Boyzilla: Oh, but ninjas also use Mystic Codes. Their masters have real knowledge in the Magecraft, enough to want to summon a Servant (and succeed). That said they do not know that a Servant alone surpasses hundreds of human beings. And how could they know that? No Servant has been summoned to Earth in the last century!
Yes, Hakuno has the equivalent of the Servant skill "Eye of the Mind (False)" but no capacity in real combat for use it.
Akasha BloodriveR: Yes, they transform men with Magecraft... and other methods. But, this is megacorporation "pragmatism". Human right? I earn money if I respect them? No? Then not interested.
Author Note: I did not really seek a vote on what readers wanted to see in this chapter, but those who spoke (Boyzilla, Akasha Bloodriver and Sakaewmatsui) could not be clearer. Tamamo? You have permission to cut the ninjas into small pieces. That said she didn't really need your permission...
Foxfire
[Attack!]
The mental order of Hakuno touched Tamamo no Mae even as she dodged the assault of a techno-ninja whose two arms had been replaced by cybernetic limbs wielding huge claws.
She made a small leap aside, guiding with her hand her Noble Phantasm floating near her. It was a richly decorated mirror called Suiten Nikkō Amaterasu Yano Shizu-Ishi. Even used as a kind of flying disc, it was a powerful weapon.
- Yahhhh!
The ninja found himself thrown several meters back in an explosion of metal and blood...
Already another assassin in black replaced him. He had four cybernetic arms, each holding a vibro-katana.
For Kishinami Hakuno, he seemed to be dragging his feet. His gestures stretched endlessly, allowing the young Master to analyze his movements and understand.
Four simultaneous attacks in power... Weakness: slow attack... Exploitation: fast counter-attack.
His thought was already passed on to the Servant:
[Attack!]
- Yieeeeh!
The mirror spun into a glittering arc, impossible to follow from the eyes of an ordinary human. The Corporate Ninja collapsed, releasing its weapons.
Two other ninjas followed in his footsteps, unlike their predecessors, they used ranged weapons. The first had a machine gun and the second had a heavy assault rifle. The projectiles were the fruit of alchemy, capable of injuring a creature made of prana as a Servant. These were dangerous weapons.
[Guard!]
Without even trying to think, Caster raised her mirror like a shield. Such was their relationship. Once the battle began, there was absolute trust between them. One ordered, the other obeyed. Together, they were invincible. In the Seraph, Hakuno had often won battles against the Enemy Program without Tamamo receiving more than a few scratches.
Under a bush, a ninja fired a sniper's rifle wired to his cybernetic eye. As the Servant stepped behind her mirror, which sparkled under the shots she blocked, the murderer pulled the trigger of his weapon.
Only, for Hakuno's eyes and special brain, the heavy projectile dragged like a lazy bumblebee.
[Guard!]
With grace, Tamamo swirled on herself, raising the shield between two Ninja volleys, to intercept the large caliber ball:
- You are a pain in the a-... tail!
Even though Caster was furious, she still controlled her language. Despite the perilous situation, Hakuno smiled involuntarily. It was Tamamo... she always sought to protect her, including herself, correcting her language. Because, as Tamamo had told her shortly after their first meeting, recounting her real story was told stories of "exposed boobs and gore".
[Skill !]
Tamamo grabs a piece of paper covered with ideograms:
- Curse: Fiery Heaven!
Tentacles of fire fell from the sky where she had thrown the ofuda, enveloping two ninjas that ignited instantly.
[Skill!]
- Curse: Frigid heaven!
A wall of ice came out of the ground where the sniper was standing. Frozen, he no longer represented the slightest danger.
[Goshujin-sama, I can only use my spells six times!]
Hakuno grimaced; her Servant's energy supply had fallen below 200 units. The Victor of the Moon realized that Caster was very weak. However, she had to resort to the magical fox girl's Magecraft to counter ranged attacks. This was the only possible tactical choice. Sending her across the battlefield to attack the gunmen would leave her unprotected...
