Fate/Infinity Shuffle

Chapter 253 – Deadman's Dream:

Sieg reached out his hand to shake Luvia's. The Leader and Saber of the Worldly Argonauts congratulated the Solo Player in front of the Rankers.

"It was a great battle! Chin up and look proud." Luvia let out another rich laughter. "My, the fact that you knocked me out with that last attack, if it were up to me, I'd qualify you as an EX Ranker!"

"Hate to break it to you, Luvia, but it's not up to you." Hakuno chuckled.

"Hmm, I don't know. Maybe I could persuade you?"

While acting as herself, Luvia sounded… odd. It was clear she was trying to make Sieg an EX Ranker, but nobody could tell why. But nobody wanted to question it: they knew that pressing the wrong button could resist in a rant, courtesy of the lady with money.

"T-Thank you." Sieg's words made Luvia turn back to him. The boy in the suit flashed a smile. "I really enjoyed fighting you."

Luvia was slightly surprised at first, but her face relaxed, smiling in return. "I say the same. I couldn't have asked for a better debut battle."

Sieg bowed and turned around, to head for the exit, where Joana waited for him. As he paced away, the smile from Luvia's face turned into concern for a second.

"H-Hey!"

"Hm?" Sieg turned around to Luvia.

"How about a rematch in the future?"

Sieg was taken aback at first. And while he didn't like to do it, he put on a fake smile. "Sure. I'm looking forward to it." And then walked back into his path, where only Joana could see the saddened face of the boy.

Luvia pinched the bridge of her nose and asked herself what was she trying to do. Which obviously got no answer. Those words before Sieg's final attack were printed in her memory.

"Hey, you okay?" Jinako's question snapped Luvia out of her distraction.

"Hm? Yes, perfectly! Ah, but Miss Ranker, can you tell me something?"

This was a surprise. "What is it?"

"Is that boy Sieg alright? He looks rather slim and pale."

"Oh. He seems to be sick. I don't know the details, but Joana worries to death about him."

"Ah, I see. I hope he gets well then. He must be at top shape for our rematch, after all!" Luvia's bravado was a good front for her inner thoughts. If he is sick and what he said was true… She could only guess, but most options weren't good. And it wasn't a topic for her to pry about.


Sieg and Joana sat side by side on his couch. The trip from the match to his house wasn't long. The two were silent, and neither bothered to turn on the lights.

What was the most frustrating is that both wanted to say something. But not just anything. Joana was being too careful with her words, while Sieg didn't even know if he wanted to speak at all.

But something compelled him to break the silence.

"…Was it noticeable that I was crying at the end of the match?"

Joana felt a weight on her chest. "I don't think so. I didn't even know that was the case until you said it." She let out a sigh. "It simply looked like you were incredibly tired."

"I'm… glad."

She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "There's no shame in crying, you know?"

"Yeah, but… crying over a game is childish. Nobody would know what I was crying about."

Joana approached him, slowly. "Why were you?"

"…I failed." Sieg placed his hands over his face. "I… I wanted to be remembered."

The Ruler was somewhat confused. But it didn't take her long to connect the dots. "Is that why you entered the Game to begin with?" He gave her a nod as an answer. "Oh, Sieg." She moved over and placed her arms around his body, resting her head on his shoulder. While he felt frustrated, he didn't reject her kindness. "…I guess saying I'll never forget you doesn't help…"

The boy removed his hand and let out a sigh of negative emotions. "If you put it like that, it makes me sound selfish."

Joana snickered and softly planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry. I know what you meant."

"…Joana, I'm scared." Sieg confessed, much to dismay.

"It's natural to be."

"But… I don't want to have been nothing if I suddenly disappear."

"But you won't!" A sudden push of the boy down onto the couch. Needless to say, he was shocked. The boy went from a silent and comforting scene to suddenly being pinned down.

"J-Joana, what the-"

"You won't disappear!" She affirmed with the most certainty Sieg had ever seen in his life. "Everything will be fine. I swear. Alright?"

