Moon Cell Irregular

By psychored 1911

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Chapter 4

Several minutes passed, yet to them it felt like hours. The flickering light of countless candles and the reverent silence of the church halls only added to the timeless air that surrounded them. Yet the comforting heat of the candlelight glow paled in comparison to the warmth exchanged by Master and Servant. No, they weren't performing unspeakable acts in the house of God, both of them were far too innocent to even consider such thoughts; they simply held each other in a long, heartfelt embrace. Given the choice, they probably would have stayed like that forever. But time waited for no one, and eventually, as their hearts settled down, they moved from the church's long-worn floors to the row of seats before the altar.

"I assume you have a lot of questions." Ruler said, drying the tears from her eyes. "I will do my best to answer them. Although admittedly, I might not have everything you're looking for."

"It's okay." Hakuno said, "I'll accept whatever you have to tell me."

"Of course." Ruler nodded, "To begin with, I believe the Moon Cell, before it deleted us, created backup data of us and downloaded it into…" she hesitated for a bit, "These bodies. It downloaded you into an alternate version of yourself, while it downloaded me into… Laeticia."

Hakuno blinked. "It could do that?"

"The Moon Cell can create and sustain countless Reality Marbles indefinitely with little effort on its part. Something as simple as creating and downloading backup data is child's play to it." Ruler stated. "However, it cannot just force a download onto anyone without any complications. For the download to occur smoothly, the host must be compatible."

"Compatible?"

"Well, if the body type was incompatible, then there would be a comfort disparity. If the personality and spirituality were incompatible, then the host would suffer from mental instability, and so on and so forth." Ruler shook her head "If it was going to download us safely, the Moon Cell would need to find us compatible hosts for the process to occur. For you, it was easy, since your personality from the Holy Grail War was simply merged with an alternate version of yourself. As for myself, the Moon Cell took the liberty of finding a host back in my home country of France, namely Laeticia. From what I can tell, right after it downloaded my consciousness into hers, the Moon Cell merged them into one; right now, I'm technically both Ruler, the administrator of the Holy Grail War, and Laeticia, the French foreign exchange student."

Ruler's expression turned troubled as she finished that last sentence. It was clear she wasn't exactly comfortable hijacking someone else's life. After all, before she was a Ruler, even before she was a Saint, she was a girl with a strict moral code. In fact, she was just as disturbed as he was over the deaths the Moon Cell brought, perhaps even more so. Something such as this, especially against her will, must have deeply unsettled her.

Hakuno gently slung one hand over her shoulder. "Look, it's not your fault. You couldn't have possibly accounted for the Moon Cell doing something like this. Don't blame yourself for something out of your control. Heck, it's probably more my fault than yours if you think about it."

Ruler smiled sadly. "It would be best not to think too poorly of yourself, Master. Even if you did wish for... this, it's hardly a crime to wish for life after our brief existence together in the Holy Grail War." She giggled. "I do appreciate your pep-talk, Master. I needed that."

"Don't mention it." Hakuno smiled back, "Though it makes me wonder why it didn't just summon you normally instead of downloading you to into Laeticia."

"Well, the Ruler-class isn't supposed to be summoned by a Master; we usually get magic energy from the Moon Cell directly. However, when you managed to summon me, as both a Servant and the Administrator of the Holy Grail War, I got my spiritron supply from both it and you, which had... complications of its own, if you recall." Ruler's voice faltered as she spared an annoyed look at the Moon through the stain-glass window, "Of course, since I was separated from you, and the Moon Cell has deemed it that I couldn't access it directly in my current state, I couldn't exactly obtain my magical energy needs, which actually leads me into this…"

Ruler suddenly stood up, and with a snap of her fingers, materialized her armor, sword and all. "It seems that to make up for the deficiency, the Moon Cell granted me, or rather Laeticia, magic circuits. Maybe the Moon Cell simply grafted them into Laeticia's body, or maybe she had them all along; I cannot be certain."

"Magic circuits?"