Kishinami looked at the two petrified cops who looked at the fight as if they were hallucinating.
And she couldn't count on ordinary humans to protect her.
The Servant's demonstration of power had caused the assailants to float. Tamamo push her advantage with an evil smile:
- As the representative of the gods who live in Izumo, it is my duty to punish the sacrileges that violate this sacred land. Come all at once, it is unworthy that wisps of hay line up to confront the hurricane.
Tohsaka Rin had mockingly nicknamed Kishinami "Blank Page", but a virgin spirit is a spirit liberated from any preconceived idea. Kishinami Hakuno learned at an incredible speed and fed on what his friends Rin and Rani explained to her, as well as her fights with her opponents...
But above all she listened to her Servant.
During the seven weeks spent in Seraph, Hakuno had spent more time with Tamamo than with any other Moon Cell's Grail War participant. Behind the closed doors of "My Room" (otherwise known as Class 2-B) she listened to the Kitsune joke, tell anecdotes and even philosophize, sitting cross-legged on a platform-form consisting of school desks that various objects offered by Fujimura Sensei had (roughly) transformed into some sort of imperial throne.
For the most part, the time spent in My Room was just listening to Tamamo talk. Initially, as a "faithful wife", the fox woman had asked her "wonderful husband" many questions. She wanted to know everything about her past, her family, her childhood... that kind of thing. Except that Kishinami Hakuno had amnesia. In fact, she didn't have a past that belonged to her own... During the seven weeks of the Holy Grail War, Hakuno was to discover that she was only an N.P.C. who had escaped control of the Moon Cell.
Having nothing to say, Hakuno listened and retained everything that was said to her. As a sponge absorbing water, she absorbed knowledge.
At that moment, Hakuno was thinking mainly of a story that Caster had told her to pass the time.
Sitting cross-legged on the platform of tables, between an incense burner and a delicate teapot, Caster waved her ears smiling:
In the ancient times of Spring and Autumn, she said, China was experiencing incessant wars between petty little kings who only wanted to establish their supremacy by force of arms. There were then fierce battles. At that time there lived a king called Zhuang of Zhou. One day, he said to his Prime Minister, "What do you think of the opportunity to attack the kingdom of Yue? His army is weak and the country is badly governed." Do you know what the minister replied, Goshujin-sama? As Hakuno shook her head, Tamamo's smile became blissful, delighted to be able to teach her "husband" an anecdote:
"Majesty, we have just lost two successive wars and handed over several of our provinces to the winners. Is this not proof of the weakness of our troops? Gangs of bandits are destroying two more of our provinces. Is this not proof that we are badly governed? "
This illustrates the words of the great general Sun Tsu " Who has cognized oneself and knows the other, in a hundred fights will not be defeated; he who does not know the other and who does not know himself will always be defeated".
Then Caster abandoned her hieratic posture of great sage and began to laugh. I'm joking, of course, Goshujin-sama this Tamamo does not believe in this philosophical numbo-jumbo, she says.
But Master Kishinami had listened, retained and integrated the teaching that the minister of Zhou had given to his king two thousand five hundred years earlier. Today she remembered and understood why the Ninjas couldn't win. Accustomed to dominating enemies too terrified and too divided by corruption to fight back, they no longer understood the origin of their past strength, nor did they see their present weaknesses. Above all, they had made the mistake of underestimating Caster... a heroic spirit was the embodiment of the legend of a being who had stood out in the middle of ten thousand... one had to be puffed up with pride to hold her for nothing!
Minamoto Sezuku watched the fight with his mouth open, under the shock. The Kitsune appeared by the moment and disappeared just as fast. The rest of the time, he only saw a fuzzy shape... She ran like lightning, going from one opponent to another. The techno-ninjas fell one after the other or in small groups.
It wasn't a fight.
One could not even speak of unbalanced confrontation... because even this presupposed that each side had the means to fight back, even in a limited way.
