(A/N) Wow, didn't expect the appreciation I got. Thanks for the kind words everyone! Time to reply to the reviews.
R3born - Define "happy".
Reconic32 - EMIYA only really cared about stopping the mistake he once made. Muramasa isn't Shirou Emiya with a dream, so EMIYA would at most be annoyed at the usage of his body.
Jack5 - Agreed, EMIYA really was made into a meme which is somewhat annoying. Not much is known about EMIYA's route except that it was similar to Fate. It's possible that he fell in love with Artoria during his life, but after all of his work as a Counter Guardian, it is unlikely that he even has the capacity for love anymore. He can show affection, yes, but a prime part of being able to love someone is being able to love yourself, which was a major point in the Fate route. EMIYA hates himself though, so love isn't really an option for him without a lot of work done, in contrast to the stories that have EMIYA blush like a school boy while in the general vicinity of Artoria. He does, however, as mentioned before, have some affection for her. As a side note, EMIYA x Artoria is my guilty pleasure :)
Freiza - We all want sword bro to be happy :(
Xian0451 - The battles are annoying to slog through so I've taken to reading the transcripts of the games. Thanks for the suggestion though; the wiki really doesn't go into detail.
InkyBastard - Damn ending has to rub it harder into our faces by having EMIYA's hair down like Shirou's, just to make it hurt.
niammohammad78, Andaeus, crackheadmiller, Zaneninjacat - Thanks, I hope I can meet your expectations!
Rhoris - More appropriately, he didn't want the mistake known as the "Hero of Justice" to appear again, but is willing to give the various Shirous a chance to prove they won't fuck up like he did. And if he believed they would? Cutty cutty time. The whole erasing himself from existence was a side benefit that he still wanted to happen, though.
Chapter 2: Preparation
Mumei floated through the halls of Chaldea in spirit form, memorizing the layout of the large, underground workshop. Though he would have liked to have conducted his search in his physical form as a matter of comfort, he knew that it was important at the current time to lower the magical energy consumption of maintaining his existence. A few hours after pledging his loyalty to his Master, Dr. Romani had spoken to him about his concerns of Chaldea's state. Apparently, they had not even meant to summon a Servant at the time of his summoning but rather to test the system's functionality. The summoning ritual was set to use only the most minimal amount of energy possible, so summoning a Servant shouldn't have been feasible with what they knew of how it worked. Yet in spite of that, he had appeared.
Most likely, the energy utilized by the ritual was used to grab a copy of the Heroic Spirit and their legend from the Throne of Heroes. Given, however, that he had no legend to speak of, the minimal energy was able to copy him with ease. That was his working theory, at the very least. Barring interference by Alaya, he could think of no other reason why he would be summoned so easily.
The actual summoning of Servants was set to happen in the Singularities themselves, leeching off the ley lines of the world to support their existence until Chaldea was able to do so by itself. His sudden appearance was a surprise and a slightly unwelcome one at that. So, he had orders to 'lay low' as it were and use as little magical energy as possible, hence his usage of his spirit form. Once he memorized the layout of the facility, he would ask for an empty room and sleep until needed.
Mumei rounded another corner, noting the room number on each plaque situated on their doors, how the end of the hallway split into two paths, the squirrel-like creature starin-
Mumei froze. "~Fou~" it greeted happily, eyes boring into his. Pure dread coursed into his body, and his hands itched to create his favored blades. Not for fighting but for the comfort in face of his inevitable death at the hands of this creature.
-The sky was red. Not from the sunset but from the falling blood of the humans captured by the creature in front of me. A tentacle formed from its body and whipped outwards. It was only through the whispers of Alaya that I could react, narrowly dodging the attack and severing the limb with Kanshou. Just as another tentacle formed, a blast of pure magic energy crashed into its side and my fellow Guardians rushed towards the body of the monstrosity. I made to move forward alongside them, but a surprise attack was launched from underneath. Even with Alaya's warning, I couldn't move fast enough and was speared through the chest, branches spreading throughout my body, slowly ripping me apart. I grunted. This duty was always a painful one, so such an end was expected when pitted against-
"Beast IV," Mumei muttered dispassionately as he calmed his outer expression despite the growing panic inside. The red knight had been summoned as a Servant, so the Common Sense of Man had to be strong enough, right? He hadn't been brought to a world that teetered on the fine line of humanity's subjugation and humanity's superiority, right? Right?
