Hey, it's been a while since this story got an update. Many probably thought I gave up on it, and for good reason- but that's not the case, and now it's back. My plans for it had to be modified thanks to all the new lore we got in the years that have gone by, but it's still alive and still moving forward.
I'm not going to say much else, not after how long I kept you guys waiting, but one thing I'd like to immediately point out for posterity (considering people keep mistaking this) is that this is NOT AN SI FIC. It's merely from the First Person POV, to give Ritsuka more character. At the time I made this, he/she didn't have much of that in canon, which was why it panned out that way.
Before I start, I'd like to thank my Patrons- Tom K., Superpengy, CaptainGIGN, Q-dog-97, and Dakota A. Your support means the world to me.
And btw, Chapter 4 is already up over on my Pat reon. It'll follow the same formula as Pokémon: The RPG, my other new story, in that one Chapter will be posted ahead over there. So when Chapter 5 goes up there, it'll come here, and so on.
That's all. Enjoy.
Chapter 3 - Finis Chaldea, Part 2
Honestly, the moment I saw the Messages the Game had sent me, I realized that I should have just kept my fat mouth shut.
[Bonus Quest: "For Want of a Muse" (Limited-Time)
Description: With your Charm and wit, you have managed to capture the attention of none other than Leonardo Da Vinci, Genius Extraordinaire. Take advantage of that, and you just might be able to get some of the answers that you've been looking for.
Main Objective: Have Da Vinci explain the purpose of the First Order and educate you about the world once hidden from your eyes.
Secret Objective: ?
Reward: [How do you do, fellow Chaldeans?] Temporary Perk (24 Hrs)
Secret Reward: ?
Failure Penalty: Da Vinci Route will be Locked.
Accept: Y/N?
Note: This Quest must be completed within 2 hours.]
Maybe most people would've jumped for joy at the opportunity to get more Rewards from their Gamer power, but this really just added additional stress that I really didn't want after my cathartic time with Mash almost brought me back to normal. Under normal circumstances, I really wouldn't have spoken up beyond what the Game had forced me to via Dialogue, but I guess I was just really tired of not knowing what the hell was going on. Right now, I had a bunch of puzzle pieces floating around in my mind, and the moment I pieced two together another six were popping up. There was the whole thing with my mysterious job as well as why the question of why a rando like me was recruited for it to begin with, my new powers cropping up out of nowhere, a mysterious girl along with an equally mysterious animal, and now freaking Leonardo Da Vinci apparently rising from the grave beyond as one of the hottest women I'd ever seen in my life.
How did I figure out she was actually Da Vinci in the first place? Well, it was a bit of a reach on my part, but there were in fact several bits of information that even a troglodyte like me was able to put together even if it did jack all to explain the greater picture. First, there was the fact that Da Vinci gave off the same strange feeling that Arturia did, which immediately spawned the idea in my mind that she was also a 'Servant' like her. In the Simulation, when she had been explaining her abilities to me, the King of Knights had dropped a little tidbit of information; Servants were basically the ghosts of historical figures summoned by Masters to fight for them. Her actual abilities, such as her Skills and that Noble Phantasm of hers, which was basically a Servant's Super Move connected to their actual history, like Saber and her Excalibur, also kind of led credence to that explanation. So, with that in mind, if Da Vinci also gave off that same feeling and was also a Servant like her, then she had to be some kind of historical figure herself. The next clue came from the Game- the Dialogue Option had actually pointed out the fact that she looked like the Mona Lisa, which was true. However, and here's where things got really theoretical, Lisa del Giocondo wasn't a historical figure herself. The painting was a famous historical artifact, sure, but there was almost no one who actually knew her real name. Even I only learned about it through a random Wikipedia search while browsing out of boredom one day.
With the person who the Mona Lisa was based off of out of the equation, that only left the person who painted it - Da Vinci himself, who definitely was someone just as famous as King Arthur. Yeah, it was a bit weird that he would be resurrected… like that, but Da Vinci was known to be quirky and I had no idea how the whole process of summoning Servants even worked. Something that weird could totally be possible.
…I should be freaking out about how this whole thing went against everything I knew about reality, but after unlocking my Eroge powers and experiencing an undeniably supernatural phenomenon for real, I was starting to get a little numb to it. When the surprises just kept on coming like that, I guess the only thing left to do was just ride the wave. Tapping on the window and accepting the Quest, even though a part of me was begging for a break from mind-boggling revelations, I really did need more answers, caused me to warp back to my original position as time unfroze, bringing my back to reality.
"S-Sempai, how did you know about Ms. Da Vinci?" Mash asked, her eyes wide.
"Yes, how did you know, Fujimaru-san?" Da Vinci added, her own blue orbs glimmering with curiosity and a trace of something else I couldn't identify. "With your background, I'm surprised you were able to figure it out without anyone telling you."
'Figuring it out' may have been a bit of an overstatement, because I didn't exactly have an answer as to how and why Chaldea was summoning the ghosts of famous people in the first place, but I supposed there was no harm in briefly telling them the way I'd pieced things together- minus the part about The Game, of course. Something told me that was a card I needed to keep close to my chest.
"Well, you give off a feeling just like Saber from the Simulator, who said that all Servants were historical figures." I explained. "But Lisa del Giocondo isn't really famous as a person, so that kind of left 'Leonardo Da Vinci' as the only other option, Ma'am."
[Your Affection with Mash Kyrielight has Increased!]
[Your Affection with Leonardo Da Vinci has increased!]
"A feeling, hm?" muttered Da Vinci, raising a hand to her chin. "I see… I see… so that's how it is. I suppose the tests were on the money, then..."
