Great Holy Grail War Online
by Saber_Art
Chapter 2: The most famous MMORPG
"Seriously Jeannie, you should remove that Headpiece." a very familiar voice said. "It is drawing too much attention on you."
The one speaking to her was a girl, a person very dear to her.
"You don't need to worry, Arturia." Jeannie replied, removing her eyes from the Nitendo to look at her friend. Opposite of her was her Childhood Best Friend, Arturia Pendragon. She had golden hair and a pair of green eyes, dressed in clothes similar to her own. Well, she got her clothes from Arturia's closet... Nevermind.
They were both seated at a restaurant. Arturia's parents weren't going to come home early today, and cooking for the young Pendragon was impossible. So, there was only one option left.
The Restaurant.
The Headpiece they had been previously talking about, is an ornament she had found on her late father's old house. It was part of a woman's armor, that much they could tell. Back in France and Britain, she had had no problem with wearing it, but here in Japan, it earned quiet the stares. Now that she thought about it, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"Maybe, I should really remove it." Jeannie said. The stares were sometimes... creepy. "Yes, you should." Arturia said, nodding her head. With a sigh, Jeanne turned off the Nitendo, and slowly put it in her bag, alongside the Headpiece.
Half an hour later, the two girls finished their food and paid the fee.
"So are we going to that place?" Jeanne asked the moment they were out of the restaurant's doors. By 'that place' she meant a certain store they had passed on their way to the restaurant. With a frown on her lips, Arturia answered after a while. "Fine. But only for an hour. We must return home."
"Yes!"
It was a store that sold games of all kinds, but also provided the needed Softwares and Hardwares needed for players to play in this store. Back in Britannia, Jeannie hadn't always been this interested in video games, but misteriously, the second they stepped foot in Fuyuki, that changed for both of them. And it wasn't because the games in this city were different and more excellent than the ones back in Britannia. No, it was because of another strange reason.
Maybe they would find it in this Store.
The place that they would be visiting was just a few blocks away from the restaurant, and as such, it took them a short time to arrive. Entering through the front door, the two girls were surprised at first. There were hundreds of players inside. Sure, the store was a giant building, but the sheer number of teenagers there was...
"Sigh... We are here." Arturia stated the obvious. "What do you want to do now."
Looking up at her best friend, Jeannie frowned at her emotionless face. It was always present. "Cheer up!" she told the young Pendragon. "How about the one over there?"
Following the direction Jeannie was pointing at, Arturia saw a bunch of Kids wearing some strange clothes on their body and holding a toy sword. Before them was a screen, which was showing a match between two fighters. The fighters were executing the same moves the kids were demostrating.
"That would be a piece of cake for me." Arturia said. Back in Britain, she had picked up the art of the Sword, and had been the Captain of her school's Fencing Club. Maybe she should join the same club in her new school...
"Fine I will do it." she answered. Maybe a little warm up wasn't that bad.
"The game's rules are simple. You have to defeat your opponents by using only the art of the sword." a kid explained when the two got near the playing children. The 'opponents', were inside the screen, and the clothes were sensors that would send every move you made to your Avatar, the kid explained further.
Arturia placed the strange cloth around her arms and legs, and picked up the 'sword' she was to use. The game started, and she swiftly killed all the thievs that came at her.
Level after level, Arturia killed with a relaxed posture and planed moves. The kids would applause every now and then, cheering the young girl in every level she unlocked.
Level 10, she had arrived at it after 20 minutes. It was the last level and the Boss battle. She instictivly gripped her sword tighter, and 'ran' towards the Boss. Focused on the screen, where the Boss was located, she failed to notice a foot in her way.
Feeling something hold her next step, Arturia rolled on the ground, and raised her sword ready to attack the opposer. Before her stood a man, years older than her. He smelled of alcohol, and was looking at her with a smug smirk.
"No one is going to pass that level before I do." the man said and his smirk widened. "Oh look, you lost! HAHAHAHA"
"What?!" Arturia turned her head around to look at the screen and was surprised to see the red letters YOU LOSE on top of her dead Avatar. "You distracted me!" Arturia yelled. She did not really care if she won or not, but she hated those that would use unchivalrous tactics for selfish desires.
"And who cares?" the man mocked. "You can't win when you play fair."
"Yes you can." Arturia murmured, but the man heard it well. She had not whispered those words out of fear, but because talking to this man was going to get her nowhere.
"Hmpf... Than prove it! I challenge you..." the man started, and paused for a moment to pick up a fallen sword. "... to a real match."
"That is if you can, of course!" the man laughed. "You can refuse if you don't won't to get hurt, little girl. Can you even hold a real sword? Hahahahaha!"
Arturia lowered her face, her bangs shadowing her eyes. Jeanne got a really bad feeling about this. She wanted to interefere and stop the man from proposing the challenge, but he had gone and stepped on Arturia's pride as a swordswoman. There was no going back.
"Fine!" Arturia accepted the challenge, as she slowly raised herself from the ground. "Let's take this outside."
"Why? You afraid of losing before all this people?"
"No. Just making sure I don't break anything while mopping the floor with you."
"Arturia..." Jeanne wanted to stop her, as her reply indicated something was going to go bad. Living by her friend's side, she knew what happened to those who wounded her pride. But, saying 'I'll mop the floor with you' was so uncharacteristic of her.
The two swordsmen were out in the streets. Fortunately there were no cars on the streets at the moment. Strange, did they sense this fight before it even started?
"You are going to regret this, little girl."
