Fate/Survive: War for the Origin (Fate/Extra SI, Pre-Twice era Grail War)

A sweet whisper shook me out of my morning grogginess, the colors of this virtual world became clearer in my eyes, my hand reached up to my face out of habit to wipe off the dried-off tear upon my eyes surface.

"Wake up." I almost forgot to breathe when I heard that still soft voice again. It was familiar, comforting, yet terrifying at the same time. As if I was hearing the opening of a siren's call.

The temptation was there, to call out to the voice and beg it's owner to embrace me.

But it was just that. Temptation.

It was something that I couldn't afford to do in my situation.

What was my situation? Ah, that was it.

I had momentarily forgotten it after experiencing my first good night's sleep since I awoke in this arena of death... when was that again? Oh right, it's been two weeks.

"Wake up darling~ Or I'm going to kiss you!"

Her voice went from sweet and lovely to loud and demanding in two seconds flat.

"I'm awake damnit! Haa… haa!"

I hear the sound of a phone camera snapping a photo, the phones bought in the "Japan Zone" had, rather idiotically, carried over the real world equivalent's anti-upskirt / voyeurism modifications phone camera modifications.

That was yet another tactical advantage I had to lose out on in order to capitalize on the boost this land had on my partner's capabilities.

"Ahahaha! Hilarious! Nico-kun's face is…!"

This otherworldly beauty was making a crude expression by laughing at my dumb shocked face that she caught using her phone, pointing at it as if it was the funniest photo she had seen on her social media feed for the day.

"Suzuka… What did I say about shortening my name to sound like that video-sharing website…?"

For whatever reason, this body of mine had been assigned the name of Nicodemus, which reminded me of the Pharisee I've read about in the Bible.

"Ehh? Not to do it?"

"Yes. And…?"

"I totally forgot until now! Teehee!"

This girl… This girl was going to be the death of me.

I caught myself before I giggled involuntarily, that was a pretty stupid face, but I wouldn't let her win that easily.

"Did you snicker?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I did nothing of that sort. Anyways, what time is it?"

"Morning, duh!"

I groaned at her typical unhelpful answer.

Reaching to the makeshift bedside drawer, I grabbed ahold of the smartphone that had been with me since Day One, and checked the time.

10:27 am, 887th place.

My rank had risen by 21 places, either a whole bunch of Masters had "logged" out and accepted the small penalty or a whole lot of scrub Masters had been killed, making way for yet more fresh blood at the bottom of the rankings.

My daily "survive another day" points that added to my "score" alone wouldn't have been enough to cause such a high increase in rank.

As dark as the cause of this was, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Now that I had acquired enough points and made it past the 900th place threshold, I would be able to enter the second district of the "Japan Zone".

"Looks like we're going to have a busy day today."

This was the "Grail War" before Twice managed to beat the Gacha and get Buddha. I was brought here all of a sudden at the beginning of when the Moon Cell began organizing a murder-death-kill with almost no rules outside of a "Ranking" system and a complete imbalanced MMORPG like set-up.

Oh, and the cheating Magi (or Spiritron Hackers), can fucking log-out after a fifteen-second chant to sleep in a safe location! That's fucking unfair!

If only because I can't do the same and have to watch my back every waking moment of my life.

I knew that the Pre-Twice Pieceman Moon Cell Grail War involved invited magi simply killing others before fleeing, but I thought it was a hit and run strategy! Not this bullshit!

"Aww, but I wanted to spend today, like, you know, on a super romantic date with my Nico-kun!"

My JK Servant had a skewed sense of priority, as expected!

"...Look at it this way, we don't know when we're going to be bumped down the ranks and be barred from this new area, so this might be our only chance in a while to grind on newer more challenging mobs."

"Eh… I guess a better fight would be nice."

"Also, better mobs equals more currency. More currency means more shopping. And look, new area, new shops."

"What are you doing just standing there! Hurry, hurry! Get changed! Come on Master!" Suzuka had all but dragged me to the bathroom so that I could freshen up.

She sang a completely different tune when I promised her a better shopping experience.

The quantity and quality of goods were very limited in the first district, and more importantly to Suzuka, they didn't sell a proper sailor uniform.

