Disclaimer: These are works of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by any of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. Fate Grand Order and all the franchises and series associated with it, are owned by Kinoko Nasu, Notes Co., Ltd. and their affiliates. Similarly, Fire Emblem Heroes is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and their affiliates.

I DO NOT OWN THESE FRANCHISES.

Sister Fanfic: Serious Side Reels - A Grand Order of Heroes Sidestories

"So tired." The last Master of Chaldea, Gudako stated after slamming the door of her luxury bedroom behind her.

She bent her knees and launched herself on her bed with the last burst of energy in her body.

The bed creak that came from the Gudako's body mass hit the bed was loud enough that on Earth, it would have been a bother to the next-door apartment neighbors, on all sides. However, since she was a special guest in the Royal Castle, she could be as loud as she wanted and no one could complain. A fact that she took advantage of in moments like these when she was too tired to care about her noise level.

She took a deep breath of the sheets and the scent of lavender hit her nostrils, then she released it in one large groan as the aching in her feet became noticeable to her.

Yesterday was supposed to be a normal festival day, one where she got to experience being in a normal Japanese festival for the first time in months... and it was ruined by a cartoon biohazard running around unsupervised and doing god knows what.

How did that little bastard manage to sneak its way into Zenith without tripping the alarms set up by Chaldea after the last event?

Well, regardless of how it got there, containing it should have been an easy job. Panne, the tsundere wabbit that she is, had somehow managed to capture it without being affected by the particles they emit, she even hogtied it and presented it to them with a nice little bow.

It was supposed to be a seamless transfer of custody, but then Liz started to sing.

Liz throwing a concert out of nowhere caused Panne and everyone around her to clutch their ears in pain, which allowed the Chibi Nobbu to escape during the chaos.

Which is why she was forced to drop her game of catching goldfish and instead comb through the entire capital of Hoshido for signs of the little bastards

The Chibi Nobbus were no joke, even if they acted like it most of the time.

After hours of searching, she decided to give Romani a call about what happened. It was then that she had managed to find Nobunaga, she was with Gudao this whole time. Gudako had forgotten that she had gone over to help Gudao in the next singularity. Apparently, they were in a barren desert and she and Gudao's gang were too busy trying to fend off monsters at the moment so she couldn't talk for long, nor could she be brought back.

It was quite a sight to see Okita and Nobunaga arguing while one of them was fighting off armored soldiers. In the end, Nobunaga said she had no idea why the Chibi Nobbus appeared and told us to deal with them ourselves, as she had already decided she was going to topple the "corpse bitch sitting on her throne, looking down on us."

After that, Gudako and everyone in the Order of Heroes went on a hunt to find all the little bastards. All while a concert took place in the background. One of the natives explained why, something about a dragon and arteries?

Well, whatever, she was too tired to bother remembering.

Shame Gilgamesh wasn't here, she was sure he'd help her locate them after what the little buggers did to him during the last event.

He was also too busy helping Gudao out with the next singularity.

According to Gil, due to the events that caused her to arrive in Askr, North America's singularity took twice as long to resolve than it should have been, thus, he decided to help speed things along so that the normal course of events would go smoothly.

That golden hot bastard just wanted to show off his kingdom and would not want to delay us. He kept on bragging about it for so long, but he just didn't want to say it outright.

Gudako also had a feeling that was just an excuse so that she would be forced to stay in shape and help resolve incidents here without his help, but she wouldn't say that to his face. She isn't suicidal.

She also suspected that he tagged along to help because the next singularity takes place in Saber Artoria's kingdom. He had a big crush on her and he was not afraid to yell it on the rooftops for everyone on both Earth and Zenith to hear.

Geez, won't Gil ever take a hint?

In any case, he was indisposed, so they were down a powerhouse and a quick and easy method to end the nonsense before it went out of hand.

Using a bit of her recovered energy, she brought her phone to her face and checked the time, it was 6 AM.

Her usual goofy and dorky mask was gone, replaced with a glum expression. Smiling took too much energy for her to keep on putting it on, so she closed her eyes to rest.

"Mommy?"

"No stay away! I am not your mother!"

"Oh, then Die."

"No, no stay away AAAAHHHH!"

Gudako's eyes shot open and she jumped from her position in bed, her heart beating in her ears as she had just seen a woman get brutally murdered and disemboweled in a dark alley.

She frantically looked around the room and noted she was not in that alley anymore and that she was safe.

Relief flooded her body, thawing the ice that had been flowing through her veins after that vivid dream cycle. She had them every night, and she had gotten used to most of them, but some of those dreams were too brutal and messed up for her to get used to.

They were all so sad, so tragic to witness and experience, but she doesn't feel she has the right to judge them, so she won't. What happened in the past, happened and nothing she says will change that.

