Fate/Pseudo Night
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Chapter 2
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It was like a dream…
This is the only reason she was chosen to be a Pseudo Servant in the first place. What she did allowed her to be chosen as the vassal for the Goddess.
She wore nothing but white. If she could see it clearly, it surely would have had more. It should be a beautiful dress that matches her hair, with hints of red that matches her eyes, and lines of gold that mixed with her family line.
She takes steps forward.
She shouldn't do this. She would die. If she does what she plans, she will not learn happiness the way a normal person would, she would not fall in love, grow up, learn more about the world.
But it's not like she had the chance to do so if she didn't do this anyway.
She steps forward.
It feels like time has slowed down. The word coming to an end as the floor shakes and cracks with each step she takes.
She sees him.
The victor. The one who was willing to toss aside everything for his own happiness, the one who was willing to protect everything for his own happiness. Whose greed knows no bounds and whose selflessness reaches new heights.
The sacrifice he is willing to make is not his to make.
All she does is smile gently.
She steps besides him.
'No. You won't die.'
She promises him that much. After all, the victor seemed like someone who would keep his promises. But this thing would get in the way of his promise to the one he is willing to sacrifice everything to.
'That's because I'm the one who will close the gate.'
She steps in front of the grail. The corrupted mass screeching in pain as it realizes that it would be closed, it's wish to remain unfulfilled and die in the depths of this empty cavern.
She turns around. 'Do you want to live?'
The boy painfully cries out. She shuts those off. Those would be too painful to hear. He so desperately wants to keep his promise to her, to his own family. She would want nothing more than to take him up on that and leave it all behind.
But he already chose someone else.
If only… maybe if he promised her much earlier… this sacrifice would not have to be made.
'Do you want to live? No matter what kind of life that you will live?'
The boy painfully holds his chest, desperately trying to remember as his pain is unrelenting. Physically from the growing swords and mentally from the loss of his memory.
But his wish is too powerful to remain unspoken.
"I… I want to live!"
She smiles.
'Thank goodness. I was hoping that you would say that.'
She turns to walk away.
"Don't! I'll take that thing with me… so please… don't…" He can't form the words as he forgets what each of them means. He holds out his hand, reaching out to her, almost like a child pleading.
She chuckles. He would never change no matter what. 'I'll show you a miracle. This one's going to be an amazing one. After all, this is the True Magic that everyone wanted to see.'
"I don't care! Just… come back… damn it! Your name… name… your name… is…"
She steps forward. 'You once told me that the older sibling has to protect the younger one, right?'
The boy looks in pain. He doesn't want this outcome. He promised her to be happy, he promised that he would return all those years that was taken away from the two of them and make up for it all. He promised… he promised…
"But I'm the older sibling. So it's my duty to protect my younger brother." The girl turns with a smile.
Illya.
"Illya!"
She steps forward.
"Oh, Great Sage. Open the gates." They praised.
But what came out of the gates was cursed and flooded the world.
"Oh, Great Sage!" They cried. "Close the gates!"
That is the tale of the Holy Grail. Now it is her duty to close it as the white Holy Grail. Before the gates close behind her, she hears the screaming.
"Illya! Illya! Illya! Illya! Illya! ILLYA!"
The gates closed.
She looks forward. Nothing but pure white.
With tears in her eyes, she smiles.
She closes her eyes, performing the Third Magic to save her younger brother.
Shirou Emiya.
The victor of the Fifth Holy Grail War.
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She should be dead.
She feels lifeless, her emotions are drained, her energy sapped out of her. She really doesn't know what's happening anymore or what to do.
'Do you want to live?'
Huh?
Was she… asking herself that?
That was her own question after all. She said that to Shirou.
But what about her?
The answer should be so obvious yet she doubts the voice. It's too good to be true, too unrealistic to even happen.
Yet her mouth opens anyway.
"I do."
The voice chuckles. "Then I hope you'll accommodate the three of us. We may be quite the handful sometimes, but we want what's best for you." The voice suddenly feels much closer to Illya.
"Perhaps you might even get the chance to grant yourself happiness too."
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"This is not Heracles…"
A white bear the size of an entire hill was in front of them all. The summoning process completed. The elders of the Einzbern family just stare in disappointment.
They sigh. "It seems that we… won't… win… what on earth?"
Illyasviel von Einzbern stares in shock as her Servant steps forth. Dressed in a light purple and bearing a purple sword, she makes her appearance in front of the Einzbern family. The Servant skips around till she finds her master.
"You're lost, aren't you?" Her Servant asks her. "Of course, I would know."
Illya's eyes widen. "How… are you…?"
Her Servant chuckles gently. Holding out her hand. "Servant, Alter-Ego. Replacing the Berserker class of this Holy Grail War. My true name is Sitonai, Freya, and Louhi."
The elders are surprised and rejoice as they have managed to summon a Goddess. Divinity surely means that they would win the Holy Grail War.
"However, they're in the back of my mind right now. Who I really am… is Illyasveil von Einzbern." She states with a smile as she holds her past self's hand. Somehow reassuring her past self that she would not only be alright, but that something better would be coming.
Sitonai smiles. "Don't worry, Illya. You'll meet someone amazing soon. He'll make you happy."