Apparently, one cannot simply prefect a JK's (Joshikousei, high school girl) sailor uniform, without having a couple of variants as reference material.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting to it. Do you want to do your make-up while you're waiting?"

"Yep! I'll do just that."

"Kay'. Oh right, you can play games on my phone if you want."

I knew that she often showed interest in the wide variety of mobile games enabled on my issued smartphone.

"Really? Sweet! Your phone can have way better games than mine, it's kind of unfair though…"

After changing my clothes, I packed up the rest of our meager belongings into a bag, slung it over my shoulders and left with Suzuka at my side.

I made sure that she wore "normal" looking clothes so that she wouldn't stand out as a Servant, while she often griped about it, she followed my orders obediently regardless of her personal feelings.

The barrier to the next inner layer of the city allowed us to pass through unimpeded this time around. There was no real notable change in the virtual city's environment, although the NPC's seem to appear more varied.

We made our way to the "combat zones" designated in the map provided by the Moon Cell provided smartphone. Once we entered, my smartphone would let us know whether someone was already occupying the space and whenever another person had entered it after us.

Of course, the key point was that the combat zones only kept track of who was in it at the time. They wouldn't tell us if someone had been following us from behind or not.

"Suzu-chan, did any Servants follow us?" While it was safe to call her by her True Name since no one else was currently in here, I decided to be cautious in case there's a talented Hacker and called her by a nickname, not wanting to give away her identity or Class right away.

I would only be calling her Saber during combat with another Master once her Class had become apparent, until then, Suzu-chan will do.

Although, she totally took it in the wrong way, and decided that it meant that I accepted her offer to be her boyfriend.

I had nothing against the proposal, personally, that is. It was only natural that the summoned version of Suzuka Gozen would behave this way.

Having read the manga and played FGO for a long period of time, along with being a long time fan of the Fate series, it was only natural to know her character at a deeper level than a more typical Master.

"Eh? Nah! We're good."

"I'll take your word for it. Now, are you up for earning your shopping budget?"

"Puh-lease! I can totally do it! It's super easy!"

Suzuka walked ahead a bit to get the attention of the enemy Aggressor programs and to make sure that I was a safe distance away from her.

I blinked and she was gone from sight. The shockwave from breaking the sound barrier in an instant was only realized a moment after she had left her spot.

The enemy programs generated by the Moon Cell were obliterated in a magnificent deadly dance of blades. Suzuka used her three blades in tandem, a sword in one hand and two blades at her side. Her Supernatural Power skill derived from her divine heritage gave her powerful telekinetic capabilities at an extremely low cost of magic from my end.

I didn't stay at the sidelines for long. Activating one of the consumable [Code Casts] that I had pre-written specifically for the katana I purchased, I charged at a lone Aggressor program and sliced it's arm off (an important procedure for future enemy Masters) with the metal blade empowered by a [Reinforcement] Code Cast.

Visiting the library in order to learn the basics of Cyber Magic turned out to be one of the luckiest and smartest first moves I made when arriving into this world.

I followed up by parrying it's counter-attack, not taking the program's blow straight-on, just as Suzuka had trained me to do so, before launching a decapitating strike.

The soft chime in my phone that announced the collection of "loot" from its destruction helped me to make the decision to move on to the next isolated foe. The loot from the enemy programs that Suzuka had defeated would be registered to my smartphone after a few seconds of delay, depending on the distance, which is why my kill registered on my Moon Cell issued smartphone first.

After clearing the area, the "Boss" Aggressor program appeared and was swiftly dealt with by Suzuka's overly exaggerated spinning blade attack.

The only criticism that I had was that she didn't screech while she was doing it.

We were on the verge of greatness, we were this close!

"JK Power Great Victory!"

Okita-san wants to know your location.

"You are totally stealing Okita's catchphrase, aren't you?"

"Eh? No way! How was I supposed to know some other swordsman had a catchphrase like that?"

"I dunno? Get bonus memories from another timelines Chaldea version of yourself?"

"Heeeh! That sounds like… super troublesome! It gets really complicated when you start talking about parallel worlds you know?"

It always does.

… Tch, I made a mistake and accidentally talked about such knowledge outside the privacy of our rooms.

"Geez! You're having that "oh, I'm such an idiot" look on your face again. Relax a bit!"

