Mash: Senpai, do you really need to summon another female Servant?

Ritsuka: I need to expand my harem!

Hayashi: Hey.

Ritsuka: Goddammit!

Songs

Hayashi & Angra's Last Words: Blue Team (Halo 5 OST)

Lorelei's Speech: Jameson Locke (Halo 5 OST)

The Secret of Hayashi's Book: I Am Sherlocked (Sherlock OST)

Shadow Border Summoning/Credits Song 1: Kyoukara Omoide (Aimer)

Credits Song 2: aLIEz (AmaLee)

Credits Song 3: Sailing (Aimer)

"The dust has settled. Should we head back to see what happened?" Gilgamesh asked Scathach.

"Yes. Let's hurry before others start showing up. And before I disappear." They ran back into the city towards the center of the explosion.

Upon arrival, they saw a massive crater, and inside of it were two badly burned and charred bodies, and a well-dressed woman standing on the side of them.

"Lorelei?" Scathach asked as both of them slid down the crater, standing by them.

"You're still here? I flew here based on the plan we came up with. It's been a few days since then, and so I figured you'd be here by now. I took shelter when I saw what he was planning."

An extremely weak cough interrupted them, all of them looking down and seeing both of their eyes slightly opened.

"Master! You're still alive!" Scathach knelt down next to him.

"Not for much longer…" His voice was much more hoarse than usual.

"Sorry for what I did to the city…" He glanced at Lorelei, who shook her head.

"It's not great, but don't worry about it. I'll talk with the Supreme Leader, and I'm sure the Association will cover it."

"Hayashi…" Angra coughed out, looking at him.

"What is it?"

"Why don't you agree with my plan?"

"...Haven't you learned anything? It's the way you're going about it...you can't sacrifice the entire world to remake it. Especially when most people already don't know about magic. The world may never be ready for magic. Or maybe they will be. But it's going to be a disaster if you reveal all of these things to the public at once. You need to ease them into it…This whole time, are you sure you still didn't just want revenge on those who wronged you?"

"...Maybe….Master…." Angra's body finally dispersed, being sent up to the Throne.

"...Heh…..Master…." A final breath escaped Hayashi's lips as his body went fully limp.

"...He's gone…" Scathach looked at herself, as she was also starting to disappear.

"You had quite the interesting Master, didn't you? The Masters I've had since being summoned would never have sacrificed themselves for the sake of the world." Gilgamesh looked at his body.

"Yes...he was quite special." Scathach fully disappeared, being sent back to the Throne along with the others.

"By order of my command seal, our contract is hereby null and void, Gilgamesh. I sever our pact." Lorelei said, prompting him to look at her.

"1994...summoned, staying, and absorbed...and now after almost 14 years, I can finally return to the Throne like normal. It's only been a few weeks, but you proved to be a more responsible Master than my other ones were, Lorelei."

"Heh. Thank you. I likely won't ever be participating in a Holy Grail War as a Master, though. I'm too high up in the Association, apparently."

"You would do well." He laughed, as he also dispersed, the final Servant to be sent back, leaving Lorelei alone with Hayashi's body.

One Week Later

Lorelei sighed heavily, hanging up the phone, back at her regular desk in London.

A knock at the door.

"What is it?"

The door opened and closed again, Zelretch walking in with a handful of papers.

"I just got off the phone with the Supreme Leader of Iran. We have to pay for the damages done to the Grand Mosalla Mosque. It'll be about $50 million."

"Yes, that's to be expected. It's a setback, but we can handle it. Here. I brought you these." He placed down Hayashi's notebook, as well as the papers he was holding, paperclipped.

"You said to have the notebook brought back from the office in Cairo, and that's your speech."

"Speech? It's a funeral, shouldn't it be a eulogy?" She looked up at him, picking up the papers.

"It's also an address to the public about all of this. So I call it a speech. It starts in an hour."

"I know. Hey, wait a minute!" She shuffled through the speech as he began to walk away.

"What is it?"

"This speech...it's all a cover up! It's all lies!"

"Yes, and you'd better keep it that way. You always stressed the importance of keeping magic separate from the public, don't tell me he convinced you otherwise?"

"It's just that...after everything that happened...Servants did real damage to cities...and unlike 1994, the cities are very much intact, and the public was spared, so it's not like we can just wipe their memories."

"All the more reason why that speech is so important. Remember, one hour." He closed the door behind him.

Lorelei sighed, slumping in her chair and staring at the speech.

X

Walking out onto the Mage's Association's front steps, and up to the podium, looking out to a sea of reporters, citizens, and world officials. To her left was Zelretch, with his arms crossed, giving the audience a stern and distant look.

She sighed, shuffling her papers together and beginning to address everyone, tapping the mic to make sure that it was working.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Barthomeloi Lorelei, and I am the Vice-Director of the Mage's Association. Before I address the events of the past few weeks, I need to explain what our Association does and what our mission is. The Mage's Association is a facility that works along with the World's governments to develop and test experimental weapons and helpful instruments to assist them. It is because of their abilities that we are referred to as we are, being almost like magic. Due to their advanced technology and hence far unstable nature, they weren't ready to be released, not for a long time. And unfortunately, some of them broke out and terrorized their home countries. We design them after famous historical and fictional characters to make them more effective and...loyal to their governments. And today, we honor the man who gave his life to stop these dangerous fiends before they could do any more irreparable...damage…Hayashi Tsukamoto." She looked at the coffin, spacing out for a moment.

