For anyone who might've forgotten (which I wouldn't blame you for, since it was only briefly mentioned two months ago), this chapter details the fishing competition mentioned during chapter 7.
I hope you enjoy reading it!
Initially Gudako had figured that a minor fishing competition would be a small affair, of little interest to most Servants.
She eventually had to concede she was completely wrong about that, as with almost every Servant in Chaldea attending, it had turned into an outright fishing festival, with the competition as its main attraction. And what Servants weren't taking part in the fishing itself were enjoying themselves just spectating, which before today Gudako could have never imagined could be fun. Then again, adding a kraken, leviathan and other sea monsters to the pool of 'fish' was likely enough to spice up just about any competition.
Gudako and some unbiased Servants were acting as judges, but as there was a small break in the competition Chaldea's Master was taking this opportunity to look around the festival.
Initially she was accompanied in this touring around by Mash, but her kouhai had been roped into getting herself some fishing lessons, so Gudako got to talking with Amakusa who happened to be passing by.
"How are you enjoying the competition so far?" Gudako asked the Ruler as they walked.
"It's a very interesting competition to follow, though I must admit that I've been amazed by the… unusual approaches of some Servants." It wasn't difficult to guess he was referring to situations like Emiya (Archer) projecting a futuristic fishing rod, or Gilgamesh (Archer) with his solid gold, super prototype fishing rod he just pulled out of his Gate of Babylon.
"You can say 'borderline cheating' if you want, honestly. The only reason they aren't disqualified is because despite the advantage their equipment gives them, experienced fishers like Touta aren't falling behind in the slightest."
As they talked the duo reached a small pier off to the side of the main activities, upon which they spotted a tired-looking Cu (Lancer) fishing. Or more like four Cu's, as his three other selves were fishing besides him.
Proto-Cu and Cu (Caster) appeared to be enjoying themselves just fine, making jokes as they sat there. Meanwhile Cu Alter was as stoic as ever, albeit he looked slightly ridiculous as he was fishing with his tail instead of a fishing rod. Still, the shark lying next to him proved his method was working.
Gudako with Amakusa in tow approached.
"Hey guys, are they biting?" Four gazes turned to regard her as one, and while Cu Alter gave her a curt huff, the other three greeted her in their usual casual manner.
"Heya, Master. Feel like trying to see for yourself?"
"Thanks, but no thanks: I need to get back to judging the competition in a few minutes, so I'm just here to make small talk."
"Ah? That's too bad."
"Yeah, especially because we're only not taking part in the main one because the other Lancer over there refused to," Proto-Cu said, nodding at Cu (Lancer).
Before anyone could say anymore, they were distracted by the familiar sound of an explosion. Given that seconds after the sound water started raining down, it wasn't hard to figure out that it was the result of one of the contestants' fishing attempts. Though Gudako could have sworn they forbade dynamite fishing…
Glancing at the main event, Amakusa said: "It seems that Scathach's gained a small lead with her spear-fishing: a lead which the other contestants appear eager to bridge."
With a sigh, Cu (Lancer) said: "Shishou is getting way too into this."
"Peh, you're just jealous because you already lost in the preliminaries," his Caster version said.
Gudako and Amakusa soon bade them goodbye to return to the judging, in particular to verify whether throwing spears at water so hard they explode counts as dynamite fishing.
The one to eventually win was the complete and utter dark horse (by virtue of no one knowing she was even participating) Paul Bunyan – who near the end of the competition suddenly surfaced from the water, hands cupped. She then proceeded to make it rain fish on everyone by simply holding her hands out over them and opening them.
No one had the heart to tell the proud giantess that fishing barehanded was forbidden to avoid everyone just jumping into the water, so she was immediately declared the grand champion by a large margin.
Before everyone rayshifted back, Mash proudly showed her senpai the salmon she managed to catch with guidance from Touta.
Looking at the two girls during a conversation with Kotarou, Amakusa wondered: "When did he have time to instruct Mash if he was busy with the competition?"
"Perhaps he would've performed even better had he not been instructing her at the same time?" Kotarou suggested.
And while everyone else was having such a good time, Da Vinci was in the command room, staring at the monitor and readings of the area, breaking her head over how in the world this singularity managed to have both salt-water and sweet-water fish in the same lake.
