Chapter 1
"Kotomine Kirei..." Waiting in front of the portal was an extremely tall man dressed in a simple black vestment along with a cassock and a triquetra pendant. He was currently holding some kind of laptop with my name flashing on the screen.
"Congratulations. You have been deemed worthy to be a participant in the moon holy grail war."
That fake of a priest, he may be an NPC created by the moon cell but the vibe I received from him was the same. There was always something about him that got underneath my skin, it felt like we were similar to one another and yet at the same time we weren't.
"I don't like him one bit master. He reeks of evil and corruption." It appeared that Caster shared my sentiments as she hissed at the NPC who took it in stride.
"You may call me father Kotomine. I am an NPC assigned the task of supervising the holy grail war. As of today you and your fellow magi have been given the honour of fighting in the arena up ahead." He pointed towards the concrete wall at the end of the west corridor of the first floor.
"The arena is the area where masters could train against enemy programs along with acquiring certain goods and PPD."
So it was located in the same place as the anomaly. However I doubt I would waste my time in there as there were more important matters to use my time on.
"The war is run as an elimination tournament, with the grail being awarded to the last person standing. In other words, the participating masters will kill each other until there is only one person left. Simple enough to understand, yes? Even a complete idiot should be able to understand the rules."
"Masters get a six day preparation period before the elimination battles, which occur on the seventh day. I'd advise you to use the time given to devise the most efficient means of slaughtering your foe. On the seventh day, you and your foe will fight. The winner lives, and the loser is ...deleted." He paused for a moment to let it sink in.
"If you wish to make a query, speak now. The right to ask about the rules is given to all."
"What happens if the rules are broken." I wanted to confirm my suspicions, were the rules truly set into stone or was this going to be like any other holy grail war. Where the only iron clad rule was to win at all cost no matter the methods.
"Naturally the SERAPH will intervene and punish the master depending on the infraction, however as this is a structured holy grail war the only rule is the prohibition of battle on campus and in the Arena. The SERAPH will act within three minutes to terminate the battle and issue a proxy program to the Master or servant that initiated the battle to punish them."
"... I see." In that case it wasn't any different from the holy grail war I've experienced. The only question I have left is on the severity of the punishment as I might be willing to assassinate my opponent before the elimination match where they are at their strongest, but I doubt he will tell me as he is the supervisor NPC.
"One last thing to enter into the elimination match you would require two triggers, a primary cipher key and a secondary cipher key that will be generated inside the arena on different floors. Failure will result in disqualification and therefore deletion."
I wasn't planning on entering the arena but this changed things, however it also provided a new method to defeat my opponent without incurring the wrath of SERAPH. As long as I could prevent my opponents from acquiring his cipher keys then I would win without needing to fight.
I could kite the enemies inside the arena and lead them towards my opponent to form an ambush or I could block their escape with my magecraft. However would that be considered initiative on my part... probably not as I am not directly engaging with them in combat. I should test this theory out as soon as possible for it would open up many strategies. The question is do I personally test that theory or do I incite another master to do it for me.
"Oh before I forget this is your portable terminal. It is extremely important so do not lose it Shirou Emiya." He interrupted my thoughts and handed me a laptop before continuing to explain its functions.
"Interesting..." I have entered into this world with my real name but it was ironic that for the fake identity given to me as a test was also Shirou Emiya. I let out a small smile as I thought about the confusion I felt that day as the fake memories was instantly deleted by me upon arrival, due to that I wandered around for a while before I met Taiga.
"The SERAPH will use it to send you information about the upcoming events in the Moon holy grail war so it is of vital importance to heed its advice."
"I see.." As my fingers touched the screen the command seals on my right hand started to glow a bright red prompting a picture of a lock being shown on the screen, before being unlocked along with a welcome message.
Welcome to the moon cell holy grail war Shirou Emiya. Rather sparse for a welcome message but I guess it was just a formality sent to all Masters.
"Your portable terminal acts as your personal Identity document as its primary function however it also contains a map of the virtual world, stores any valuable information you come across, gives you access to the moon cell network and is your debit card. There are other functions but it is not within my jurisdiction to give that knowledge."
I assume this was another test set by the moon cell to further weed out masters, but this was my weak point. My spiritron hacking skills mostly relied on my past knowledge of magecraft and my reality marble which had quite the adverse side effects. My only real skill in hacking is to mess with the programming by overwriting parts of the code causing the original programming to either stop working entirely or go haywire and do something different from its original purpose.
"That reminds me here is your password to access your private home, your command seals also acts as another way to enter but this is an free service given by the moon cell to masters that continue to advance. Think of it as a bonus for passing the preliminaries." He entered the password into the portable terminal along with giving me its physical form a key.