Her thoughtful musing was a direct contrast to Mash's expression of awe, which she made absolutely zero effort to hide.
"That's amazing, Sempai!" she cried. "I don't think anyone who didn't already know was able to guess Da Vinci-san's identity that fast."
For some reason, I highly doubted that. I was far from the smartest person around, and the Game only gave me a single hint at the end there. I'm sure other people were also capable of putting the clues together. Still, can't deny that it felt good to get that praise, even if I didn't really feel like I deserved it. After all, it may have been close to solid, but it was still just a guess rather than a concrete conclusion.
"Oh, I nearly forgot why I came over here in the first place!" Da Vinci said, snapping her fingers and giving us a playful smile. "I'll need to borrow Fujimaru-kun here for a bit, Mash. I'm sorry to tear you away from your new friend, but with the operation starting only hours from now we don't have much time to get him up to speed."
"I-it's no problem, Ms. Da Vinci!" squeaked Mash, flushing. "Please take care of Sempai! We really don't have much time…"
"You wound me, Mash!" she replied rather dramatically. "Don't you worry, I'll make sure he knows all the important details and send him along to you all in time for the big event."
By their words, I'm guessing that one of those 'research expeditions' that I'd been told about was about to be launched, meaning I had basically been a last-minute hire. According to the recruiter, it was a matter of genetic stability, but after the whole Servant business I was starting to wonder whether that was really the case, especially because I doubted a few hours was enough to prepare a guy for a whole-ass expedition. Though I had to admit, it was good that there was at least someone was finally offering to explain things to me, because I was getting real tired of guessing stuff at this point.
Though at least the biggest of the revelations was behind me, right?
Wrong.
Oh man, was I wrong.
Where do I even begin?
"So, to sum it up- Magic is real, Earth's future went up in smoke because of some kind of disaster, and we need to use time travel in order to fix it?"
"Hmm… yeah, that's about it! Though I'm sure the Director would have an aneurysm if you described it that way in front of her." Da Vinci said cheerfully, as if she didn't just drop another pair of nukes on me.
I was almost glad again to see the world freeze, because it meant I could let my emotions out without anyone knowing.
"Did my life just become a freaking Anime out of nowhere?!" I yelled, one step short of slamming my own head against the wall.
'Research expedition', my ass! This was basically just a real-life movie plot!
[A - I-I'm not built for this! Please let me go home!]
[B - It's an honor to fight for the future of mankind! Count me in!]
[C - I feel like I'm really underqualified for this, but I'll try to do my best.]
I wanted to pick Option A. I wanted to so freaking bad. I knew it was the wrong choice from a Dating Sim perspective, and yet my hand was inching towards it. Home sounded pretty great right about now, a place away from all the craziness that had injected itself into my life. People like me weren't meant to save the world in the first place; that 'privilege' was reserved for those who could actually do anything worth a damn, like the literal wizards who ran this place. Literally a day ago, I'd been an average guy whose biggest worry had been about how to get into a good college for an Architecture degree, and now I was being asked to save the world- and that wasn't even taking into account the whole Gamer situation on the side. I'd probably gotten more world-shattering revelations in the last twenty-four hours than I did in the last fifteen years of my life, including times like when I found out Santa Claus wasn't real, and I just wanted a freaking nap more than anything right now. With that thought in mind, I slid up against the wall, grateful that the Game at least didn't force me to pick Dialogues on a freaking time limit. Despite my wishes, I doubted I could actually sleep with these thoughts swimming around in my head, but it really was nice to just be able to sit down and digest. Honestly, it was probably the only thing keeping my mind on the right track.
'This must be what my powers are for.' I realized, after having sat on it for 10 minutes. 'It's too much of a coincidence that they manifested literally as soon as this all began.' Like I'd thought earlier, Gamer abilities in fiction generally only appeared in people who would be forced to use them, for one thing or another. Actually, it wasn't even a trope exclusive to Gamer stories either; in pretty much every form of fictional media I could think of, the protagonist's powers arise or get discovered right before they get thrown face-first into some kind of situation. It's something critical to the progression of any kind of tale. I wouldn't call myself 'protagonist material' by any means, but I'd have to be absolutely brain-dead to ignore the signs. Honestly, I should have connected the dots earlier even before my powers came in- a normal teen like me being recruited to a mysterious organization in Antarctica out of nowhere for some improperly explained reason would've probably set off the alarm bells in the mind of someone smarter.
The worst part was probably the knowledge that I was likely way too far down the rabbit hole to be able to back out now. Considering the circumstances, not to mention the contract I signed when I got employed by Chaldea, there was no way for me to just pack my bags and get the hell out of dodge. Not to mention, my power… I don't think there was an Eroge in the world that let you leave the 'Map' where the whole game went down for good. Though I hadn't experienced any penalty from the Game yet, the Quests made it fairly obvious that it was capable of doing so easily, which only made sense considering its ability to stop time and manipulate reality. Hence it could easily prevent me from leaving Chaldea. No, as much as it frustrated me what kind of mire I'd gotten my foot stuck in, I was in it for the long haul. I could feel it in my bones, and that unpleasant truth made my cowardly heart beat painfully fast.
"In that case…" I said out loud, looking over at the frozen Da Vinci and trying to swallow my surging dread. "Might as well go all-in."
