Fate/Infinity Shuffle

Chapter 257 – Deck Building – Side Deck 1:

Underneath the red sky, the members of the Conquerors of Deva and Extra Virtual Reality spread about, to cover as much ground as possible.

Julius turned to his brother, as the two accompanied each other. "It's past 3PM. Is your power rising."

"Yes. But this will only last until 6PM. And we have until midnight to stop that woman."

Julius stopped, just like his brother, as they came across a large horde of werewolves running about and slashing at everything. The hard materials of buildings became heavily managed with every swipe of claws.

"Well, if that's the case, let's have some fun."

"Oh? Do you have a game in mind?"

"A simple one: the one who kills the most of these things pays the other one's next dinner."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "A specific reward. Odd."

"What, you don't want your big brother to pay your date whenever you gather to courage to ask that Ciel girl out?"

Leo's face turned bright red. "D-Don't say unimportant things. And how did you even know about that?"

"I overheard you and Rani talking." The older brother in the Chinese uniform took a stance, ready to attack. "So, deal?"

Leo let out a sigh and took a stance with his sword as well. "Deal."


Jinako and Mary stuck together, as one would expect as they made their way to their target. The Lancer in golden armour had warned everybody to not engage with either Joana, Hakuno, Sakura or Haru in battle, all of which seemed to be far more dangerous than the other lackeys Kiara had at the grasp of her hand. There would probably be people soon to arrive more suited to face either one of those three, not counting Hakuno since, as it was obvious, he was HER target. However…

"Hey, I know you told us not to, but me and my sis want to check out that girl Sakura. And if you don't like it, well, I guess different opinions are a pain, aren't they?"

Despite the protests, Mimi and Rumi ran off on their own, searching for the Traitorous EX Ranker. And while that was quite the bother, Jinako decided to not argue.

It took her a while, since all the swarms of werewolves were becoming more numerous. They weren't hard to eliminate, but Jinako wanted to save up her Mana.

But eventually, she spotted her boyfriend, without any werewolves around him, simply sitting on a piece of rock.

"Hakuno!" Jinako called, Mary right behind her. Once close enough, she slowed down, stopping a handful of metres away from the Archer. He kept staring at the floor and nowhere else, no matter what words were hurled.

"Onii-chan! Onee-chan and I are here to slap you!"

"M-Mary, not now…" The girl sighed before looking back at Hakuno. The alterations to his suit were more than apparent.

His red jacket was gone, exposing his torso for the most part, a pair of black and yellow sleeves, connected only to each other by a small link behind his neck, being the only piece of clothing in his upper body. His wrists held bulky, heavy-looking bracelets of steel. His trousers changed slightly, keeping the black, but the belt became a strip of yellow cloth. And finally, in his hands, were a pain of large guns, clearly tempered and altered to hold the blades oh his signature swords underneath them.

He didn't react to the sound, but his body started to move. Hakuno stood up and aimed one of his guns at the building in front of him, which was about 50 metres away, and pulled the trigger of his right gun. The bullet flew across and hit the far-right corner of the building. Suddenly, a series of metallic sounds occurred, and the corner of the building began to fall apart and shatter, making the whole structure collapse and fall off to the side.

Jinako and Mary gasped. Suddenly, a Luck Check occurred, and Lancer saw everything about the Altered Archer.

CLASS: Archer

IDENTITY: ? Alter

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Evil

STATS:

- Strength: C

- Endurance: B

- Agility: D

- Mana: B

- Luck: E

- Noble Phantasm: ? / E~A

CLASS SKILLS:

- Magic Resistance: D

- Independent Action: A

PERSONAL SKILL:

- Bulletproofing Reinforcement: A

- Projection Magic: C

- Derisive Heart of Steel: A

NOBLE PHANTASM:

- Unlimited Lost Works 'Infinite (Void) Creation of Swords': ? / E~A

After blinking the stats away from her sight, Jinako spoke up again. "Hakuno, what the heck are you doing?"

"…" The boy turned his head to the two, revealing his empty, yellow eyes.

Jinako let out a sigh, a rather annoyed one. "So first you let a girl with a broken skill compel you to fight for her, then you get possessed by the Golden Archer, and now this? Come on, how many times do I have to save your butt?" Jinako crossed her eyes and flashed a smirk, but there was no response at all. "…You're not really there, are you?"