"Yes, magic circuits. They are used to charge pseudo-spiritrons for use in spiritron-hacking, or 'code-casting', as most of the participants like to refer to it." Ruler elaborated, "However, that is only if we are within a digital world, where spiritrons are actually present. Their original purpose was to store prana generated by the soul. However, an experiment in the year 1970 caused the world's prana supply to suddenly drain out, leading to magic circuits' use in spiritron-hacking. Nonetheless, since they're supplying magical energy to me as we speak, we can ascertain that such an event did not happen in this world. Either that or the Moon Cell's capabilities are far more than I realized..." she shook her head. "No, that can't be it. There's more to this than I know of. Or perhaps I'm just overthinking it..."

Hakuno folded his arms "If that's the case, then why aren't more people using magecraft instead of psion-based magic?"

Ruler dismissed her armor and sat back down, "Magecraft is a lost art, Master. Whatever magic used in this timeline replaced it, and by the laws of magecraft itself, they cannot coincide. Only Caster-class Servants and those with some way of circumventing the laws of magecraft can actually use it."

"Oh, so since psionic and pushionic magic exist, that means that magecraft couldn't have existed, at least not in the form it was once known as." Hakuno corrected.

"Yes, that." Ruler sighed, muttering something about how that was bugging her for a while before continuing. "However, I've been sensing how you used your... psionic magic, and I can't help but feel underwhelmed by it. Perhaps it's due to the Moon Cell subscribing to different rules of reality, but I doubt such magic will cause me, or any Servant, really, any real harm. I daresay that it might be weaker than spiritron-hacking in a sense." She paused and glanced at him. "Was my explanation too difficult to understand?"

"Not really." Hakuno replied, "It was a bit long, but for the most part it was understandable..."

The Grail War champion couldn't help but smile. His loving Servant was here with him.

She was here with him.

He really couldn't be any happier. After all, he was sure the Moon Cell would've deleted them after it was all over, not give them a chance to live normally. Granted, it somehow merged him into some alternate dimension version of himself and Ruler into Laeticia, but he figured dwelling on it would inevitably trigger some form of existential crisis, so he tried not to think too hard about it. It did make him wonder: could he still use his old spirit-hacking abilities? If he still had his magic circuits, then certainly-

"Master?"

Ruler's voice brought him out of his thoughts. It seemed as though he had simply been staring at her absentmindedly for the past few minutes, judging by the concerned look on her face.

"Master, if you're feeling tired, we can continue this at a later time." Ruler put the back of her hand against his forehead, leaning towards him anxiously.

"Perhaps that's it," Hakuno said, reeling away from her while sheepishly scratching his head. "The Moon Cell's stupid downloads have been throwing off my sleep patterns for months now."

"I understand." Ruler stood up and outstretched her hand to him, smiling the whole time. "Come Master, let's go home."

The following morning, Hakuno slowly awoke from his slumber, greeting the morning sun with a pleasant smile. It had been the first time in months he had a good night's sleep. No stupid downloads from the Moon Cell, no bittersweet flashbacks from the Holy Grail War, no bizarre episodes into the lives of-

Come to think of it, who were those people anyways? From what they saw, he couldn't be ordinary people, no, their abilities far surpassed anything a normal human could do. Could they possibly be… other Servants, before they ascended to the Throne of Heroes? But, if that's the case, whose Servants were they? He and Ruler never fought any of them before; whose could they possibly be? More importantly, why would the Moon Cell show him them in the first place? The spiritron supercomputer, as ambiguous as it was, was completely utilitarian in nature. It wouldn't just send him those dreams if it wasn't relevant to him. Perhaps Ruler would have a better clue of what they were.

"Zzz... Zzz…"

Speaking of the Saint.

Hakuno glanced to his left; Ruler had, at some point in the night, crawled into his bed and cuddled right next to him. He wasn't all that surprised. Occasionally, in some days of the Holy Grail War, there were times when the stress of it all became… hard to bear. It was usually after he… killed his opponents, but every now and then it popped up once something happened. He'd been having nightmares; the Servants, the Masters, the shattered dreams, the regrets… just, the guilt was… almost unspeakable… He had been tossing and turning, crying, yelling in his sleep…

And every time, Ruler went to his bed and hugged him until he settled down and went to sleep. Sometimes she stayed in bed with him, sometimes she didn't. But every time, she made sure he woke soundly the following day.

