/qst/ - Quests » Thread #6257872

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Fate/Awakening Mirror - Distortion of Aqueous Moon Part I

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:16:08 No.6257872 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By:

Yumigawa Rushorou was plunged into a life-or-death struggle in a surreal otherworld when, one day, he went to sleep in his familiar bed and found himself thereafter in the burning ruins of a nameless city. After ten days of struggle, he emerged victorious, standing as one of very few survivors of a crucible called the Akeldama. His enemies, one way or another, were dead. His allies had been protected. The ultimate prize was his. Then he woke up.

After a 5 year gap, the promised remake is here. Sequel to Fate/City Akeldama, originally run from March to May 2019, and remake of Fate/Awakening Mirror, originally run from May 2019 to October 2020. Both quests can be found here:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Sweets-Loving%20QM

A note regarding Nasuverse canon, a sometimes confused subject even within official releases: the only things I will confirm as definitely canon to this quest are the 2004 visual novel Fate/Stay Night and the quest Fate/City Akeldama. If you bring metaknowledge from other Nasuverse sources into this quest it may turn out to be accurate, but there's an even chance it will be wrong. This can be treated as a wholly separate timeline, in the same way Tsukihime is cut off from the rules of the setting as they function in most Fate works.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:18:18 No.6257874 Report

Quoted By:

There is a flare. A storm. A hurricane of colors, every hue and shade on the visible spectrum together with all those human eyes are incapable of seeing, shining and whirling in mind-bruising profusion. The world has melted, and you've been lost in the runoff. It will be some time before you come to yourself.

With no sensation, you have to have something else for an anchor. At the far end of the scintillating nothing, you find it. A single point of darkness, like a distant mouth vomiting forth the obscene colors. You focus on it, all your will straining to contract your vision to that one comfortingly motionless point, and finally discover by contrast of the point observed and the point from which observation is done that you have a self. A position, if not a body. With your own position recognized, something else becomes apparent: it isn't the whirling coloration that is surging forward after all. Your own perspective is rushing along it, conducted by some unknown, unfelt force down a monumental vortex of coruscating light.

Focusing on yourself, you find that you seem to be a core of power. A singular point chases along a predetermined course, launched from some distant origin with colossal energy, and this point is you, hurtling toward an unknown target and destined for violent impact. The dark spot in the far distance slowly grows larger, and as you draw near it the knowledge comes to you of a sudden that it is an exit: not the origin of the bewildering lights, but a portal through which you will momentarily pass. It seems to have been a very long time in coming.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:20:22 No.6257877 Report

Quoted By:

February 4 -Contemplation-
Darkness surrounds you, still and impenetrable. You blink your eyes, and it seems less dramatic. There's a sliver of red light shining from the alarm clock at your bedside table. You can feel your body, and hear the distant sounds of machinery and automotives that make up the background hum of the city. It's bitterly cold, you realize, and you can feel a headache coming on, but even that seems preferable to the horrific bodilessness of that (transfer) bizarre dream. As you sit up and look around, you take in...

an ordinary bedroom. Your bedroom. Desk, closet, dresser, bookshelf stacked with study materials. Where did that moment of strangeness, as if the place is unfamiliar, come from? The more you try to think about it the worse the pounding in your head becomes. Is there something wrong with you?

You roll out of bed, get to your feet in a discombobulated stagger, and feeling strangely out of place in your own body, stumble to the bathroom. In the fluorescents, the face that greets you from the mirror looks horrendous. Beads of cold sweat stand out on your forehead, your eyes bloodshot and staring. Unmistakably, though, it is your face. Black hair. Black eyes. Fine, scholarly features. Clear skin, tending toward the fair. It's the face that, with some changes as you've grown, you've been looking at in the mirror every day for eighteen years. It looks as if it doesn't belong.

You've never had any complaints about your looks before, but now somehow this face looks pathetically shoddy and slapdash. The face you should have is quite different, isn't it? The face you were wearing just moments before, when the world melted, that face wasn't like this at all. You reach up, grab your own cheek, and feel the pinch. See skin compress between your fingers. This is at least no dream.

That hand in the mirror is the next thing to catch your attention. Just like the rest of you, your left hand looks wrong. It itches terribly. Without a thought you find yourself scratching the back of your hand with a vicious force, sinking your nails into it so hard you almost draw blood as you scrape cruel red welts across the skin. The pain is a momentary distraction, but it does nothing for the itching, which you now find spreading across your entire body. On the skin, under your skin, into your bones, racing through your nerves and down your blood vessels. Everything is wrong. The air in this bathroom is as heavy as water around a submarine, suffocating you with pressure.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:21:23 No.6257878 Report

Quoted By:

Someone inside your skull gives it a herculean kick, and you nearly pass out. Gripping the edge of the sink with white-knuckled hands keeps you upright, but it's a losing battle. The pounding in your head that began with your awakening is only getting worse with every passing second. Perhaps your confusion, and the memories that seem as if they can be neither dream nor reality, are all part of a bad fever. It would make more sense than magic, an artificial world, and a face that changes every time you go to sleep. You were sure you were someone you weren't, that you'd just won a war and been sent on your way to a new one, and nothing you're seeing aligns with what your memory has been insisting. Best, then, to give sleep a chance at clarifying matters. You struggle back to your room, collapse to the bed, and reach eagerly for unconsciousness.

<> <> <>

The next time you wake up is to a harsher sound, and everything else more pleasant. As the grating digital crickets of your alarm rouse you from bed you find the memory of your midnight discomfiture grown fuzzy, the memories that came before awakening even moreso. It must have been a dream, of course. There's no way it could've been anything else. With the sane, sober light of morning streaming through your curtains, winter birdsong faintly audible beyond your window, the whole strange construct of a war between mages, ghosts fighting as their proxies, seems laughable. Practically incoherent. The pain you went to sleep with has likewise faded to a dull background ache, and under the hot water of your morning shower even that seems to wash away like a hot night's sweat.

Tempting as it is to soak up the heat until a sense of wellbeing returns completely, you have to hurry on about your morning business. You've never been late to school before, and a confusing dream and headache aren't reasons to justify a first. After dressing you move to head downstairs, only to run headlong into an abnormality in your thinking: you've almost forgotten your glasses. It takes a moment to even realize that's the reason for your blurred vision once you notice it, as if you've completely acclimated to not needing the things.

After a quick once-over to make sure you aren't forgetting anything else, you head downstairs to the living room, sitting down just as your mother's setting out breakfast. Though an early riser yourself, you've never beaten her to it. But then, you gave up seeing your father off to work long ago. She never has. After an exchange of "good morning"s, she turns on the TV news and sits down across from you.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:22:23 No.6257880 Report

Quoted By: >>6286525

"A bizarre crime," the anchor explains, "shocked a sleepy Tokyo suburb yesterday, when complaints of a horrible smell coming from an uninhabited home led to the police making a grisly discovery: someone had covered the interior walls with a thick layer of a red organic substance, the source of the rotten stink. A contact within the police told reporters that the majority of this substance is pig blood, but as for the remainder, the department has been tight-lipped. Certainly a dramatic mark in the rising trend of vandalism witnessed in recent years."

Not a pleasant broadcast to play over breakfast, but it fails to hamper your appetite or diminish the pleasant atmosphere of your well-kept home on a sunny winter's morning. For a moment it strikes you as odd to take pleasure in something so routine, but then, after the bizarre experience of last night perhaps anything ordinary would seem pleasing. In any case, you've never been one to be moved by the grisly and bizarre incidents that news media always seem to be looking for. Today the talk of blood makes even less impact on you than usual as you shake salt and pepper over two fried eggs and hot buttered toast. Tomorrow they'll no doubt find something worse or stranger to report on, and this incident with the bloody walls will never be reported on again even if the culprit is caught.

Your mother's cooking, if unpretentious, is uniformly skillful. The eggs are perfectly crispy at the edges, while the yolk is still runny enough to to soak up with the bread. For all that, this morning finds another abnormality in your usually tranquil attitude. Though you have no complaints to articulate, the food seems unsatisfactory; you feel a craving for something warming, a hot porridge or soup, though your family has never eaten oatmeal or similar foods for breakfast.

As you note the odd craving and consider raising the topic with your mother, eating her own breakfast across the table, the half-formed question about a different breakfast tomorrow dies unspoken. It's obvious the news has her full attention, a bite of egg paused halfway to her mouth as she fixes her eyes on the broadcast.

"It must be some foreigner," a heavyset man, apparently the owner of the vandalized building, declares to a reporter. "This is a good neighborhood, you wouldn't find anyone who lives around here sneaking around in the middle of the night and causing trouble. But lately there've been all these foreign types all over Tokyo, right? More and more every year, up at all hours of the night, doing who-knows-what. They're the ones..."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:23:25 No.6257882 Report

Quoted By: >>6257902 >>6257928 >>6257953 >>6257998 >>6258010 >>6258618

The man's voice dwindles as Yumigawa Setsuna thumbs the TV remote's volume button, her fine brows drawn together in distaste. Obviously unnerved by the gore accompanying the vandalism, the prospect of Tokyo's infiltration by foreign elements is a step too far for her to go on listening. You recall an expression from the previous night's strange dream, the open smile of someone genuinely happy just to share a meal with good company. There's no such feeling to be seen in your mother's morose face. Is it your imagination that tears seem ready to well up in those downcast eyes?

"Doesn't it seem like these awful things are happening more and more lately?" asks your mother, pushing her plate aside. Her sudden gloom, or the disgusting mental image conjured by the broadcast, has clearly removed her appetite. "When your father and I were young, Tokyo seemed so much safer..."