Besides, it wasn't like I was getting sent out to the front lines to get blown up or something. There were a ton of other Master Candidates apart from me, the most prominent of them all being Team A, a team of Magus hotshots personally selected by the Founder of Chaldea, Marisbury Animusphere. In fact, as the last person recruited and a non-Magus, it was entirely possible I would just get some kind of logistical role like ferrying supplies for the actually useful Masters. I just needed to keep my head down and ride the wave as best as I could.
I flicked my finger up, and chose the third Option- mainly because I don't think I could've convincingly followed-up on Option B without looking like a moron.
"I feel like I'm really underqualified for this, but I'll try to do my best." I said, my hand moving on its own to rub the back of my neck.
[Your Affection with Leonardo Da Vinci has increased!]
"You're taking this surprisingly well." Da Vinci remarked, a small smile on her face. "That's very good. In that case, why don't we drop by my Workshop for a second?
'No, I'm NOT! I'm really not!' I screamed mentally, though I did my best not to let it show. Instead, I focused on the second part of her statement.
"Workshop?" A couple minutes before, we'd split up with Mash and Da Vinci had led me down the hall.
During that time, the Servant had begun explaining everything to me. Honestly, it was kind of surprising how easy it was to understand what she was saying. Like, maybe it was just a stereotype on my part, but I felt that geniuses of her caliber would have a harder time trying to teach anything to ordinary people. But no, she made it pretty easy for me to understand, though I did notice that in doing so she'd cut out a lot of stuff. Not that I minded, because while I wasn't really sure I trusted her or anything, I at least believed that she would give me info she thought I needed to know.
"Of course! You didn't think that a genius like myself would be made to work in a simple laboratory, right?" Da Vinci teased.
Huh, when you put it that way…
"That… checks out." I admitted sheepishly, my cheeks going red in embarrassment. "By the way, um, how does one learn magic?"
Since I'd decided to commit to my role as a 'Master', GOD, that still sounds weird, it only made sense to try and stack things a bit more in my favor. Learning actual Spells sounded like a pretty good way of increasing my survival chances, but even apart from that, who didn't want to learn actual magic?
"Well, it's not something you can just learn within a few hours, Fujimaru-kun. Even at the simplest level, Magecraft is something that requires a number of different factors to perform." Said Da Vinci gently. "Though that being said, at the moment we can at least check if you have the potential and then see what we can do from there."
I guess that wasn't a no then, at the very least.
"Ah, here we are!" We had reached a door, one which was appropriately labeled 'Da Vinci's Workshop' with a rather fancy-looking wooden plaque.
As we drew near, it slid open on my own, causing a near-golden glow to emanate from within. Curiously, I followed the Heroic Spirit inside, and froze in my tracks as I stepped into a completely different world.
"Wow…" I couldn't help but murmur, my eyes going wide.
In direct contrast to the cold and clinical aesthetic of the rest of Chaldea, the Workshop was covered in colorful tiles and yellow-stained glass windows that gave off a distinctly more old-fashioned vibe. Wooden bookshelves, desks and other items were placed all over the room somewhat haphazardly, though not bad enough to truly call it messy or untamed. Strange devices of all sorts filled the room, and pinned schematics for inventions I couldn't even begin to comprehend lined the walls. Each and every bookshelf was filled to the brim with books of various colors and thickness, and I could only imagine what kind of secrets they held. The craziest part was perhaps how the interior was definitely much larger than it had any right to be, about the size of four classrooms by my estimate. Honestly, it was definitely the kind of place where a person like Leonardo Da Vinci would choose to work.
"Pretty amazing, yes?" Said Da Vinci, not an ounce of modesty present in her tone. "I find this kind of environment helps me think more than those drab colors they use outside. Now then, take a seat over there and we can get started. While I'd like to give you a small tour, we're unfortunately running pretty short on time."
I did as the genius instructed, sitting on one of the wooden chairs strewn near the table at the center of the room. She rooted around for a moment, before coming back holding some kind of cuff that she carefully applied to my arm as if she was going to check my blood pressure.
"This is going to hurt for a second, so… brace yourself!" She warned, and I immediately steeled myself in preparation for whatever was coming.
Even then, I couldn't stop a hiss of pain from escaping me as the cuff tightened for a second, before what felt like liquid fire was injected straight into my veins. For a brief moment, cyan patterns resembling circuitry flared to life over my skin, gleaming like LED lights as something that had been dormant within me since the day I was born suddenly sputtered to life- kind of like a car engine. Under ordinary circumstances, I probably would've admired how cool it looked, but such thoughts were shoved to the back of my mind by the burning agony that spread throughout my body like a shockwave. It happened so fast that I didn't even get to cry out before the heat reached my face, causing my consciousness to flicker and die out.
"Ow…" I muttered tiredly when I woke up, rubbing my arms to try and get the phantom feeling of being burned out of my body. "I know you said that it was going to hurt, but man that was worse than what I was expecting."
"Well, Fujimaru-kun, if it makes you feel any better, it won't hurt nearly as much from now on! The first time is always a little rough, you see." Said Da Vinci, who was sitting a couple feet away from me and painting something on a blank canvas with her staff floating next to her. "Plus, there's no need to do anything of this sort again. You should already have an idea of how to activate your Magic Circuits on your own now. Think carefully about how you felt when your Circuits were activated, and the answer should come to you."
Well, that was a relief I guess. I'm not sure I would've been able to go down the Magic Skill Tree over here if it hurt that freaking much each time I tried to cast a Spell. Or you know, knock me out within seconds. I closed my eyes and focused, following Da Vinci's instructions to think back on what had just happened. After a few seconds, the answer hit me.