"Ngh…"

Ruler yawned as she groggily sat up, glancing left and right before settling her gaze at her Master, smiling delightfully.

"...Good morning, Master."

"Good morning to you too." Hakuno replied. "Did you sleep well?"

Ruler nodded, "Of course, I did, you?"

"Best sleep I've had in months." He held her by the shoulder and brought her close, where they held onto each other for a good minute before parting.

"...So Ruler," Hakuno slowly grabbed the sketchbook on his desk. "That True Name Discernment Skill of yours, you still have it, right?"

"Yes. I should still have my entire skillset, despite this form." Ruler said as she went to his mirror and started fixing her hair, "However, it's virtually useless unless the Servant in question is physically within my sight. Why do you ask?"

"Do you think it'll work on drawings?"

"Probably not... wait, what?" Ruler turned back to him with a confused expression.

"When the Moon Cell was downloading into me, it gave me these strange visions." Hakuno said as he gave it to her, "Half of them were about the Holy Grail War. The other half were… well, take a look for yourself."

Ruler took Hakuno's sketchbook and examined each and every drawing he made, "How long have you been having these dreams?"

"Roughly seven months." Hakuno told her "I've been drawing them so I wouldn't forget them. Judging from how the Moon Cell sent them to me, I assumed they were other Servants. In fact..." he flipped to a page titled 'The Burning Saint' and said, "I think it showed me you at one point."

Ruler froze as she gazed upon the portrait of herself before flushing a deep red. "How flattering…"

She fixated on the portrait of herself for a good minute before shaking her head and closing the sketchbook before she could flip to the next page, "Anyways, as I expected, my skill didn't activate upon your drawings."

Hakuno slumped his shoulders "Figures. Well, it was worth a shot, I guess."

"Indeed," Ruler handed the sketchbook back to him, "Your hypothesis might still be correct; these individuals could still be Servants if the Moon Cell sent you visions of them. Unfortunately, besides myself, I don't recognize any of the Servants." She sighed in defeat, "I apologize, Master. I don't have an explanation for you at this time."

"It's alright, Ruler." Hakuno patted her comfortingly on the back, "We'll figure it out, together."

Pausing for a second, he glanced at the clock on his nightstand "We should probably get ready for class now, I guess."

"Agreed." Ruler said as she stood up, leaving the room as Hakuno went for his uniform, which was hanging on his chair. "Oh, and Master?"

"What is it, Ruler?"

She walked back in, smiling coyly, her arms folded behind her back. "You're really cute when you're asleep."

Hakuno flushed red at her sudden choice of words. "W-What?"

Ruler giggled, "Oh, nothing~! Just wanted to let you know!"

With one last, playful smile, she disappeared into her room, leaving Hakuno to think one thing:

Was she always this… flirty?

Later that day, after class had ended, Hakuno yawned as he strolled on over to the 'entrance. Earlier, his class had this physical 'pop quiz' where they had to test their casting speed with the consoles they used for the entrance exam. The consoles themselves were actually just oversized CADs connected to machines, with all the speed-enhancing personalizations removed so casting speed could be properly weighted. Using them over time was supposed to improve their casting speed.

Anyways, his casting time on the console-CAD thing was 987 milliseconds, which was good for his first try, but not exactly the kind of improvement he was looking for… Okay, it was way better than his entrance exam score, but considering he fainted in the middle of the latter, it really much of a fair comparison-

"Kishinami!"

"Kishinami!"

Hakuno whirled his head around, finding Tatsuya and Miyuki standing behind him, their expressions revealing both concern and determination in equal measure.

"Oh, hey guys-"

"What happened yesterday?" Tatsuya immediately interrupted, his stern gaze halting any train of thought Hakuno might've had.

"Who was that woman? How did she know you? How did she know us?" Miyuki followed up, her tone mirroring her brother's.