After gathering her wits, Gudako pulled out her phone, and as soon as she saw the time, she groaned.

It was now 7 AM, an hour had passed, even though it felt like hours had passed.

Whatever, she was going to go back to bed.

Maybe if she tries enough times, she'll land on a positive dream for once.

0-0-0

The Hoshidan training grounds were normally as lively as any other training grounds.

Soldiers usually hung around and perfected their skills so that they could protect their lieges, but after what happened the night prior, many young men were ordered to be on high alert.

This meant that the grounds were less populated due to soldiers being deployed to be guards, to make sure the intruder that made its way into their kingdom would not have allies.

Yet despite this, the sounds of wooden bokken hitting each other could be heard echoing in the morning.

Two female figures were currently sparring with one another.

On one side was the loyal retainer and best friend of the youngest princess of Hoshido, Hana. She was a female samurai with long brown hair, who had devoted her life to the sword and sworn to protect her friend with her life.

Right now, she was standing opposed to a formidable opponent, a female warrior known as Okita Souji. The woman captain of the Shinsengumi, from The World of Steel's nation of Japan, the sister country of Hoshido.

The Hoshidan Dragon Festival had already passed, but the events were still fresh in everyone's minds. They had spent the entire night looking for any trace of the chibi Nobbu that Panne had brought with her.

Alas, they found nothing, and so, everyone left to bed with the knowledge of a potential "Nobbu event" looming over their heads. Gudako had gone to bed at the behest of the heroic spirits, while the rest of them had been searching high and low with the Hoshidan soldiers for that slippery chibi bastard all night.

That was two hours ago, and it was now 9 a.m.

After she argued with Nobunaga, Okita needed to vent her frustrations, which Hana had taken the liberty of volunteering for the role, as she had been meaning to ask her for a spar.

They have been sparring in these grounds for hours, poking at each other's defenses, punishing mistakes with painful hits, and overall just a lot of mind games.

Both Hana and Okita had become instant friends when they met and became sworn sisters when they learned each other's backstories and struggles. But all of those thoughts became pointless when they faced each other in combat. It was only them and their swords that did the talking.

The fact that one of them was a super-powered spirit summoned from an age long past and the other a samurai from an alternate Japan meant nothing.

Both were now so focused on landing hits on the other that they zoned out their surroundings, even her best friend and Liege Sakura's cheering went unheard by the Hoshidan samurai as she attempted to capitalize on a wide swing that Okita had thrown at her.

Okita used her superior reflexes to jump away from the wooden strike, which annoyed Hana.

However, before Okita could end the fight, she coughed, and like a scene straight out of a horror novel, blood came out of her mouth and splattered on the ground.

"Oh my gosh, Okita are you alright?!" Hana said in worry, and surprise as this was the first time she'd seen her spit up so much blood before. Normally, Okita had a handkerchief with her at all times to catch her blood coughs, but they were in the middle of a battle so it was impossible.

"Y-yeah, I can keep going-Gack!" More blood came out of her mouth, which looked like a waterfall of blood.

"[RECOVER]" A white light shone over Okita, which healed the damage from her body and caused the bleeding to stop. Noticing this, she took the aforementioned handkerchief and wiped her mouth with it.

"Thanks, Sakura Healer, you are the best," she said toward Hana's liege, who was not happy with Okita's nonchalant attitude, Okita turned her gaze back to Hana, "let's keep going."

"No, you are not going to keep going! You need rest Okita, you can't keep pushing yourself like this!" Sakura reprimanded the Japanese samurai, but the pink-haired girl just shook her head.

"It's part of my legend, unfortunately, because no matter what kind of healing I am given, I will never be able to remove my tuberculosis."

Sakura bit her lips in frustration, she really did not like that answer at all.

Hana shook her head at Sakura when she tried to seek help, she had long come to terms with Okita's illness, as she had been told that even if she took the cure to the disease, it would linger because it was now magically embedded in her. But Sakura was too stubborn to accept stuff like that and would keep insisting that Okita take it easy. Which Okita didn't listen to.

That eventually led Sakura to start tagging along everywhere where Okita was, and at this point, this interaction was just a normal occurrence between the three of them.

Seeing Hana would not back her up, Sakura changed her body posture, one which Hana knew all too well. It was the sort of pose she adopted against really stubborn patients, the lecturing Sakura pose #3. But before she could say anything, the sound of a belly grumbling interrupted her. The source? The flush-faced pink samurai whom she was about to lecture.

"Sorry, it's getting close to breakfast."

Sakura sighed in defeat, "Alright, I guess I can let it slide for now. But we will be having words later Okita."