"I will relax when I'm not in a spot that can be easily sniped by an Archer class Servant or ganked by a Rider Servant on a mount coming at me at high speeds."

"Aww, you're so serious! But that's what I like about you Master! I can leave all the hard thinking to Master and only do what I'm told instead."

"So you only like me for doing all the brain-related work then?"

"If that were the case then I wouldn't be dating you right? There are a lot of things, like, like, my Mystic Eyes don't work on Master so that's a big plus-" I still don't know why I couldn't be charmed by her Mystic Eyes, "-then you're super gentle when we're alone, and it makes a girl like me very happy to know that Master only ever treats me this special-" You're the only person I can interact with in an honest manner without being killed (NPC's don't count), "-there are a lot of other things, but the most important thing is that our compatibility is like, at 1000%!"

Her earnest face made it very difficult for me to look away from her, gosh, she's so beautiful.

I felt my heart skipped several beats at that confession-like response.

"T-thanks… I mean, that was a lot of nice things you said… um, well my turn, Suzuka, I like you because-"

My phone rang loudly at the notification delivery of another Master and Servant pair entering the battle area.

"What the hell!? What kind of shitty luck is this!?" Suzuka, be grateful that you don't have Lancer Luck, your Luck is B-Ranked, "I was just about to get a wonderful romantic moment with Nico-kun then these dumb fucks just haaaad to interrupt us!"

"Suzu-chan, nevermind that. Can you see them? What's the Servant's appearance?"

"Um… it's some short pink-haired girl? With a white cape, long braided hair and a really stupid looking happy smile."

"First of all, that's not a girl, it's a trap."

"Seriously?!"

"It's an Astolfo, deal with it. Same Strength and Endurance, B Ranked Agility, C Rank Mana, A+ Rank Luck. 4 Noble Phantasms. C-Rank, Anti-Army La Black Luna, don't let him get it off. D-Rank, Anti-Unit, Trap of Argalia, makes you kneel when you are hit, don't get hit-"

I rapidly listed everything I knew about Astolfo as the bickering Master and Servant pair made their way here. Hopefully, it would be enough information for Suzuka to use for an easy victory, preferably she wouldn't need to use any of her Noble Phantasms.

Especially not Trichiliocosm.

That EX-Rank Noble Phantasm might be enough to defeat most Servants but she would risk moving away from the Saint Graph of a Heroic Spirit if used for too long.

"You fool! You should have summoned your Hippogriff and attacked-"

"-Hey, that would be rude! We gotta say hello first!"

"You dimwit! This is a damned war-"

While I would agree with the Master in this case, she was quite obviously, a total bitch.

"Eeeeh? Are both of you finished yet?" Suzuka stood in front of me to intercept any Code Casts, her A-Ranked Magic Resistance would be able to handle anything the enemy Master could throw at us. "You're like, totally wasting my time."

She had unsummoned her swords and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to bring them out.

"Wasting your time? How dare you! You are wasting my time, I, the 47th heir to-"

"Here we go again." Even Astolfo rolled his eyes.

Oh god, it's one of "those" magi that wanted to relive the glory days of when Magecraft still worked on Earth.

"Oi! No Name Bitch Magus A! Are you going to talk us to death or what?"

"Bu-what?! Y-you…!"

"Ahahaha! Well, Master, you gotta admit it sure looked like you were going to try it!" Astolfo, stop being likable, I'm going to have to kill you too you know. Your Luck makes you too dangerous to keep alive.

"Suzu-chan, the Master is mine. Make sure Rider can't use his Noble Phantasms. Go now!"

"Hai ha~i!"

Suzuka attacked while they were distracted, only summoning her blades at the last second, clashing one blade against Astolfo while her other two blades managed to find its way through his body through the surprise attack!

Due to what was probably Astolfo's ungodly luck, only a single blade had stabbed through Astolfo's body, and it was at the non-lethal position of Astolfo's stomach! The other blade has only made a shallow cut across Astolfo's shoulder.

"Wh-"

I wasn't standing idly by, my consumable Code Casts had been activated, reinforcing my body's attributes and renewing the reinforcement on my blade. Creating the full-body reinforcement was a lot more difficult and time-consuming, but it would be worth it.