"Ms. Barthomeloi? Is something wrong?" One of the officials asked, noticing her reaction.

"Uh...forgive me…" She wiped her forehead nervously, looking over at Zelretch, who was also watching her.

She shook her head and took a deep breath.

"No...what I've told you so far...isn't the truth. It was an attempt to cover up what actually happened." She looked them all in the eye, a few of them gasping for a quick moment before starting to listen even more intently.

"What are you doing?!" Zelretch pulled her aside, speaking in a loud whisper.

"Telling them the truth. I can't, in good conscience, recite that stupid speech and dishonor Hayashi's memory at the same time!"

"Don't do it…"

"I know what I'm doing, Zelretch. I'm not going to fear monger them. Now if you don't want to be here for it, that's fine, but don't stand in my way."

"...No. I'll listen." He walked back over to his post.

"Good." She walked back to the podium and took another deep breath before addressing them with as much confidence as she could.

"While we do work with certain World Governments, and have branches in almost every major global city, we are largely a secret organization. Until all of this happened, that is. I want you all to recall the most famous myths, legends, and stories of your homelands. Gilgamesh, Achilles, Charlemagne, Jimmu, they're all real. Magic is, in fact, real. Normally, you wouldn't, or shouldn't believe me, but after the events of the past few weeks, I would say that it's not a stretch at all. Roughly 10% of this world's population are mages, and are able to cast spells, of which they study at our facilities, or the facilities of other magical institutions. When certain people die, if they made an important enough impact on history during their lives, they become what are known as Heroic Spirits. Those Heroic Spirits can then be summoned back to this world by mages and fight for them, called Servants, while the mages become known as Masters. Every 60 years, a combat tournament called the Holy Grail War is held, where seven Masters and seven Servants fight to the last one standing, and whoever wins is supposed to get a wish granted by the actual Holy Grail, as a reward. However, it no longer grants wishes. In 1934, an Ancient Persian Servant known as Angra Mainyu corrupted the artifact with his darkness when he was defeated and returned to the afterlife. If you remember the catastrophe that happened to Fuyuki, Japan, 13 years ago? That was no accident, it was the result of someone attempting to destroy the Grail for the darkness it contains."

Another gasp from the crowd, as the same reporter from before gulped and asked another question.

"This Angra Mainyu...they declared themselves Supreme Leader of Iran, did they not?"

"They did. Three and a half years ago now, the night that much of London burned, was a result of Angra Mainyu possessing Hayashi, whom he was summoned by in order to complete a mission. He rampaged through the city, and then was defeated by Hayashi and myself. Once again, it was not a series of terrorist attacks. A portion of Angra's powers stayed within Hayashi, causing him to have powers comparable to a Servant, and admittedly, I took advantage of him in order to keep him close to me." She looked away with shame in her eyes.

"This past November, Angra gathered enough energy to summon himself again, this time with an army of Servants to assist him. They were looking for a way to take over the modern day governments and run the world their way: by introducing magic to the public. Hayashi summoned his own Servants and went on a four month journey to defeat them all, to protect the world from knowing the truth about magic. In the end, Angra possessed him again. Four weeks ago, five Servants, Zoroastrian God Angra Mainyu of Iran, Pharaoh Ramesses II of Egypt, King Solomon of Israel, Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo, of France, and Hijikata Toshizo of Japan, threatened the heads of their countries' governments and took over, with themselves in power. However, they were defeated by Emperor Nero of Rome, King Attila of the Huns, Jeanne D'Arc of France, Florence Nightingale of England, Oda Nobunaga of Japan, Kato Danzo of Japan, Wolfang Amadeus Mozart of Austria, Miyamoto Musashi of Japan, and Scathach of Scotland. All of them were contracted to this man, Hayashi Tsukamoto, who gave his life to stop them, and in turn, saved the world."

"Hayashi Tsukamoto. You have left a sizable mark on world history. Not only did you save the world and protect its people, you are also responsible for the reveal of the magic world to the general population." A voice spoke to him.

"So she did do it...heh…"

"As such, I, responsible for deciding who becomes a Heroic Spirit, deem you worthy of being a member of the Avenger Class."

"Thanks...I didn't know if you would say yes or not...By the way, how can you talk if you're not really a person?"

"I have the ability to communicate through telepathy, of course. I do have a will of my own, as the source of all things."

"Yeah...the Root...how did people become aware of you if only a handful have ever been here."

"This is not a symposium, there are some things better off not said. You're here because I'm welcoming you to the Throne of Heroes."

"...Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm sure we won't meet again. Goodbye."