"I have one small question, would a NPC be allowed to enter into my home." A picture of a clumsy young woman with short light brown hair and eyes appeared in my mind. She wore a green dress with a yellow and green stripe shirt and orange shoes. Although she surprised me when I first entered into the moon holy grail war preliminaries I did enjoy her presence but now that the war has begun I cannot have any liabilities.
"Normally they are unable too however certain NPCs are allowed to enter if they have a special relation with the residence."
"I see... Am I allowed to change my private home."
"If you wish to change your location you must talk with the real estate agency, it is not within my jurisdiction as the supervisor."
"Then who is my first opponent."
"You will be notified about your opponent through your portable terminal and the bulletin board on the second floor." He pointed to the flight of stairs leading towards the second floor and gestured towards the laptop.
I opened the laptop and started to search through the desktop. Clicking onto the inbox file there was a few messages sent by the moon cell with different subjects, but for now I clicked onto the one that said opponent.
The next combatants have been announced. Please report to the second floor bulletin board for further confirmation.
Master: Shirou Emiya vs Master: Misao Amari.
Battlefield: First Chimeric Lunar Sea.
"Well the time for conversation has come to an end. Good luck It is time for you to be on your way." He gave me a small wave with his hand before walking over to another master whom has just entered the building.
"Don't worry Master with me by your side and your skill this Misao Amari person wouldn't stand a chance!" Caster said cheerfully as she continued to latch onto my arm causing the surrounding masters to look in my direction.
"Caster why are you... never mind." I was about to ask her to go into her spiritual body as we were attracting undue attention but ultimately decided against it. The damage was already done rather than do damage control it would be better to inverse it. By doing so I would be portraying two different image one of confidence that is bordering on arrogance or the opposite an easy mark a naïve fool.
Not to mention by attracting their attention I could size up my opposition.
"Master is something wrong?" Strange... There was something wrong with the looks I was getting, rather than being analytical or ill intent it feels more like curiosity and amusement. These wasn't the look of a master in the holy grail war or even magi rather they were one of civilians. It's as if they entered into the holy grail war without understanding the meaning behind that term, but that was impossible to enter into the moon holy grail war means you hacked into the moon cell and by doing so you were aware of the conditions applied to it.
"It's nothing. Let's go Caster." I still need more information but for now rather than focusing on external forces it would be better to confirm our current situation.
"Hey your Archer aren't you?" One of the masters watching me from afar barred my path, it appeared that he was using the default avatar given to masters by the moon cell.
"You must be pretty confident to showcase your servant like that, but judging from her stats she seems pretty weak for a servant well at least compared to my servant."
"Hey I know lets team up! Together we could defeat the other masters and." I raised a hand to stop him from continuing.
"Just what is the moon holy grail war to you?"
"? I guess the rumours are true cold as snow, anyway its just a game where the winner receives something known as the holy grail and the loser's avatar gets deleted."
I had heard enough, there was no point in wasting precious time on someone like him, a person that most likely wouldn't make it past the first round considering on how his treating the holy grail war as a mere game.
"Let's go Caster." Bypassing the contestant I left the school and headed towards the shopping centre, it wouldn't hurt to pick up some supplies before we start.
"Fine be that way I don't need you anyway, some specialist you are your just Rin's lackey."
Watching archer leave without so much a response to his insults, he turned towards another master who was close by. "Hey you, want to team up?"
"With you? First, how about you get on Shinji's or Archer's level? Then we'll talk."
"Really come on man those guys are jerks. It wouldn't be smart to partner with any of them. They'll stab you in the back."
"Your just saying that because he rejected you besides if he was going to team up with anyone it would be Rin not you."
"Touché anyway you want to team up or not?"
Author notes
Lazy bad author that only writes first drafts.
I'm probably have to play the game again to remember all the details I forgotten over the years.
This world would be much bigger than compared to the game where it was literally just the school grounds, it doesnt feel right just to be in one school for 128 masters, or the 999 at the start. So its going to be based on fuyuki town just like in the normal grail war.
Originally I was going to have Shirou fight aro isemi but decided I wanted him to fight a less driven pair, as in fate extra the first battle have people who still treated the holy grail war as a mere game.
But I didnt really want to make up a master and all that considering I havent replayed the game yet so I just looked through masters and she was in fate extra encore (never really watched it heard it wasnt that good). However her description in the wiki kinda fits the feeling I wanted to convey for the first battle.
I'm probably going to work on the fgo story after this chapter that being said im lazy as hell so dont expect much.