Rather than replying, Arturia rushed at him, sword diagonally slashing at him. "Kuh..." the man was caught by surprise, but still blocked the slash. Using his free hand (he was currently holding the sword with one hand), he made to deliver a punch to the girl's face.
But it was blocked by the sword. Jumping back, she created distance between them. "This is a fight using Blades and not fists!" Arturia stated, but the man laughed. She raised an eyebrow at the other.
"I said this was a real fight, not a Sword-only fight."
'Is he trying to overpower Arturia by using his fists?' Jeanne thought. She was looking at the battle, away from the two fighters.
'That girl has quiet the strong muscles.' the man thought. Said girl had a small body, and she almost looked fragile, but to be able to block his punch meant she had strength in that small body.
"Come on, let us quickly finish this." Arturia said, correcting any flaws in her fighting pose and waiting for the man to attack.
'Two minutes.' Jeanne counted in her head. "She has not moved a muscle for two whole minutes. What is that man thinking? Is he planning something?"
The man rushed at her, body lowered, matching her height. When his head was 5 inches away from the girl, Arturia raised her sword. Making a vertical slash in unbelievable speed, she was about to knock him out with a powerful blow to the back of his head, only for the man to suddenly faint.
The man did not move for 20 seconds. "Did he just faint?!"
"Maybe it was due to the alcohol." Jeanne guessed. She had smelled the liquor too, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he had just passed out because of it.
Looking at the man who had fallen face-first in the ground, Arturia bent down to reach him.
That was what he had waited for her to do.
With one sudden motion, he raised his body with one arm, and used the other to deliver his sword to Arturia's chest. He did not try to 'slash' at it, but rather to knock the air out of her lungs by 'stubbing' it.
And he succedded.
"Arturia!" Jeanne yelled as her friend tried to catch her breath. The man fully raised to his feet and deliver a blow to the girl's abdomen with his sword's tip. "Aggh..." Arturia groaned as pain filled her.
The man raised his sword yet again, but Arturia weakly blocked it, but was not fast enough to block his fist. The punch collided with her lower jaw, and she fell to the ground. The sword rolled on the ground, away from her. No matter, she still tried to raise up to her feet.
The man raised his sword yet again. Jeanne wanted to interfere, but she could do nothing to stop him.
"Hahahaha! Where is you strength now?!" the man laughed madly and lowered the sword down on the girl's back.
"Art-"
But it was stopped.
"Enough!" a male voice came from the man's back. A tanned hand had caught the blade in mid-fall and kept it away from the girl's back.
Turning around the drank man looked at a tanned young teenager, about the same age as the girl, with white hair and dressed in a red shirt and black pants. "Hitting a young girl is not an act to be comitted by any man!" the teenager said.
"Hmpf, whatever. I will just beat you too." the man replied, the alcohol reaching the boy's nose. "Oh, so you are drunk..." the boy whispered, as he delivered a hard blow with the end of a sword that appeared out of nowhere, on the man's stomach. Said man coughed up as the air left his lungs.
The tanned male caught the falling body of the passed out man and laid it down. He helped the girl get up and sighed with relief at seeing her well. "Thank you for your help, sir!" Jeanne had arrived by her friend's side and thanked the young man in her place.
"Oh, you don't have to be so formal. We are about the same age, if my guess is correct." the tanned teenager replied. "By the way, my name is Emiya."
"Jeanne and this is my friend Arturia." Jeanne introduced herself and her friend.
"Hmm... here in Japan we use our surnames whenever introducing ourselves..." the man scratched the back of his head.
"Ah..." Jeanne gasped. "d'Arc and Pendragon, then."
"d'Arc and Pendragon as in Joan d'Arc and Arthur Pendragon?" Emiya raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Y-yes." Jeanne answered nervously. That is strange, Emiya thought.
"Okay then. It was nice to meet you. I have to go home now." Emiya waved at them and turned around, walking away from them.
"Goodbye!" Jeanne waved back, as she heard her friend groan.
"Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, I am fine."
"You shouldn't be picking fights like that with strangers!" Jeanne yelled like a worried mother. "You know, you are starting to become more and more like Mord-" but she stopped herself before saying the name.
Arturia lowered her head, looking at the ground. "I'm sorry." Memories started to flow in her mind.
"Let's go home now." Jeanne said, helping her friend to walk. But, after a few short steps, the doors of the store opened and out came a group of teenagers, all of them holding the same poster.
"Hey, this game is so fantastic."
"Yes! A friend of mine is already playing it, and he said it is the best game ever!"
"I'm so buying it tomorrow. And it costs almost nothing."
Those were some of the sentences that came to their ears. As if something had possessed their feet, the two girls walked up to the group of kids. One fellow girl saw them and went to their side.
"Hey, have you heard of this game?" she asked pointing at the poster. "It is fantastic."
'The Great Holy Grail War Online' was the game advertised in said poster. Because they were before the store the girls guessed that they must be video-game players too.
"No, but I am interested in it." Arturia suddenly replied. Why did her throat feel like possesed? "Where can I buy it?"
"In the store, and it is so cheap!" the girl pointed at the door of said store.
"That way we are going then..." Jeanne laughed nervously as her friend looked at her for approval. "It is your money after all." she added.
About 10 minutes later, they were out of the store.
"So this is the newest and most famous MMORPG here in Japan." Arturia told her friend. "It requires this Full-Dive system, but oh well, time to play." added the other blonde.
Edit: This is what happens when your English continues to improve. You find grammar and vocabulary errors in your own fic. 2/1/18
Also, yeah, my name used to be SaberArt almost a year ago, but now I go by the name of RandomReaderThatWrites, Ran or Random for short.