'I did think of Magic Circuits as a car engine right?' I realized, before I mentally zoomed in on that line of thought. 'In that case…'
In my mind's eye, I envisioned twisting the ignition key of this metaphorical engine, and grinned as my Magic Circuits flared to life again. Thankfully, it really wasn't as terribly painful as before, but to my surprise it was still distinctly uncomfortable. The way I saw it, being able to wield magical powers was something that should've made you feel powerful, like something much greater than a normal human. To a small degree, that feeling was there- I could feel the energy running through me, faint but perceptible, a clear indicator that I had the ability to do more than what I'd ever thought possible before I'd joined Chaldea. Yet, that sensation was contrasted by the pins-and-needles feeling that seemed to envelop my entire body from the moment that my Circuits were activated. I think it was called paresthesia?
"Um, it still feels kind of… awkward." I said with a small frown, looking down at my faintly glowing arms. "Is it supposed to be like that or is there something I'm doing wrong?"
Da Vinci put what looked like the final stroke of her painting to the canvas, before setting her paintbrush down and looking at me with a wry grin on her face.
"Nope, you're doing it right! See, despite the fact that humans are born with Magic Circuits, they aren't quite natural to our kind. Ours isn't a species innately capable of enacting Mysteries at the baseline, not like Gods or the Fae for example, so there's a bit of 'rejection', in a manner of speaking." I guess the logic checked out, though it was still something disappointing to have my headcanon on magic dashed right out the gate.
Still, a little pain and numbness wasn't about to stop me from trying to cram as much magical knowledge into my brain as I could in the little time I had left before the start of the 'First Order'.
"So, do I have the potential?" I asked, feeling a little nervous. It may have seemed like a stupid question considering I'd been able to activate my pipes, but regardless of how magic actually worked in real life I knew there had to be much more to it than that.
Considering that it could play a key role in my survival chances coming forward, and was something much more directly useful than the Game, I'd be in a tight spot if I didn't have the 'talent'.
"In a manner of speaking, yes." the Heroic Spirit replied, making me wince at the ambiguity in her words. "You have eighteen Magical Circuits of D-Rank Quality, which is pretty close to the average baseline for a Magus- and pretty amazing for someone without any lineage. With this, you should be more than capable of learning the basics without issue. However, more complex forms of Magecraft will likely be beyond you. It's not really your fault, Fujimaru-kun; I didn't mention this before, but for most people the potential for Magecraft is connected to the Family they hail from. I don't think the in-depth explanation is really necessary right now, but think of it as a form of research. A Magus does research, then passes it on to their child, who then does the same and passes it to their child, and so on. Over the years, you can imagine just how much of an advantage the people of that family would have against someone who had just started their research, yes?"
"Yeah, I think I get it." I replied thoughtfully. "Well, I guess that's the best I could've hoped for."
I probably should've been more disappointed, but after hearing Da Vinci's explanation I realized that there really wasn't a chance from the get-go. Unlike other fields, where my lack of talent was solely a 'me' problem, this was more of a familial thing. Nothing I could do about it. Hey, at least I could apparently learn the basic Spells- which was already more than I'd expected, honestly.
"Don't put yourself down just yet, Fujimaru-kun." Said the inventor, her eyes twinkling. "While your Circuits are average, your Elemental Affinity and Origin on the other hand are fairly interesting. You probably know what the former refers to, but Origins are essentially the 'definition of one's existence'. If an Affinity is a general alignment, one's Origin is both their starting point and the path they'll take. Unlike Elemental Affinities however, it's best to be careful with Origins; because while knowing them is fine, Awakening to them sometimes has… side effects."
"Side effects?" I parroted, a bead of sweat running down my temple.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that, that only happens in rather extreme cases- and I can tell you aren't one of them. You seem perfectly fine, despite the fact that your Origin was already Awakened before I checked your Circuits!" said Da Vinci, waving her hand casually as if to ward off my concern. Her calm smile was enough to restore some semblance of confidence to my ailing heart. "I'm only telling you about them just to complement your own knowledge. This sort of thing is something most Magi are aware of, after all! Awakening to an Origin generally causes a big change and makes it harder to deviate from said Origin, which is why novices are discouraged from attempting it."
My face twisted slightly into a frown from the information I'd been given. It was good to know that I was apparently in the clear when it came to these mysterious side effects I'd rather not think more about, but that begged the question of how my Origin had apparently been Awakened to begin with.
I hadn't ever experienced any drastic shifts in my life since the day Mr. Nakamura had passed away, so I couldn't figure out where this mysterious Origin of mine had entered the scene.
'Actually, hold on…' I thought to myself, on the verge of an epiphany. 'There has been a drastic shift in my life, and pretty recently too.'
…
"No…" I gasped, the horrible realization hitting me like a truck.
No, it couldn't be. I refused to believe it.
"Ah, just to let you know…" Said Da Vinci, smirking, clearly living it up at my expense. "Your Elemental Affinity is Ether, and your Origin is… Love!"
The urge to scream welled up within me once again, and I nearly stuffed my own arm down my throat in order to push it back down.
'Of. Fucking. COURSE!' I seethed, trying to keep the embarrassed flush from my cheeks down. Predictably, it didn't work, and the woman across from me started laughing again.
[Leonardo Da Vinci's Bond has reached Level 2!]
'Not like thiiiiis!' I wailed mentally. 'You're embarrassing me in front of one of the most famous people alive, you piece of shit!'
There was no way my natural Origin was Love. I'd never had a girlfriend before, and while I was a healthy teenager I wasn't a horndog either. If anything, my Origin would have to be something like 'Mediocrity' if my personal history was any indicator. It had to be something the Game had done to me when it turned me into a real life Eroge Protagonist. I refused to believe anything else.
