Fate/Infinity Shuffle
Chapter 51 – Connection:
Hakuno and Jinako couldn't look away from the serene Mizuki.
"What in the...?" Before Jinako could finish the sentence, a pair of tentacles ran down the area, ready to strike Mizuki.
Keeping her calm, she placed her sword in the correct place. The first tentacle was deflected by the sword, and with a fast movement, yet smooth and calculated, Mizuki placed the sword in a new position, deflecting the second one. The two 'limbs' missed their tear get and struck the ground far behind her.
Mizuki's current state of mind, great serenity, wasn't natural to her. Something belonging to the Heroic Spirit, and used via the Skill 'Independent Manifestation'. It was similar to 'Independent Action', the Skill that allowed Characteristics of the Heroic Spirit to manifest, mainly the accuracy and aiming skills to help in combat. But Independent Manifestation went beyond it. Instead of being instinctual, it was like the personality of the Spirit was implemented in the user, and granting knowledge as well.
And that's when Mizuki became aware of the factor that pushed her to that point. While she wanted to act, she didn't want to just stand an watch, how come she was the first to stand up? Why did she refused to give up even if nothing could be done?
While she wanted to do something, why did she refuse to backdown unlike anyone else?
She became aware of something called the 'Counter Force'. Why her specifically? Actually, that was because the Counter Force had influenced the Heroic Spirit in her Assassin Card once before in her adventures.
"...Huh. So that explains it." Mizuki spoke to herself, understanding the concept of the Counter Force and its actions via a Skill: Connection to the Root.
That Skill offered an advantage, a great one at that. To the point where there was a possible option to take, and the means to do so.
Hakuno and Jinako blocked the strikes from the tentacles that whipped at them using their weapons, trying to find an opportunity, as Mizuki slowly approached Foreigner, one step at a time.
"Rankers, please, could you step aside for a moment?" A common enemy would assume Mizuki was mocking them with the serene voice, but Mary knew something was different.
Hakuno and Jinako hesitates, but decided to trust the Saber. The two jumped aside, clearing the field between Mizuki and Mary.
The Foreigner glared, including the eye on the keyhole on her forehead, and a swarm of butterflies and moths, led by a Teddy with its opened face and swirling interior.
Mizuki's eyes immediately turned blue with a blink, and she swung her sword the moment the swarm approached, multiple times. Each of the soft strikes sliced apart the bugs until not one of them reached her, including the Teddy Bear.
Angry, especially due to the death of her little friend, Mary opened portals close to Mizuki. The Saber, in response, with rapid reflexes, she evaded the strikes with little effort.
Connection to the Root: Stats become irrelevant.
The tentacles, however, didn't possess lines of Death. They, just like Foreigner, didn't obey the rules of the World. It didn't matter whether or not Mizuki had unlimited potential due to the nature of 「Ryougi Shiki」, the Origin was still part of the Universe the Outer God didn't belong to.
Resorting to another move, Mary summoned and launched multiple keys at Mizuki, that flew like arrows.
Cloud Shine. With the atitude to that of a swordsman, she was able to perform ultra-high speed movements and slashes.
Five intervals... nine meters of space are instantly covered, as if a flash of light.
The keys didn't hit anything, because the Target was already gone. Mary flinched with wide eyes finding Mizuki standing right in front of her in a position ready to draw her sword and slash.
And that when Mizuki looked at her with blue eyes.
The Outer God didn't obey to the rules. But its link did.
The lines of death kept fluctuating, appearing and reappearing. But it was just to confirm it.
With the Connection to the Root, the Origin of Emptiness, Mizuki walked through the Gate in Mary's forehead, suddenly disappearing.
"..." Mizuki opened her eyes again. What exactly happened was something she couldn't explain. Neither was where she was. Was it the mind of little Mary? The home of the Foreigner? The Dimension above hers? The bridge between the two? All of these at once? None of these options?
Wherever she was, it was coloured in a strange white, and the floor below appeared to look like an entire swarm of galaxies in space, seen at a great distance.
"Where am I? I mean... I can't even understand this..."