"Sure, sure. Let's go eat!" Okita said with a positive cheer despite just spitting blood and looking close to death only a minute prior.

Hana, seeing the girls ready to go, followed behind them. Suddenly, Sakura stopped as if she remembered something, or rather someone important.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Oboro should be awake by now, let's go get her."

Hana knew why Sakura was being pushy, ever since they were summoned and Oboro saw the technology of Chaldea, she had been obsessed with their ways. It was so bad that she even occasionally skipped meals, which is why Sakura always insisted on inviting her to meals.

Being who she was. Hana could not refuse, but she also agreed that Oboro was taking her obsession too far and needed to "touch some grass" as Gudako put it.

"I don't mind. It's been a while since I've seen her so why not?"

0-0-0

"Here you are milady. One Eggs Benedict as you ordered," The dutiful Fredrick, who was wearing an apron over his suit of armor told Sakura as he placed the dish in front of her.

"Thank you, Fredrick, it looks delicious." And it did, it was a dish that as the namesake mentioned, contained egg and cheese and a slab of meat called Canadian bacon on top of English muffins.

"Would you like me to refill your green tea milady?" Frederick said after he eyed her teacup which he had placed on their table only a few minutes ago.

"No, thank you, Fredrick, this should be enough."

"I'll be here if you need me." With that piece said, he left. Without his overbearing presence nearby, Sakura could finally listen to the conversation her friends were having.

Oboro was having an animated discussion with Okita about the styles of kimonos between Japan and Hoshido, and while she understood a bit of what they were talking about, Oboro was much more experienced in the art of tailoring, so she could vaguely follow along with some more technical jargon. She was still content with hearing them though, as being with her friends brought her joy.

Especially since Oboro was eating and not just stuck in her room making clothes.

Taking a look at the surrounding foods, Sakura noted she was the only one with what was considered a "Western dish" while Okita, Oboro, and Hana had opted for a "traditional Japanese" meal.

Deciding staring for too long was rude, Sakura decided to taste the food she was given, grabbing a fork and knife, which she had grown used to using, she cut a portion of the food into a bite-sized piece, all while ensuring a little bit of everything was present before skewering it with a fork.

Biting into it, she was pleasantly surprised by the explosion of flavor in her mouth.

Noticing her expression, Okita commented on the food, "They've really improved their skills since the last time."

"I know right? Whatever Benienma taught them seemed to have worked." Oboro said as she ate portions of her steamed white rice and grilled fish.

"Hmm, still not as good as Emiya," Hana remarked as she took a sip of her own green tea.

While many of them nodded in agreement, Okita seemed to disagree, "Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure, while Emiya does have skills to make great Japanese-style meals, when it comes to Western meals like what Sakura is eating, he is lacking."

This comment surprised everyone, as Emiya's food was considered amazing and no one could refute it, yet here was one of his allies, a fellow Japanese saying he was lacking.

"If Western food is not his specialty, then why did Fredrick and Jakob not win the cook-off?" Hana asked.

"Apparently, Saber Artoria loves burgers, so he has gotten a lot of practice making a lot of them." Okita takes a sip of her drink, "Truthfully if he had chosen a different western dish, odd is the cook-off would have been a much closer fight."

"Stick with what you know, huh?" Oboro commented.

"Indeed. But even so, those two deserved that beat down after trying to force him out of the kitchen for good out of jealousy. He pretty much beat them using one of his weaker cooking styles." Okita said before taking another sip of her tea.

Sakura remembers the day when the cook-off happened, She had no doubt Emiya would win, but she knew that both Fredrick and Jakob would not stand down as it pertained to their pride as servants.

She then remembers Emiya, and she smiles sadly.

"Something the matter Sakura? You look glum." Hana asked after noticing her best friend's state.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," her denial only seemed to cause others to grow more suspicious of her behavior. Having so many eyes look at her in scrutiny, Sakura caves, "Well, there is one thing that was on my mind."

Everyone leaned in to hear what Sakura would say next and after a minute of silence, she spoke, "I think Emiya doesn't like me very much."

"What? Why would you think that?" Oboro asked as she was just as surprised as the others that Sakura would think this. All except Okita, who suddenly went quiet.

"Well, it's just… whenever I run into him, he refuses to look at me. Whenever we are paired during a supply run, he does everything he can to avoid speaking a lot with me. And every time I manage to have a face-to-face talk with him, he always seems sad and uncomfortable to be doing so."

When she finished speaking, she expected to be told it was all her imagination, but much to her surprise, she instead heard Okita groan.

"Dammit Emiya."

"Eh?"

"Don't take it too personally, Sakura, that's just how that guy sometimes acts. The cool and distant guy who tries to hide his inner turmoil."

"Is Emiya really that kind of person?" asked Sakura in surprise.