"O-oh, that's-" I stuttered, fumbling to try and say something that could help me save face, and failing miserably.
"Ha ha, I don't think you need to be ashamed of it~!" said Da Vinci, though the smile on her face made me feel the opposite way. "Considering that you seem completely normal despite having an Awakened Origin like that one, it's possible that 'Love' in your case refers to familial love or just the concept of liking something in general. No living being can be defined with just a word, after all!"
"Right…" I replied, feeling more drained than I had any right to be.
I wasn't sure whether she was telling me this just to make me feel better, but I chose to believe that she did, if only to prevent myself from taking more mental damage. Shaking off the feeling of wanting to sink into the ground, I forced myself to pay close attention as she continued speaking.
"Anyways, as I was saying earlier, your combination of 'Ether' and 'Love' could lead to some interesting outcomes. Ether is a fairly rare Element among Magi, and Awakened Origins are known to allow their owner's to bypass some of the common laws of Magecraft- it's why many try to Awaken theirs prematurely, and suffer the consequences. However, that sort of thing isn't something that can be taught, because Magecraft relating to one's Origin in most cases is something that can only be understood and developed by oneself. If you want this genius' advice, learn the basics first and gain a proper understanding of Magecraft. Then, you can try and develop something for yourself or at the very least try to learn more advanced Support Magecraft. Regardless of how your Origin can be interpreted, I think that it at the very least should give you an affinity for those types of Spells!" She said, her earlier mirth still present.
"Thank you very much for the recommendation, Ms. Da Vinci." I said, bowing. While I wasn't much closer to being a bona-fide wizard than before, her words had lit a spark in me and gave me a clear direction to go down. I doubted it would be easy, especially since I wasn't sure how much help the Game would be thanks to its very nature, but getting a guarantee from freaking Leonardo Da Vinci that I had what it took, at least to some degree, was a huge motivator. "I'll keep your instructions in mind."
"Don't you worry about it! It's actually refreshing for someone to thank me for my advice, most of the Magi around here aren't actually too fond of me. I suppose I'm just too dazzling for them, hm?" She said, a rather contemptuous smile playing across her perfect lips. Her expression then became more genuine as she continued with a statement that left me befuddled. "Besides, I got something from you in return as well, so I'm quite satisfied on my end too!"
Huh?
"What do you-" I began, only for my eyes to widen as I finally saw the painting that Da Vinci had just made as she moved it over to her desk.
It was me. Painted on that canvas was a perfect rendition of myself… knocked out in my chair. Somehow though, despite the rather unflattering position I'd been painted in, it exuded an aura of sheer radiance that managed to nearly take my breath away. I had never thought of myself as handsome before, but the guy in that painting couldn't be anything else. Somehow, Da Vinci didn't strike me as the type to add any… embellishments, so that meant that the person depicted on that canvas was the result of having a Charm Stat of four. In that old game that seemed to mirror my own System perfectly in terms of mechanics, Ranks one-to-five of a Stat or Talent represented the realm of Humans while five-to-ten represented the realm of the Divine. By that metric, my level of Charm would mean that I was approaching pretty close to what could be considered peak human attractiveness. And wasn't that a weird thought?
"Oh, do you like it?" asked Da Vinci, looking fairly pleased at her work. "A bit of a rush job, but I think I managed to capture your likeness pretty well! Sorry for not asking permission, but the opportunity was just too good…"
"I… um, it's ok." I replied awkwardly, wondering where the hell my Dialogue Options had absconded to. "I-I'm honored?"
[Your Affection with Leonardo Da Vinci has increased!]
"Oh no, I had a lot of fun!" she said happily. "I don't think I've encountered such a good model since my summoning here! Hey, I don't want to send you off empty-handed, so why don't I teach you a little something first?
Things were moving a little fast, and I was starting to get whiplash from how quickly my train of thought was being made to shift. Still, I wasn't about to let go of the opportunity dangled right in front of me.
"Thank you very much, Ms. Da Vinci."
"First thing's first, Fujimaru-kun- just call me Da Vinci-chan!"
I winced, rubbing at my arms as I walked through the hallways of Chaldea. It had been an hour since Da Vinci- sorry, Da Vinci-chan had become my first magic teacher, a crazy sentence, I know, and I was now a seasoned Magus in my own right.
Ok, that was a lie. I hadn't even learned any Spells, nor did I even start to. Rather, my eccentric new teacher had instead given me a lecture on the very fundamentals of how magic worked. The Cliffnotes of what I learned went as such; basically, Magecraft was kind of like executing a program to enact a 'Mystery' on the world. Magic Circuits were kind of like processors that helped execute said program, while Magical Energy acted as the power supply to run the whole operation. There were two main 'types' of Magical Energy, that being Mana and Od. Mana was the energy in the environment, while Od was the energy inherent to the body. According to Da Vinci-chan, the 'Qi' used by those Chinese martial artists was actually just another word for Od, which was interesting to know. Using Od alone for casting Spells was apparently a no-go, because people just didn't have too much of it. It only worked for Spells that affected the body directly like 'Reinforcement', which was exactly what it sounded like and something I was very eager to learn soon.
Instead, people used Mana to perform Magecraft, taking it into their Circuits from the world around them. You'd think that meant a Magus could basically use infinite Spells because they were using the power of the environment, but that wasn't actually the case because Magic Circuits were like processors in a different way- they started overheating and causing problems if too much power was run through them for too long. And, there was the fact that apparently the amount of Mana in the environment was a fraction of what it used to be thanks to the advent of human civilization into the realm of science. Combine that with the fact that the power of Mysteries went down the more people knew about them, and it was plainly obvious to see why Magi were apparently a very secretive bunch.