"W-Who are you?" Mizuki turned and found the little girl she and her friends had been fighting. However, it was no abomination. No malice. In fact, it was only sorrow and fright.
A little girl, Mary, in white pyjamas, holding the Teddy Bear in a tight hug. Her face and the slight step back showed that she feared Mizuki.
"E-Eh?" Mizuki was slightly taken aback. She didn't understand this. And at that moment, the Independent Manifestation kicked in. The Spirit used its Connection to the Root to give her information, about the girl named Mary, daughter of a Japanese doctor, now 18 years old, rested in a coma in a hospital.
Somehow, only her Soul Installed the Foreigner Card. So while the body is resting in the hospital and the Mind was shut in a coma, the Soul searched around the world, free and with power, someone to play with. Even if her reasoning was twisted through Insanity, her innocence went beyond it.
In front of her was the girl that never grew up.
"A-Are you here to hurt me...?"
"No, of course not." Mizuki raised her hand. "I mean... at least, I don't want to."
"I-I'm sorry...!" The girl's eyes began to overflow with tears, and she began to shuffle. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone... I really didn't!" She yelled like the kid she was in self-defence. "I-I don't know why I kept hurting everybody. I just wanted to play with them! I... I..." she buried her face into the teddy bear, muffling her crying wails. "I haven't played with anyone for so long..."
"Mary..." The sight made Mizuki's heart sink.
The little girl couldn't stop talking, saying everything that she could use as an excuse, almost as if scared of being punished. "I... The me on the outside doesn't remember... she doesn't remember the accident... or the many years of sleep... She's not bad! She just doesn't want to stop playing that game!"
"That game?" Mizuki closed in, slowly enough to not scare Mary. "What's the game exactly?"
"A Nice Onii-chan taught it... I don't remember the name, but he said... 'beat them up and squash them like flies. If they are trying to hit you back, that's cheating.'." Mary's explanation of the game gave Mizuki right away the answer. Whoever taught her that, it wasn't a game, but rather just giving her the order to attack anyone under the guise of a fun game for the girl that just wanted to play with someone after sleeping for so long.
"A nice Onii-chan? Who is he?"
"I... don't know." And before Mizuki could say anything else, Mary's face lit up. "Onii-chan!"
Mizuki's eyes widened and she turned around, finding a shadow. Simply a shadow. No distinct shape, no features. Whoever that was, it was a mystery.
She raised her sword in confusion. How was that Shadow here? Who was it? Before any answer could be given, Mary rushed to the Shadow and hugged it, as if finding an old friend and unable to keep still.
But, after some seconds of the hug, the Shadow kicked Mary away. "AH!" She yelled as she was hit. She quickly attempted to stand up and run away, but the Shadow stomped on her back, make her yelled again and turn to it with tears.
"O-Onii-chan, I thought you were nice!"
Mizuki attempted to move in an attack, but the shadow glared with his nonexistent face.
Mizuki suddenly became surrounded in purple sparks that electrocuted her. And suddenly, she reappeared in the school grounds, rolling over the ground in an instinct of recovery.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" The little girl held her head in extreme pain as the eye of the keyhole widened as much as possible, until it expelled what could be better described as dark red and purple mud that dowsed her in.
Mizuki stepped back as Hakuno and Jinako joined her side. They both wanted to know what exactly happened, but the event in front of their eyes was too mesmerising.
Mary was being altered.
The mud covered her completely and she then spread her arms, dispersing the mud.
Paler skin, mixing white grey with the strange blue, clothes turned black with red crack-like teddy bear went from orange to pitch black, and multiple shattered keys floated around her, full of defects and much damage, but still usable for battle. The multiple tentacles went from purple to black, with the same red crack pattern.
Over Mary's face, the nose above, meaning the eyes and forehead, was a metallic mask with with two metal chains in an X-shape keeping it locked, with the image of a keyhole with signs of having been lock-picked and damaged on said mask.
Hakuno and Jinako were incredibly confused and surprised. They had never seen something like this. The other Players were just as amazed and terrified, if not more.
Mary had been altered. Or rather, she had become...