It isn't a comment that requires a response. The woman is glumly seeking refuge in memory, staring into the middle distance rather than looking at either you or the television. You expect she'll dwell on this for some time, but it's hardly your concern. Her fragile moods never prevent her from dealing with the housework, and just as she has her routine as a housewife to attend to, you have your duties as a student. As you rise to go, however, a sudden flash of renewed pain in your head reminds you again of the night's oddities. It may be difficult to perform to your usual standards of scholarship with your head throbbing this way.

>[ ] Set off for Kyoutenkan High, your school. You arrive early every day, with student council business to attend to, and today should be no exception.

>[ ] Stop at a convenience store on your way to school and pick up some pain medicine. Even if it isn't as bad as it was when you first woke up, this headache is a problem.

>[ ] Go upstairs to your bedroom and look around for anything unusual, any traces of your strange, hazy experience last night.

>[ ] Ask your mother if she's feeling alright. Even if she has always been prone to moods, such a reaction to the news is strange.

>[ ] Write in

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:jwyIbWG4 Sat 14 Jun 2025 01:45:57 No.6257902 Report

Quoted By: >>6258457

>>6257882
>>[ ] Ask your mother if she's feeling alright. Even if she has always been prone to moods, such a reaction to the news is strange.

"something wrong, ma?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:rkWX/1LI Sat 14 Jun 2025 02:15:02 No.6257928 Report

Quoted By: >>6257951 >>6258457

>>6257882
>[ ] Set off for Kyoutenkan High, your school. You arrive early every day, with student council business to attend to, and today should be no exception.
Welcome back Sweets, I’m excited to see how this goes! It looks like you’ve really thought this through and the VN images are great.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 02:32:36 No.6257951 Report

Quoted By:

>>6257928
Thanks! Glad to be back, anon.
I'm excited myself; after being away so long, it's great to finally have something in front of the public eye again. Planning's been important, but it was always interacting with players that I enjoyed the most back when I was running the first quest.
I definitely gave a lot of thought to what ended up bringing the old Mirror down, so here's hoping we can have as much fun with this quest as we did with Akeldama!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sat 14 Jun 2025 02:35:43 No.6257953 Report

Quoted By: >>6258457 >>6258480

>>6257882
>[ ] Ask your mother if she's feeling alright. Even if she has always been prone to moods, such a reaction to the news is strange.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 03:39:15 No.6257980 Report

Quoted By: >>6285399

A suggestion, while we're waiting for more votes to come in:
You folks might want to reread the original Fate/City Akeldama. This is a direct sequel, and no time has passed between the end of that quest and the beginning of this quest for the protagonist, so his perspective is very much grounded in where things ended there, but obviously for us it's been a while. Even if you generally remember the course of events, revisiting things directly can bring it into much clearer focus.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:2RN+QD6T Sat 14 Jun 2025 04:02:55 No.6257998 Report

Quoted By: >>6258457

Wasn't expecting the return.
Human Yumigawa? I don't expect 1-to-1 rerun but Welfare Circe would be ideal.
>>6257882
>[ ] Ask your mother if she's feeling alright. Even if she has always been prone to moods, such a reaction to the news is strange.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:F4SumH1l Sat 14 Jun 2025 04:40:54 No.6258010 Report

Quoted By: >>6258457

>>6257882
>[ ] Ask your mother if she's feeling alright. Even if she has always been prone to moods, such a reaction to the news is strange.

Going to have to go back and reread the first quest now. It's been years, welcome back Sweets.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 16:42:03 No.6258169 Report

Quoted By:

On second thought, perhaps it is your concern after all. Your mother's good cheer has always been fragile, but even in that context her reaction to this morning's news broadcast is strange. It wouldn't be right just to leave her alone with her gloom. Besides, it isn't as if you're so short on time that you'll only keep up your attendance if you dash out right this minute. You breathe a quiet sigh and step around the table to where your mother sits lost in thought. There's no doubt that she's been brought low by the news - it's almost as if that vandalism were some dark portent she's using to predict her own doom.

"Is something wrong," you ask, setting a hand on her shoulder. "You don't quite look like the news is the only thing weighing on your mind."

"Hm?"

Suddenly brought back to herself by your touch, your mother's eyes widen. She turns to you with an expression of obvious surprise. True, you haven't shown much concern for her emotional state in a while, but is it really strange enough to warrant this reaction?

"Oh no, Rushorou," your mother replies, covering her shock with a forced smile. "Please don't worry about me, it's really nothing. I just never thought when we moved to Yoyogi that crimes like that would end up being committed even here. Your father and I, you know, we were very hopeful. We thought things would always be peaceful if only he had a good job, and we lived in a good neighborhood, and, well, when I hear about some vandal or thief breaking into a nice house I can't help feeling like that life we built is over, in a way."

Just as the sadness underpinning her tone seems about to spill onto her features once again your mother goes quiet. Then, having used her little speech to compose herself, she rises to her own feet. Apparently putting her feelings into words, far from intensifying them, has let her get them better under control. Taking your hand off of her shoulder, she clasps it between her own and gives you a second, more genuine smile.

"Thank you for worrying about me, Rushorou," she says, "but this really isn't anything for you to bother yourself with. The world is always changing, and I guess getting used to that is just part of getting older. At your age all you need to think about is school, so you just make sure to keep your grades up and stay away from any of those underachieving juvenile delinquent types, and I'm sure you'll find your own happiness eventually."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 16:43:03 No.6258171 Report

Quoted By: >>6258186 >>6258194 >>6258199 >>6258242

With that she releases your hand and, as if dismissing you, turns away to gather up the dishes and retreat into the kitchen. Soon you can hear the sound of washing up. It's odd, you reflect: her surprise, the way she said her piece and pulled away without giving you a chance to reply, it's almost as if she didn't know how to react to your taking an interest in her concerns. But then, maybe it isn't so odd as all that. Thinking back, you can't remember the last time you concerned yourself with the emotional wellbeing of either of your parents. Until this morning, it had never seemed like something you had a reason to interfere with.

Why not?

Why, if it didn't matter then, does it matter now?

Suddenly, as you try to make sense of the strange shift in your thinking, a burst of pain explodes behind your eyes. Not as bad as the worst of last night's suffering, it is nevertheless worse than anything you've felt this morning. For a moment you almost feel unsteady enough to grab for the table or a chair, but conscious of your mother's potential gaze from the kitchen you manage to grit your teeth through the pain and endure unaided. All the muscles in your body tensed you stand ramrod stiff, self-contained and motionless, until the pain fades to a dull ache once again.

Not sure just how long you spent in that state, you take a look at the clock. Not too bad; if you leave now, you can still walk to school with 15 minutes to spare before class starts. Of course, under normal circumstances a student council president should be at school at least an hour before classes begin in order to address any problems that demand the council's attention, particularly regarding those clubs that have morning practice, but no one will be able to blame you for cutting things close just once. In fact, you may still have time to stop by a convenience store and get this headache under control.

>[ ] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.

>[ ] Take the route passing a convenience store and pick up some medicine for your headache.

>[ ] Do something else (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:wZKqBz76 Sat 14 Jun 2025 17:26:58 No.6258186 Report

Quoted By: >>6258340

>>6258171
>[ ] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Sat 14 Jun 2025 17:52:04 No.6258194 Report

Quoted By: >>6258340

>>6258171
>[ ] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.
Might as well make sure that nothing weird's happened at school.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:2RN+QD6T Sat 14 Jun 2025 17:59:40 No.6258199 Report

Quoted By: >>6258200 >>6258340

>>6258171
>[ ] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.
We are not taking meds.

Anonymous

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Anonymous ID:sq9MjQoP Sat 14 Jun 2025 18:03:36 No.6258200 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258199
Alarm clocks are degenerate, and so is aspirin!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 14 Jun 2025 19:53:58 No.6258242 Report

Quoted By: >>6258340

>>6258171
>[ ] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.

No, I will not take the meds.

I wonder why showing concern for his mother is such a big deal. Is this the authentic autistic Japanese experience?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 21:13:03 No.6258279 Report

Quoted By: >>6258293

If you have any questions about the quest, feel free to ask between updates. I realize this has been somewhat light on exposition so far.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 14 Jun 2025 21:44:41 No.6258293 Report

Quoted By: >>6258328

>>6258279
What made you consider rerunning a quest again after so long?

A few people have attempted to rerun Akeldama over the years. Has that had anything to do with your return?

What are your thoughts on how your original/sequels went in the past? What kind of vision do you have going forward with that in mind?

How much does this story have to do with your original Awakening Mirror quest?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:30:10 No.6258328 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258293
>What made you consider rerunning a quest again after so long?
Honestly, I planned to restart Awakening Mirror pretty much from the beginning of 2021 or so. Almost as soon as I had stopped posting the original run, I was thinking about what had gone wrong with it and how I could've run it better, to make sure players were enjoying the quest instead of things falling apart the way they did. Players weren't happy with the way things turned out, and that's why the population dropped over the run of the quest, but neither was I. I decided the main problem was a lack of forethought going into things, leading to inconsistency of tone and pacing, problems with combat, and a variety of other frustrations, so I wanted to plan out something that would be interesting from the beginning rather than just winging it the way I did the first time around.
>A few people have attempted to rerun Akeldama over the years. Has that had anything to do with your return?
Not really. I'm personally happy with how Akeldama turned out. I enjoyed running it, and I think players had a lot of fun as well. If you read the old threads, it was a good time all the way through. That carried through to the first few threads of Mirror, but it eventually fell apart, so that failure is what I wanted to come back and redress. If anything, it's because I liked my version of Akeldama so much that I want to do it justice with a proper sequel.
I tend to think remakes are only necessary if the original was bad, so I don't see Akeldama as needing one. Of course, that doesn't mean I have anything against the people who tried remaking it, anyone is welcome to do so if they feel they can make something more interesting out of the bones of that story.
>What are your thoughts on how your original/sequels went in the past? What kind of vision do you have going forward with that in mind?
I sort of covered this with your first two questions, but I think it comes down to planning. I had an idea of what the overall arc of Akeldama was like right from the beginning. Who Cid was, what the Akeldama was, what his plan was, what would happen when the protagonist won the Holy Grail War, all of that stuff. Everything within that was open to change, but because I had a clear idea of what it was all leading up to, I could write it pretty freely and nothing really felt meandering or out of place. I never really had that kind of clear vision with the original Awakening Mirror, and the result was a quest that didn't really go anywhere. I would make a decision because it seemed like it would make the next update more interesting, and then realize a month later what kind of problems it had set up for the long-term story of the quest. Very freeform, which is not the best thing for a narrative. With this version, I have the same kind of clear idea of what the protagonist is dealing with and what's going on in the world around him that I had from the start of City Akeldama.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:38:07 No.6258334 Report