Cath Palug stared at him for a scant second before it grinned, its mouth opening to showcase a horrific array of sharp teeth stretching down its throat. Then, in the next moment, all was right as the creature became the symbol of cuteness once again in stark contrast to the horror show it had just put on. Mumei wisely chose to not say anything, to continue not moving even when the Beast jumped from the ground to his shoulder and then onto his head, curling atop it.
It had to be messing with him. Primate Murder definitely didn't mess around, so he could assume that this Cath Palug hadn't become that monster. Or at least, he comforted himself with that theory. He didn't have the magical energy reserves, nor the backup required to win a fight with it regardless, so reaching out for that vain hope was the only path forward that allowed him to retain his sanity in this accursed situation.
A soft knock on his head broke him from his reverie as a small, white arm reached out in front of him, pointing to the end of the hallway he was traversing. It wanted to explore with him? Well, if that meant not dying due to his organs being ripped out, solidified, and used to crucify him again, he would take it. Though he wouldn't hold out too much for that aforementioned, vain hope.
The exploration continued for half an hour more, with all possible routes marked in his mind. He hadn't entered all of the rooms, however. Chaldea's functions were still largely unknown to him, and he did not know if a room that was vital to the continued workings of Chaldea would react negatively to his presence. Due caution was how he had avoided many problems in his life, and he would not stop the valid strategy now.
"Fou, fou!" Cath Palug, who had been silent the entire ride, suddenly perked up, leapt off of its roost, and quickly scampered underneath a door – despite the impossibility of it fitting underneath a crack of that size. A Beast was terrifying, malicious or not, Mumei supposed, to be able to casually distort the law of physics with no visible effort.
A minute passed with no signs of the creature emerging. Mumei didn't know if he should wait for the, and dare he say it, cute creature to come back or if it was done traveling with him, but he'd rather not take the chance angering it and waited. A few seconds later his patience was rewarded as Cath Palug reappeared in the doorway entrance, a notebook and pen clutched in its two arms. "Fou!"
It nodded its head towards another room in the hallway, the sign above marking it as a bathroom. Cath Palug marched imperiously towards the room with only a single look back to ensure Mumei was following him. The bathrooms were some of the few rooms Mumei had felt were safe enough to explore so he wasn't surprised at the spartan interior. No stalls were in place to grant privacy to other occupants, urinals were far closer together than normal public restrooms, and the back of the room had open showers with no curtains. Chaldea was supposed to be a place for saving humanity quickly and efficiently, not preserving one's dignity, after all. Any worker who was embarrassed by this dismal state of affairs would probably be kicked out if the work force of Chaldea hadn't been crippled, and any magus worth their salt would have discarded such things as shame long ago.
Luckily, personal hygiene was no concern for a Servant like him. Servants didn't defecate unless they felt the need to allow unabsorbed nutrients and materials exist after consumption of food instead of just breaking them down, and that was even assuming that a Servant would be willing to waste time and resources eating. Showers were also an unneeded function; a Servant just needed to enter spirit form for a moment and then clean up the mess left on the floor afterwards.
Ignoring the third occupant of the room who was at the urinals, Mumei turned to where Cath Palug sat innocently atop a sink. It beckoned him forth with its free paw before staring intently at the mirror. Mumei walked up to it before he too turned his attention to the mirror. Nothing was out of the ordinary on the reflective surface, as far as he could see. Was he not looking hard enough?
Cath Palug shuffled around from the corner of his eye before opening its notebook but keeping the words on the page hidden from his point of view. It met his unconcentrated gaze before pointing at him then back at the mirror. He obliged with the implicit demand, materialized his physical form, and was only met with the face of a murderer looking back at him.
