Chapter 5.5: Gun jams and Genderbends
"And so, the three looked down below at the ruins of the first floor while the Elevator ascended into the heavens."
Emu was sitting on a couch in the elevator reading from a pink script with his name on the cover.
"Ok, then."
He got up and paced around a little bit, still reading from the script. He then looked up.
"So, why pick now to start these extra omakes?"
Because I only thought of the idea now! I would have done it earlier, but it is not as if I can do one for every chapter beforehand!
"Right, right, right."
He looked down again.
"Didn't that Rider fight seem a little easy to you? I thought we would have had a rougher time."
"Well, she did say that she hadn't fought for a long time, so maybe her aim was rusty" Takeru responded, also on the couch with a Yellow script in his hand. "But it was awfully convenient for her to shoot you into another Energy Item which was for recovery. Also for her gun to jam just as we went to deal the finishing blow. Isn't her gun supposed to have infinite ammo? Isn't her luck EX?"
Emu agreed. "The closest thing to getting the Energy Item by chance which happened in my series was when Nico Saiba threw a Recovery item to Taiga when he got hit, but even that isn't as coincidental as what happened here."
Hey, listen. Be happy you survived. Do you want me to retcon that? Do you know how difficult it is to write this?
"You're just copying the dialogue that's unchanged from the original anime." Takeru said. "It can't be that hard. Besides, isn't that lazy?"
"No, it isn't" Out of the baths walked Saber, thankfully fully clothed this time, holding a red script. "What Writer-san up there has to do is to push you into this world, but apparently there was some criticism of the original that the fights weren't good enough, so he had to make some edits. Indeed, in the original, I had the spotlight, taking her on myself."
Emu and Takeru were slightly confused. "Wait, the original?"
"Of course. What do you expect?" Saber said, as she grabbed a remote and turned on the TV in the room. The screen blared to life replaying the original Fate Extra Last Encore episode where she fought Drake.
"One thing he did change was that, originally, Maestro would have had to swim down and kiss me to transfer Mana by physical contact."
Physical… contact?
Emu was slightly relieved that things went as they did in his version of the story.
"Anyways, I thought she already told you why her gun jammed in this chapter. It was because she betrayed her own nature, wasn't it?"
"That is correct"
The Drake Eyecon had leaped out of Takeru's jacket and materialised into the figure of Rider. Saber drew her sword.
"Rider! How have you materialised? Weren't you defeated?"
"For this little extra episode (no pun intended), I was given special privilege to come out and talk." Drake responded.
She then turned to Takeru.
"Takeru-san, do you remember what I said to you?"
Takeru thought for a moment.
"That your gun jammed because it became rusty?"
"Yes. However, that isn't the only reason."
She then turned to address an imaginary audience where the camera would have been if this was an actual TV show.
"The original fight gave little reason as to why my guns ran out of ammo. Therefore, there was sort of an uproar over the plot armour the MC of Fate Extra Last Encore had, with the convenience that my guns jammed at the last second. Therefore, in supplementary material, it was stated that, because helping in the city went against my ideals, my luck stat dropped rapidly. The writer here tried to integrate this into the story to make it more clear, but he couldn't do much to take it out of the equation. In fact, he tried to spin it in a way to give a lesson to you two", gesturing at both Emu and Takeru.
They both nodded. "Ah, I see. That makes much more sense." Takeru said.
With that out of the picture, Takeru moved on to something that had been bothering him ever since he discovered Rider's identity.
"Rider-san, are you truly Francis Drake?"
Rider turned to Takeru. "Yes, the one and only. Why?"
"Isn't he supposed to be male in history? There are even portraits of him, so how is it that you can be female here?"
Rider smirked.
"I figured you'd be confused. Here. Let me explain."
She spun round and shot at the TV. It exploded in a puff of smoke, and out of the smoke, a small projector screen popped up. She set her gun to face the screen, and the screen lit up.
Emu and Takeru turned to each other. This was getting weird.
"This franchise is built on the stories of legends and heroes." She clicked the trigger of her other gun, and the projector moved one slide, showing some of the Servants that they had encountered.