'Though I have a feeling she was downplaying that…' I thought, making an idle sound in my throat. Anyhow, what the genius had eventually taught me in the short time we had left before she was called away to make some last-minute checks by some guy who looked like an evil version of Willy Wonka was how to 'take in' Mana from the atmosphere and push it out using my Circuits. This was the most basic, fundamental skill of a Magus, and it was what was needed in order to activate the Spells built into our Uniforms. Apparently Chaldea wasn't about to just leave its non-magical staff out to dry, since practically anyone could use these once they learned to channel Magical Energy - something pretty much everyone could do no matter how few Circuits you had, unless you had none, of course. I couldn't really say I was all that good at it, considering I'd only gotten half an hour to really practice it, but I just didn't have the right to ask for anymore. Da Vinci had taken time out of her schedule to help me for as long as she could despite her workload, so I would just have to learn more from my Sempais in the force. A lot of them were Mages, so a few of them might have a couple pointers to give.
But those were things for later, because right now I was on my way to the Central Command Room for the mandatory Orientation that all of us Masters were being given before we were Rayshifted out into the field. I can't lie and say that I wasn't nervous… but… Well, I suppose there was no point thinking about that any further. Instead, I mentally brought up the Messages from the Game that popped up during my lesson.
[Congratulations! Bonus Quest: "For Want of a Muse" has been completed. Please check your Quest Rewards in the Menu after reading the Report!]
[Quest Report:
Main Objective: Have Da Vinci explain the purpose of the First Order and educate you about the world once hidden from your eyes. - Completed!
Secret Objective: Have Da Vinci create a form of Art in your image. - Completed!
Reward: [How do you do, fellow Chaldeans?] Temporary Perk (24 Hrs)
Secret Reward: [Painting Talent]
There was something really funny about the fact that I somehow cleared the Secret Objective without even meaning to. Da Vinci had just done that on her own when I got knocked out by that Circuit-activating cuff of hers. Though the 'Reward' from it was something I didn't see there being any use for in the foreseeable future, so I guess that was that. The main Quest Reward though, was something rather interesting. A Perk that lasted only 24 hours was an interesting prospect, that was for sure. It was when I wondered about what the Perk did that I realized I had never actually even opened the Menu of my System once in the hours that it had been active. Not that it was really my fault- I'd been hit with bombshell after bombshell, and hadn't gotten the opportunity to really be alone either.
Better late than never I guess. Menu, I whispered, and a brand new screen popped up in front of me as time froze to a halt.
[Status] (!)
[Bonds] (!)
[Quests] (!)
[Inventory] (!)
[Skills] (!)
[Perks] (!)
[Achievements]
[Gallery]
Almost every single tab on the Menu had a little notification symbol next to it, and since I quite literally had all the time in the world I decided to take it from the top and work my way down.
[Status]
[Name: Ritsuka Fujimaru
Age: 15
Titles: None
Stats:
Aura - 1/10
Charm - 4/10
Wisdom - 2/10
Luck - 5/10 (Milestone Perk can be Claimed!)
Talents:
Painting - Rank 1 (New!)
Traits: None]
The first section, Status, was basically exactly what you'd expect from it by hearing the name. It had my name, age, Stats, Talents and Traits. The first thing I did was check the Stats, which thankfully worked just as I had initially thought according to their descriptions, and then claimed the 'Milestone Perk' under Luck. What I received was… something quite extraordinary, though I wasn't sure whether it was in a good way or a bad way.
[Four-Leaf Clover: Milestone Perk awarded upon reaching a Luck Stat of 5. Guarantees a favorable Encounter when meeting a Heroine whose Bond has not yet been Unlocked for the first time. Only works once. This Perk is capable of evolving further when the conditions are met.]
Funnily enough, this was probably the first major deviation I could remember from that old game in my memory and the System I had now, barring the obvious fact that there were different 'Heroines'. The Milestone Perk for Luck in that game was basically just a Crit Booster. This was… completely different. It really brought to mind the fact that I was still on the fence bout this whole Dating Sim business in the first place, now that the initial confusion and excitement had worn off. Sure, I had played along with it till now, but that was because it hadn't left me an option between making people like me and making people think I was gutter trash. As much as I was on the fence about 'Bonding' with girls like this, I wasn't some masochist who wanted everyone to hate my guts either. Now let me be clear- I was as much a teenage boy as everyone else, and I was no stranger to how the girls I'd met since coming to Chaldea and unlocking my powers were significantly more attractive than anyone I had ever seen before.
Hell, I'd literally spent time outright leering at Da Vinci during the time stop, so I couldn't claim moral superiority over my peers. Being given this kind of power was probably a dream for both guys and girls my age, second only to receiving a proper RPG Gamer ability. But even so, I firmly believed that it should have stayed a dream, because this kind of power had too many slippery slopes for me to be comfortable with it. I could think of multiple ways a less scrupulous person could take advantage of it, and the prospects terrified me. There was also the question of whether love born from the Game, because although it might have referred to them as 'Bonds', that's exactly what they were supposed to indicate, was genuine or something artificially induced. It just gave off a feeling of wrongness that I couldn't ignore.
But could I even do anything about it? I already knew the Game had more control over me than it seemed at first glance, and considering it could literally puppet my body for Dialogue Options that was saying a lot. Perhaps the only thing it didn't do was brainwash me like some Origins apparently did, but that was the only silver lining to be found.