It was a massacre... no, the Kitsune said it was the execution of sacrileges by a representative of the gods of Izumo.
Yet the enemies were informed about the Servants and they knew that their main weakness was their Master.
One of the attackers started running towards the teenager girl with long chocolate-colored hair. He swirled a Kusari-Gama (1). Sezuku wanted to shout, but Kishinami had seen the threat long before him. As she retreated, a fuzzy form manifested itself:
- To!
Struck under the chin by the two tight fists of the Kitsune, the murderer found himself thrown to the end of the alley.
Ninja corporates were fanatical, willing to sacrifice their lives for their lords and masters. However, despite the cybernetic implants, the drugs and the transformations that had been imposed on them, they remained human.
Facing a monster of legend was beyond their possibility. More than half of them had already perished... the most shaken fled first... and followed a general stampede.
Their leader spread the wings of his flying armor and wanted to flee except...
- Curse: Chaos Heaven!
A whirling wind twister formed around the Power-armor... precipitating it to the ground. As the damaged Power-armor sought to rise, the Kitsune leaped like a furious cat. Her claws plowed the metal into a spark burst, cutting the cables, ripping apart the servomotors. Then the Servant bowed to the chest panel. Sending it to show the door about 20 meters with one hand, she tore the pilot from the cabin with the other:
- Master, see what I found! So Baka-san (2), you will talk and tell us who wants Hakuno so badly?
As white as a sheet and held at arm's length by the legendary creature, the man of about forty years swallowed. Yet he clearly did not understand the lesson:
- I would never speak.
- Never say never, never Baka-san.
Although impressive, the will of this ordinary human could not be compared to the Witchcraft technique (EX rank) of Tamamo no Mae. Using the Dakini Heavenly Methods she terrorized the poor man by revealing the secrets of his own soul before threatening to lock him in eternal hell.
In normal times, Caster was reluctant to use such means. But as Tamamo herself says, "To attack her adorable husband, it had enough to put the nerves of any loving wife... even more so if she were a divine fox".
The police car was on the streets of Tokyo.
The two policemen, Minamoto Sezuku and Asano Mihei were in the front, Hakuno and Tomoko were in the back. Of course, Caster accompanied her Master, but did so in spiritual form so as not to attract attention.
Silence reigned since their departure. It was Tomoko who broke it:
- Kishinami-san, what are your plans?
The teenager turned on her neighbor, tilting her head to the side. The journalist blushed and looked away, inexplicably disturbed.
Planned to do? Hakuno thought for a moment to answer this question and... found no answer. In fact, all the time she was in the Moon Cell, she had thought only of her survival. She wanted to escape the Grail War massacre. All the other participants had come with some sort of big project and intended to use the wish granted by the Moon Cell to realize it.
Unlike them, Hakuno had accidentally arrived in the tournament called "Holy Grail War". For her, winning was the only way out. At first, she was just hoping to be returned to her original body if she survived... no matter what she wished for.
Destiny had been incredibly cruel against her.
She had never had a physical body, or even an existence before the Holy Grail War. Even the Moon Cell thought she was a bug and erased her.
The wish she had finally expressed was forbidding the Moon Cell from any new Grail War. This was her only way of attunement for all the deaths she had caused by seeking to flee the Seraph.
But she was there with Caster... In spite of everything, in spite of the fact that she did not use her wish to escape the deletion, she had survived. Part of her was suffering, finding it unfair that she should live while Shinji, Alice or Rani had died. Hakuno had never heard of survivor syndrome, but that was exactly what made her suffer.
- Kishinami-san?
Hakuno startled, she had completely forgotten her neighbor. It was not the first time that she immersed herself in deep reflection, forgetting everything around her.
- Sorry...?
- You did not reply.
- I don't know...