"There are obviously male Servants for the female fans or history buffs out there, like Fergus Mac Roich, Darius and Leonidas." She said, pointing at each one as she said their names. Takeru recognised some of them.
"However, in order to attract a larger crowd of male otakus, some… adjustments had to be made." She clicked her gun, and the slide moved to a female figure with a face resembling that of Saber. Saber's eyes glowed.
"This is King Artoria Pendragon, the first genderbend of the Fate franchise. Originally, she was going to be male, but she was changed to female in the last second."
She pulled the trigger again, and more female figures appeared on screen, including Rider.
"There are a number of other genderbends, some more egregious than others."
She pointed to a girl in a red coat and hat holding a musket.
"Can you guess who she is?"
Takeru shook his head. Then he recognised the gold insignia on her hat and recoiled in shock.
"Don't tell me… that's Oda Nobunaga!?"
"Correct!" She pulled out another party popper and popped it. Confetti rained down around the confused Takeru.
"This one here" she pointed at a young girl in a black coat. "is Jack the Ripper. This one" She pointed to a scantily dressed Japanese girl holding a katana "is Ushiwakamaru."
Takeru couldn't believe what he was hearing. What had they done to the heroes (well, historical figures. I doubt Jack the Ripper could be considered a hero, but still a person from history) he learn about?
Rider once again clicked her gun. "Oh, I think you'll like this one." The slide moved to a tall woman with white hair wearing a red and blue kimono holding two swords. "This one…" she said with an even wider smirk on her face. Then she threw her arms wide open. "… is MIYAMOTO MUSASHI!"
Takeru fell back in absolute horror. Musashi was an extremely important person to him. His father had given him Musashi's tsuba before he died, and he was the first Eyecon that he summoned in his quest to revive himself. What has this franchise done to him!
Rider laughed heartily. "Oh don't worry. She is an alternate universe version of him. He is still a man in your timeline. She was dimension-hopping until she arrived in the timeline of another game: Fate Grand Order.
Takeru heaved a sigh of relief. Still, it offended him for a second there. The others though…
"And even if they're gender bent, they have a lot of thought put into their genderbending. For example, the reason why I am female" she said, twirling around on the spot "is because there was originally a plan to make me Queen Elizabeth in disguise."
Takeru got up. "Huh?"
"There was apparently a legend about how Queen Elizabeth and Francis Drake swapped places because she got smallpox or something. This scar is a reminiscence of that idea." Rider said, pointing to his scar. "However, because I was received quite well in the original game Fate/Extra, they kept me as a genderbent version of him. I'm sure the real version would be shocked, but I don't really care."
Takeru took time to absorb everything that was coming his way. Emu patted Takeru on the back.
"With King Arthur, or rather, Artoria, as well, they created an entire story around her having to hide her gender to be king, and used it as an analysis on how history records past tales and how these stories can be twisted to suit the norms of the time. It's quite clever actually."
Yeah. It took me some time getting used to, but I eventually accepted it.
"Besides, you're one to talk. Your show simplified the Heroes so that they would look better to the kids! If anything, you did a greater disservice to them than this genderbending does."
Takeru got up.
"I can't be blamed for what the show became! I'm not the writer!"
"You ripped us off! We had the idea of gathering Heroic Spirits to obtain a wish long before you did! Go watch Prisma Illya and take notes!"
"Alright, alright, alright, break it up." Emu said, finally speaking after a long period of silence. Rider cracked a smile.
"It's fine. I was joking. It's not your fault, I understand why you'd be concerned. I can tell you care for these heroes very much. You're the right person to get through the war and collecting the Heroes' Eyecons."
Takeru sat down again, letting out a large sigh.
"I'm going to have to get use to these kind of changes, right?"
Rider nodded.
Takeru fell backwards onto the couch, exasperated.
"And with that, I think my time's up. Thanks for having me over, Writer-san!"
No problem, Drake.
Rider returned to her Eyecon state and fell to the floor. Emu went over and picked it up. He then turned to Saber.
"Saber, are you a genderbend?"
Saber raised her head.
"I can't tell you that. But, no matter if I was male or female here, I am still beautiful, don't you agree."
There she goes again. Emu thought.
"Yes. You are." He responded. Saber smiled.