"…" His arm raised to aim a gun at Jinako.

"Gotcha." She readied the Golden spear, while Mary got ready with Teddy.


Just like Mizuki, Ibuki was rounding up Players to take care of the situation. Or rather, it was the other way around, since Mizuki acted afterwards. Some were easy to convince, with some pushing around. Though some were tougher to convince.

"Why should I risk my life to help those people?!"

"Cuz the country is going to crap if we don't, simple as that. People can be so dense…"

Mash followed the leader of Melty Blood without missing much of a beat. "B-But you can't say you don't understand them. That woman is…" With a sigh, she admitted her fears. "Something about that woman doesn't feel right at all."

Ibuki stopped in place and turned to Mash, with a rather stoic face. "I'm not gonna pretend I didn't see it either. Not to mention that Ranker and Ruler were taken over. On top of that EX Ranker on her side."

"B-By the way, I've been meaning to ask."

"Hm?"

"Something looked wrong with her too, right? The EX Ranker, Sakura."

Ibuki placed a hand on her chin. "True… I don't know what that was about. She didn't look altered the same way Ranker and Ruler were, but she didn't look alive either."

"Do you think something happened to her?"

"Even if it did, doesn't really excuse what she did. I think."

Uncertain? Ibuki? Mash was surprised. "You think so?"

"Look, it was a bitch move, there's no doubt about that. But she… How do I put this?" Ibuki crossed her arms. "I don't think she's the kind of person to do it 'just because', you know?"

"You know her?"

"No, but it's not hard to get that impression off of her. You can tell that girl probably went through hell, in a way or another."

Mash pondered about it herself a little bit. "She… didn't look right."

"Well, doesn't matter, for now."

"Ibukiiiiii!"

"Hm?" Mash's head perked up in curiosity from hearing a voice calling Ibuki's name in such a way. Ibuki, on the other hand, while also perking up, quickly realized what was coming and sighed.

"He doesn't need to yell."

She turned around and quickly found a Pomeranian running around her legs in circles and a boy in a tracksuit running towards her.

"Yo, Sato-" And the boy with girly hair suddenly hugged her. While she wasn't all that bothered about it, she let out a sigh once she heard Mash's sound of amazement and fascination.

"I-Ibuki has-"

"Finish that sentence and I'm kicking your ass, EX Ranker."

Satoshi let go with a bright smile, picking up Rocket while greeting the girl. "It's been a while! I saw the stream in the train and came right over to help you!"

"Look, Satoshi, I thank you the sentiment, but I don't think you should enter this."

Question marks appeared above Mash's head. "But you've been rounding up people to help in the last hour."

"Yeah, but here's the thing: he has never fought before."

"What?"

Satoshi chuckled awkwardly, as Rocket barked. "I'm not a proper Player."

"So, scramble and go home." Ibuki pointed out, pressing an index finger in the middle of his forehead and pushing his head away. "You don't want to get hurt, right?"

"But I want to help!" Satoshi pointed out, determined and stepping forward. "I don't want the world to end! And neither does Rocket!"

"Don't make crazy decisions based on how much your dog barks…" Ibuki pointed out, palm over her face. "But fine. If you want to chip in, go ahead."

"Hooray! You heard that, Rocket? We're gonna save the world!"

"Yell louder, America hasn't heard you yet."

Mash couldn't help but giggle. "You two are cute."

The celebration and sarcasm stopped. The two raised eyebrows and looked at each other, blinking twice before turning back to Mash.

"Really?"


"Oh god, my legs…!"

"A-Are you alright?!"

Mizuki's legs hadn't stopped running as she traveled through the city in order to round up an army. One of her sops: the Emiya household. She was greeted by Irisviel, who noticed her tiredness and sudden fall.

"Y-Yes, I'm okay… I-I came to-"

"If you're wondering about Kiritsugu, he already left. His ready to help." Irisviel assured.

"O-Oh… that's nice to hear." Mizuki composed herself. "But what about-"

"They're not leaving." The woman was stern about it. "I'm not letting my children leave without Cards.

"B-But they're EX Rankers!"

"She has a point, mom." Shirou climbed down the stairs, followed by Illya.

"We're strong and we have to help dad!"