Quoted By:

>How much does this story have to do with your original Awakening Mirror quest?
That verges into spoiler territory a little. It's a remake. The story is still a direct sequel to Fate/City Akeldama, it's still set in Tokyo in 2019, it's still a Holy Grail War following on in the timeline of the Heaven's Feel route, etc. All the essential bones of the story are the same, I'm just starting from that same premise and reworking things to hopefully create a more fun quest.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:54:08 No.6258340 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258186
>>6258194
>>6258199
>>6258242
>[X] Hurry to Kyoutenkan High, to get your day back on track as quickly as possible.
Unanimous.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:55:09 No.6258341 Report

Quoted By:

No, on reflection you really don't have the time to make any detours. You'll just have to hope this headache fades as the day goes on or soldier through it. Picking up your school bag, you make for the door and step out into the brisk winter morning. A few drifting clouds cast patches of shade on the bright day, but for the most part the sunlight is clear and pale, as perfect a morning as one can hope for this time of year. Instinctively you pull your uniform jacket closer about yourself, startled to see your breath forming white clouds in the air. Though it's no colder or warmer than yesterday, somehow the climate feels incongruous; looking out your window, you had somehow come to expect the stultifying heat of midsummer. Perhaps you're still half-asleep, thinking such foolishness. At least the cold should clear the drowsiness from your mind.

It's a quiet neighborhood, your home, peaceful enough to give the lie to the morning's report on crime and underpin your mother's expectations of ever-reliable comfort. Well-kept houses and apartment blocks with no more than two floors line the streets, the trees that grow in their yards providing a touch of life even when winter's robbed them of greenery. Pedestrians are few. Your fellow students can be seen here and there, making their own ways to school in their own little cliques, but no others. One can easily forget, in the suburban calm, that the bustling heart of Shinjuku is only a short walk away. It isn't toward the commercial districts you're heading, though. Kyoutenkan lies to the west, deeper still into the suburbs. A prestigious school well-known for supplying students to Tokyo University, its location was chosen to prioritize quiet and calm study without recourse to real seclusion. As it's something of an academic target school, most of the students have to commute by train from more distant districts of the Tokyo metropolis. You can count yourself lucky to be able to get there on foot, a fact your father was keen to drive home when you were discussing what high school you'd be applying to. All part of the road to success the Yumigawa family has carefully laid out before you.

After a half hour's walk, you find yourself at the gates of your school, your head feeling much recovered. Sure enough, some fresh air and exercise really was all you needed to shake off the strange malaise that's been hanging over you all morning. Smiling and nodding, but never coming close enough to actually speak, to the students you recognize and those who recognize you, your constituency, you pass through the gate and make your way toward the school building.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:56:13 No.6258342 Report

Quoted By: >>6258381 >>6258399 >>6258471 >>6258480

There's no friend close enough to discuss your unusually late arrival, notice your unusually pale complexion, or inquire after your health; aloof from the masses as a politician should be, you move among your fellow students as one of their betters, with them but not of them. It is the same social dynamic you'll live as an adult, and well-practiced from youth. Already your mind is turning to your studies, and to the daily duties of the student council, whether there will be notes to review on any morning business that may have been conducted before you arrived, when-

"Senpai!"

Hm? You refocus on your surroundings, roused from your thoughts by an unfamiliar voice seemingly directed at you.

"I can't believe it! You actually broke your tradition of getting to school before any of the clubs! What has you arriving this late?"

Stepping out of the crowd is a red-haired girl, a first or second-year by her looks, and putting herself between you and the entrance to the school building. You've never seen the girl before, but she's calling out to you in quite a friendly way.
...no, on second thought it may be more accurate to say you don't think you've ever seen her before. Even the student council president can't remember every student's name and face, but with her foreign looks this girl certainly stands out enough to be remembered, if you've been introduced. Besides, she's acting as though you're close enough to discuss your daily routines. For a moment you think of the strange shift in your concerns from yesterday to this morning, and the stranger dream from last night that seemed so vivid. Could something have happened to your memories?

>[ ] Pretend to recognize the unfamiliar girl, as if there's nothing strange about her greeting you and asking about your routine. Hide the abnormality in your memories.

>[ ] Ask the girl if you've met before, and why she's taking an interest in your late arrival.

>[ ] Ignore the strange girl and brush past her. You're confident in the integrity of your memories, making her the one behaving strangely. You can find out who she is from your colleagues in the student council, later.

>[ ] React in some other way. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Sun 15 Jun 2025 00:55:30 No.6258381 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258342
>[ ] Pretend to recognize the unfamiliar girl, as if there's nothing strange about her greeting you and asking about your routine. Hide the abnormality in your memories.
Let's roll with it for now, it's not the weirdest thing that's happened today.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 01:08:59 No.6258399 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258342
>Dirty red gangstalker yandere gaijin transfer student

Surely antagonising her will do wonders for our unmedicated mc's love life.

>[ ] Ask the girl if you've met before, and why she's taking an interest in your late arrival.

Follow up with a question along the lines of:

>Why are you acting like you know me?

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO FSR_Iori_meeting_Circe.jpg, 1MiB, 3840x2160

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 01:12:58 No.6258403 Report

Quoted By:

Wait a sec.

That hair colour and familiarity..

The memory issues..

Could it be?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 02:23:02 No.6258457 Report

Quoted By: >>6258475 >>6258480

We're tied. Anybody from the previous votes want to weigh in?
>>6257902
>>6257928
>>6257953
>>6257998
>>6258010
You guys around?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:H+15QX+V Sun 15 Jun 2025 02:36:27 No.6258471 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 02:38:52 No.6258475 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258457
I'm still here. Rereading the original while I wait.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sun 15 Jun 2025 02:42:50 No.6258480 Report

Quoted By:

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:36:37 No.6258508 Report

Quoted By: >>6258573

"Nothing in particular," you answer, giving the girl a warm smile to ward off the apprehensive chill at the back of your mind. Surely there's some normal explanation for all this. "I had a bit of a delay in getting out of the house this morning, that's all. Not even I can be perfect every day."

"Kyahaha!" The girl lets out a peal of laughter at your mild joke, apparently finding it quite a bit funnier than you meant it. "So you can tell jokes too, huh, Senpai? I thought you'd be just as stern as you are at meetings all the time, but I guess not! Good for you, it's no good to be all business all the time." The smile she's giving you is at least half as bright as the morning sun. All the more strange, you think, that you shouldn't know her. Between eye-catching beauty and a personality this friendly, the girl must be the center of attention wherever she goes. No matter. With the exchange of pleasantries finished, you can move on to your class.

"No, maybe not," you say. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

No luck. As you go to pass by her, the mystery girl falls in by your side in a perfectly natural motion. Looking up into your face as she walks beside you, hands folded behind her back and her head tilted at an angle that maximizes the charm of her sparkling eyes, the girl fires off a battery of questions. Teasing ones, at that, as her playful tone makes it perfectly obvious she knows you wouldn't have wasted an evening on frivolous entertainment.

"So what did keep you, anyway? Up late watching a drama? Maybe you lost track of time playing computer games? If it made the Yumigawa-senpai sleep late, something pretty interesting must've been taking up your time last night, right?"

The mystery girl's infectiously cheerful voice fills your ear as you pass by the shoe racks and climb the stairs up to the third floor. Looking around to see if the way this unknown girl is sticking to you seems as unusual to anyone else as it does to you, you finally spot Ikeda Seito, Treasurer for the Student Council, passing in the other direction as you make your way down the hall toward your class. You meet his eyes, but he just gives the two of you a lukewarm smile, as if to say 'Again? You two really are inseparable.'

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:37:37 No.6258509 Report

Quoted By: >>6258515 >>6258522 >>6258573 >>6258595 >>6258620 >>6258631 >>6258671 >>6258814

"Come on, don't go all quiet on me! What, is it something to be embarrassed about?"

The redheaded girl pursues her inquiry with indefatigable interest and a suggestive giggle. It seems as if your late arrival is the most interesting thing that's happened to her in some time, and you're the only one who finds it odd that she should be so interested. You'll have to give her some kind of an answer; at this rate, she might just follow you all the way to your classroom. Pausing in the third-floor hallway, you turn to the girl and answer...

>[ ] If you must know, I woke up with a splitting headache this morning and it's had me moving slowly. Now, do you mind leaving me alone? I have to get to class, and I'm sure you don't want to be late either.

>[ ] Nothing of the kind. I was up late studying, as I'm sure you could've guessed. Now that I've satisfied your curiosity, shouldn't you be getting to your own class?

>[ ] Lately, I've decided that in order to properly evaluate the performance of the athletic clubs I should be able to perform to the standards of any of their members. I ended up taking my usual personal training a bit too far yesterday, and it left me pretty worn out.

>[ ] Something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:55:42 No.6258515 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:zGBgR5P0 Sun 15 Jun 2025 04:11:25 No.6258522 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258509
Just some odd dreams. Nothing to worry about.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 05:13:17 No.6258573 Report

Quoted By: >>6258582 >>6258601

>>6258508
She's either manipulating the NPCs or we have somehow memoryholed a whole character.