"Eh, he only really acts that way with either people he knows or his family. Do you remember Emiya's sister, that little girl in the frilly pink dress, Illya?"

The Hoshidan princess nodded as she had run into the girl occasionally.

"Yeah, well Emiya acted the same way to her when she was first summoned as he is towards you."

This revelation came as a shock to everyone since it was well-known how close those two were.

Sakura furrowed her brows, "But I have never met him before in my life, as far as I know."

"It could also be because you heavily resemble someone he knows. He did the same to Saber Artoria as well. For all we know, it could be that he has his unique nature as a counter guardian that could be why he acts a certain way with you."

"Counter Guardian?" Sakura has not heard that term used before.

"Basically a spirit summoned by the world to take down a world-ending threat, but that isn't important. We can sit here and speculate all day but that won't change the fact that he is avoiding you, and you want to know why. So do something about it rather than mope, because you'll never get the answers you want that way," Okita finished her lecture and then scarfed down some more rice, which allowed Sakura enough time to ask another question.

"So what should I do? No, what did Illiya and all the others whom Emiya avoided do to get him to open up to him?"

"They cornered him, and forced him to interact with them," Okita said simply.

"I couldn't. I-I don't think it is proper for a stranger to demand answers from him if it truly is too personal. I- forget asked."

"Well, I won't!" Hana said as she sat up from her chair, "I don't care how good his cooking is, or how personal his problems are, he needs to show you proper respect, even if it means I have to beat the snot out of him first!"

"Isn't that him over there?" Oboro, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, said with narrowed eyes as they bore into a peculiar figure on the next table.

Everyone followed her gaze and saw a man with tan skin and white hair sitting next to their table. Sakura could tell the man felt their gazes on him, and the sudden attention caused him to lower the baseball hat as if he were desperately trying to hide his face.

"Hmmm, nah, that's not Emiya. Emiya would never wear a hat." Okita said after taking a close look at the man.

"Wait, really?" Oboro squinted her eyes and they widened in surprise, "Ah, my bad." Oboro apologized, to which the man released a sigh of relief.

"Anyway, If you truly want to get to him, you have to ask him yourself. Maybe at lunch, since that should be the time Gudako wakes up today." Okita cut in immediately after the case of mistaken identity.

"Man, Gudako is still asleep? It's almost noon."Oboro said as she finished the last morsel of her food.

"I mean, it makes sense, she was with us the entire time while on the hunt for Chibi Nobus." Okita suddenly became sheepish, "and again, I am really, really, really sorry about the trouble my stupid ally did."

"It's okay Okita, there's no problem. You don't have to feel bad about it, nothing happened."

"Yet! Nothing happened yet! Those little chibis are a menace. If you leave them, they will cause chaos across the country!" Okita grumbled as the took the last bit of pickled vegetables into her mouth and ate it, "if only Goldie wasn't such an uptight asshole, we would have already rounded them up by now- Uwah, Oboro is making that face again."

Ah, Oboro was making that face again. The one she makes when she meets someone who has Nohrian blood or looks like a Nohrian.

Unfortunately, the mention of Gilgamesh was able to trigger it.

"Geez Oboro, you really need to start controlling your face, as strong as a lot of us are, I don't think anyone bar Karna can protect you if Goldie decides he wants to wipe you off the face of the earth."

"Sorry. I really can't help it. I can't stand that guy, he reminds me too much of those bastards… but I learned my lesson. I just avid him nowadays."

"Yeah, that's a better option. Can't really get skewered if you aren't around him." Okita said, then she paused and looked at Oboro as if she had just figured out the last piece of a puzzle, "So that's why you have been stuck in your room all this time, you've been avoiding Goldie on purpose."

Oboro nodded and was about to speak again but the words died in her throat as her face grew pale. Her eyes shrank and her face contorted like she was desperately trying to keep herself from moving. It proved futile as her face contorted into the most ugly-looking snarl, so ugly and scary in fact that it almost looked like she was having a stroke.

"It's rude to speak of your betters behind their backs, mongrels."

The table grew silent, as the sound of the last person they wanted to hear about appeared.

When they turned around, they all blanched when they saw the familiar-looking image of the King of Heroes looming over them. The fact that the King of Heroes was a child did nothing to soothe their worry, as he was staring at the poor seamstress with cold eyes.

Author's Note: Man, I underestimated how long this would take me. Sorry I haven't been posting more often, I am still getting used to work, and I have been coming home with less energy to do stuff like write, especially with how hot it's been here in California.

My most productive times nowadays are writing during breaks and lunch, and they are really short so it's been slow. All I can say is that I will try my best to get stuff done.

Anyway, like and comment if you liked the chapter.