"…" Sieg let out a snicker. "Thanks."

"Hm?" Joana was a bit surprised at first. That was until Sieg's head moved up to lock his lips in hers.

The silence continued…


A rather serious reunion took place in Hakuno's household. While Mary was deep asleep, the four teenagers, Hakuno, Jinako, Kotomine Shirou and Akemi, started discussing. Jinako was preparing drinks for everyone: green tea for Shirou, coffee for Akemi, and glasses of coca-cola for Hakuno and herself.

Hakuno had just confirmed and set the match between the Conquerors of Deva and the Extra Virtual Reality in five days.

"Why isn't Joana with us?" Akemi wondered, as she verified the notes she took on her phone regarding the matches.

Jinako answered from the kitchen. "She said that Sieg needed some help at home, so she gave us her notes."

"Understandable." Shirou admitted, opening his notes as well. "That boy probably has a lot of problems."

"Joana was furious at me when I first let him fight in a match." Hakuno chuckled. "I don't know how serious it is, but I guess as long as Joana is there, he should be fine."

Jinako returned with the drinks in a tray. She took her own glass of juice while Hakuno distributed the drinks to the others. A couple sips took care of her parched throat.

"So, what did you manage to gather?"

"Nobody seemed to act out of the ordinary form what I could gather." Akemi admitted. "I don't know them personally, but I couldn't see any sort of odd behaviour, regardless of personalities."

Shirou crossed his arms. "As for me, as someone who knows most of them personally, I have to say the same."

Hakuno nodded his head, showing he understood what they meant. Jinako sat next to him.

"Don't tell me we're back to square 1 then." Jinako didn't like the sound of it.

"Not necessarily." Akemi pointed out. "If an act of treachery as serious as revealing the secret about the two Golden Archer Cards doesn't make anyone nervous to be on camera, then I wouldn't be surprised if they were a traitor for a really long time."

Shirou was curious. "How long?"

"Long enough for there to be no doubts in the trust with whoever they are conspiring with. I'd say at least over a year."

"That's…" Hakuno let out a sigh. "Longer than I was expecting."

"Well, it can't have happened more than that though." Jinako point out. "The Game is just a few months away from becoming three years old. And the start was a mess."

"Then whoever the traitor is has probably been one anywhere between one and two years ago." Shirou leaned forward. "So we have to narrow it down, correct?" Before anyone could answer though, Shirou's phone started ringing. He would ignore the call, but… "…U-Umm, I know this is a bad time, but do you mind if-"

Jinako giggled. "It's Aimi, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, but please be quick." A reasonable request from Akemi.

The call started. "Hello? Hi, Aimi. I'm sorry, but I can't meet up with you right now. I'm taking care of some business with Hakuno regarding my job as a Ruler. Yeah, he wanted my opinion on some odd moments in the battles. How about tomorrow? Great. …" His face suddenly turned bright red and his mouth made a weird 'S' shape. "I love you too." The three contained their light laughter until Shirou hung up. "It's not funny."

"We know it isn't. But you made too funny a face!" Jinako pointed out, Akemi shaking her head from side to side.

"Well, this was a fun moment, but I think we need to go back to the matter at hands."

"Right." Shirou's face turned serious again. "We have 21 suspects. So instead of asking who out of all did it, maybe we should ask about who couldn't have done it."

"Ah, the reversal of the process." Hakuno thought for a second. "Well, we can narrow it down to 19 then."

Akemi raised an eyebrow. "Explanation?"

"Illya and Miyu are 13. You think 11 to 12-year-olds would have reasons to be traitors to begin with?"

"Hmmm…" Akemi shut her eyes to think. "You have a point. They're too young to be the traitor."

Shirou intervened. "You think the same applies to adults? Wouldn't they be too busy with their personal lives?"

"I wouldn't rule them out completely, but I understand what you mean." Akemi admitted. "Let's put a question mark next to Sisigo and Atrum if that's the case, instead of crossing them out completely."

Jinako had an idea. "You think we can rule out Shirou and Luvia?"