"Now you're probably asking, if Hayashi tried so hard to keep all of this a secret from you, why am I putting it out in the open? I have to admit that we wouldn't be here right now if we had defeated them prior to making themselves known to the public. But because they brought you all into this, I personally believe that it would be an insult to Hayashi's memory to hide the truth from all of you after what happened. Some of you might be scared about what these changes mean for you and your lives, but I assure you, you have nothing to worry about. What occurred here is nothing short of an anomaly among anomalies. Any events that take place outside of official magic institutions, such as Holy Grail Wars, are held with the universal idea that we do not involve the public in it. All mages know not to discuss the details of their work with the non-magical world, and they know to keep these matters private so as not to worry you about them. Rest assured, should anything out of the ordinary happen, we will protect you, and we will get through it together." She finished, before reporters began to ask her questions, the camera flashes going off quickly.

"Welcome to the Throne of Heroes." Hayashi heard the voice one last time as he found himself in a golden space, where two camouflaged doors opened, a glowing white space behind them. He walked towards it, his coat trailing shortly behind him, ready to finish his old life and begin his new one.

X

Lorelei sighed, sitting back down at her desk.

"You handled that well." Zelretch spoke up.

"I told you. Why were you so against it? After everything that happened, you just wanted to bury the truth?"

"It wasn't that necessarily, it's that you treated Hayashi like some kind of hero."

"He is."

"Are you so sure? Have you not seen his book yet?"

"Of course, I read all of it. What are you talking about?"

"When has he ever kept documentation of his life? He hated talking about what happened."

"This wasn't for him, it was for Scathach, remember?"

"You're missing the point here, Lorelei. He was on leave of absence until you gave him the Angra assignment. He only started keeping this journal for this mission. He had already planned to sacrifice himself and leave final words to his Servants."

"...He had it with him. When I gave him the assignment…"

"Meaning that he bought it in advance. He was still connected with Angra, don't you think he would've known as soon as Angra summoned himself that he was back? He didn't need you to tell him that. He was looking for a way out of working for us, living here, this entire time. Save the world or not, he played us. That fight you two had? It must have been a great source of relief."

She slumped in her chair again, looking at the book with dismay.

"I'm sure the Director will want to discuss today's events with you. Hopefully, he's not angry." Zelretch slowly walked out of the room, closing the door gently this time behind him.

"...Haha….well played...you bastard…." Lorelei laughed weakly.

Shadow Border, 2020

"Going somewhere?" Da Vinci asked Ritsuka.

"To the summoning room. Do you want to come?"

"Mmm, sure. Let's see who you can get." She giggled, the two heading off.

The seal lit up as Ritsuka held his hand out, the command seals on his hand lighting up as he began to recite the summoning incantation.

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate. Simply, shatter once filled. I announce; Yourself is under me, my fate is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer. Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead. You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"

The circle lit up blue, and energy sparked throughout the room before a tall figure began to be made out by them. When the mana dispersed, standing in front of Ritsuka was a man wearing modern clothes, a black jacket and black trench coat, gray pants, gray shoes, with short dark brown hair, and silvery-green eyes.

"Servant, Avenger. My name is Hayashi Tsukamoto. You're my Master, right?"

The End.

Hypothetical Credits

This is mostly just going to take you through the basics of my thought process for this story. Over time, this became somewhat of a dream project of mine, where each part would be a season. Maybe, idk. In these credits, the first song (Kyoukara Omoide) plays during the Chaldea scene, then shows a new portrait of each of Hayashi's Servants, done by the artists, along with their VA credited. During the second song (aLIEz), new portraits of each of the Master Servants are shown, starting from Sherlock and ending with Angra, again with their VA credited. The third song (Sailing) is when the rest of the credits roll normally, without any other art.

I pretty much had these major ideas when I came up with this:

A competent and dark protagonist but with the ability to show compassion and humor. Hayashi has my darkest past yet. Nova Dreyar from What You Became is a close second though.

A Master Servant, one from each class, usually one of the Tops of their class, and a group of Servants with them that shared a similar origin, i.e. the same legends, same homeland, same era, etc. Solomon was a later edition when I came up with the idea of the Grand ritual.

A focus on Servants that are not stars in other Fate works. Jeanne and Nero were exceptions to this, but I didn't want to have Saber Artoria, Amakusa Shirou, Archer Emiya, or others that had already appeared in other works to have the spotlight on them, or to even appear at all.

An epilogue that subverts expectations: rather than have a happy ending where Hayashi is rid of his powers, makes up with Lorelei, lives out a happy life, etc., I wanted to have an ending that the readers would have to settle for: that Hayashi will never be satisfied as long as he's living, and the happiest ending he could have was to end up as a Heroic Spirit. Other than some last words with his Servants, there's not really a big sense of conclusion with his old life. Lorelei has a newfound respect and sympathy for him, but they never got to talk face to face, their last interaction was the fight.

I wanted to make this story an epic of sorts. Despite each chapter essentially being fighting each group in a different city, I wanted to add something to the characters each chapter that made it feel like it stood alone. For example, having bonding time/lemons with certain Servants, or having the confrontation with Lorelei, or the Vienna chapter to enrichen the relationship between Mozart, Salieri, and Marie, and delve into Salieri's life.

This is the end of the main story, but I have an extra part coming, a new shorter story that ties up a loose end of sorts. The first few chapters are already finished, look forward to them.