"Fou…" Was that a sigh? A sign of his impending death? Whatever the case, Mumei made no sudden moves and slowly looked back to the Beast. The book had slightly lowered in its hands, enough for him to catch part of the words written at the top of the current page.
Beautiful Thi-
The book snapped shut before he could read any further. Cath Palug looked at him again, shook its head, and bounced away, leaving the room in a hurry. Based on the words he had read, he didn't know whether he should feel insulted or not by the dismissal of the creature. For his own sake, he took it as an insult.
"Huh, cute lil' guy," the third occupant of the room said, having watched Cath Palug run out of the room. "Back to work, I guess." The man flushed the urinal and turned to the sinks only for his eyes to widen considerably - enough that Mumei began to feel worried for him - and fell backwards onto the floor. "Holy hell, where did you show up from!"
Oh, Mumei thought. He was still in his physical form. A simple thought fixed that problem and moments later he was walking through the hallways of Chaldea again, ignoring that man in the bathroom. He would be fine.
"Hello? Hellooo? Oh sure, don't answer poor ol' me. Just leave the janitor half-scared to death, why don't you? Ass."
A slight tug on his mind drew his attention from his idle musing. Static broke out and Mumei listened closely.
'Mu-***'
His Master was attempting to communicate with him through their bond. However, the boy was a complete novice at magecraft from what he understood, so it would be trial by error until the link could be fully formed. Mumei turned towards the direction that his bond was pointing to and quickly made his way to his Master.
Poking his head through a door, he looked around and found Mash, his Master, and Dr. Romani to be sitting around a table in what seemed to be a lounge room. His Master's eyes were closed in intense concentration while Mash and the doctor drank something from cups in their hands, patiently waiting. Fully slipping through the closed doorway, he materialized and slightly bowed. "Master, you have called for me?"
The black-haired boy opened his eyes in momentary relief and looked towards Mumei. "Yeah, Dr. Romani had something to discuss with all of us. Question: were you able to hear my attempts at communications?"
"Only one Master, and even then, it was full of static. I suggest you continue to practice your attempts before we are sent to perform field work." The telepathic bond between a Master and their Servant was a powerful tool if used correctly, especially for Servants of the Archer class like himself. The ability to coordinate quickly and securely would put them a step above opponents who don't have the ability to do so. "I am slightly knowledgeable on the matter of familiars, so -" a girl with blonde hair so light it seemed to be pure white like snow stared up at me, frustration in her voice as she repeated her lecture for the third time that night, "-perhaps later I can aid you in this endeavor," Mumei finished.
"Aah," Mash spoke up in a soft voice, staring at him in surprise. "You were a magus in life, Mumei?"
"If I could be called a magus, I would be a third-rate one at best. Rather than research a way to the Root, I spent my time learning spells that would aid me in my profession. You will find my knowledge of magecraft to be like patchwork; summoning a Caster class Servant would do you far better than consulting with me on most topics." Mumei pulled an empty chair back and sat on it, looking towards Dr. Romani. "So, about what you wished to discuss, doctor, or are we waiting on someone else?"
"Yes, yes! So… how to put this. We managed to locate the next singularity! The location of this singularity is in France. However, we do not know the exact time period of the singularity yet. It is a slow process because we are still repairing the damages of the bombing, and quite frankly some of the repairs are impossible with the materials we have on hand. Anyhow," the man said as he pulled out a rolled up map from his lab coat pocket and unfurled it onto the table, "this map is of France. Do you see the red circle towards the middle? While scanning through time for a singularity, we came across multiple odd magical energy signatures at this location, and when we shift the time slightly the signatures sometimes spread out across France. The best guess our specialists came up with to explain these signatures, based on previously recorded signatures, are Servants."
"Are you able to gather more specific information on these Servants?" Mumei asked, eyes narrowing as he eyed the map. Information was key to winning wars, especially wars that took place over large distances.
"No, CHALDEAS is meant more for a general overview of the past rather than looking in super specific detail. We barely have the energy to run it, too, for more than a few minutes every hour. As I said before, the bombings broke a lot of stuff. We're lucky that we had even managed to stop our reactor from melting down and killing us all."