Abigail Williams Alter
Whoa! This time around, we have a whole bunch of Questions from a Guest Reviewer. S-Senpai?! Me?! … I won't let you down, Kouhai! *^*
Q: How come the Nero Card had a Costume Change?
A: The same Card can change into different outfits according to the personality and some other factors of the user. It can be things such as Gender, personality traits, compatibility, etc. In Jinako and Nero's Case, Jinako got a Bride outfit due to her feelings for the owner of the Card, Hakuno. Yes, Nero can tell.
Q: Do Kuro and Hakuno know that their Archer Cards possess the same Heroic Spirit?
A: Yes, they are aware. The scanner can't identify EMIYA due to being a Heroic Spirit from the future, but it can tell when two Cards have the same unknown Spirit.
Q: If multiple Cards with the same Heroic Spirit can exist, does that mean that someone using an Artoria Saber Card would need to Overlap Install a Lancer Card to get Artoria Lancer? Or since Artoria Lancer is a fundamentally different person to Saber Artoria would the Lancer be its own thing?
A: Lancer Artoria is an interesting Case. While the theory says all is needed is a Lancer Card, Artoria Lancer is a rather complex construct. While it's very unadvisable, not to mention hard to accomplish due to being situational depending on the base, but it is possible to Overlap more than one Card. If one were to go from a regular Artoria Saber Card and try to Overlap Install to Lancer Artoria, they would need, at the very least, a Lancer Card for the Class, a Rider Class for Dun Stallion, a Card whose Spirit has, at least, A Rank Divinity due to her godly status, and a Card possessing a Heroic Spirit from the Future since she is an alternate version, a separate timeline. But doing such a thing is not only hard, but would probably be a great strain on the body.
Of course, there's an alternate method. But that'll be answered in another Question.
Q: Are Alter Servants a thing? I mean Saber Alter is directly tied to Heaven's Feel so wouldn't she have memories of fighting Medusa, Shirou and Rin? Would Jeanne Alter get her own Avenger Card?
A: There aren't Cards with Alter Servants because they're not Natural Occurrences. All Alter Servants are either corrupted Versions of Heroes due to the Grail, or wishes directly asked to the Grail for their existence. But that doesn't mean they can't exist, as you've seen above. It's just that no Card will already have an Altered Heroic Spirit.
Q: Is this how Cards work in this story?
A Heroic Spirit gets put in a Card with one of its random classes, let's use Gilgamesh as an example.
So Gilgamesh would be an Archer Card and could only access his Caster Version if he was Overlapped, meaning only 1 Gilgamesh exists or is there an Archer Gilgamesh out there and a Caster, but they can both get they're alternate forms?
A: Each Card has access to the Heroic Spirit in question. But said Heroic Spirit can belong to multiple Classes. This time, I'll use Cú Chulainn as an example. Let's imagine there are multiple Cards with him as their Heroic Spirit. Some of the Cards will be Lancer Class, and others Caster Class. It's the same Spirit, but the attributes are different. So, if one has a Cú Chulainn Lancer Card and wants him in his Caster Form, all they need to do is Overlap a Caster Card. The same goes the other way around. If one has Caster Cú chulainn, Overlap with a Lancer Card.
This is the other method to use Artoria Lancer without Overlap. Already use a Lancer Card with her Spirit. Now, if such a Card is exists or has even been found, that's another story.
Q: Can you destroy a Class Card? I mean, at least Shiki with her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception should be able to do so.
A: While the Cards are durable enough to not be ripped or cut by ordinary people, any Include Weapon or person Installed could easily Damage them or even Destroy them. Of course, attempting that is illegal by the Admins, and attempting to do that to someone else's Card is an immediate Rank Down. The level of Damage can decide whether or not it's just defective and hurts the body upon Installing, if it can only be Included, or, like Hakuno's Card, only be used for Overlapping.
Q: Are Servants like Alter Ego's, Launcher and Avengers their own cards?
A: The Extra Class Cards exist, but they're extremely rare. I've given the Ruler example in a Q&A of some Chapters ago.
Just as always, if you have questions or requests, be free to ask, preferably through PM.
Until next time!
