Disclaimer
I own nothing but what I write. All intellectual properties belong to their respective owners, that is Oomori Fujino owns Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou and Fate Grand Order is owned by Type-Moon, Delightworks and Sony.
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AN: Just a short chapter detailing what is happening around Orario through the lense of the media. I know officially Bell goes faster than this, 6 weeks to level 2, 4 weeks to level 3 then 2 months (8 weeks) to level 4 but I decided to do it this way for a reason. It shall be revealed later.
Phantom Thief of Hearts:- Hahaha! Not a bad guess but not quite right. All will be revealed in time. With the names, you'll find out that I will write I the variances as the joke and that I realise there are various versions of them in canon depending on who did the translations etc… Instead, I will make them all canon! Karna is very important to the development of Hestia. Stay tuned!
ShadoWARmadaN:- Not a bad guess but not quite.
Onishin Tsukitenshi:- Yeah I know. I am still up in the air about it because already in some characters I've taken them as separate charactres and some characters I've melded the various aspects. I'll see what I will do with the story as it grows, but I have a different patron in mind for the Xenos.
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Please read & review as I appreciate any comments made
Fate Grand Disorder
Chapter 49 – Media
God Apollo, the god of the sun and light read the article in the Orarian Times with a grimace. Hestia had shown him up again. In Tenkai he would often court her from outside her temple, sending her gifts and reciting poetry to her in a vain attempt at wooing her. She had rejected all his advances and had even ridiculed him in front of all the other gods and goddesses. He had thought her the perfect trophy wife and a virgin to boot. Now, her favorite familia member, Bell Cranel had smashed another record going from level two to three in six weeks. Now he held the records for both level two and three and was becoming the talk of the town.
He wanted Bell if for no other reason than to get one up on Hestia. But Hestia familia was a powerhouse right now and he wasn't confident he could face her directly. It was that damned fault of that captain of hers. Still, he wasn't one to give up on what he wanted so he had to form a plan and if he couldn't take on the might of the Hestia familia then he would need to find like-minded allies. Who else had she offended? As he turned the page a smile broke out on his face as he read the next article.
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Freya cracked a small smile when she saw the headlines in today's newspaper. It must have been an eventful for day for so much to happen all at once. Reading between the lines however led to a grimmer picture. Freya was no fool and she knew full well that Hestia was manipulating the media and in a way, the paper was a subtle clue into what Hestia had planned for Orario. However, Freya was not one to play second fiddle to anyone and so she had started to form plans of her own.
For now, Bell was being taken care of by those glorious souls surrounding him so she had little need to guide his growth which was one thing off her list of to-dos. She had expanded her range of Freya Design fashion accessories and had even had to swallow her pride and take out a full-page ad in Hestia's paper. Loathe as she was copy Hestia, she had started investing in real estate on the outskirts of Orario buying up land outside the walls on the other three sides of Orario that weren't totally owned by Hestia. That was when she stumbled upon another discovery, Hestia familia were also buying up real estate all around Orario, so it had become a race between the two familias with Hestia having a huge head start.
The last thing she noted that she also needed to do was to increase the power of her children. Hestia had made it plain obvious to her, at least, that even the mighty Freya familia was found lacking when going up against the might of the children of Hestia familia, let alone their adults. It was something she would not stand for and would have to rectify. "I know that look." The soft melodious tone of Assassin Shuten Doji rang out in her room, "You're plotting something again."
Freya smiled. One of her targets was casually sitting on her window sill sipping sake. By now, even her captain Ottar had gotten used to her presence and the fact that she could come in and out of Babel tower, unimpeded and undetected at will. Luckily Freya seemed to have a friendly and respectful relationship with the demon. "Lady Assassin." Ottar acknowledged her.
"Assassin my dear," Freya smiled at the oni, "Have you come to join my familia. You know you are always welcome."
Shuten Doji just laughed as she took another sip of sake. "Hahaha! You jest. I'm just here to visit. Kill a little boredom. Shoot the breeze. The usual." She lazily twirled her free hand.
Freya waltz over to Shuten with a small cup in hand, something she had gotten used to having on hand in her tower, just in case Shuten dropped by to visit. Shuten leaned in and filled her cup with sake as the two just smiled sipping away at the alcohol. "So…" Shuten began, "have you started buying up real estate?"
"Yes, but surprisingly, I'm not the only one." Freya watched Shuten's expression carefully, "It seems Hestia familia has also been busy buying real estate."
"Funny that." Shuten just shrugged. "Just because you're the first doesn't make you the best."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Weeelll…." Shuten dragged the word out, "If you can't match Hestia's real estate capital, there should be other things you could do that don't require as much capital that could help you gain something back from Hestia's grasp…"
"What did you have in mind?" Freya asked curiously.
"Hmmmm…" Shuten smirked, "Even though Hestia controls the media, and I don't think you'd be able to compete with her on that front, I wonder if, instead, you could control the hearts of the people?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you interested in working together in a partnership?"
"A partnership?"
"A company." Shuten smiled as she toasted Freya. "Publishing romance novels. Don't you think it is appropriate for the goddess of love?"