>>6258509
Option 1 might allude to something being wrong with us if she has performed some kind of mental interference.

Option 3 feels a bit ooc and fake?

Gonna go with:

>[ ] Nothing of the kind. I was up late studying, as I'm sure you could've guessed. Now that I've satisfied your curiosity, shouldn't you be getting to your own class?

Because its dismissing her but also unengaging without being an easily provable lie or acting too far out of centre.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 05:24:03 No.6258582 Report

Quoted By: >>6258588

>>6258573
The options are also in order of hostility to friendliness, 1, 2, 3. It influences your overall attitude toward her beyond that one line. Something else you folks may want to consider.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 05:49:33 No.6258588 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258582
I'd personally be more hostile but anons seem to wait to be more calm and collected.

She's played more of her hand intentionally or not with the npc mentioning how mc and her are an item since the first introduction anyway so I'm not against waiting and seeing what other information we get while staying neutral.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:2RN+QD6T Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:09:02 No.6258595 Report

Quoted By: >>6258597 >>6258601

>>6258509
>[ ] Something else. (Write in)
>[ ] Your and others constant teasing about lack a real hobby finally got to me. I have been trying video game called Among Us and got a bit carried away playing and stayed very late.
Which year it is even in-universe?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:09:46 No.6258597 Report

Quoted By: >>6258600 >>6258601

>>6258595
The current date is Monday, February 4th, 2019.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:2RN+QD6T Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:14:36 No.6258600 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258597
Timeframe matches, good.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:16:09 No.6258601 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258595
>>6258597
Valid deflection as it eas a new game then. Gonna swap >>6258573
To >>6258595

It's silly, but its also a believable but dismissive option.

sus[/spoiler:lit]

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Sun 15 Jun 2025 07:13:06 No.6258618 Report

Quoted By: >>6258620 >>6258951

>>6257882
>[ ] Stop at a convenience store on your way to school and pick up some pain medicine. Even if it isn't as bad as it was when you first woke up, this headache is a problem.
as someone who didn't read either of your previous quests and knows a little about fate, I'm interested.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 15 Jun 2025 07:18:28 No.6258620 Report

Quoted By: >>6258633

>>6258618
Breh you've voted for an old post.

Check >>6258509 for most current vote post and story update

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Sun 15 Jun 2025 07:43:36 No.6258631 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Sun 15 Jun 2025 07:44:37 No.6258633 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258620
I saw it after, kek. Thanks.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Sun 15 Jun 2025 10:15:58 No.6258671 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258509
>[ ] Lately, I've decided that in order to properly evaluate the performance of the athletic clubs I should be able to perform to the standards of any of their members. I ended up taking my usual personal training a bit too far yesterday, and it left me pretty worn out.
Going with the friendly option purely so we get more info out of her. She clearly knows us, we don't. That needs to be rectified.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Sun 15 Jun 2025 18:00:10 No.6258814 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258509

>[ ] Something else. (Write in)
I got lost in your eyes

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 20:47:32 No.6258904 Report

Quoted By:

>[X] Lately, I've decided that in order to properly evaluate the performance of the athletic clubs I should be able to perform to the standards of any of their members. I ended up taking my usual personal training a bit too far yesterday, and it left me pretty worn out.
3 votes.

>[ ] Playing games.
2 votes.

>[ ] Had some strange dreams.
1 vote.

Writing...

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 20:48:33 No.6258906 Report

Quoted By:

Isn't it odd that this site blocks posts that link too many others as spam now? I can't tally votes the way I used to, it's a bit irritating.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 21:54:31 No.6258936 Report

Quoted By:

Perhaps the best way to brush this off is to turn it into a joke. With a grin, you reply, "Lately, I've decided that in order to properly evaluate the performance of the athletic clubs I should be able to perform to the standards of any of their members." Making a show of it, you roll your neck, prompting a pop from stiff vertebrae. "I ended up taking my personal training a bit too far yesterday, and it left me pretty worn out."

"Wo~w." The girl's eyes widen as she holds a hand before her mouth in a gesture of surprise. "As expected of Senpai! Nobody's ever taken being a student council president as seriously as you, huh? Wanting to do all the club activities as well as the members just so you can judge them, that's some rigor! But are you going to do the same thing with the cultural clubs? I can't see how you'd fit enough hours into a day!"

For all her words of praise, the girl's eyes are still merry, and her tone is half-joking. It's apparent she finds the energy your put into your student council work at least a little absurd. Probably this is the type who prefers to spend her after-school hours in a game center or going to karaoke with a gaggle of friends. Why she's interested in your routine, then, is more of a puzzle, but perhaps there's nothing to it. As a result of your persistent campaigning year after year, your name is better-known at school than that of any other student; there are bound to be some with an immoderate degree of curiosity about you, especially among people who don't think the student council is worth putting time into.

"There are practical benefits," you answer with a nod. "Based on my own progress in training without equipment, I've already identified a few places we can slash budgets and save the school some money. If I didn't put my own time into researching the matter, I might never have realized how much unnecessary expenditure we've put into supplying the clubs with machinery they don't really need. And speaking of time," you glance meaningfully at your watch, "I should be getting to class. I'm sure you don't want to be late either, no?"

"Oh!" The girl looks startled at how late it's gotten already. "You're right, Senpai! If I don't run for it, I'll be late! Have a good one!"

With a last energetic wave, the mystery girl turns and runs back to the stairwell, making her way down to her own year's floor. You never did get her name, or even what year of student she is. Maybe you should ask around... but then again, if you really do know her and have somehow forgotten, asking questions will only make you appear a fool. Something to think about later, perhaps.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 1 Classroom 1.png, 341KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 21:55:32 No.6258940 Report

Quoted By: >>6258995

Morning classes, at least, pass without incident. Aside from the dull pounding in your head making it a bit difficult to concentrate, there's nothing to mark today out as different from any other. Since you make an effort to stay ahead of the class in self-study, the lecture topics are mostly items you've already covered in your textbooks at home, so even your difficulty concentrating isn't as problematic as it might have been. It isn't until the lunch break that another oddity rears its head.

"Um, Yumigawa-kun..."

As you're getting ready to head for the cafeteria, a girl walks over to your desk. This, at least, isn't a stranger. You've been in the same class as Tatsuhara Satsuki almost continuously these last three years, and you've gotten quite used to the sight of her. One of the better-looking girls at school, she has a small fanbase among male students who extol a 'girl-next-door' type of charm. That there have never been rumors of her dating anyone has helped fuel interest in her, you don't doubt. Still, you've never spoken with her beyond some casual exchanges during events like the cultural festival. Indeed, the hesitant look on her face suggests she's almost as confused by her approach as you are. You meet her eyes and silently wait for her to continue.

"Well, it's just that I was wondering if you're feeling alright. I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but, well, you look really pale today, and there are these dark circles under your eyes, and, um... well, it just kind of looks like you're sick, and since you aren't really close with anyone in class, I just thought that someone should ask how you were doing, so..."

Tatsuhara trails off. That's right, you recall: one of the things her followers like to praise about this girl is her kindhearted personality. In your first year, someone saw her nursing an injured stray cat back to health and made a rumor about it, and ever since, people have been noticing acts of kindness from her. Always volunteering to help someone injured get to the nurse's office, shielding bullied students, sharing her food with anyone who might have forgotten their lunch, and suchlike trivialities. Presumably she couldn't help herself from interfering, once she got the impression someone in class might be suffering.

"So, since you might have a hard time getting through the crowds and buying food at the cafeteria, I was wondering if you might like to have lunch with my friends and m-"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 21:56:34 No.6258942 Report

Quoted By: >>6258995 >>6258997 >>6259010 >>6259026 >>6259044

"Senpaa~ai!"

In the middle of Tatsuhara's rambling show of concern, the class door bursts open to reveal an orange ball of energy. The mystery girl from this morning, her wavy ponytail still bouncing from the run she must've taken to get here from her class, is striding over toward you.

"What are you still doing here? Fushida-senpai says to hurry up and get to the student council office, so we can talk about what you missed this morning!"

It is true that you usually eat lunch with the student council, so as to make the best use of the time available to discuss any daily business, but what's this girl doing getting involved again? You certainly would've ended up going there without her needing to convey the vice president's summons. It's not even as though you've been wasting time hanging around, the lunch break has only just started.

>[ ] Tell Tatsuhara it's nothing to worry about and follow the mystery girl. Whatever the reason for her getting involved with student council business, you can hear it out in the office.

>[ ] Tell the mystery girl to wait a minute, so you can hear Tatsuhara out. It sounded like she had something more to say.

>[ ] Reprimand the mystery girl for barging into a third-year classroom without being invited. You don't need any reminding to have lunch with the student council as usual.

>[ ] Dismiss both girls, and the student council business as well. With everything that's been bothering you today, you really just want to have lunch alone.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 22:12:46 No.6258951 Report

Quoted By: >>6259207

>>6258618
Glad to hear I'm pulling in new players as well as the old! Even though this is a sequel, the mystery might be that much more interesting to someone going in blind, since you won't have the expectations set up from the first quest; I look forward to your reactions going forward.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UjzztfaF Sun 15 Jun 2025 23:27:33 No.6258995 Report

Quoted By: >>6259003

>>6258940
Never seen something like this. I will read the archive when I can. Are the images made by you ? If so they are very nice, good job.

>>6258942
>>[ ] Tell the mystery girl to wait a minute, so you can hear Tatsuhara out. It sounded like she had something more to say.
The red head seems very energetic, running all the way here even for lunch. Cute.