Tamamo's answer echoed in her head:
[First of all, I think we should take care of those who are after you, Goshujin-sama. Those who dare to wrinkle a hair on the head of my lovely husband deserve that I inflict upon them a punishment that will not be forgotten from their descendants to the seventieth generation. The mere sight of a fox will make their grandchildren's grandkids hide under a table! It will become a hereditary disease, the Tamamophobia]
Hakuno had a tense smile. On the one hand, she was touched by the obvious indignation of Caster. However... how to say... Kishinami now knew her well enough to know it wasn't just talk. The Last Master did not really want to be the cause of a new and bloody chapter of the dark legend of Tamamo no Mae.
Hakuno clears her throat and turns to Tomoko:
- My Servant thinks that this will have to wait until I am no longer prosecuted.
Let's say it was a less aggressive summary of Tamamo's remarks, even though she heard Caster protesting against this abusive simplification. Tomoko nodded:
- She is right, of course. I think it is too dangerous to go to the police station. Kimata has corrupted many police officers and he would have no trouble taking you there. He could even do it legally.
Since they captured Suzuki, the leader of the ninjas who attacked them, they knew the identity of the one who wanted to take Hakuno and his reasons.
The girl nodded:
- Why are you helping me?
Tomoko smiles:
- Because that's what my grandmother taught me to do. She's been a member of the resistance since childhood. She fought the Harwey with her sister. Then, after World War III, the "good guys" officially won and during the reconstruction the resistance was dissolved. We erected a statue at Tohsaka Rin, the martyr of the resistance, offered seats in the government to her former companions, but we did not win. The conflict is still going on. The Kimata consortium has just replaced the Harwey. Plutocracy is as strong and ruthless as it was before.
Hakuno unintentionally shook her head. She had been with Leonardo B. Harwey and found it hard to believe that his family could be as evil as the woman said. After all, the young king truly wished for the happiness of the world.
However, she was even more interested in a thing what her interlocutor had said:
- Rin?
The young woman nodded:
- You knew her, didn't you? You see her in the Seraph?
Hakuno hesitated to answer, but the mention of the Seraph was enough to understand that her interlocutor already knew the essential.
- What about you? You also know her?
- I'm not... I'm too young. I was born long after her death. Like all Japanese people, I've seen and read a lot about her. But I know many things that children of my time have not learned in the school curriculum.
- Because you are part of the resistance?
The journalist appeared surprised, then realized...
- I am a fool; I have just realized that my last name has never been said before you. I am Tohsaka Tomoko, I am the granddaughter of Tohsaka Sakura, the sister of Rin(3).
16A Shimakazi Road was a large three story house. The house was a modern circular building with origami-like features in a large grass field and tree orchard. From the residential street, two driveways go down to a garage.
It was there that they were received by the owners of the house. Yamada Kuroe was the head of an electronic components company belonging to the Allied group. The latter was a group of medium and large companies fighting the quasi-monopoly of the Kimata consortium. It was actually the legal branch of resistance.
His wife, Yamada Chihiro, was a cybernetician doctor. She operated casualties and replaced defective limbs and organs with cyber equivalents. Above all, Chihiro treated the wounded resistance fighters during their actions against the World Plutocracy.
Inspector Minamoto, who made the introductions, said:
- I have known the Yamada for ten years, they are perfectly safe. Kuroe-san is one of my top informants on illegal manipulations made in the darkest corners of the Cyberworld.
Led by the master of the house, proud of his great home, they visited the place. The house features four bedrooms, a basement workshop and garage, a large office, and an interior courtyard.
The workshop was a large unfinished section of the house with benches where electronics parts and equipment were crammed. Yamada Chihiro pushed a hidden button behind a worktable and a secret panel opened.
- This is the safehouse. This room has power, water, and communications with standard datajack access. It is lightly shielded from sensor and heavily soundproofed. A blowout panel provides an emergency escape route.
The factory manager's wife smiles at Hakuno:
- Normally, you can live as you please in the house. My husband and I often receive visits and no one cares to see unfamiliar faces. However, if the doorbell rings, you will have to hide here.