"Damn it all." I sighed into the frozen world, leaning my forehead against the wall. I wished I was smarter, wiser, someone capable of stamping out these fears and insecurities before they could even begin plaguing me. But we really can't have everything I want, and powers or not at the end of the day I was just another human, and a teenager at that. "Guess the only thing I can do is get their Bonds up a few Levels and then keep my distance."
Yeah, that was the strat I think. Since the Game wasn't giving me a way to stop the process without outright insulting them to their faces or making myself look much worse than I actually was, the best plan was to just get their Bond Levels to like three or something at most, and then slowly reduce my interactions with them so that I didn't raise it any higher. That way we would remain friends until I could leave Chaldea, and then I didn't have to worry about it again. Besides, I highly doubted I would get much time to flirt around while fighting to save the world. Since my powers seemed tied to the First Order somehow, it was possible they would deactivate when I returned home. Sure, I'd miss actually being hot when that happened, but that was a small price to pay in my opinion. Nodding to myself now that I had a definite plan in mind, I continued going through the Menu.
The Bonds tab wasn't anything special, just listing out the three Heroines on my list in sequential order. According to the Game, the amount of information that would be visible in the Bonds Tab scaled with the Wisdom Stat, so it wasn't any real surprise to find it mostly barren. No, the next surprise was from the Inventory option down the line.
[Inventory]
[Avalon Cookie: When broken, this Item transports the Player and any Heroines whose Routes have been Unlocked in his immediate vicinity to the realm of Avalon for a single second. Requires a Heroine to be within said vicinity in order to be activated. One-Time Use Only.]
The way my Inventory worked was not like the usual depictions that you see in most Gamer stories. I couldn't actually store anything in there, and it was basically just like a gift box for Items given by the Game itself. Once I claimed them from the Inventory Menu, it would be given to me physically and I no longer had the ability to put it back. Still, while that was kind of a bummer, that didn't change the fact that the Avalon Cookie was actually broken. Back in the Simulation, which almost felt like a whole-ass lifetime ago at this point, when Arturia had been telling me about what she could do the topic of Avalon had come up. I wasn't a history buff by any means, but I knew from an old history teacher that King Arthur was famous for using Avalon as well, though nowhere near the same degree that Excalibur was associated with his- her legend.
Arturia had conceded that she did use Avalon when she was alive, quite extensively at that, but due to her losing it in the legends she was unable to manifest it as a Heroic Spirit. Even so, she'd given me the description of what it did, which matched up almost pretty close to what this Item did. The Noble Phantasm version of Avalon brought the Paradise to the user, while this Cookie took the user to the Paradise- that was perhaps the only real difference. That didn't change the fact that the ultimate use of this Item was the same; to shield the user from harm. It was basically a single-use shield, though instead of magical energy I instead needed to be really close to a Heroine to make it work. An annoying condition, but I had the strangest feeling a lot of the things this Game would give me would function along that same vein.
[Skills]
[Eroge Protagonist: Allows the Player's life to be played like a Dating Sim. Determines Heroines based on the personal preferences of the Player, and excludes possible candidates who do not meet his criteria. If a Heroine with the 'Heroic Spirit' Attribute is summoned by the Player, access to records of previous summonings taking place in alternate timelines are restricted. Prevents all attempts to reveal the nature of the Game to others, both conscious and unconscious, though this does not extend to hiding its physical effects.]
[Instinct: Gives the Player a chance of sensing threats to nearby Heroines. The chance of this Skill to trigger scales proportionally with the level of danger said threat possesses. This Skill is capable of Evolution.]
I didn't really fully understand Eroge Protagonist, though I did get two things- talking about the Game was a no go, and the System at least wouldn't put me in a tough spot by making married women and kids Heroines. Thank God for that at least. The former didn't really bother me. It would've been one thing if I were a traditional Gamer, but being a Dating Sim Gamer was a secret that I'd have to take to my grave anyways. Instinct on the other hand was immediately more useful. Just like the Avalon Cookie, it corresponded to one of Arturia's Skills; except for the small problem that it only worked to protect others, instead of me. Though I suppose anything that could target 'Heroines' near me would probably have me in its strike zone as well, so there was that. Anyways, with that out of the way, next on the list was…
[Perks]
[How do you do, fellow Chaldeans?: Boosts Affection gain with Heroines possessing the 'Chaldean Employee' Attribute. This Perk will be automatically deleted once the timer has run its course. Remaining Time: 23 Hours 50 Minutes.]
Pretty standard. I genuinely didn't see much of a difference with or without it. Moving past it, I tried to check out the other two slots on the Menu, but to my surprise they were completely grayed out. I suppose that meant I hadn't really done anything worthy of unlocking it, which made sense I guess. And with that, I'd explored basically everything the Game had to offer me so far. Well, except perhaps that 'Scan' thing I unlocked in the Simulator, though if it did what I thought it did there was no harm in checking it out later.
Just to be thorough however, I went over everything one more time before finally dismissing the Menu, causing time to unfreeze. Honestly, that 'Pause' feature was probably the most directly useful power I had in my arsenal, and it wasn't even intended to be one. Sure, it wasn't as OP as a certain Stand since I could only walk a small distance away from the spot I froze time and any changes I made were immediately undone, including my position, when things returned to normal, but it was still essentially an unlimited thinking space I could activate on demand. Pretty good, if I did say so myself.