Our head keeps having problems uh. Its probably not going to do shit, but a small massage to the side of the head can be nice for relax a bit.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:yTqWSIQr Sun 15 Jun 2025 23:29:50 No.6258997 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258942
>>[ ] Tell Tatsuhara it's nothing to worry about and follow the mystery girl. Whatever the reason for her getting involved with student council business, you can hear it out in the office.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 02-F12-02-30.jpg, 131KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 23:37:11 No.6259003 Report

Quoted By: >>6259005 >>6259207

>>6258995
Hey, thanks! The images are composite. Backgrounds are mostly pixelated photos, character art is done with AI (I can't draw, and even if I could do so, emulating Takeuchi's style is something plenty of illustrators have failed at), and the rest of it is made in photoshop. Shape tools, type with layer style, etc. All meant to emulate picrel, of course.
The 'title screen' in the OP is the one I put the most direct work into, making that was a ton of fun. Loads of disparate elements to get the style right.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO TSK-40-08.jpg, 47KiB, 640x480

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 15 Jun 2025 23:40:17 No.6259005 Report

Quoted By: >>6259207

>>6259003
Well, I say it's emulating FSN, but the pixelized photo backgrounds are more Tsukihime/Higurashi style. So I suppose the look is a composite as well.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Sun 15 Jun 2025 23:56:44 No.6259010 Report

Quoted By: >>6259014 >>6259026

>>6258942
>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
This is a good chance to get the mystery girl to introduce herself to Tatsuhara so we can find out her name?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 00:05:10 No.6259014 Report

Quoted By: >>6259031

>>6259010
What specifically would you like to say to her in order to have her introduce herself?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Mon 16 Jun 2025 00:31:23 No.6259026 Report

Quoted By: >>6259031 >>6259044

>>6258942
I like how this guy thinks >>6259010
We could say something like "It's rude to barge in a conversation like that, especially one among third years. At least introduce yourself properly and apologize to Tatsuhara".

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Mon 16 Jun 2025 00:33:50 No.6259031 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259014
What >>6259026 said.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:15aBUixS Mon 16 Jun 2025 01:06:13 No.6259044 Report

Quoted By:

>>6258942

Still can't help feel wary about the genki red. She's obsessed with (you) yet we know nothing about her?

Also this is a TM setting. Gaijin features mystery transfer students are dangerous.

Good call from this anon. Gonna go with:
>>6259026

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 02:50:01 No.6259099 Report

Quoted By: >>6259122 >>6259165 >>6259219 >>6269415

Just when you thought the day might have settled down into a quieter routine, the mysterious girl from the morning and her painfully energetic voice return. Still, now that you two aren't alone inc conversation, you should be able to get some more information on her. Cutting into your conversation without introducing herself to Tatsuhara was just rude, and telling her off on that point should allow you to find out just who this girl is. Unfortunately between your incessant headache, aggravated by any burst of volume, and the nagging puzzle of this girl's identity, you're far from your usual calm self as you round on her, making a somewhat unintended show of anger.

"I hardly need you to tell me where I eat my lunch," you snap. "Besides, it's rude to barge in on a conversation like that; particularly one between third years. The least you can do is introduce yourself properly, and you owe Tatsuhara an apology for cutting her off."

It isn't until you've finished speaking that you realize you clenched your fist tightly enough to snap your pen in two. Whether it's that pointless gesture of anger, the pained, baleful expression on your face, or your tone, something in your response makes the mystery girl wilt. She pulls back from your words like a cat that's been spritzed with water, before tossing her head as if to shake off the unpleasantness physically. Adjusting her motion to a slower pace, she cuts through the crowd of your classmates to face Tatsuhara down. When she does reply it's in a sullen, subdued tone.

"I do apologize, Tatsuhara-senpai. I had no idea I was 'barging into' your conversation. My name is Eva Otilia Văcărescu, from class 1-A. I'm here as general affairs officer for the student council, since Fushida-senpai wanted to see Yumigawa-senpai. I hope you won't mind if I take him out of your hands."

The name means nothing to you, unfortunately. Your memory is as empty of the girl's name as it is of her face; it really is as though she's a perfect stranger. Still less comprehensible is her claim to be the student council's general affairs officer. That position, as far as you can recall, belonged to an unremarkable member of the tennis club who went into student politics after an injury took him out of athletics. If the meaning of her name is uncertain, however, that of her reply to Tatsuhara is unmistakable. The acidic sarcasm in her voice is withering. Obviously this girl, Eva, doesn't feel the least fraction of the normal respect a first-year student might be expected to feel for her seniors. The scene of her apologizing to Tatsuhara brings to mind less the ranking of seniority than some fantasist's image of a princess being compelled to apologize to her maid. Eva's attitude makes no impact on Tatsuhara, though; if anything, the moved expression on her face is just as if she'd received a perfectly sincere apology.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 02:51:01 No.6259100 Report

Quoted By:

"Oh no," Tatsuhara sighs, hands fluttering in front of her in embarrassment. "Eva-chan, you don't have anything to apologize for! I completely understand, you're just trying to do your job as quickly as possible, right? Besides, you don't need to introduce yourself to me, everyone knows the student council. Are you sure Yumigawa-kun should be going and doing council work right now though? He seems a little unwell, maybe the nurse..."

"Not at all," you interject. "I'm perfectly fine, Tatsuhara. Just a little tired. Thank you for your concern, but there's no reason for me to skip my usual duties."

"Great!" As you get to your feet, Eva's mood reverses completely. There's no trace of shadow from her frustration in the smile she turns on you now. "Let's go, Senpai!"

As you make your way out of the classroom you can hear a confused mutter from the crowd. Just as in Tatsuhara's reaction, the general mood seems to be one of mingled confusion at your anger and admiration for Eva's dutiful attitude, as if the only person acting out of line is yourself. The rumor will soon be circulating, you realize, that the student council president has come down with some strange illness that has him acting hostile and volatile.

The student council office, like your classroom, is on the third floor, and the walk there is as quick as it is wordless. For all her chattering energy earlier, Eva seems content to let at least a short time pass in silence, for which you find yourself grateful. Most of the students who prefer to leave their classrooms for lunch have already done so, and the halls are relatively deserted. If you keep yourself to relatively quiet conversations, you think, hopefully your headache will eventually fade away completely. The student council office itself, though, is as full of life as the halls are empty. Fushida Jirou, the vice president, and Segawa Susumu, the secretary, are talking animatedly over a game of chess, while Ikeda Seito, the closest thing you have to a personal friend, turns a wry grin on your entrance.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 02:52:02 No.6259101 Report

Quoted By: >>6259165

"Our fearless leader arrives at last! To think we had to send the sole flower in this Kyoutenkan High School Student Council just to collect you. Yumigawa, you reprobate! Weren't you satisfied monopolizing the fair Eva-chan's time this morning?" Going into theatrics, Ikeda sheds mock tears at your theoretical lust. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call Ikeda a malign friend, you reflect. With shoulder-length hair, a slight tan, and a policy of never wearing anything less than designer branded clothing when out of uniform, Ikeda doesn't exactly look like the honor student type, but his performance belies his appearance. The two of you first met in junior high, and developed a rivalry as the two top performers on the yearly tests, and you were thrown together again last year when he was elected treasurer. Ikeda, though, has always had a taste for bad behavior and worse jokes, habits which you're certain have kept him below his potential when it comes to academic achievement. In turn, Ikeda never tires of ribbing you for your straight-laced lifestyle. Today's routine is one more in a long line of such gags.

"Can it, Ikeda," you shoot back, playing the straight man, "or should I introduce your girlfriends to one another? You know I could never match you for vice. Fushida, I hear you were anxious to see me?"

"It's your buddy there who wanted to talk to you," the pudgy vice president answers, not raising his eyes from the gameboard. "About that audit, you know. I just wanted to make sure you had your talk, since you weren't here this morning."

You raise your eyebrows at Ikeda, silently demanding an explanation. Although you had been thinking of revisiting a few clubs' budgets, that was nothing as formal as an audit, and not something you'd discussed with Ikeda.

"Don't give me that look." Ikeda waves a dismissive hand, warding off your expectation like a bad smell as he talks between bites of his bento. "We talked about this last week, remember? You wanted to shut down the fake cultural clubs before the end of the year so we're not leaving any dead wood to the next generation when we graduate? You and general affairs-chan were going to review their club activities after school today, so I figured I'd have you tell me who you're looking at so I can get the data on their budgets."

You don't remember, as it happens. Nothing about this plan to review the cultural clubs fits into your own recollection of your plans. None of the cultural clubs has much of a budget, aside from those that are beyond reproach, and there are certainly plenty of club rooms to spare, so you had intended to leave dealing with layabouts like the Illustrated Culture Studies Club and the Electronic Communication Analysis Club to whoever succeeds you as president. There's no sign of a joke in Ikeda's expression now, though. He's completely sure you told him about this supposed audit plan yourself.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 02:53:03 No.6259103 Report

Quoted By: >>6259114 >>6259122 >>6259207 >>6259219 >>6259266

>[ ] Tell Ikeda to forget it. Whatever you discussed with him before, you've changed your mind. The cultural clubs aren't enough of a drain on resources to be worth the time.

>[ ] Even if you don't remember talking about this, it does sound like the kind of thing you would do. You may as well follow through on this idea. Ask Segawa if he has any notes on your last discussion about this, you don't quite recall which clubs you were planning to investigate today.

>[ ] Maybe whatever problem you're having with your memory relates to a particular time; ask Ikeda when exactly you told him about this plan. What day, what time, under what circumstances.