-If it meant no one else had to cry, I would do it. I offered my worthless soul and became a hero of justice.-
"But back on track, let's look over our options to deal with this singularity." Taking a sip of his drink -coffee, Mumei noted with a sniff-, Romani leaned back into his chair with a sigh. "We had expected opposition for our mission, of course, but to be honest we weren't expecting even more Servants to be that very opposition. Maybe we are wrong and the Servants we have found are something else entirely or are even allies, but it is an unknown and thus dangerous situation. For that reason, as acting director of Chaldea, I am inclined to put the operation on hold for now."
"What!?" his Master blurted out in surprise of the decision. "But we have a time limit, don't we? Shouldn't we be trying to fix this singularity as soon as possible? Why aren't we treating this like the serious situation that it is?" His Master leaned over the table and pointed at the map. "Look, if you send Mash, Mumei, and I into the singularity, we can just be cautious and attack from a distance with Mumei the whole time. They won't ever see us, and we can capture the Grail without issue. Even if they do see us, Mash can protect us all!"
The naivety of his Master slightly grated on his nerves, so he spoke up. "Master, I agree with Dr. Romani here. You are grossly underestimating the capabilities of other Servants as well as greatly overestimating our own, your own skills the most." His master flinched away with slightly hurt but still determined eyes. He would have to be truthful, then. "Let me be clear with you Master. On the field, you are a liability at best or a dead weight if we look at it realistically. You have little combat experience. You know almost know no magecraft besides what was required for you to be a Master and what your Mystic Code suit provides. You have average fitness for a boy your age. Do you truly think that it was skill that let you survive the first singularity, Master? The only reason humanity now stands at chance at survival is because you, Master, were lucky the first time around. I refuse to rely on such a concept for future battles. I made a promise to aid you, and I will damn myself before I let you get killed for foolish reasons."
"O-oh," his Master murmured as he sat back into his seat. "I'm sorry… I got ahead of myself, but I can't just sit back and do nothing while waiting for the perfect solution to show up, you know? If we don't try, then when will we?"
Mumei held back a sigh. At the end of the day, his Master was just a boy who never truly expected to be put in these kinds of situations. "Dr. Romani did not ever say we would be doing nothing. Isn't that right, doctor?" he said with a nod to the man who looked like he wanted nothing more than to be somewhere else.
"Correct. Eventually we will have to enter the singularity, unknown variables or not, but until then we will focus on maximizing our chances of success. To that end Ritsuka, I am tasking you with the following orders. First, take this." Dr. Romani reached out towards his Master with another paper withdrawn from pocket and handed it over. "This is a workout plan I made with your medical examination in mind. Follow it as well as you can. Luckily, our resident chef survived so go to him for the dietary concerns I noted down. Next, work with Mumei on your telepathic bond." Dr. Romani rubbed the back of his head, as he thoughtfully looked over to the red knight. "Mumei, I have a question. For teaching magecraft, would you say you're better than the other magi here?"
"No," Mumei responded. "Though I can teach a couple of tricks I have learned for combat purposes, I am a little hopeless at the foundations of magecraft. I suggest letting him learn from another magus and when he gets up to speed, I can teach him what I know."
"Sounds like a plan," Dr. Romani said, a finger tapping his chin. "In that case, Ritsuka. Operative Schneider will train you in magecraft. I'll introduce you to her later today. Once you are proficient in the foundations as will be decided by Operative Schneider, we will cut parts of your foundational magecraft training into training with Mumei or any alternative teachers we may gain access to at such a time. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" his Master responded brightly, the past scolding forgotten, as Mumei himself gave a simple nod.
"Finally, you'll need to do some combat training. Nothing crazy like training you to fight against Servants one-on-one. Even with the best matchups, a human can't compare to a Servant's speed and strength, much less the usage of a Noble Phantasm. So instead, you'll be trained to survive a fight long enough for one of your own Servants to rescue you. Mumei, I don't want to bother you even more, but I think you are the most qualified to help Ritsuka here. I would also like for you to train Mash in combat if possible."