"You don't have Cards, therefore, you're not leaving." Irisviel pointed out. "And just using some random Card won't work for you, right?"

"That doesn't matter!" Shirou pointed out. "Sakura, Shirou and Joana need our help!"

Somewhat surprising to Mizuki, someone else climbed down the stairs. Tohsaka Rin. "Shirou, you need to calm down and think: we can't even get there."

"How can you be calm when Sakura-"

"I'm panicking just as much as you, but you she stole our Cards specifically because of that." Rin admitted, arms crossed. "I want to run out there just as much as you, but…"

"We can't sit this one out!" Shirou pointed out, rather frustrated. "We've been letting bad things happen all for the sake of privacy and integrity of the Game, and now that we finally don't need o worry about that, you're telling me not to go?!"

"Shirou, what are you even going to do?"

"I'm…" The red-haired boy looked away.

"See? You talk a lot about doing 'something' and you don't even have a plan in mind!"

Illya stepped in. "Don't yell at my brother like that!"

"No, Illya, she's right." Shirou admitted, one hand rising to the side of his head. "This wouldn't be a problem if we didn't let our Cards be stolen."

"We weren't expecting it either." Rin admitted. "If I knew my Card was gonna get stolen while I slept, I would've put it inside a safe."

"I-I have multiple Cards!" Mizuki pointed out. "I can lend them to you!"

"I don't think that would work." Irisviel pointed out. "They are strong, but that's because of how they've grown with their Cards. No one performs miracles right out of the gate with a Card they have never used before."

"But…"

"Shirou!" The five turned to the entrance way, spotting a young girl with tanned skin, breathing heavily.

"Chloe? What are you doing here? You should be fighting out there." Shirou pointed out, rather confused. Even if he wasn't fond of the idea, Chloe was a strong Card User.

"I know, but…" Somewhat reluctantly, Chloe approached Shirou and drew her Archer Card. "You should be the one fighting with this."

"Chloe…" Shirou was somewhat taken aback but nodded with valour. He accepted it and saved it into his pocket. "Thank you."

"Y-You owe me one, you hear me?!"

"Got it, got it." He chuckled.

"Well, I guess you're off then." Rin sighed, putting on a saddened smile.

"You say that as if you're not coming along."

"Eh? Of course I'm not. I don't have my Card with me."

"But Rin," Shirou's eyes turned more serious. "You still have those two, right? The ones for emergencies." Illya had no idea what they were talking about.

"Eh? But… Shirou, do you think that's a good idea?"

"It's a solution for a problem. And I know you're capable of stopping Sakura."

Rin was confused. "Eh? Aren't you doing that?"

"I have a different target in mind first." He admitted. "And she's your little sister. I think you of all people should help her."

Rin was slightly taken aback but then smiled and nodded. "Alright. I'll go get my equipment then. Good luck, Shirou."

"Gotcha. I'll be going ahead." He pointed out, walking over to the entrance way.

"Hmph! It's rude not to wish good luck in return!"

"Hm?" Confused, he turned around. "But Rin, you're already amazing. You don't need luck."

The fact he was being obliviously honest about it just made it worse. Her face turned completely red. "I-I-I see!"

"Alright. See yah!" He waved goodbye. "Sorry for not welcoming you properly into my house." He quickly bowed towards Mizuki before leaving.

Rin let out a sigh. "I'm already frustrated with all this, don't make me more nervous…!"


Sakura kept looking into the empty golden goblet, tracing a finger over its rim.

"Hey." An unfamiliar voice called, but the presence was unforgettable. "Didn't expect to see you."

Sakura glanced over at the two twins, the one with metallic legs and the one with giant talons for hands.

"…You two were created by BB, weren't you?"

"Oh? Mom can't speak for herself? Now that's new. Well, I guess it's for the better. That woman never knew when to shut up."

"S-Sis, you shouldn't be rude! That's still mom."

"Lip, don't pretend you don't dislike her. She gets mad at you all the time, right?"

"T-That's…"

"As for me, I want to knee her right in the stomach. Stop being dull, stupid and slow for a moment and help me massacre that woman."

Sakura could tell that neither of the twins was truly speaking. Through Independent Action, it was both of the Heroic Spirits present within them.