Hakuno stepped back uneasily as the two Shiba siblings began getting a bit too close for comfort. It didn't really occur to them that they'd be so rattled after Ruler's stunt. Then again, now that he thought about it, while they were friends, he didn't know much about them. Perhaps they were really just worried about them after what happened. Then again, he really couldn't tell him about Ruler, nor about the Moon Cell, or… really anything related to that sick, twisted war.

So, taking a deep breath, he said the only thing he could think of at the moment.

"Guys, calm down and listen to me for a minute." He put a hand on both their shoulders as they both flinched in surprise, "Look, I'm actually touched you guys are so worried about me. However, what happened in the 'train' is between me and her, and me and her alone."

"But-"

"Am I not entitled to my own privacy?"

Tatsuya and Miyuki froze as those words entered their ears, allowing Hakuno to continue.

"Guys, we're best friends. However, I know without a doubt you guys have some form of private life I shouldn't and probably wouldn't want to know. I respect your privacy, so I implore you to do the same, alright? Now, I know you guys have some Student Council work you need to do, so I'm just gonna get out of your hair. See you guys tomorrow."

He patted them both on the shoulders and turned away from the two before they could reply. Was that the shittiest excuse he could've ever given them? Perhaps. Couldn't he have just said that she was an exchange student living at his house? In hindsight, yes. Did he at least mean what he said to them? Of course, he did. Were they going to listen to him and give him some space? Well, all he could do was hope.

They hadn't listened to a damn word.

The following day, after class had ended, he joined Ruler for an afternoon on the town; apparently, she wanted to familiarize herself with the city with him. It wasn't even five minutes into their little stroll when Ruler took notice of them.

"Your friends are following us." She suddenly said as the two reached the sidewalk corner.

"Huh?" Hakuno turned his head to look, only for Ruler to cling onto his arm, shifting his focus onto her instead.

"Don't look at them directly. They'll realize we're onto them." Ruler stated as she pushed her large chest into her arm, making her Master blush.

"What? Then what should we do, Ru-"

"Hey," Ruler gave him a stern look "I am Laeticia, remember?"

"S-Sorry," Hakuno gulped. He nearly forgot how scary she was when she was upset, "What should we do, Laeticia?"

Laeticia glanced at the corner building the next block over and at the alleyway surrounding it, slowly putting her right arm around his waist, "Follow my lead, Hakuno."

As soon as the pedestrian light turned green, Hakuno and Laeticia walked across the walkway and continued until they reached the building's alleyway, where Laeticia, bracing Hakuno's body for the whiplash, bolted at inhuman speeds, speeding through the alleyway until they were at the other end, just as his friends finished crossing the walkway themselves. From what he could see, Tatsuya and Miyuki had roped Erika, Leonhart, and Mizuki into spying on him.

Didn't they have clubs to go to? Or did they suddenly find his private life to be the most fascinating thing ever?

Now, despite being justifiably annoyed by the breach of privacy, Hakuno was more curious about how they thought having a large group tailing them from the same position would not draw attention.

"Eh? Where did they go?" Mizuki asked as she peered into the alley.

"They couldn't have gotten that far," Erika said as she peeked from over Mizuki's shoulder "I mean, it's not they could just have disappeared…"

Hakuno shrugged as the Master and Servant duo approached them from behind, "Tatsuya did say I lacked presence."

Leonhart snorted in agreement, "Yeah, you don't stand out at all, man-" he froze as the group collectively spun around, finding Hakuno and Laeticia standing right behind them "Uhh… we can explain?"

The group moved their conversation into a nearby cafe, where they made some quick introductions before taking seats at a corner booth. It was a quaint place in Hakuno's opinion, what with all the traditional decoration and the wooden furnishings giving it quite the rustic feel. Perhaps it was one of those family-run restaurants.

Anyways, taking their seats, everyone, for one reason or another, kept their eyes on Laeticia and Laeticia alone. Tatsuya and Miyuki were the most obvious, with the former almost glaring at his Servant. That reaction of his seemed a bit too extreme, even with her little stunt. The rest of the group, on the other hand, were just… captivated by her appearance. Perhaps they weren't used to the presence of a foreigner (which was understandable due to how homogenous the country was, though it still felt a little bit racist), or perhaps they were just downright entranced by her beauty, just like he was back in the opening stages of the Holy Grail War.