"Of course. I would be only resting otherwise. However, what of the energy concerns we had spoken about before?"
"As long as you keep it to a minimum, it should be fine. We have already depowered the non-essentials part of the facility, and now that we located the singularity we can cut back on power there, too. Just don't go overboard and it should be fine. I think." Dr. Romani let out a nervous laugh. "On second thought, put the combat training on hold for a day while I check with our technicians on our energy supply. Better safe than sorry." Mumei nodded. "Well, that should be all, I think. Does everyone know what they need to do?" The question received a chorus of affirmatives and Dr. Romani smiled at it. "Man, I might be starting to like this director job a little," he chuckled.
"Dr. Romani," Mumei spoke, remembering the question he had wanted to ask earlier that day. "Is there a designated place for me to rest and conserve my magical energy?" Dr. Romani froze at the question for a second, a contemplative look appearing in his eyes.
"Well, we certainly have a lot of free rooms now. Sorry, gallows humor. The situation is getting to my head a little, I think," Dr. Romani sighed. "The quartermaster was caught in the explosion so that means the people in charge of room usage now would be the Security Division. Their office is along the way to where I'm going next so just follow me and I'll show you where."
"Understood." They both left the room together while his Master and Mash remained at the table discussing something about… mecha anime? Well, if that sort of talk comforted his Master, then he wouldn't complain.
In the darkness of his new, personal room, Mumei thought of what was to come and what he could do. His Master was painfully weak, just as he had once been. The threat of the singularities was ever looming, and there just wasn't enough time to fully train the boy. Strength of body and mind was of the upmost importance when it came to battle, that he knew. But if there wasn't enough time to train those, then he supposed that a crutch would have to suffice.
I am the bone of my sword
His mind tightened and his soul expanded.
A bird's eye view of his inner world burned into his retinas. He focused. All Noble Phantasms were discarded; his Master wasn't capable of spoofing the restrictions required to activate the legends within like he could. Mundane tools were pointless. Offensive mystic codes were dangerous in the hands of incompetent people, so discard them, too. Mystic codes with defensive purposes only, then, above a set threshold.
Setting parameters
Searching
Analyzing
Matches found: 1
Shock Distributor Bracer v4, Rank A+, Efficacy at 81.8894294%
Reading stored experiences
No, the mystic code required in depth knowledge of bounded fields to utilize correctly. His Master wouldn't be able to effectively use it. Mumei grunted, as he tried searching his inner world again with more vague parameters.
Updating parameters
Searching
Analyzing
Matches found: 1
Shock Distributor Bracer v4, Rank A+, Efficacy at 81.8894294%
No use. Perhaps he was being far too coddling.
Updating parameters
Searching
Analyzing
Matches found: 1258
Ordered in Rank then Efficacy
Shock Distributor Bracer v4, Rank A+, Efficacy at 81.8894294%
Shock Distributor Bracer v2, Rank A+, Efficacy at 77.2435819%
Wide Guard Mail, Rank A, Efficacy at 84.9231892%
Gauntlet of Diffraction, Rank A, Efficacy at 80.5899891%
…
No, no, no, maybe, no, no, perhaps after a week of magecraft training, no, maybe…
Tonight was going to be a long night, Mumei felt.
(A/N) Gonna get a little controversial further down. Don't blow a gasket.
Chaldea members meet Fou
Normal employees: Oh wow, what a cute boi! Mascot?
Most Heroic Spirits: Cute, but why do I feel scared?
Bors, Percival, Galahad: Run.
Counter Guardians: *whimpers of pain*
It's okay Fou, eventually you'll unlock EMIYA's route. Just give him some time and get him to stop call himself Nameless and you might unlock Good End EMIYA where he helps you beat the shit out of Merlin.