"Romance novels?" Freya was a little confused.
"Yes. Steamy adult romance. I guarantee you a market and we can corner it early. We could call the company 'Freys and Shu.'"
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Loki was surprised when she had opened the newspaper this day. A new section was added to it called the 'Sports' section and splashed across the front page of that section was a big advertisement of the Orarian Football match between Hestia familia and her own. What took her by surprise was that the event was advertised as Loki's 'Tricksters' vs Hestia's 'Heroic Spirits'. She had to admit it was a grandiose name. She would have thought that Hestia would have named themselves the 'Flames' or something like that in her theme.
Walking while reading she didn't notice until she bumped into a small figure that there was someone in her way. Snapped out of her reading she looked down from her paper and saw big purple eyes staring back at her. Loki screamed.
Caster Nursery Rhyme eeped, turned and ran back into Finn's office. She had taken the opportunity with him not being around to transform and stretch her legs, and maybe get a little something to eat. Her job to spy on Loki familia was boring to her and she longed to play with the other Hesti kids but even still, she felt a sense of responsibility as she transformed back into a book and sat back on the shelf.
The rest of the Loki familia members came running to Loki's scream and found her standing there with a hand outstretched pointing into Finn's office. Finn asked, "What's wrong?"
"A…A…ghost!" Loki stuttered.
"What?" Riveria shook her head. Her goddess was afraid of ghosts? Since when were gods afraid of ghosts? The irony stunned Riveria, "A ghost… really?"
Ais turned up patting a white fluffy dog in her arms as she asked, "What's wrong?"
Loki took one look at the animal and screamed again, "DEMON!" before foaming at the mouth and fainting.
Ais looked cross. "No, He's Fido."
"Fou!" Fou cooed.
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Goddess Ishtar was fuming. A story about her little establishment getting burnt to the ground was buried between ads on the fourteenth page of the Orarian Times. She didn't really care about that, that would be more fodder to bring up at the next Denatus and she would seek compensation. Not that she didn't think Hestia could afford it but maybe she could leverage it to get her hands on her favorite blonde, Caster Gilgamesh.
Even the two page spread about Hestia familia's new fire brigade service and how it gallantly swooped in to save the fire wasn't the reason she was angry. Although she did wonder how they could respond so fast from outside the city. Even if her establishment essentially became advertising material for the new safety service offered by Hestia familia, yet again, it was not what had her so riled up.
What angered her was the front-page expose on slave trading and slavery, including the buying of contracts and the ethics and legality behind it. She personally wouldn't have cared so much had the article not opened up to a half page story about Sanjouno Haruhime and her story as a slave from the east to being bought by Ishtar familia and being forced into prostitution. This implicated Ishtar familia into the slave trading ring even though they weren't. Questions would be asked. She could only guess where the paper had gotten a hold of such information. She was going to have to have a serious talk with that damned Aisha Belka again. Only she could know some of the details of that article.
The voice of her friend, Archer Ishtar snapped her out of her anger, if only because it meant that she would be getting more secret pics of Caster Gilgamesh. It also allowed her to vent her frustrations and worries to the woman, who surprisingly enough, was not only immune to her charms but also insistent on not joining her familia. When she finally finished venting Archer Ishtar finally suggested something to her, "Guess we'll have to do something about all this bad press."
"What can we do?" Goddess Ishtar asked.
"We need to be seen to be proactive and ethical. We need to create something like the EPA."
"The EPA?"
Archer Ishtar grinned as she gave her a thumbs up, "Yep! The Ethical Prostitutes Association."
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God Takemikazuchi stared at the paper in disbelief. Behind him and reading over his shoulder, his captain Kashima Ouka and Yamato Mikoto gasped as they recognized the picture of the renard in the paper. They had been searching for her for a long time now and finally, they had come across a lead. Not one to waste an opportunity, Takemikazuchi picked up his mobile phone and scrolled down for Hestia's phone number. He didn't care if he had to beg, he needed her help, not only as a god but as a friend.
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Enyo scrunched up the newspaper and threw it across the room. It was hard enough getting newspapers deep down into the dungeon but it was even worse when the news wasn't good. It was an article criticizing the guild's slow reaction to Hestia familia's plumbers desiring to fill in the underground sewerage system now that they had completed laying concrete piping down the whole of it. They wanted to now fill in the system around their pipes with concrete and earth which would completely block in over half of Evilus's secret entrances and exits to their own private dungeon they had built called Knosses.
The paper had cited many reasons such as the sewers being a sanctuary for thieves and the black market as well as outright claiming to help block up any potential secret entrances and exits to the dungeon itself, as well as engineering reasons such as structural integrity and support. Hestia familia was being blatant yet subtle at the same time. There would be even more eyes watching the sewers now and even more pressure on the guild to completely just fill it all in with the new sewer systems not needing the space the old one had needed. Even his influence in the guild would be hard-pressed to come up with a reason not to allow this to go ahead.
"HEEEEEEEEEEESTIA!" He screamed in frustration.