"So that's why you came straight to me. You dislike her that much." The goblet vanished from existence and Sakura stood up. White leotard, black skirt and jacket, red ribbon. A splitting image of the Heroic Spirit inside her Card, except for the shorter hair she sported.

In her hand, she summoned a teacher's pointer.

"We'll take that as accepting the battle." The Heroic Spirits finished, letting the twins move freely again.

Mimi leapt up, leg stretched forward, and spinning like a wheel to slash Sakura from above. With minimal effort, the Ruler raised her pointer above the head, horizontally, blocking the attack and stopping Mimi completely.

"What the-?!" The Alter Ego was confused from bouncing back. It looked like Sakura didn't use much force.

Rumi moved in with a wound up punch, but just like before, Sakura stopped the attack. The very end of the pointer struck the middle talon of the fist, stopping Rumi in place, much to her confusion. Sakura flipped the Pointed upwards, throwing Rumi's fist upwards before spinning around Rumi, a spiral of pink around her body which 'struck' the bulky Alter Ego multiple times.

"Kyah!" Rumi stumbled backwards, unaware as to why the attack was affecting her so much. But she didn't want to back down so early. "I'll crush you!" She yelled with open arms, ready to slam her giant hands together to crush Sakura between them.

Sakura's lips moved fast, similar to a high-speed incantation. She placed the pointer horizontally in front of her body and Rumi's hands struck both ends of the object, but she couldn't comprehend as to why the object was perfectly fine instead of folding into a cube. And for some reason, her hands couldn't move out. In fact, her whole body was paralyzed.

Sakura walked forward, ducking underneath the pointed before reaching Rumi's body. She aimed at chest portion above Rumi's breasts with an open palm and a a pink glow gathered within it. A second later, a powerful pink beam was fired, pushing Rumi away and even obligating her to flip over. The pointer vanished before it could hit Sakura, so she remained in the same position.

"Rumi! Why you…!" Mimi skated over the damaged concrete. "No one hits my sister like that!" She leapt and spun around, ready to slice at Sakura's neck with one of her bladed feet.

Summoning the pointer again, Sakura blocked the hit, making Mimi bounce back around. But the Alter Ego grinned. Once one of the bladed feet stab into the ground, she leapt forward, the other leg bent and the spike of her knee bright orange with heat. "Told yah!"

The sharp metal entered Sakura's stomach, pushing her through the motion and making blood emerge from her mouth. Mimi smiled with pride for a second before Sakura's body 'glitching' from existence. "What is-?" The Ruler vanished completely and reappeared a metre away, floating above the ground, with no wound whatsoever. She aimed her pointer and drew a heart before flicking the centre of it to shoot a pink beam, which went straight into Mimi.

The Alter Ego landed next to her sister. "M-Mimi!"

Sakura summoned a cup of tea and poured its contents onto the floor. Rumi looked up and saw a strange pathway opening up. Quickly, she scooped up her sister into the metal claws and flipped over, so both her and Mimi would be underneath the giant metal hands. The cascade of burning liquid and fire fell down and the heat caused pain to Rumi, but not enough to become unbearable. If it had been on exposed skin, the two would've most likely melted.

"Turns out those huge hands can be used to something besides crushing everyone."

Rumi let go of her sister and the two stood up.

"Are you okay, Rumi?"

"Y-Yeah… My hands feel weird though."

"Don't worry, I'll kiss that boo-boo away if it still hurts later."

"Mimi! It's not the time for jokes!"

"Got it, got it." A stressed out, nervous sister and a relaxed but serious one. The two countered each other but got along perfectly. "Let's kick this up a notch?"

"I'm right behind you!"

"You're actually next to me."

"Mimi, you know what I mean!"

"Course I do." She giggled before the two smiled and spoke the same word together.

"Ascension!"

Both of their bodies became surrounded by virtual blue cubes, changing their appearance before vanishing.

Rumi's black strips of cloth were replaced by a backless white top that connect itself to the white belt-like choker. The bloomers were replaced by a proper skirt of the same colour. Her leggings went from back to white as well, and the black boots became white high-heels. The talons gained more pink as well.

Mimi's black suit turned completely white and became longer and rounder, a, with more elegant ends and cute frills throughout the skirt. The blades and spikes of her legs turned into a bright blue, almost neon. The ribbon on her head became white as well.