There are two types of Codecast. External Codecasts are one time use consumable Codecasts, while Internal Codecasts are installed into the body... or rather the Spiritrons structures that makeup one's body. Codecasts that have been installed into the body are very powerful, however seeing as they change the fundamental nature of the user, not many wizards choose to use them. Codecasts implemented through the use of a Mystic Codes fall somewhere in the middle in terms of power and effects on the user.

What I used was a modified External Codecast that would temporarily change my body to it's reinforced state as if an Internal Codecast had been installed, and revert it back after a short while to minimize long-lasting consequences without losing out in terms of effectiveness.

The two weeks of studying and avoiding Master-Servant combat was paying dividends already.

Simply put, not a lot of Masters were going to have a reinforced body as strong as mine, unless they came up with the same idea, took the risk of installing the Code Cast into their bodies, or were utter monsters in real life like Kirei Kotomine.

I closed the distance in one powerful leap forward, during the time it took for me to make the jump, Suzuka had already forced Astolfo away from his Master and was already on the verge of victory through the sheer amount of attacks she was outputting.

"HAAA!"

My blade cut through my enemies arm in spite of the brief resistance the bitch magus's clothes had against the attack.

She screamed in pain after the shock had passed, by then, I was on the verge of decapitating her just as I was taught by my Servant, yet-

-I missed.

The cut was too shallow. For a brief moment, the look on her face and her scream of terror forced me out of my jury-rigged "self-hypnosis" Code Cast that I used to create a "battle persona".

It would take too long to re-cast it. What I had to do was obvious.

I ran up to her and stabbed her through the throat before she could retaliate.

There was no way she could call for help from her Servant, not with her Command Seals severed along with her arm.

It occured to me then. The reason that I spent so long studying Code Casts, gathering information and hiding away wasn't because I wanted to be cautious, but rather, I was subconsciously making excuses to delay my first kill for as long as possible.

I barely registered the victory chime, the fading away of one of Charlemange's Paladins, Suzuka picking up the severed Command Seals and wrapping it up for later use…

"Hey, why the long face Master? We like, totally won!"

"Hmm… yeah… yeah, we did, didn't we? Good job! You're awesome!"

"Don't I know it! You ain't seen nothing yet! My JK power hasn't even reached maxed level. Once I get my uniform then-"

I looked at her bright smile, then decided that I could move on from this. I had to move on from this. If only so that I could be with someone like her for as long as possible.

Whether I had been taken away from my home to die in this god-forsaken death tournament, or whether I was just an unfortunate casualty of multiversal shenanigans, it stopped mattering when the only thing that I had left dear to me was my Servant that was with me from the beginning and my own survival.

"How much QP did we get?"

"Quantum Pieces."

"Whatever! That name is like, not catchy at all."

"Hahaha, you're right about that. Anyways, let's go find a shop that sells herbs."

"Eh? Whyyyyy?"

"It's free Command Seals! I need to embalm the hand as soon as possible to make sure it can be transferred over by one of the NPC's."

They will no doubt cost me quite a bit of currency, but it will be worth it in the end.

We eventually managed to purchase all the clothes that she wanted for now. However, as per usual, I didn't let her put any of the eye-catching ones on until we found a safe place.

"I wanna change my costume soon..." Suzuka whined out loud in one of her deliberate attempts to catch my attention.

"Like I said before, safe place for the night first, then you can change into whatever you're most comfortable in." I had no doubt that I would have to reiterate those words at least once every two or three days. It wasn't going to stick in her head, at least with the current persona she was adopting.

If it was her real self then she would be more accommodating to choosing the "wise" choice.

But I didn't mind.

Her serious self and her foolish "JK" self were both equally charming in my eyes.

In addition to that, the repetitive and mildly annoying trivial complaints of hers kept me grounded.

No matter the kind of face she would make at me, whether it was a mad, happy, teasing, sad look… I would engrave her feelings and actions into my mind.

Whether it as the smart choice or not, she was definitely living life to the fullest. And so long as I can remember how she lived, how she enjoyed life by my side, then I would never drown myself in death and despair.

To think that observing the beloved daughter of the Demon King of the Fourth Heaven taking her JK act this seriously would be a constant reminder to not let myself get affected by the grimness of this section of the multiverse... that could totally be a light novel title.