"So, you're the reason Hakuno's acting all secretive lately." Erika finally said as she took a sip of her drink, drawing Hakuno's attention.

"I'd think you would be more secretive when trying to follow us," Laeticia countered, drumming her fingers on the wooden table.

Leonhart uneasily scratched his head, leaning back against his seat, "Well, Tatsuya did tell us about someone snatching and grabbing Kishinami on the train, so we were kinda curious."

"Yeah, I don't see why Kishinami wouldn't want to tell us about that," Mizuki added, offhandedly stirring her drink with a straw, "You seem like a really nice girl, Laeticia."

Laeticia shook her head, "It's really the other way around, Miss Shibata. I'm the one who asked Hakuno to stay private on my behalf."

Tatsuya raised a brow, staring at her with an analytic expression, "Really? Would you kindly elaborate?"

Laeticia returned the inquisitive gaze with her own. "With all due respect, I recall calling it private for a good reason. And I implore you to respect that wish, Mister Shiba."

From what Hakuno could tell, Tatsuya clearly wanted to retort. Perhaps the latter was used to always having the last word, perhaps he didn't even consider he was being rude in the first place. Hell, perhaps Laeticia somehow intimidated him by sheer force of will alone. Whatever the reason, Tatsuya just closed his mouth and frowned, "You're right. I overstepped my boundaries. I apologize."

"Apology accepted," Laeticia replied with a sincere smile, taking note of Miyuki's split-second double take. "So, Hakuno tells me everyone in First High School uses magic. How exactly does that work? Does everyone have their own personal style of magic or is there some sort of standardized form designated by the state?"

"Eh?" Miyuki blinked "Well, those who come to First High would obviously know the basics of magic, but there are definitely other classifications of magic that people would specialize in. For example, I prefer the use of my Freezing Magic."

"I'm great with Speed-type and Convergence Type Magic." Erika raised her hand.

"I'm good with Fortification Magic." Leonhart pointed his thumb at himself with a grin "I'm planning on using it to-"

"Nobody asked for your life's story, dude." Erika rolled her eyes.

"Hey!"

"I don't exactly specialize in any particular type of magic," Mizuki admitted, her voice slightly louder than normal to catch Erika and Leonhart's attention "However, I am sensitive to Spirit Particle Emission, but it really hurts my eyes so I have to wear special glasses for it."

Tatsuya sighed as Miyuki gave him an urging nudge on the elbow, "Like Mizuki, I have no particular talents. However, I'm trying to become a magic engineer in order to make up for the deficiency."

As everyone finished describing their particular magic specialties, all eyes went to Hakuno, who, prior to that point, had been busy drawing in his sketchbook to actually contribute to the conversation. "What?"

"What?" Erika parroted, "C'mon, everyone else opened up. What's your magic?"

"Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't exactly seen you use magic besides the entrance exam's test CAD." Miyuki noted.

Hakuno met their gazes with a relatively flat face as he put his sketchbook away "Well, in all honesty, I don't really specialize in any form of magic, as far as I'm aware. I was hoping to find my niche if I managed to make it into First High. Hopefully, I'll find something I'm good at once I later, but no luck so far."

Leonhart reassuringly patted him on the back. "Don't worry dude, you got us to help you along the way. You'll find your place in the world."

"...Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it." Hakuno sighed as he checked the holographic clock on the wall before putting a couple of bills on the counter, paying for his and Laeticia's drinks (and a tip). "We should probably get going; there's still a lot of the city we haven't explored yet."

"We could show you guys around if you want." Erika offered. "I know this city like the back of my hand."

Mizuki whipped her head over to the redhead. "Um, Erika, I think they-"

"Yeah, we give you guys the grand tour!" Leonhart agreed, giving Erika a high-five.

Mizuki sighed and mouthed a silent apology while Tatsuya gave Hakuno an expectant look. "Well?"

