Fate/Infinity Shuffle

Chapter 49 – School Day:

Shake, shake, shake.

"Hm…? Mom, five more minutes…" The Foreigner's eyes trembled slightly as someone shook her body. She opened them and found the teddy bear sitting in front of her face. "Oh, Teddy. Why did you…?" She then saw the school bag leaning against the faraway wall and her memory returned. "Ah! I almost forgot!" She hopped off the bed, grabbed the bag, and then rushed out of the room. Of course, after a few seconds, she returned. "Sorry, Teddy!" She reached for the plush doll and hugged it tightly. "Of course I'm not going to forget you! We're going to school together, after all!"


As the good kid that she was, Mary didn't let anything stop her from going to school. She was really tempted to stay at the children's park and play all day with Teddy, but she managed to resist it. After all, she had to be the first to get to school!

The true question was, which school?

"Hmm… I shouldn't go to an empty school." She closed her eyes and skipped down the road, in search for a presence. She couldn't feel anyone in the nearby buildings, but there was a faint trail. Something… familiar?

She followed it and opened her eyes, finding a school building in front of her.

"Hmm…" She pondered for a moment, but then smirked and said to herself that it was fine. "Alright. Let's go, Teddy!" She cheered as she sprinted towards the school building.

What she didn't know was that it was the same school of the Onii-chan of the three Cards that made her Ascend for the first time, Hakuno.

"Let's see… Which room?" She searched around for a suitable one. But most of them looked the same. She entered one of the rooms of the first year and gathered the courage to sit down on a chair. She took the centre seat, the one right at the middle of the entire room, and quickly placed her friend on the table too. "I hope everyone's nice. If not, Teddy, you know what to do. You lead the army!" No reaction. At least, to anyone but her. "Aww, you don't need to blush!" Mary responded, with a pat on his head.

She waited and waited. "Everybody must be late… even the teacher!" The little girl couldn't believe it! "Hmm… I wonder if I'm going to see any of my friends here."

The plush doll turned to her and made an arm point at itself.

"Hm? Teddy, I know you're here, you silly bear." She poked his nose. "But before I met Teddy, I had a lot of friends." She leaned over the table, arms crossed, as she fondly remembered her old school days. "I can't remember much about kindergarten in America, but I moved to Japan just as I entered the first grade. And I made a ton of friends right away! There was Tomoe. She quickly became my best friend, and we sat next to each other in every single class! Which helped me out a lot, since she was the best in the whole class in Japanese, so she could help me. Shizuka was really nice too, and she always brought a lot of snacks to share." She giggled. "I always got the first gummies. There was also Ryuuga, who looked like a bully, but he really wasn't. And Ryuusei was the nicest boy ever! There was also Hikari, Homura, Tatsuya, even a Russian boy named Alexander! But I could never say it properly when I met him, so I just called him Sasha." She giggled once again. The memories kept pouring out of the girl, telling them to the faithful companion.

But as she kept telling the plush doll stories about her first, second and third years of school, tears began to fall down her eyes. She was confused why she was feeling so sad, so depressed as she thought about her friends.

"Eh? Why am I…? But I didn't scrape my knees or got hurt… Why am I crying?"

It began to escalate, where simple sobs began to evolve.

It ended up with her whimpering, wondering why exactly she was crying, but the sorrow was just too much. The plush doll stood up, walked, and patted his friend's head, and then hugged her, attempting to comfort her from the unknown sadness.


"Alright, if there's no teacher, I'll take their place!" The brave girl stood in front of the white board. In the front row seat was the companion Teddy, with a pen set on his handless arm and a notebook ready to be used. "This will be an English Class, because that's where I'm the smartest." The girl turned to the board and was surprised at first. "White? Shouldn't it be black…?" She looked for a stick of chalk, but only found a pen. She took it and took the cap off before experimenting. It was much easier to use this than a common stick of chalk. "Whaaa… This is new. But it's not bad!" Mary wrote on the board, hovering above the ground in order to reach the top. "Today, we're going to learn all of the animals. Alright Teddy? The first one is…" She wrote an English word on the board and smirked at her friend. "Come on, you know this Teddy. … Correct! Bear!"

She wrote down as many animals as she could think of. After all, she couldn't do a bad job as a teacher.

Before she knew it, the board was completely filled with animal names. Teddy toppled over, with its eyes spinning. The notebook was just as full of names, both in English and their Japanese translations.

"Wow! All of them are correct! Good job, Teddy!"