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Hestia felt a cold chill run through her body as she got up for breakfast. She flipped through the morning newspaper and thunked her head on her table. Sitting back up she gave Da Vinci the stink eye as the woman cheerfully spread some jam on her toast. "I suppose… You can explain?"
"Explain what?" Da Vinci looked over at the headlines on the day's paper, "Ahh I see…"
"Did you burn down Ishtar familia property?" Hestia cut right to the chase.
"Me. No. Never." Not personally was what was on Da Vinci's mind but she wasn't about to say that. She had to be careful not to lie now as she realized her goddess was on a warpath seeking answers.
"So it was a coincidence that we had a 'fire brigade' ready and that this just became great advertising material for its services?"
"Thank god, specifically yourself goddess Hestia, that the fire brigade was formed in time or who knows how much damage that fire could have caused if it spread."
Hestia was a little happy about the compliment but at the same time she was a little annoyed that Hestia familia seemed to blatantly use what should have been a tragedy to their advantage. "And slavery? It's not exactly illegal. Why are you bringing it up as an issue now?"
"I'm shocked!" Da Vinci feigned surprise. "As the goddess of family don't you feel this is appalling and unethical?"
"Well…" Hestia had to agree to herself that she did. Families broken up simply due to slavery and the buying and selling of humans into slavery left a bad taste in her mouth. "I agree it's wrong but what can we do about it? There's no law against it."
Indeed there wasn't. "I think the public have a right to know and they can discuss it for themselves. I'm sure the general greater good will see the evil in it but nothing will change if it is swept under the carpet and not brought out to the forefront for discussion."
Hestia had to agree Da Vinci wasn't wrong there. But Hestia was just concerned for her familia and she was increasingly worried that they were getting deeper and deeper into trouble. "What about this article." Hestia flipped the paper to another page, "Hestia familia is sponsoring an open forum debate on what constitutes a sentient being? What are you hoping to do with this?"
"Again, the public should have the right to input regarding policy change. Wouldn't want anyone's point of view to be overlooked. Also if the public has input into the policymaking they will feel like they've made a contribution to society and they are more likely to back changes that they've had a say in. After all, the power is in the people." Da Vinci took a dainty bite of her toast as she gesticulated with her other hand.
"Fine then… What about this ad about 'Hestia Bank' and what is banking? Why are we paying people to save money? Why am I opening businesses I don't even know about? Won't this lose money?" Hestia pointed to a page explaining the new service offered by her familia.
"It's just another business opportunity." She turned the paper over a few more pages and pointed to an ad.
Hestia's eyes opened slightly, "What's this? Home loans? Personal loans? Adventurer loans? Hespa loans?"
"Yes." Da Vinci answered smugly, "Simply put, we pay people to save money and then use that money to loan out to people for a profit. Win-win I'd say."
"So that's how this… 'Hestia Bank' is going to earn money." Hestia was still a little skeptical.
Da Vinci had already done the maths to it so she was sure she was in a position to make it work. "That's not even the true beauty of owning a banking monopoly."
"It's not?"
"Nope." Da Vinci's grin became almost feral. "Once it's up and running we will underwrite the whole city of Orario and its economy. We'll literally be printing money."
"Printing? Don't you mean minting?" Hestia asked.
"That too."
"Then what's this article about 'public shares' and 'stock markets' and why do we have to sell twenty percent of our holdings?"
"Tactical move. Not only does it help raise more capital for us but it also means we get the support of the general population and prevents Orario from making any specific policy changes targeting us." Da Vinci explained to a confused looking Hestia. "Put it this way, if all these mum and dad investors have a twenty percent stakeholding in our businesses, how hard would it be for the guild to decide that, say, all Hestia businesses have a tax hike of seventy percent? This would impact everyone in Orario and there would be massive outcries as people's investments would be heavily and unfairly targeted and taxed. At that point, we would barely have to lift a finger to protect our interests. The public would do it for us. Added to that, with the economy we are driving and the sheer reliance on us that Orario has at the moment, coupled with all the employment directly and indirectly tied to us, it would be madness for anyone to directly confront us lest they want to see Orario crash around their ears."
"You sound like a power-hungry, meglomaniac when you say it like that." Hestia sounded a bit worried.
"Call it a head start. Humanity has shown a surprising ability to adapt and be resilient and I guarantee you it won't be long before some wise guy decides to follow in our footsteps and pretty soon there will more of these corporations and other wealthy businesses. It's the nature and the history of capitalism." Da Vinci winked at Hestia.
Hestia really couldn't understand anything of what Da Vinci had said and could only trust her captain. She had come this far, there was no turning back now. Orario was changing too fast for even the gods to predict. Turning to the new Sports section she pointed out the article, "Loki familia 'Tricksters' versus Hestia familia 'Heroic Spirits'? Really where did you even get the name?"
"Well… The article is already printed so I guess, we've all become Heroic Spirits now, so who cares. I mean doesn't it sound cool that you have a familia full of Heroic Spirits?"
Hestia knew she wasn't lying but at the same time something about the way she said it irked her. Like she was telling the truth but it was a lie which was the truth.
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Now please review or make any comments or even ideas on more craziness that I could add. I'd appreciate it.