They went up to the first floor, crossed the central circular courtyard and entered the living room. There they sat on the sofa and on the chairs between the wall-sized video screen and the central holographic projector.
While Chihiro was serving drinks to the guests, her husband leaned towards Minamoto Sezuku:
- I'm not going to ask why I have to hide Kishinami-chan, but I suppose it has something to do with Kimata.
As the police inspector nodded, the head of the company rubbed his chin while thinking.
- I discovered something unusual while surfing the dark Cyberworld. Have you ever heard of the Virtual Pleasure Company?
Sezuku replied immediately:
- A subsidiary of Kimata that offers virtual games in the Cyberworld... officially nothing very illegal. But it's a portal to access other... less legal hobbies.
The police inspector glanced at Kishinami Hakuno, the teenager innocently drank a glass of soda that had just been brought to her by Chihiro. He did not dare to list the virtual "games" practiced in the dark Cyberworld. One could find more than shocking content...
Yamada Kuroe went on:
- Well, those are pretty innocent hobbies compared to what I found out. I discovered that members of high society who take advantage of the illegal services of the Virtual Pleasure Company could be offered even more... degenerated services in the real world.
Minamoto Sezuku cut it:
- And they will meet in three days at an illegal club of the port.
Kuroe appeared surprise:
- You already know!
- But I thank you for this information, Yamada-san, which confirms the information learned by... a friend of Kishinami-san.
Caster, invisible in his spiritual form, replied to Hakuno's ears alone:
[They have been investigating for years and yet I am giving them best information, when I arrived yesterday. Humans are really pathetic... apart from you of course, my little starry eyes Master.]
Kishinami clears her voice:
- I can help...
As the adults turned to her, surprised, she looked down. Hakuno really hated being the center of attention.
- I... I am a hacker...
The mental voice of her Servant echoed in their bond:
[And the best in the world, able to force the protections of the Moon Cell itself.]
Detective Minamoto reflects for a moment, exchanging a look with his ex-wife. Tomoko beckoned him to accept... after all, given what she had taught him about the Seraph and the Moon Cell, if Kishinami-san had really survived in this virtual universe, she had to be competent. Moreover, the teenage girl was already Kimata's target. She could not put herself in any more danger than she already was.
- Okay, I'll investigate in the real world. You can try in the Cyberworld Hakuno-chan.
The Victor of the Moon nodded.
The safehouse was a large circular room that did not appear on the plans of the Yamada house. Having asked to be left alone, Hakuno lay down on one of the beds and grabbed the virtual headset. She didn't have data jack, but she didn't need it:
- Code Cast: Hack!
Immediately, the sensation of lying in bed faded. Her spirit, sucked into the Cyberworld materialized in a "piece" resembling a pattern made of wire, except for the fact that it was made up of sparked energy lines.
Not surprisingly, Hakuno realized that her avatar wore the brown uniform of the Tsukumihara academy with black turtleneck and pantyhose. By reflex, she plunged her hand into her pocket and found her Portable Terminal there. It was only then the small device, both similar to a portable microcomputer and a smartphone, was in her palm that she realized that everything acquired in the Seraph had followed her into her new life. Not only did she still have the Portable Terminal, but the equipment tab revealed a long collection of Formal Wears collected during the Grail War while more than 260,000 PT were accumulating on her virtual wallet.
- Goshujin-sama!
A whirlwind of crystal cubes and purple digital particles formed her Servant who immediately threw her arms about the neck of Hakuno
- Cas... Caster!
- Your humble wife is begging her beloved Master not to leave her behind. Exploring the cyberworld could be very dangerous.
But Hakuno kept looking at her bug-eyed:
- How did you follow me?