"Why?"

"Illya and Miyu are their siblings. Wouldn't the girls worry if they felt like something was out of place, which is bound to happen, wouldn't they reach for us?"

"I understand the logic, but I can't agree 100%." Akemi retorted. "Keeping secrets from your family isn't all that hard. Sakura kept the fact she was an EX Ranker away from her own brother for two years, didn't she?"

"T-True…" Jinako pointed out. "But then how much farther can we narrow it down?"

Hakuno took out his laptop. "Well, we might as well view all of the battles again. I recorded them for a reason."

"So the more we narrow down, the less people we have to focus on for this dilemma."

Akemi pondered for a moment. "Is there only one traitor?"

"I doubt it's a group." Hakuno responded. "The more people are in on the lie, the more likely it is to be caught. And to have someone do something as bad as revealing the existence of those two Cards… That's one big grudge."

"I see." Akemi leaned forward to see the recordings. "Let us refresh our memory then."

"Hm?" Hakuno raised an eyebrow. "An email?" He opened it up and read the body of the message. "…WHAT?!"


The day had come.

In a hospital gown, on a bed. Sieg was awaiting to be brought in for the surgery. Waiting by his side on the room was, of course, Joana. And neither could tell which one of the two was the most anxious.

"…" Joana's hands reached over and grasped his. "It'll be okay."

"…" Sieg wanted to respond positively, but the negativity haunted him.

A nurse came into the room, telling the two that Sieg was just a few minutes away from being taken to the surgery room.

His hand suddenly tensed up.

"…I'm afraid of not waking up again." He whispered, both to himself and Joana alone.

A tough problem, needless to say. Even though he wanted to do the surgery, the fears kept building up.

So, Joana did the only thing she could think of to reassure. "Don't worry Sieg. Everything will go well. I'm sure of it."

He decided to amuse her. "How are you so sure?"

Her heart shook. She didn't want to say it, but it was the only solution she could see. "How? Because God told me, silly."

"Huh?" Sieg turned to Joana, who smiled just as gently as she always did. "What?"

"God told me. God told me that your surgery will go without a problem. And you'll wake up like it was nothing."

Sieg was somewhat taken aback by the words. But there was something weirdly comforting about them. The way Joana spoke… he couldn't help but smile.

The nurses came to transfer the boy to the surgery room. Obviously, Joana wasn't allowed to be inside the room, so the two waved at each other before eh was out of her sight.

'See you later.'

Three minutes. Three minutes later, Jeanne stood up from her seat, legs shaking without end, and she made her way to the bathroom with the most horrified look she had ever put on.

Once inside, verifying first for privacy, she fell to her knees, the water out of her eyes unable to stop. She only managed to not scream because she was in hospital and didn't want to cause more trouble than she already had.

Even if she kept her voice to herself, her thoughts were powerful yells.

"Why…?! Why…. Why did I lie to him?!"

Her heart couldn't stop racing, each beat more painful than the last. A woman of faith lied to her friend about the words of God. She couldn't hide behind the excuse that it was to comfort him.

During the moment, it sounded like a good idea. Even if she knew it was wrong to do it. Her head pounded with pain in this self-fury of hers.

She didn't know when someone else entered the bathroom, but someone placed themselves behind her and embraced the crying woman.

The natural reaction would be to jump out of there and ask who that person was. In fact, that is what Joana would do. But then… why was this embrace so comforting?

"Poor girl. Comforting a friend in such a situation with a white lie. It shouldn't be this painful. This is what love can do. Quite the curse, right? I wonder why the world cursed you with a love for someone that can die at any moment now. That's what you've been thinking for a while now, isn't it? Is this how the world and god repay you after all your effort towards him? You can't even get a confirmation that it will all be fine. A single mistake from those pesky humans and your love vanishes from this world." A grin. "Cruel, isn't it?"

Joana's eyes stopped watering. They became dull and empty. Her fists closed in anger.

It was successful – she had been pushed.


It looks like something important is building up…

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