While part of Hakuno felt a bit exasperated with the drastic change of plans, his sheer gratitude towards his new friends made whatever little negative feelings evaporate as soon as they came. The smile Laeticia gave them all, that more than sealed the deal for him.

"Alright, let's go."

Later that night, once Hakuno and Laeticia returned home, he plopped onto his desk and opened up his sketchbook, stopping only at the last page.

"Here we go."

It was a sketch of the cafe, or the corner booth of the cafe to be more precise. All of his friends have been sitting around the corner. Tatsuya had one arm raised, looking ready to make a statement. Miyuki sat directly to his right, leaning over slightly, swooning over her brother as usual. Leonhart was folding his arms, rolling his eyes in disbelief at the Shiba siblings' antics. Erika was standing up, wagging one finger while trying to say something matter-of-factly. Mizuki had both arms raised with a sweatdrop, trying to get Erika to sit back down. And last but not least, Laeticia was sitting at the side, glancing at him (or the viewer) with an amused, happy expression. At the bottom of the page, he wrote the caption: "Memories are forever, friends are timeless."

After making a couple of last-minute edits and adding a couple of little extra details, he closed the sketchbook and tossed it back on his desk once he was satisfied with the work. He always could work on Tatsuya's birthday present, which was coming up soon, but he was already ahead of schedule for that, so he could put that off for another night.

Hakuno then turned to the window, where the Moon illuminated the night sky with a pale glow.

His fists clenched tightly, and he began to glare at it, tapping into some unknown fury he never knew he held.

"Hey, I know for sure you're watching me, so listen up."

He took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving the Moon.

"You put me through that nightmare of a tournament you called the Holy Grail War. My opponents' blood shall never wash away from my hands. And after all that misery you put me through, even after I won it all in the end, even after I handled Twice for you, you still deleted me, despite being so obvious I had a soul of my own. All because I was nothing more than an irregular piece of code in your eyes. And yet…"

He slowly… unclenched his hands, as tears began to form out of the corner of his eyes.

"I cannot bring myself to hate you. I don't know why, but I can't. Even though my 'life' was short, it was fulfilling. I laughed. I cried. I made friends. Hell, I had to be the worst Master in the world when it first started, yet I still prevailed."

His eyes wandered towards the Command Spells on his hand, before wandering towards his ID tag on the desk.

"Not only that, you did… well, this to me. I am both Hakuno Kishinami, the champion of the Holy Grail War, and Hakuno Kishinami the psionic magician. I… I'm not gonna even try to understand why you did that, nor will I ask how I'm not going insane with all these memories. But…"

He glanced at the opposite wall, where Ruler's room lay just beyond.

"You also returned Ru- Jeanne, to me… After all we said and done… She… she betrayed you for my sake, despite her role as your administrator, yet you still returned her to me… I can't believe I'm saying this, but…"

He hesitated, trying to choose his words as carefully as possible.

"...Thank you, Jeanne means the world to me… and I am forever grateful for that…"

He smiled for a good minute before the fire in his eyes returned once more.

"However, you sent us here for a reason. I may not know why now, but I will find out sooner or later, whether you tell me or not. Just. You. Wait."

[WARNING]

[IMPENDING_CONFLICT_DETECTED]

[ACCURACY_89.25%]

[ESTIMATED_TIMESPAN:_WITHIN_7_DAYS]

[MONITOR_{REGALIA}_RESPONSE_TO_CONFLICT?]

[_]

[{REGALIA}_SURVEILLANCE_IN_PROGRESS]

[ATARAXIA_PROTOCOL_IN_PROGRESS]

A/N: And Done! Wow, I am quite a bit late with this, frankly because I had a lot going for me this past month: finals, family, rewriting scenes I'd ultimately cut, etc. But I'm done with it now! Good, because that first part was simply a lot of exposition. Now, I know not much happened during this chapter, since it was used more to establish Hakuno and Ruler's relationship. As you've noticed, Ruler's just as fond of him as his other Servants. She went through the same experiences that Nero, Tamamo, and EMIYA went through, and trusts Hakuno with all her heart, just like them. Now, after all's been said and done, Happy New Year, and please review!