A break was deserved. The two moved to the cafeteria, and despite not having money, the two took a Yaki Soba Bread from the cafeteria and quickly ate them, one each.

"Alright, Teddy. Since we're done eating, let's play hide and seek! I'll find everyone. They must be hiding somewhere, right?" Bear in hand, the girl moved to the schoolgrounds.

She must've been really focused on playing, otherwise, she would've felt the girl on the staircase, who froze upon seeing Mary.


Hakuno and Jinako were working as usual. Hakuno on his desk, while Jinako placed a bunch of pillows and a futon cover in the empty locker Hakuno would normally use as a bed to make it more comfortable, laptop on her lap.

Surprisingly, her phone began to ring. "Hm?" she took the call. "Who is it?" After a moment of silence, enough for Hakuno to turn around to her out of curiosity. Jinako's face went from normal to annoyed, with a twitching eyebrow, in a split second. She removed the cellphone from her ear and yelled at its mic. "I'm not dead, will you stop with the phone calls?!" She hung up, saved her phone.

Needless to say, Hakuno jumped back from the sudden outburst from his girlfriend. "…Jinako, who was it?"

"The Grocery Store." That just raised more questions. Thankfully, she decided to answer them before being asked. "Since I didn't leave home, I would order from a nearby Grocery Store. But now everybody is calling me confirming I'm alive!"

"Everybody?"

"Pizzeria, Burger Place, Snack Store…" Jinako let out a sigh. "My diet wasn't the best."

"But you look pretty good though." Hakuno admitted. He didn't know whether or not she exercised. He knew her abilities as a fighter were greater than his, but having good muscles was different from not having fat.

"There were days where I just wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat. That and diet soda, strangely enough, helps." Jinako explained, returning to her work.

Before either of them could press a key, the door opened up like a tornado had hit it, taking the two by surprise. The girl from the first year breathed rather heavily from the sprint.

Hakuno recognized her. "Hoshizume? Is something wrong?"

"F-F-F-Foreigner! The Foreigner is here!"

The two sprung up in surprise. "What?!"

"She's at the school! I was in the Parallel Dimension to take care of a thing, and I spotted her at the entrance! She's currently outside!" She wasn't going to reveal why exactly she was in the Parallel Dimension. Truth was, she was going to steal a Yaki Soba Bread before lunch in order to skip queues, but ithat wasn't important.

The two Rankers shared a look, the same look.

"…I'm not letting you go alone this time."

"Hey, I was going to ask you to come anyway." He admitted, chuckling, as Jinako placed down her laptop and the two rushed out of the room. "I'm not facong someone I've lost to alone a second time." It was a safe logic. Even if he didn't like asking others for help, he had to trust his girlfriend and common sense. He quickly turned to the Player. Hoshizume! Make sure no one knows!"

"R-Roger!" She left the room as well, but heading to a different destination.

Apparently, Mary was going to have friends to play with during the break.


So, apparently, the reviews for now are 'invisible'. A glitch has occurred in the site, and I can't see the reviews for a while. This explains the absence of them in Chapters 47 and 48, and why I haven't answered any questions made via Reviews, but this is apparently solved in a week's time. Gotta admit, it somewhat pains me because even though I love writing, reviews do boost my morale in my life. I don't mind waiting to see the reviews, but if you would like to tell me on time, I would suggest reviewing, and then copy-pasting it into a PM, just if you really want to tell me your thoughts, I'm not going to make anyone do that, of course.

And I hope you continue reading, because I have something somewhat 'special' reserved for Chapter 50. Is it another sort of Cliff hanger? Who knows. But don't miss it!

And a few questions to answer.


Q: Why is Mizuki's Team not named 'Kara no Kyoukai' or 'Garden of Sinners'? I mean, Ibuki's Team is named 'Melty Blood'.

A: ...Because I am an idiot. I fully admit, I do not know how that didn't occur to me, especially because I struggled a bit with Mizuki's Team name. At the very least, 'Deva' is an element of the same system the Noble Phantasm for the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception is named after. So... there's that.


Q: How would Mizuki react if she crossed paths with the Shiki of this world?

A: She wouldn't notice it at first, but then do a double-take, stare wide eyed, yell 'EHHHHHHH?!' as loud as she could, and then immediately find a spot to access Shiki's Room and tell about the encounter to the Assassin. In other words, her mind would be blown.


Just as always, if you have questions or requests, be free to ask, preferably through PM.

Until next time!