>[ ] Respond in some other way. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Mon 16 Jun 2025 03:24:06 No.6259114 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259103
>>[ ] Even if you don't remember talking about this, it does sound like the kind of thing you would do. You may as well follow through on this idea. Ask Segawa if he has any notes on your last discussion about this, you don't quite recall which clubs you were planning to investigate today.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Mon 16 Jun 2025 03:51:06 No.6259122 Report

Quoted By:

>Eva Otilia Văcărescu
Hey buddy, I think you've got the wrong door, the Clock Tower Classroom's two blocks down.
FuckYouSenpai
Oh, FuckYou Clock Tower GIrl. Maybe you and I should settle it right there in the locked storage shed behind the school after P.E. class if you think you are so tough.
>>6259099
>perfect stranger.
Can you remember, remember my name?
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
Ohh, and cold
Cold spirits of ice
Ah, ah, all my life
I am the echo of your past
>>6259103
>[ ] Even if you don't remember talking about this, it does sound like the kind of thing you would do. You may as well follow through on this idea. Ask Segawa if he has any notes on your last discussion about this, you don't quite recall which clubs you were planning to investigate today.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 16 Jun 2025 05:35:20 No.6259165 Report

Quoted By: >>6259197

>>6259099
Disgusting gyppo surname.

Truly Dirty red.

The problem here is, npcs aren't reacting to such an outlandish (definitely not a mage) name. Is it because to nips this doesn't seem any different to John Michael Smith or because of hypnosis?

Still need more clues it seems.

She's also engineering alone time with her here >>6259101

Gonna go with this to not act out of line

>[ ] Even if you don't remember talking about this, it does sound like the kind of thing you would do. You may as well follow through on this idea. Ask Segawa if he has any notes on your last discussion about this, you don't quite recall which clubs you were planning to investigate today.

However with attention to specific dates and times too, maybe wanting to glance at the schedule to make sure its being done 'efficiently'?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ZvYusmOL Mon 16 Jun 2025 08:08:00 No.6259197 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259165
>She's also engineering alone time with her
Fourth base date during school time on student council budge with mysterious foreign student on day one. Smooth as her skin.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Mon 16 Jun 2025 09:21:25 No.6259207 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259103
>[ ] Even if you don't remember talking about this, it does sound like the kind of thing you would do. You may as well follow through on this idea. Ask Segawa if he has any notes on your last discussion about this, you don't quite recall which clubs you were planning to investigate today.
>>6258951
thanks OP. and nice pics btw.
>>6259003
>>6259005

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Mon 16 Jun 2025 10:09:01 No.6259219 Report

Quoted By: >>6259291

>>6259103
romanian uh, and a friend or seen more than a friend from other students. Nothing too bad, it can be resolved. Unless we have another rabies attack or a more violent one.

>[ ] Maybe whatever problem you're having with your memory relates to a particular time; ask Ikeda when exactly you told him about this plan. What day, what time, under what circumstances.
Asking shouldn't be an issue, call it a refresher. Our character seems smart enough to avoid looking suspicious.

>>6259099
>It isn't until you've finished speaking that you realize you clenched your fist tightly enough to snap your pen in two.
Quite the memory hole, and enough of a headache to display open violent aggression for something that does not deserve such reaction. It concerns me we didn't even need to roll for "control ourselves" so to speak. The headache sounds like it will get worse, this is a school everywhere is filled by students and their talking. Our mind cannot escape that. Maybe we should pay a visit to the school infirmary.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Mon 16 Jun 2025 13:16:09 No.6259266 Report

Quoted By: >>6259299

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 藤道場02c腕b(中).png, 133KiB, 288x559

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 15:11:26 No.6259291 Report

Quoted By: >>6259297 >>6259318

FYI, updates will probably be once a day now that the weekend is over and I'm back to work. Sorry about that! I'll pick the pace back up again come Saturday.

>>6259219
>Maybe we should pay a visit to the school infirmary.
What, and go back on your heroic resolve from this morning not to take anything for the pain?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Mon 16 Jun 2025 15:30:13 No.6259297 Report

Quoted By: >>6259344

>>6259291
Is the nurse at school infirmary good looking? I might consider going if she is.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Evangelyne A K McDowell.jpg, 211KiB, 1280x1024

Anonymous ID:S5xDrOlQ Mon 16 Jun 2025 15:35:08 No.6259299 Report

Quoted By: >>6259326 >>6259330

>>6259266
>Evangelyne
You think she's a vampire?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Mon 16 Jun 2025 16:48:22 No.6259318 Report

Quoted By: >>6259344

>>6259291
>What, and go back on your heroic resolve from this morning not to take anything for the pain?
ah .....didn't know we were like that. I guess its more rabies time then.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Mon 16 Jun 2025 17:14:45 No.6259326 Report

Quoted By: >>6259330

>>6259299
I would never rule it out

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Mon 16 Jun 2025 17:39:02 No.6259330 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259299
>>6259326
Could also be an agent of the Church.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Is this a nurse.png, 89KiB, 1536x2224

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 16 Jun 2025 18:24:36 No.6259344 Report

Quoted By: >>6259819

>>6259297
You seem to remember her being fairly good-looking, but I'm afraid you'll have to go and see for yourself if you want to know for sure.

>>6259318
I'm just joking with you, anon. Some of the players in the earlier votes were very emphatic about not buying pain pills, which I thought was funny. Vote for whatever you want to do.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 1 Student Council Office 1.png, 344KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 17 Jun 2025 02:49:39 No.6259640 Report

Quoted By: >>6259670 >>6259821

It's one more in the series of blows to your confidence in your memory. For all that you have no recollection of this audit discussion, it does sound like the kind of program you've tended to pursue as long as you've been in student government. Perhaps it really is something you planned. With the state your head is in, you're in no position to deny it with conviction. At any rate, you should be able to glean more details from any notes the secretary took down on your previous statements regarding this.

"Had we decided on a particular set of clubs?" you muse, half seeming to answer answering Ikeda and half to think aloud. "I don't really remember; afraid I've been a bit out of it today, as I'm sure you've noticed. Segawa, did you take any notes on our discussion last week?"

Caught in the midst of contemplating a difficult position in his game with Fushida, Segawa gives you the flat-footed expression of a student who's been called on in class while lost in thought about where to take his girlfriend for their next date.

"Notes on the club review? I think I might have..."

Going for his school bag, Segawa is just starting to look through his most recent student council papers when Eva interjects.

"I took the notes on this!" Having made herself the center of attention once again, she turns a smile on you that seems to be delighting in a private joke, and continues, "Since Senpai and I are the ones who'll be doing the review, we decided it'd be most convenient if I was the one who took down that meeting, remember?"

"Now that I think about it, that's right," Segawa says. Fushida and Ikeda are nodding along. Obviously they all share the memory of the discussion, now that they've been reminded of it.

"Well then, let's hear it," you tell Eva, finally taking your habitual seat at the student council president's desk. "What clubs did we talk about reviewing? Off the top of my head, the Illustrated Culture and Electronic Communication clubs are certainly wasting time with manga and the internet, respectively, but they're hardly major budgetary drains."

"You did say you wanted to look into those two, actually," Eva declares brightly. "Also the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association, which says it's an auxiliary of the cheer squad, but has never actually shown up for an athletic event, the Tropical Fish Enthusiasts' Club, which just seems to be taking up space without doing any club activities, the Occult Studies Club, which didn't present a display at last year's cultural festival, the Exotic Language Studies Club, which has never properly declared their activities, the Digital Music Club, which has no record of any performances, the Video Club, which is separate from the Film Club for unclear reasons, and the Probability Studies Club, which sounds like a hangout for gamblers."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 17 Jun 2025 02:50:40 No.6259642 Report

Quoted By:

"Hmm..." When she lists it all out that way, it does sound like quite a collection of wasted space, equipment, and time. You may have been underrating the problem of these unnecessary cultural clubs. "Quite an assembly. Too much to get to in one day, really. You can strike the Tropical Fish Enthusiasts' Club from the list, they put a splendid aquarium on display for the last cultural festival, but these others do all sound problematic. We'll have to review them all sometime or other. Ikeda, did you get all that?"

"No problem." Relaxing on the student council office's couch, his lunch and a notebook spread on the coffee table, Ikeda has chopsticks in one hand and a mechanical pencil in the other. It's a fine display of efficiency, eating his lunch and planning his afternoon work at the same time. "I'll look at their budgets after class today. What about you, though? Sounds like you'll be stuck here 'til well after dark, and that's if you can convince all the clubs to wait for you."

The glee in Ikeda's voice at the prospect of you overworking yourself is as irritating as ever. Compounding that with bitterness at the sight of him wolfing down a home-cooked meal while you have yet to find something to fill your stomach, you wonder just who the boy was who befriended such an evil-tempered youth, and what could have been going through his mind.

"I'll manage somehow, don't lose any sleep over my troubles," you quip back. "Who knows, if the clubs are as frivolous as they sound I might finish up surprisingly quickly. Anyway, I'll decide which clubs deserve the first look this afternoon, and if I run out of time dealing with them, I'll handle the rest tomorrow. Now, I'm off to the commissary to see whether they've been picked clean or I can still get a decent lunch."

There's no doubt that it's too late to get a hot meal from the cafeteria, but there's at least a chance of the commissary still having some curry bread to fill up on. Just as you stand up to go, though, Eva stops you once again.

"Actually Senpai, I picked something up for you before I stopped by your class. Here!" With a flourish, Eva pulls a sealed package of food from the commissary out of her bag. It's melon bread. You hate eating sweets for lunch. You've never bought melon bread, sweet bean bread, or any other sugary snack for lunch, unless it was to do a favor for one of the other council members who wanted it. You'd almost rather go hungry. Even Ikeda looks surprised that Eva would have handed over your nemesis in the guise of salvation.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 17 Jun 2025 02:51:41 No.6259643 Report

Quoted By: >>6259660 >>6259757 >>6259764 >>6259819

>[ ] Tell Eva you don't eat sweets at midday and head to the commissary. They have to have something other than this.

>[ ] You'd almost rather go hungry, but not quite. The commissary is probably sold out anyway, and besides, every moment you spend looking for food, the end of the lunch break is getting closer. Better to choke down the melon bread so as to be sure of eating something before you have to get back to class.

