Hooddies: Wow, you caught on to my little game there. Clever reader is what you are. And Hakuno's future fighting style is based off PGR, mainly Crimson Abyss because you know…
Dagun: I'm not going to keep pulling off crazy stuff every chapter you know. Have a calm before the storm kind of thing going on ya know?
Gen2324: Oh, a new reviewer? Kinda rare here. But yes, when I found a picture of crying Hakuno, I knew I had to use it in my cover. And yes, it does hurt seeing Hakuno-chan crying. Must Protect Smile!
Boyzilla: Yup, NPC Hakuno is here! And naturally, any Hakuno is best Hakuno.
Given her nature, the old ways clash with it. So, she's kinda self-destructing now.
Oh, and Female Hakuno will temporarily be called Shirano in this chapter for a certain segment.
Now on to the story's Part I finale!
Hakuno couldn't blink at the sight. It was her after all. Her NPC self that gave up her body to save her and here she was, alive and well. "Let's go meet him. And help you remember." NPC Hakuno told her as she took her hand and helped her up. Then, they were engulfed in a bright light.
It was a street to a deserted land, left to ruin and be forgotten. The characters of the signs were Japanese as this was a replica of Japan in the current era. Hakuno's NPC guided her towards the Tokyo Tower. It was an old landmark for a tourist spot back in the past but now was a monument to a land no longer inhabited by its people who scattered and traveled the world in a nomadic life.
Inside the tower, in a mockery of a throne sat one lone boy. A boy with hair and eyes just like Hakuno.
It was Hakuno Kishinami, the elder twin brother.
He opened his eyes and looked at her with a fond smile, "It had been some time since we last saw each other…Hakuno." He spoke up, his voice gentle and soft like hers.
"B-Big brother…" she said quietly in shock as her twin stood from his seat while her NPC gestured her to go to him. With a small push, she slowly walked towards him.
She had lost many memories, but one of them that refused to leave her was his face. The concerned one that always reassured her in those fragmented memories until the profile confirmed his existence. "Brother…!" she began, picking up pace and tackled him in a hug.
"You never changed, Shirano." Hakuno told her as the girl blinked and looked at him confusingly.
"Ah! Right the Amnesia Syndrome…" he winced before clearing his throat. "Since we had the same name due to our parent's mistake, they called you Shirano whenever we were together, to help talk with us when we're in the same room." He explained, smiling sheepishly.
Right, Shirano had the same Japanese characters for Hakuno, just pronounced differently to give anyone the chance to find the difference between the twins with the same name.
"H-How are you…?" she asked, gesturing to him while Hakuno smiled at his sister's bemused expression.
"Because I'm a Cypher now…for roughly three years after the Holy Grail War of the Moon in my timeline." He answered as she took a step back to try and comprehend this. "In one timeline, I died, and you were frozen in cryostasis, but in the timeline I live in, our roles were reversed. Of course, unlike yours, I didn't have these other Cyphers barging in and waking up the Ark of Stars. I even had a Caster as my Servant when we won." He explained, looking at his sister with his arms crossed and an amused expression on his face. "You always were a magnet for trouble."
This caused Shirano's cheeks to flush red in embarrassment for that remark, as if it was a usual reaction to his teasing as she crossed her arms and looked away. It only caused Hakuno to chuckle at her response. "My time here is temporarily, but I decided to check up on you and see how you've been. But I can see that you've been through a lot on your own, haven't you?" he asked her gently while Shirano looked down.
"…I just killed mom in my latest match…" she admitted quietly as Hakuno hugged his sister and rubbed her head reassuringly.
"You're not alone Shirano, I'm still here in another timeline. We can still meet each other again in the flesh one day." He promised her.
"When?" she asked.
"Once you become a full-fledged Cypher, the powers of possibilities will make it happen with the combined power of the Regalia's Authority over the Moon Cell. I'll be waiting for you sis, and I want to hear your story from your mouth when the time comes." Hakuno told her as Shirano hugged her brother tightly.
This was a miracle brought on by this power…a chance reunion with her only living kin. Hakuno's body was glowing as they broke out of their hug, and he sighed. "Looks like my time's up for now. Remember Shirano, you are not alone, and Heroic Spirits exist outside of time thanks to the Throne of Heroes. Cherish the bonds with your Servants and when you need them the most, they'll appear to you once again." Hakuno comforted her as he wiped his sister's tears away.
"We'll see each other again, right big brother?" Shirano asked while Hakuno chuckled at the question.
"We will, just survive this war and become a Cypher. We'll meet again for sure. When we put our minds into it, anything can be possible." He confirmed with a warm smile as he faded away, leaving his sister and her NPC counterpart alone in the ruins of Japan.
Hakuno breathed deeply before looking at her NPC smiling fondly at her and spoke up. "Thank you, for helping to keep me safe all this time Hakunon." The NPC tilted her head in quizzical confusion while Hakuno giggled at the gesture, knowing how clueless she was when it came to their shared past. "That was a nickname my classmates gave me instead of calling me Hakuno or Shirano. But I wanted to call you that instead of just my NPC self." She explained while Hakunon widened her eyes at that.
She took Hakunon's hands into her own and pressed her forehead against hers. "We're together in this aren't we? Until the very end?" she asked.
Hakunon smiled at her original self and hugged her. "We're together from beginning to end Hakuno. I'll always be here by your side until we both fade away." She told her as the world turned bright.
