanation somewhat surprised everyone. While she appeared to be the reckless kind of fighter, shooting first and asking questions later, she knew how to think outside of battle, and she had a good argument.
"Wow… Mongami, sorry for saying this, but you're smarter than you look." Lizzie remarked.
"Eh. No offense taken. I'm used to it." She informed, waving her hands.
"Wait a minute." Sayuri took the opportunity to speak. "Why not Assassin or Berserker? I'm not trying to contradict you, but while you explained your reasoning for Caster, you didn't mention the other two."
Mongami remained calm. "Berserkers, unless someone has great mental stability and focus, are a fifty-fifty chance of hitting us instead of them. And getting one with a Mad Enhancement too low, well, then what is the point of having a Berserker? As for Assassin, yeah, they can be useful, but they're really frail, and not the most necessary to have right off the gate. If we're starting off, we should focus on the essential."
"Ironic. My main Card is Assassin." Mizuki giggled, not angry or anything like that towards Mongami's words. She just found it funny.
"There's also that."
Lizzie made the point of the situation. "Alright. So we should search for a Rider."
Sayuri took the laptop and began the search. "Mizuki, you can go prepare lunch."
The Team Leader stood up, stretching her legs, slightly stiff from being sat down. "Very well. What do you girls want?"
Before Lizzie could even open her mouth, Sayuri and Mongami spoke in unison.
"Curry."
Silence instilled as everybody noticed that Sayuri and Mongami agreed.
The two girls turned to each other, with questioning looks. "…"
Mizuki began to sweat bullets. One thought crossed her mind. "Sayuri and Mongami agreed without hesitating… Is the world going to end?!"
"Let's dig in." The four declared before scooping into the homemade dish.
Sayuri and Mongami, this time diagonal from each other, thanks to the squared shape of the kitchen table, crossed light glares that made sparks clash.
"Hm, it's really good." Lizzie remarked, enjoying the dish, as Mizuki and her started eating as well.
"Oh, thanks. It's my grandmother's recipe. I'm not as good a cook as her, but-"
"More please!" Mizuki was presented two empty plates. She didn't even have enough time to finish the sentence. She blinked twice in a row, just to make sure that the plates in front of her had no food remaining, with the exception of remnants of curry sauce and leftover grains of rice, no more than ten on each.
If they couldn't fight… they would compete.
"My stomach…" Sayuri complained. Both her and Mongami laid across the floor of Mizuki's bedroom. Both had eaten far too much. Mizuki lied face down, while Mongami stared at the ceiling, both hands over her stomach.
Mizuki looked over the two, sat on her bed, while Lizzie sat on the only desk chair of the room, backwards, meaning she had her arms placed over the chair's backrest, leaned against it, and a leg on each side.
"I told you not to do it." Mizuki informed.
"Yeah, yeah…" Sayuri didn't want to hear that sort of thing from Mizuki. "I need to turn over. I can't stay like this." Sayuri groaned, as she rolled so she could face the ceiling as well.
"Hm? Why not? I always found lying face down always more comfortable."
"Huh? Lizzie, how is facing down more comfort-" Upon looking at the aspiring idol, the Saber of the team stopped herself from talking any further. Lizzie was confused as to why Sayuri suddenly stopped, and even more so when the other two girls looked at her and all made the same face. It was as if they said 'How didn't I notice this before?'.
"Hm? What?" Lizzie sat straight up and looked down. Maybe she had a stain of curry on her dress, but that was impossible. That's when she noticed what was lacking, and why Sayuri found it so weird that sleeping 'lying face down' was more comfortable for Lizzie.
Fearless, but with a strong blush, the idol stood up and took it upon herself to declare, with all her might…
"Flat is Justice!"
Silence instilled for a moment. Lizzie was too embarrassed to move, and the girls with aching stomachs decided it was best not to add anything to the conversation.
"…U-Umm, maybe we could watch a movie?" Mizuki suggested. She reached over to her laptop in order to see which ones were in her library, but stopped upon seeing the profile of a Rider Player in the site. "Hm?"
"Oh! I left that one opened. Whoever it is, they sound interesting." Sayuri explained. The stomach ache probably distracted her. "They beat quite a few teams, all by themselves."
"R-Really?!" Mizuki couldn't even process someone taking out an entire team and still be in D Rank. Regardless if she was a new fighter or not, she had a struggle defeating one person, let alone seven at once.
She glanced at the screen once again and made a decision as the Leader of the Conqueror's of Deva.
Open Email
'Subject: Challenge
Text: The Team 'Conqueror's of Deva' has challenged you for a Bet Match. Stated Bet: "We want you to join our team". Time, Location, and remaining details yet to be discussed.
Accept?'
I just wanted to inform that the story at times might appear to be rushed, but the greatest enemy in a format like this is being repetitive. While it might look lazy for people to just receive a Card, or for a new team member to JUST appear, and it could very well be laziness, but it's probably to avoid repetitiveness and staleness. If one or the other happens, I apologize. And hope you all keep reading and enjoying the story. That, along with just writing this story to begin with, is what I really want, to see people enjoy the story.
To the questions!
Q: Since this a Holy Grail War can someone make a wish? And what do they need to make a wish?
A: This isn't a Holy Grail War in the traditional sense. For starters, nobody even knows the Holy Grail concept in this… let's call it 'world'. But does that mean the Holy Grail doesn't exist? Who knows? … Oh yeah, me.
Q: Does this game have an end game too it? I know that the goal is to get to Rank EX, but was curious to see what the official end of the game was.
A: The Game works more similarly to a sport than anything else. I know, a bit too obvious, but in the sense that there isn't an end to a sport in itself. There isn't an end to soccer. But there are tournaments, and rankings. The Game works more like a continuously active tournament. So the end would be winning that is to turn into or beat an EX Rank Team.
Now if that is the end goal of the story? Hmm… We'll have to wait to find out.
Also, there are some whose objective actually isn't to become an EX Ranker. But that's something for later as well.
Same message as always.
Until next time!