>[ ] React in another way. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Tue 17 Jun 2025 03:07:42 No.6259660 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259643
>[ ] Tell Eva you don't eat sweets at midday and head to the commissary. They have to have something other than this.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 17 Jun 2025 03:13:40 No.6259670 Report

Quoted By: >>6259697 >>6259757 >>6259764

>>6259640

>Obviously they all share the memory of the discussion, now that they've been reminded of it.

We're in the Truman show lads.

She can't keep getting away with it.

I have a feeling she'll try following anyway, but after I've read a bit back through the previous quest I doubt Yumigawa would let this girl debase himself by eating something he absolutely hates. So alongside:

>[ ] Tell Eva you don't eat sweets at midday and head to the commissary. They have to have something other than this.

Grab the most appropriate friend to come along with you (other than her) to bounce ideas back and forth off of.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Tue 17 Jun 2025 03:46:56 No.6259697 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259670
+1

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Tue 17 Jun 2025 04:49:31 No.6259757 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259643
Nice try, miss gaslighter. Food is probably spiked.
Going with >>6259670

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Tue 17 Jun 2025 05:01:30 No.6259764 Report

Quoted By: >>6259779

>>6259643
Supporting >>6259670, CirceEva had to have drugged that food. Bit sloppy to offer something Yumi would hate to eat for lunch, is her real plan to for him to go to the commissary alone?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:cpYusk0V Tue 17 Jun 2025 06:04:00 No.6259779 Report

Quoted By: >>6259784 >>6259788

>>6259764
I'm not sure if it's the bird now. Why would she take on the name of a filthy gyppo of all things?

Also, pre-packaged slop isn't Circe's mo. She'd have offered a home made bento or something instead. Convenience store tier food says she's someone who doesn't know how to cook. Church jannies would likely learn to cook. Vampires have had all the time in the world. Me thinks a mage. Hard to pick really as the second quest isn't canon to this, and that info would be ooc anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Tue 17 Jun 2025 06:46:54 No.6259784 Report

Quoted By: >>6259785

>>6259779
It is indeed unlikely to be Circe, I wouldn't expect her to go to all the trouble of infiltrating the school when she could just abduct whoever she's after and leave a clone or something to fill in.
If Eva is a mage, then either she infiltrated the school in a hurry, or she's after someone other than Yumi. After all, 'Yumigawa never eats sweets for lunch' is such an obvious thing that she should've found out from a basic investigation.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:40EyxIH+ Tue 17 Jun 2025 06:54:59 No.6259785 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259784
We haven't really met anyone that stands out yet (or even anyone who I remember from the prequel quest and the other sequel) who might be her actual target if it isn't (us).

Gauging intentions is another thing too.

She's being sickeningly nice and trying to attach herself at the hip to Yumigawa. I'd say she wants something to do with him given how she isn't giving him any breathing room rather than another character, but it's still early days.

Jobbing the flavour here shows she doesn't have a complete download of Yumigawa's entire life and she seems to have more just brute forced her way in with hypnosis upon all the npcs. It seems to not have worked properly on us and we have brain damage as a result?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:MNCMdUgp Tue 17 Jun 2025 07:01:44 No.6259788 Report

Quoted By: >>6259825 >>6259969

>>6259779
>[ ] Sorry but I am only interested in traditional home made bentos done with love and care by a proper yamato nadeshiko type of girl.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Tue 17 Jun 2025 09:26:18 No.6259819 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259344
hmmm ok dokey
>Some of the players in the earlier votes were very emphatic about not buying pain pills
i suppose they might have a very good reason beside reasonable big pharma hate. Though i can't help but feel we might be one step away from attacking someone verbally, if not physically while growling with hatred and bloodshot eyes. A most fearsome sight if nothing else !
>>6259643
>[ ] Tell Eva you don't eat sweets at midday and head to the commissary. They have to have something other than this.
lunch is not already over no ? i am sure they can heat up something, and this school sound like they have lot of funds. Being able to feed all the students should not be such an issue for how well the place was described. Some meat and veggies should do just fine for our body, or do we have some food allergies ?

>It's melon bread. You hate eating sweets for lunch.
Our Culinary Nemesis..... very strong opinion detected, surely it will not devolve in a snarl of rage if she or our friends (are they ? or more acquaintances ?) mentions melon bread again.

>eating his lunch and planning his afternoon work at the same time
>eating while working
scary alien guy, not human 100%

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Tue 17 Jun 2025 09:31:20 No.6259821 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259640
Egads! This world is illusion and this redhead an intruder on my Eden. No one would ever offer me melon bread!

Using her witchy authority to make even her acidic displays acceptable to these named figments. Changing my daily schedule! My mind aches with her intrusion and subversion of my realm.

"is there an imposter among us?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 17 Jun 2025 09:41:16 No.6259825 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259788
Why didn't mother dearest
pack us lunch? Does she not love her autistic child?

When will Yumigawa just find a nice girl to make him real food?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:hZunRdiw Tue 17 Jun 2025 18:35:11 No.6259969 Report

Quoted By: >>6259981

>>6259788
If only Sakura were here...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Tue 17 Jun 2025 18:57:59 No.6259981 Report

Quoted By:

>>6259969
Never too late to start doing high jumps. We might get lucky.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 17 Jun 2025 23:59:48 No.6260190 Report

Quoted By: >>6260506

"I can't stand melon bread," you declare bluntly. "Sweets are something to eat after dinner, if ever, not as a stand-in for lunch. I appreciate the gesture, but I'll get my own food."

Eva looks at you in stark bafflement. For the first time today, it looks as if the wind has been completely taken out of her sails. It takes her a moment to collect herself and reply, and there's none of the defiant energy she put into the apology she gave Tatsuhara to be seen now.

"Oh... Sorry about that, Senpai, I didn't realize. I guess I'll eat it myself." With that, she takes a seat at the opposite end of the couch from Ikeda, her features settling into a thoughtful expression. The melon bread, dropped carelessly on the table, doesn't seem likely to be eaten.

"Ikeda," you say as you head for the door, "let's take a walk." Finished with his own lunch, Ikeda rises with a careless shrug to follow you out.

"Sure. What's on your mind, Yumigawa?"

The student council office door shut behind you, you're finally alone with someone you actually know as you head for the commissary. Maybe now you can get a better idea of the real extent of the difference between your memories and the current state of affairs at school.

"What was that gag about my monopolizing Eva's time, earlier? You know I've never been one to chase after-"

A flash of half-formed memory bursts across your mind, accompanied by pain. Beauty. An emotional closeness, hitherto unknown. The energy of life. The taste of coffee, and, was it blood? Fire. Gold. Steel. Feathers. A single voice, raised in song amidst boiling silence. You wince as the migraine sinks vicious claws into the space behind your eyes, but the memories, and the pain, are gone as quickly as they appeared. You manage to finish your sentence without too unnatural a pause.

"-girls."

"Well, come on!" If Ikeda noticed your flash of pain, he's too considerate to show it. His voice is light, jovial, friendly. "That girl's been stuck to you all year. Segawa might be called a secretary, but she acts like your personal secretary!" He sighs, making a playful show of envy. "A beautiful foreign assistant, now that's what I call a presidential perk. Even if you're turning a blind eye to her, you'll have to forgive a few jokes going around. It's not like I'm the only one making them."

"Hmph. Students ought to be putting more energy into study, and less into gossip," you growl, affecting the tone of an aging moralist in despair at the younger generation's foibles. It's easy enough to keep the banter with Ikeda up; if only things made sense, your smile might be genuine. Unfortunately, the new information from Ikeda does nothing to salve your unease.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 1 Lunch Hallway.png, 170KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:00:49 No.6260192 Report

Quoted By: >>6260403 >>6260480 >>6260506

From the sound of it, Eva entered the school as a normal first year student, found her way into the student council straightaway, and has been here quite long enough for you to have a clear memory of everything she's supposedly done. This isn't some gap in memories of a transfer student who showed up a few days ago; you remember that year clearly, and nowhere in it does Eva feature.

Before you know it, as you muse on your malady and rally jokes back and forth with Ikeda, your feet have carried you to the commissary. Sure enough, the quicker students have already picked it clean of the most popular items. Curry bread are sold out, but it looks like they still have a few of today's batch of cutlet sandwiches left.

Making your order, you find the hairs on the back of your neck raising. You can feel an intent stare from somewhere behind you, almost seeming to prick at your skin. Someone is examining you closely. As soon as you've collected your food and paid you turn to look, taking care to make the motion a natural part of the process of returning the way you came.

At first, no one seems to stand out from the crowd of students milling to and fro, heading back to classes, for restrooms, or wherever else they may be bound. Then you see her, still among all those walking, looking intently at you as if trying to figure something out. An unremarkable-looking girl, probably a second-year. Pretty, in a gloomy sort of way. Very fair, with glossy, jet-black hair and blue eyes of a dark cast, walled off behind glasses. You think her name was...

"Interested in Shijou, are you?" Elbowing you in the ribs, Ikeda breaks in on your thoughts. "I didn't know you went for the traditional type, but I guess with your lifestyle that makes sense." As your friend snickers, the girl slips away, fading back into the crowd.

"Is that her name?" Now that he's pointed it out, it does sound familiar. A second-year, like you thought. Never been her class representative or had any contact with the student council, though.

"What, you don't know her?" Now Ikeda's surprise looks genuine. "Shijou Ayaka, our school's famous rich girl. They say her family goes back to nobility and ran a zaibatsu before the war, and she was raised like a flower in a greenhouse. No friends, never talks to anybody unless she has to, but perfect manners, posture, diction, all that. Nobody's ever figured out whether she's looking down on all us commoners, or she's just ridiculously shy from being so sheltered."