She awoke from her dream, a sense of peace and newfound resolve swelled within her as Saber rushed to her side while Berserker faithfully cuddled next to her. She hugged both Servants, much to the former's confusion, and the latter's delight as the next words told them everything was alright now.
"Let's finish this Holy Grail War." Hakuno said, her voice renewed with life and vigor as her eyes were glowing ablaze with a determination that surpassed even Naruto's own resolve.
*Angelica Cage*
"I don't want you to forget."
"I was born of perdition."
Hakuno and her two Servants looked to see the sage in white sitting upon countless stone sarcophagi as he spoke to them.
"Flames of war. Warfare." He began, looking melancholic when he spoke to them, looking up at the Moon Cell Automaton in silence. "For my young self, that was my reality I lived in." the man told them, glasses reflecting light on his face. "A cruel scene I had to accept despite my hatred for it. It was a merciless world, a hellscape created by human hands. A life that wouldn't last long." He turned to them, and an unease filled Hakuno's being as she felt as if she knew this man from somewhere in her amnesiac past.
"I grew to become a man of science, to help create inventions to aid in salvation of humanity. Participating in warzones to treat the ill and injured…Until 1999 in the Far East, a bioterrorist attack ended everything, and I could do nothing."
Realization dawned her, the man in front of her was Twice H. Pieceman, the doctor who had the knowledge of curing Amnesia Syndrome. She knew him for her faded memories mention that he was going to save her from the illness that took her brother in this timeline. "You died." She stated the obvious as the man above nodded his head.
"I died, and his data was recreated by the Moon Cell inside of SERAPH as an NPC. Though I do not know how or why, I soon developed a will of my own and participated in the Holy Grail War as a Master." Twice confirmed his truths as he took a few steps forwards towards the edge he was standing on. "After countless retries due to my NPC nature, I had finally won the war." He pointed to the sky, with the Moon Cell illuminating the dark green waters of the area around them with its unnatural light.
"The Angelica Cage…The pinnacle of the seven skies, where the Seventh Heaven Artgraph is enshrined. It was here that I was finally going to fulfill my task, my mission, my salvation." He sighed, pulling his hand down and looked at it. "However, I could not obtain the Holy Grail. For NPCs do not have the authority to access it, making it impossible to enter the Moon Cell's core." He looked up at Hakuno and smiled.
"Therefore, I waited. I waited for the one I would call my successor, the embodiment of my ideologies." His gaze focused on her alone as he held his arms out in a gesture. "This future is a mistake. Someone must reset it. Our history is distorted, for a golden age was supposed to arrive for humanity never came to pass, disrupting the natural balance of human consumption and prosperity. Leaving only stagnation and deterioration in its wake." He rested his arms to his side, and Hakuno was starting to understand the recreation of the man in front of her was. A lingering phantom disillusioned by countless retries until he became a withered husk.
"Humanity has entered a dark era, a dead end so to speak. A future that can no longer progress. Since they couldn't produce results, nor desiring for a brighter future. They feel easier if they could stand still instead of moving forward." He scoffed before leaping down to their level. "Mankind was blessed enough as it was already, and progress was unnecessary. They're no better than animals if left like that."
"But humans are stubborn creatures…they shed blood to seek something more than being blessed."
Saber frowned at the words, a sense of hostility surging from her and the other Servant beside her while Hakuno patiently listened to the echoes of a man speak.
"What is this contradiction, of humans being strong but at the same time weak?" he demanded before his eyes were alight with a passion on his rather stoic face. "Those that forgot conflict are doomed to be erased, as survival of the fittest is the truest definition of life! Warfare is the path of evolution. Kill. Expand. Plunder. Prosper! When this planet withers away, leave it behind and aim for the very heavens themselves!" he exclaimed holding a fist to the sky as he preached his desires.
He wanted war, a war to force progress onto the stagnating earth. The white sage lowered his hand in a gesture to Hakuno. "You are the fruit of such labors. Behold your progress from the battles that have nurtured you. Adversity has turned your flesh to steel. You even outshined all the top-tier Masters!" he stated yet there were hints of disappointment in his voice as he was done with his philosophical speech and was talking to her like a normal person.
"You, the one who knows its grandeur, are going to negate this desire?" he asked. Hakuno looked at him evenly in the eyes and voiced out her thoughts, her answer to his.
"Even if you can't see any worth from this day and age, even if this future is someone else's business…" she began while closing her eyes. "Even if what lies beyond what we dreamed is a foolish dead end," she opened her eyes, her resolve never wavering. "I can't negate the lives of all the people living here."
Twice looked at her, his tone carrying a distinct edge she knew all so well when he spoke. "Are you going to acknowledge this future?" he asked.
"No, I can't acknowledge it. However, I can't harbor a grudge against it, either." Hakuno replied as she recalled all her battles up until now. From the Fifth Round and the aftermath to the Far Side of the Moon, and the final two rounds. Her time and experience had taught Hakuno many things and what she had to do.
"It's the responsibility of those living in that era to choose their endings." She declared as she carefully drew her katana out while Saber and the Golden Servant did so with their weapons in response.
"Twice H. Pieceman, the era you should've protected has passed long ago."
The curtains of battle rise together with words of parting.
This was the final battle that overcame the seven seas.
Those who know the ending, are only the Moon Cell and Hakuno Kishinami.
A/N: This is the end of Part I of Lunar Mare Arc. Part II will pick up the other half of the story which leads to CCC and then the final battle against Twice and the Extra Class Saver. Look forward to the sequel next year folks!