Something inside Sakura provoked anger. Perhaps it was because both of her opponents looked like pure white brides about to marry the love of their lives.

"…Annoying."


The golden spear sliced through the bullets fired by the Altered Archer with ease. Mary opened multiple portals around Hakuno, but he didn't flinch. As the tentacles began to emerge, he hurled the guns into the air above and quickly projected a weapon using Kanshou and Bakuya as a basis: a double-headed blade, connected to each other by the hilt. He jumped and spun his weapon around, keeping the tentacles at bay before they can slam into his body.

He landed outside the range of the attack. Foreseeing Jinako's approach, he raised his weapon and placed his forearm against the back of his weapon. A surge of Mana ran into his arm, fortifying it completely. The golden spear struck the blade, even prompting it to crack through, but Hakuno didn't move an inch.

Jinako was admittedly surprised, but she didn't let that stop her. She stepped back to perform a wider swing, but Hakuno deflected it by spinning his weapon vertically, moving her weapon out of the way, but shattering both blades of his weapon. The object fell apart into pieces and Hakuno leapt back, catching both guns and quickly firing forward.

Jinako was ready to defend herself, but she didn't need to. A swarm of butterflies flew in, each of the bugs stopping the incoming projectiles one by one.

The Ranker adapted to the situation, stabbing the spear into the floor and swinging her weapon upwards, creating an air-cutting wave of fire, burning its way towards Hakuno, who had just landed.

He rolled over to evade the attack and summoned and stabbed both guns onto the floor through their blades before standing up and projecting Kanshou and Bakuya into his hands. He hurled them. Then projected another pair, and hurled them again. Finally, he reach over to grab his guns and dashed through, guns blazing through with bullets.

Jinako defended herself from the bullets again, but the blades began to close in as Hakuno got closer. In fact, when close enough, he let go of the triggers and spun around to slash with the underside of his firearms.

"Leave Onee-chan alone!" A pair of thick tentacles emerged and slammed down on the incoming blades, shattering them, as Jinako blocked the incoming slashes.

"Hmph!" She pressed a hand into his stomach and unleashed a burst of fire from it, pushing the Archer away. Hakuno rolled over the ground, eventually recovering and quickly taking aim, shooting bullets at Mary.

The keyhole on her forehead appeared and the third eye opened. The bullets were sucked into the hole, ending up on the 'other side', nowhere to be seen again. Mary's trance finished once the keyhole vanished.

Jinako dashed through, multiple red lines appearing through the area. Hakuno's body tensed up, Mana surging through. And once the lines and slashes collided, his body proved to be too hard to injure through.

Jinako appeared on the other side, confused. "Reinforcement?"

Without answering, Hakuno aimed a gun at Jinako and pulled the trigger.

The bullet was slashed through, but not by the Divine Construct. A white blade that came from above, held by a red-clad Archer.

Jinako was taken aback. "Shirou?"

"Hello, Ranker." The boy smiled at the Lancer. "Are you hurt?"

"Not really, no."

"Good to hear. Now, I know you have personal issues with him, but would you mind if I took over?"

"E-Eh? You're going to fight Hakuno?"

"I have a personal issue myself. Selfish of my part, but I think you're better off handling all those werewolves, don't you think?"

"I…" She looked over at the stationary Hakuno, whose eyes didn't move away from Shirou. "Alright. I'm counting on you, by the way."

"B-But Onee-chan, we haven't slapped him yet!"

"We'll slap him later, Mary!"

Shirou tilted his head. "A-Am I missing something?"

"Nothing, nothing. We'll let you handle this! Mary, let's go!" Without much protest, the two girls left the area. Even if she disliked it, Jinako knew that this fight had nothing to do with emotions for Hakuno. He had no control over what was happening. And as so, it was useless to talk him out of it.

Shirou, on the other hand, had a different approach in mind. Once the two girls were gone, his face stiffened. "Ranker, you really need to stop putting so much responsibility and guilt on yourself. You keep doing the same mistake, you know?" Shirou's grip on the two blades tightened. "And I can't help but killing that repulsive 'self'."

"…" Hakuno spoke for the first time since his capture, as his hands on the guns relaxed. "It feels a little frustrating looking at you."

The two walked towards each other.

Hero of Justice VS Killing Machine


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