The Kitsune laughed, hiding her mouth behind the back of her hand:
- Goshujin-sama, I am a Servant created by the Moon Cell from the real Tamamo no Mae. I only existed in the virtual universe of Seraph... at least until my adorable Master used one of her command marks to give me a material body made of Prana. But I haven't lost my ability to move around in the virtual universe. Just as I can pass from a material body to a spiritual body, I am able to transform myself into spiritrons and enter the Cyberworld with you.
In turn, Hakuno clutched her Servant in her arms. The gesture was clumsy but reflected a deep tenderness:
- I'm so glad you're here with me.
The fox woman's reaction was most remarkable. She blushed and began to speak in a clashing manner...an almost incomprehensible murmur "Be strong Tamamo, resist temptation".
- Tamamo?
Coughing in her fist, the Kitsune succeeds with a heroic effort to take hold and not to throw herself on her Master (but Hakuno was SO adorable...):
- This Tamamo no Mae lives only to serve her wonderful husband, nothing can separate us. Even the Moon Cell did not succeed!
Smiling, Hakuno drew two Formal Wears from the equipment menu of her Portable Terminal. The first, Scapegoat charm was an amulet that can help divert disaster by taking the place of the user. It can be used to use "gain-con (32)" a Code Cast that greatly raises Servant's defense. The second was the Seer's Crystal Ball, a crystal ball the size of a softball that radiates an ominous light. This Formal Wear serves to cast "View-map ( )", in the Seraph, that Code Cast display completed area map.
- Code Cast: View-map ( )!
Nevertheless, the image that appeared in the crystal ball was infinitely more complex than a level of the Chimerics Lunar Seas arena. After all, the Cyberworld was a global communications network that connected its users individually.
"View-map" only allowed seeing their immediate environment and it was already an incredibly dense succession of passages connecting… a Reality Marble.
Hakuno remembered a discussion she had had with Leonard B. Harwey during the first week of the Grail War. The young king had explained that the Harwey group, using a supercomputer, had succeeded in creating a Reality Marble that had lasted several minutes.
Sixty years later, humanity had made enormous progress. Without Gaia or Alaya to erode these pocket universes, and probably also because they were confined to the virtual world, hundreds of Reality Marble had to coexist on the planet!
The symbols that appeared in the crystal ball were the ones she already knew. For example this red square had to indicate an enemy program or at least an equivalent. And... this green one!
- Caster, come with me, I have discovered something interesting.
The passage of wire ended in another piece forming a crossroads. In its middle shone a fountain of green light. She knew this installation well... a fountain regenerating prana and the vitality of the Servant as well as the Master!
Their whole environment was modeled on the Seraph! Perhaps the origin of one of the names of this strange virtual universe: the Cyberworld.
Why? How?
One thing was certain; it solved much of their problems. As Hakuno plunged her hand into the pond to activate it, Tamamo started dancing on the spot, swirling on herself, splashed by a shower of green light:
- My cute Master, your Tamamo is at 100%!
Hakuno smiled at the joy of his Servant. However, her expression became neutral as she returned to the observation of the crystal ball. Once again, Master and Servant were embarking on the exploration of a virtual arena. They now had to discover an access of the Virtual Pleasure Company leading to the Dark Cyberworld.
(1) Typical ninja weapon, it's the combination of a chain, with a weight on one end and a sickle weapon on the other.
(2) Mister moron (literally)
(3) In Fate/ Extra Matou Shinji don't have a little sister. In the Extraverse, Sakura was not adopted into the Matou family.
Author Note: You want me to tell you, after this chapter, Kimata Ryuchi will start to worry. Nobody gets away untouched after attacking Hakuno in front of Tamamo... There are less dangerous extreme sports: snorkeling in a cage filled with hungry big sharks, lava surfing, parachute jumping (without a parachute, but with an anvil).
Beta Note Sawtooth44: funny thing if i recall correctly Extra-verse Rin is actually the daughter or granddaughter of Stay Night Rin as she said her avatar takes on their appearance making her technically Rin Tohsaka II, ied have to replay the game to remember properly so don't quote me on that