After a few more minutes of walking, I finally made it over to the Command Room, though not without noticing something important. Mash and Da Vinci must have been exceptions, because the other members of Chaldea didn't seem like people setting out to save the world. I didn't directly interact with anyone, but unlike earlier the halls were practically bustling with people moving to and fro. While Master Candidates like myself were headed to the Command Room, technicians and other folks were making their rounds as they finished whatever it was they needed to do and headed over to their final stations. And there was one thing that ninety percent of them had in common - they looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here.
Not in the sense that they were afraid, but rather out of sheer disdain. They weren't even trying to hide their contempt, with their disgruntled expressions and exaggerated steps. It was confusing to me- I could understand that not everyone would be enthused about being drafted to save the world, me being a perfect example of such a case, but for this many people to behave in such a manner…. well, I was starting to get a little worried though. Especially when they cast their gazes on me, making my spine crawl. I wasn't sure what I did to catch their attention, if only for a brief moment, but thankfully they didn't talk to me and I made sure not to bother them.
In that uncomfortable manner, I reached the Command Room. Immediately as soon as I got inside, shuffling behind my much older and taller colleagues, my attention was captured by the giant floating blue globe in the back of the room, its sheer presence dominating everything around it. Various rings rotated around it as it slowly spun on the axis of what must have been the CHALDEAS that Da Vinci had mentioned earlier, and it was with great difficulty that I tore my eyes away as I kept moving in order to avoid holding up the people behind me. I scanned the room for a bit, looking for a place to sit, and found a suitable one in the back not far from the entrance. There were a couple of empty spots right past a woman who was sitting there reading a book, and honestly it seemed like the best choice. With the bad vibes coming from these people, I preferred not to sit next to them if I didn't have to. My first choice would've been with Mash, but I couldn't catch sight of her over the other forty-something people in the room, so I had to make some compromises.
Making a beeline for the lady with the book, I attempted to move across her to get to the chair on the other side, but of course just as I was almost there, some asshole in the row before us shoved his chair back and blindsided me. I managed to keep myself from falling over, but I did end up flailing for a second when I tried restoring my balance, knocking the book right out of her hands. I winced and was about to apologize profusely when the world froze.
[A - Pick up the book and hand it back to her.]
[B - Ignore her and take a seat.]
The fact that the lady was apparently a Heroine threw me for a loop momentarily, and drove me to take a closer look at her. She had dark brown hair that bordered on black done up in long twin-tails, and wore a rather bulky outfit that hid any hint of her body shape. Steely brown eyes colored with irritation glared over at me from behind black-rimmed glasses. All in all, she kind of reminded me of a librarian that I had a crush on when I was a little kid, except even with her choice of wardrobe she was still ludicrously pretty. I was starting to expect nothing less at this point, because even the other employees I'd seen in the halls had been above average.
'Well, Option A it is.' I thought to myself. Even if I hadn't nearly fallen over on my own accord, it would've been unimaginably rude if I just knocked her book away and then ignored her.
Though before I hit the Dialogue Option, I decided to go and take a closer look at the falling book. I didn't recognize the title, but that wasn't what I was looking into anyhow. Instead, I focused on trying to figure out what page she had been on. Fortunately, the Game had frozen time right as it barely left her fingers. Unfortunately, that meant I had to almost quite literally squeeze my way into her lap to find the info I was after thanks to the unfortunate angle. Doing my best to ignore any sense of mine beyond that of sight, I caught the number - two hundred thirteen. Immediately afterward, I tapped the panel for Option A and blinked as time unfroze, returning me back to my original position as the book clattered to the ground. My body then moved on its own to pick it up, though I regained control right as I held the book out towards her. In the next second I opened the book, only to find that I'd somehow managed to get it back to the right page immediately, something that had to have been because of Luck, and finally placed it right back in her hands the way it was before.
"..." She didn't say anything, but her eyes betrayed the annoyance that her expression failed to.
"Sorry about that, Sempai." I said nervously, offering a weak smile in the face of her annoyed stare. "Here, I think that was the page you were on, right?"
Her eyes flicked down, only to widen slightly in surprise before she looked back up at me with a slightly softer but still stony countenance. "Yes, that's right… Thank you."
[Akuta Hinako's(?) Bond has reached Level 1! Hinako(?) Route has been Unlocked!]
'What's with the question mark?' I wondered, even as I dipped my head in acknowledgement and took the seat two spots away from her. 'Is that not her real name or something?'
Well, it was none of my business right now. I almost introduced myself, but Hinako looked just as unapproachable as the other people I'd seen, so I ultimately decided against it. Instead, I decided to focus on the upcoming operation to save the world and how I was supposed to ape my way through it with half an hour of magical training. Of course, I didn't get to think about it for too long as a loud clapping noise rang out through the hall, causing me to shift my attention to the podium right in front of CHALDEAS, right as someone who would have only been the Director took her place at it. To no one's surprise, she was yet another notably attractive woman who looked like she was in her early twenties, with white hair and gold-amber eyes.
I almost sighed in exasperation.
Must've been something in the water.
That's all, folks. Hope you guys enjoyed it. There's been a bit of a gap between Chapters 1,2 and Chapter 3, so my writing my have changed a bit.
And to clarify, that part of the Eroge Protagonist Skill basically nips any chance of this Arturia having the FSN version's memories, things like that. They still remember any previous encounter with Ritsuka like in the Singularities. The only exception is for those Heroines whose previous Summon is a core part of their identity in some manner. There aren't many of those, so I didn't bother including it as an actual part of the Skill.
Hmm, I wonder if the TVTropes Page will get updated after all this time. lmao.
I'll see you guys next time.
Spatialphoenix here, burning to ashes.