As I'm sure you all have noticed, I have done some revisions to the story of FGO. Over all, the plot will remain the same, but the premise has to go. What do I mean by the premise? Well, this is gonna piss some people off, but the premise of FGO is shit. According to people I have talked to, FGO apparently starts getting its real identity later into the story, in the Lostbelts arc, but before that it is just another self-insert story that appeals to the masses of guys who hide their insecurities of being unable to talk to women by pretending that the 'cool' character they are playing is them. My main issue with Ritsuka Fujimura isn't even the shameless self-insert, it's that he has so little room to grow as a character from the small snippets we actually get about who he his behind the player. Despite being a civilian before Chaldea, he somehow is able to keep his cool in life or death situations. He knows how to easily talk to and make friends with Servants that would, in a more realistic world, murder him dead. The "I'm not always perfect" stuff the game and movies throw in every now and then rings hollow every time, like it is just token appeasement. He is not necessarily a Gary Stu, but he is damn close. How do you develop a character like that?
So scrap that. He is now a fresh-faced sheep in a world of wolves and lions. As seen in chapter one with the whole "It's my fault" battle he has with EMIYA, he still has a knack for figuring out the personality of others, but it is not perfect, quick, and doesn't extend to making friends. That's stuff he has to learn on his own. He also has personal reasons for saving others instead of being the generic shounen protagonist. Girls won't collapse to their knees just to have a piece of him. Even more so, he is naïve as any boy without combat experience would be.
That's not even the worst of why the premise behind FGO is bad. Poor Casters never actually get used like they should. Medea + EMIYA + any number of Assassins = super sneaky bois with unlimited big boom mystic codes. Oh, Arash can shoot normal arrows like mini-NPs? What if EMIYA supplies him with A-rank mystic code arrows? If Casters were utilized correctly, with the difficulty shown in FGO proper, the whole Singularity deal would have been dealt with super easily until the final battle, which would require more effort. And this brings us to the crux of my argument.
FGO was made with the intention of being a Gacha game that just happens to have a story behind it, rather than a story that just so happened to be done in the format of a Gacha game. Because it was made with the intent of being a Gacha game foremost, the story itself has to bend to accommodate the form of media used which leads to questionable story-making decisions. Casters being just big, magical sledgehammers until the plot requires them to be something else for a while is one of the biggest offenders. Heroic Spirits not actually working together to combine their knowledge and abilities to maximum effect to save humanity is another.
So, how do I counter the ease at which a Caster who can make mystic codes + EMIYA can sweep the game? Easy, nerf the shit out of Chaldea and buff everyone else. The difficulty curve is going to be exponential so Chaldea has a fighting chance at the beginning, but it's just going to get harder and harder.
Now, I'm not saying I'm better than the writers of Type-Moon. It's a lot easier to criticize than it is to actually write. Without a doubt, I'll be making bad story decisions and it's my hope that you guys point them out for me when I do. But my pride won't let me expand on something with an illogical premise.
Also, gonna mention something that will blow many of your minds because someone might try to counter my EMIYA combo. A lot of what you know is fanon. Hell, I have to constantly check my work for fanon that I let slip in, and even then I may not catch it all. In order to cover for contradictions in source material or just blank spots that are never filled in by the writers, I have to write my own fanon and hope to God that no one thinks its canon. Many have been screwed over by fanon... But the one character most screwed over by fanon is the man, the legend, EMIYA/Shirou Emiya. So, let me let you guys in on a little secret known to those who actually read the VN.
Gaia doesn't degrade his projections.
That's right ladies and gentlemen. Shirou Emiya's projections fading because of Gaia's influence is indeed fanon. His shed is full of stuff he just makes, back when he still used nerve circuits, and they stay there for years. If there is a limit to his projections (done via Tracing/pulling from UBW. Large difference from normal Gradient Air), it is unknown, as we never learn the fate of his shed after the story's end. Gaia doesn't give a shit about his projections. What it does care about is if he fully employs UBW which makes it crack down on him. Do with this knowledge as you wish, and feel the horror of second-hand embarrassment I always feel whenever I read a story that *buffs* Shirou's projections by getting rid of Gaia's influence, when in reality that just brings him back to where he is canonically.