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The three Masters sit across the three Servants. Each sitting in front of their hosts and lookalikes. It was an incredibly awkward situation already, so the situation was not made so easy.
Muramasa chuckles. "I'm not sure what you kids call it these days… but do you have something to change this current atmosphere? It's getting kinda-"
"Ah! This is just way too confusing!" Tohsaka slams her head on the desk as her counterpart sighs.
"Shouldn't we have seen this coming? Or at least somehow predicted this?" Ishtar asks her host. To which she receives a death glare.
Tohsaka sighs. "Not when this much nonsense is coming around. Emiya-kun and Sakura are magi? They have Servants that look like themselves so they pretty much summoned themselves?"
Kama raises her hand. "I was actually summoned by the boy. This… hunk was summoned by my host."
Tohsaka screams and smacks her head on the table again. "This is worse than trying out that new DVD player that fake priest sent me!" She silently cries as she lies her head and hopes that this whole day was a dream.
Meanwhile, Kama eyes the old man's twenty plus abs before she gets smacked in the back of the head by Muramasa.
"Don't do that in front of me. It's indecent, kid. Learn some manners." Muramasa grumbles as he sighs looking in front of him.
Kama glares at Muramasa. "I'm not a kid! I'm a goddess! More specifically the Goddess of love! Of course, I'm going to do something like that!"
Ishtar chuckles. "Ah. It seems that we share the same sentiment, Assassin. Which Goddess of love are you?" She was curious about the Assassin Servant but also with the Saber. Perhaps she could ask him to make jewelry for him.
Kama glares at Ishtar. "I'm not so shameless like you, you Golden hissy. You would have sex with anything so long as it has your fancy."
Ishtar's eyes turn gold. "What was…"
Bonk
Bonk
"Both of you behave. I don't care if you're both Goddesses. You act like children." Muramasa somehow conjured up a hammer and smacked both their heads with it. They rub their heads where they were smacked and sit down like children that got grounded.
Tohsaka on the other hand is on the table, her head burning with smoke as she is unable to understand the current situation anymore.
Sakura is just being quiet, unsure of what to say or do in this current situation as what comes next may reveal several different things that she never wanted Shirou to uncover.
Shirou is just confused and dumb as ever.
He raises his hand. "Ummm. I don't get what's going on? Can someone explain to me?"
Tohsaka quietly cries out. "Can someone do that for me too? How the hell are you two Servants?"
Sakura fidgets while Shirou looks in confusion.
"What's a Servant?"
Everyone in the room stares at him.
Muramasa chuckles. "Oh. It's going to be one of those nights."
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"So, if we go to the church, the priest up there's supposed to explain everything." Shirou asks.
Tohsaka wearing her jacket nods. "That's right. It's also to register you for the Holy Grail War." She eyes to Sakura. "That goes for you Sakura. The only two classes that weren't registered yet were the Assassin and the Saber class."
Sakura had to accept that she was going to be a Master. That's the path of a magus. Their way of life. She simply nods.
Shirou looks back and forth between the two of them. "Do… the two of you know each other?"
Tohsaka waves her hand. "She's my underclassman. Of course, I would know her. I help her out from time to time."
Sakura's eyes flinch for a second before nodding. "Yes. There are times when I trip and she helps me back up. Tohsaka's reliable that way."
"Really? But now it looks like the two of you know each other much better than just that."
They stare at him. Almost dumbfounded at how he managed to reach that conclusion simply by observing the two of them for a little while.
Shirou continues. "I don't really get it, but it almost feels like the two of you are forcefully distancing yourselves from each other rather than trying to find a- "
"Emiya-kun."
Tohsaka cuts him off before he speaks. She turns her head towards him and sighs before walking away. Sakura lowers her head before walking ahead of Shirou. It seems that this is a topic that is uncomfortable for them.
Ishtar appears before them after floating around the city and flying down. She whispers to his ear.
"Don't pry into these matters boy. From what I can tell, it's quite a delicate matter." Shirou's eyes widen before Ishtar floats away.
She pokes her Master by the shoulder. "Master. We're nearing the Church."
They nod as they climb the final stretch to reach the mediators of the Holy Grail War.
Meanwhile, a pair of young girls observe the boy. Both donning an attire of purple with one darker and the other lighter and more complex.
"That's strange… there are two of them now." The lighter one mentions. "Well, we'll go off and see them."
The darker one nods, still unsure. She never met this Shirou Emiya, but… if he was anything like Kiritsugu… or if he was anything less…
She would kill him regardless of her Servant.
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"I'm leaving Kirei."
The priest turns his head to his old ally. "At this time of night? You usually don't even notify me of your activities. May I ask why it is that you do so?"
"There is a pest I must get rid of. If I fail to do so, I shall feel humiliation beyond redemption." Gilgamesh's irk reeks off of him like smoke. It would be unwise for anybody to convince him to do anything else.
Kirei closes his bible. "And you seek to do so now?"
Gilgamesh mutters, "No. Not when they're far too close. But I will get them sooner than later."
Gilgamesh turns his head to the priest with eyes pulsating with nerves. "Don't get in my way, Kirei." With that, the Golden King leaves the church building.
Kirei chuckles. This was an interesting development for the Holy Grail War.
The night goes on.
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AN
Not a long chapter, I know. Just wanted this out and done with.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! If not, then thank you for your time!