"Sounds like a magnet for bullying," you muse. "I wonder why she was staring at me."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:01:50 No.6260195 Report

Quoted By: >>6260214 >>6260228 >>6260284 >>6260403 >>6260418 >>6260506 >>6260511 >>6260611 >>6261014

"Oh yeah, I heard some girls picked on her last year. They got reported for it and expelled. There were some people talking about her parents making them disappear, but I'm pretty sure it was just a regular disciplinary action. You know how big our school is on 'harmony between students'. Anyway, she's so nice when somebody does talk to her that apparently that kind of resentment faded out pretty quick. Now people just leave her alone."

Ikeda stops in mid-stride, caught out after he's finished his story by shock at processing the second half of your mutterings. He grabs you by the shoulder and circles around to look you in the eye.

"Wait, she looked at you first? I figured you were thunderstruck. She does have that old-fashioned kind of charm, but... are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." You shake off Ikeda and walk around him. He can catch up if he wants to talk, you still need to get back to the office in time to eat your sandwich. "I paid for my sandwich, turned around, and there she was, looking at me like an exam question with no answer."

"Huh. Maybe she was hungry," Ikeda opines. "Did you get the last of those sandwiches?"

"Suppose I might have, I didn't check."

With that, you return to the student council office to eat your lunch in a welcome peace. Nor does any new incident crop up during afternoon classes. You take your notes, have ready answers when called upon, and before long the bell is tolling, signalling the golden onset of afternoon, end of classes, and beginning of club activities. Time to collect Eva and bring the pseudo-clubs to an accounting. But where to first?

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then start with the Illustrated Culture Studies Club. Wasting time after school reading manga is probably making the members worse students, not just draining the budget. You should've thrown them out long ago.

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then have a look at the Electronic Communication Analysis Club. It's hard to think of a bigger waste of time one could pretend is a club activity than "analyzing the effects of internet use on methodology of communication and development of language".

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then confront the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association. No serious juvenile delinquents have yet managed to pass the academic requirements to enter your school, but the Association is where the closest thing you have to them gathers. Best to make your start with the worst offenders.

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then investigate the Occult Studies Club. Of all the groups on your list, that has the best chance of being a legitimate club that's merely run afoul of paperwork. You may as well meet them first and give them a head start on the necessary forms, if they really are legitimate.

>[ ] Do something else altogether. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:20:41 No.6260214 Report

Quoted By: >>6260225 >>6260403 >>6260511

So that's two mages interested in us, huh.

>>6260195
>[ ] Meet with the student council, then confront the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association. No serious juvenile delinquents have yet managed to pass the academic requirements to enter your school, but the Association is where the closest thing you have to them gathers. Best to make your start with the worst offenders.
Let's go with the ones that present an actual issue. The others might be a waste of resources, but at least they should keep to themselves.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 藤01d(近).png, 225KiB, 440x597

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:41:02 No.6260225 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260214
>So that's two mages interested in us, huh.
What? These perfectly unsuspicious girls, magi?! I can't imagine what on earth might make you think such a thing, anon.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:iVMQYLEG Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:41:28 No.6260226 Report

Quoted By:

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then go back to our house and study

Fuck this shit, studying is actually going to do something for the future

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Wed 18 Jun 2025 00:45:26 No.6260228 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260195
>[ ] Meet with the student council, then investigate the Occult Studies Club. Of all the groups on your list, that has the best chance of being a legitimate club that's merely run afoul of paperwork. You may as well meet them first and give them a head start on the necessary forms, if they really are legitimate.

Start off easy, surely theres nothing wrong with these guys

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Wed 18 Jun 2025 02:08:53 No.6260284 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Wed 18 Jun 2025 04:41:01 No.6260403 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260192
>From the sound of it, Eva entered the school as a normal first year student, found her way into the student council straightaway, and has been here quite long enough for you to have a clear memory of everything she's supposedly done. This isn't some gap in memories of a transfer student who showed up a few days ago; you remember that year clearly, and nowhere in it does Eva feature.
We can try to look up photos or videos taken during the year when was she supposed to be present.
>>6260195
>[ ] Meet with the student council, then start with the Illustrated Culture Studies Club. Wasting time after school reading manga is probably making the members worse students, not just draining the budget. You should've thrown them out long ago.
Doujin/Porn mag reading club lives and dies depending on whatever or not we will like “the study material” they are buying on school budget.
>>6260214
That has to be something to do with Akeldama and we are likely being investigated. Very gently it seems. Atypical for magi.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0DKf+0Hr Wed 18 Jun 2025 05:02:45 No.6260418 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260195
>[ ] Meet with the student council, then confront the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association. No serious juvenile delinquents have yet managed to pass the academic requirements to enter your school, but the Association is where the closest thing you have to them gathers. Best to make your start with the worst offenders.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:8rua7Xvv Wed 18 Jun 2025 07:05:24 No.6260480 Report

Quoted By: >>6260589

>>6260192
>An unremarkable-looking girl, probably a second-year. Pretty, in a gloomy sort of way. Very fair, with glossy, jet-black hair and blue eyes of a dark cast, walled off behind glasses. You think her name was...
A mesmerising, ethereal beauty beauty plucked from high heavens, a delicate flower in the world of unsightly crass, a kind and compassionate heart beating for all of us yet underapreciated by unwashed masses, her inner strenght and pure soul shines like a sun, illuminating our world and brightening even the darkest moments, like lighthouse of passion, love and fevor even glimpse of her light like this moments enough to enlighlten us in the sea of melon bread eating vulgarity, our princess, a noble spirit, Shijou Ayaka.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 18 Jun 2025 08:20:19 No.6260506 Report

Quoted By: >>6260648

>>6260190
I love Migraine: E

>>6260192
Mage stalker #2. At least this one is less in your face. Although in well adjusted mage like fashion, now that we've taken her sandwich, she's likely going to take our life.

>>6260195
>[ ] Meet with the student council, then start with the Illustrated Culture Studies Club. Wasting time after school reading manga is probably making the members worse students, not just draining the budget. You should've thrown them out long ago.

Time to evict some neets.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Wed 18 Jun 2025 08:36:06 No.6260511 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260195
ah there it is, the anger keeps showing up like bubbles before a geyser jetstream. I am curious who will be the unfortunate soul to receive all it one go. Sooner or later something gotta give in....

>[ ] Meet with the student council, then start with the Illustrated Culture Studies Club. Wasting time after school reading manga is probably making the members worse students, not just draining the budget. You should've thrown them out long ago.

None of this clubs sound like they should remain in an high class school like our own. Clean up the school of them today, then tomorrow we can return to study and other activities. Win win, school more efficient and we don't have to be bothered in the future about them. Yumigawa gives me the feeling of a strict and traditional guy, i don't think any arguments this clubs make to him would change his mind. Unless this school as some weird internal rules and teachers meddling on which clubs exist and which not, they are all already on the chopping block.

>>6260214
i find funny that one of the two decided to give herself more work in her life and become our secretary just for get closer XD

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 15:05:53 No.6260589 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260480
You remember the first Awakening Mirror, huh?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Kchtz6es Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:08:57 No.6260611 Report

Quoted By: >>6260617 >>6260624

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:25:08 No.6260617 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260611
Damn, you're right. I should reread but having hazy memories also feels right for this sequel.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ynjQ1yz6 Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:34:17 No.6260624 Report

Quoted By: >>6260626 >>6260810

>>6260611
>Patriots: Matsuda
>Internet: Ogawara
>Occult: Truvi maybe? Because occult = mage
Manga: ???

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:36:42 No.6260626 Report

Quoted By: >>6260629 >>6260630

>>6260624
>Manga: Blackbeard
You thought you escaped the Akeldama? Nobody escapes the Akeldama.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ynjQ1yz6 Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:44:29 No.6260629 Report

Quoted By: >>6260630

>>6260626
>Somehow, Blackbeard returned
Not after the way Archer whipped his ass. I hope.
Does that mean Cid is the school principal?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:50:59 No.6260630 Report

Quoted By: >>6260632

>>6260626
>>6260629
Man with No Name as English class teacher.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Wed 18 Jun 2025 16:58:46 No.6260632 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260630
Clont Eastword as Archery Club advisor (lore-accurate)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Bathory material page.jpg, 4MiB, 2724x1867

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 17:50:49 No.6260648 Report

Quoted By: >>6260654 >>6260813

>>6260506
>I love Migraine: E
Of course you do, Migraine is a prestigious skill, fit for the most aristocratic. Nero and Liz both have it, so clearly you're in good company.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Wed 18 Jun 2025 18:03:04 No.6260654 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260648
Liz looks very summonable if instead of being trapped in some sort of dreamscape school life we are currently playing as human Yumigawa instead of Alberich like we did in the original run.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:xPwEhEEN Wed 18 Jun 2025 21:49:07 No.6260810 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260624
Or would ogawara be the manga club?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Wed 18 Jun 2025 21:51:45 No.6260813 Report

Quoted By:

>>6260648
Love how it looks like she wrote the answers herself.
>Natural enemy: AUO
Of course it is.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 18 Jun 2025 22:56:41 No.6260855 Report

Quoted By:

A reminder, we are tied between three votes for reviewing the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association and three votes for reviewing the Illustrated Culture Studies Club.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:o4xEefdJ Thu 19 Jun 2025 02:22:17 No.6261014 Report

Quoted By:

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 19 Jun 2025 04:59:10 No.6261132 Report

Quoted By:

You find Eva in the student council office, lounging on the couch while Ikeda examines documents on his computer. Fushida and Segawa have evidently gone home already, determining there to be nothing requiring their presence today.

"Senpai! Ready to go?" The girl is on her feet and greeting you almost before you're through the door. Evidently her energy from this morning has returned. At least her enthusiasm ought to come in handy when you're making the rounds of the clubs.

"Yes, unless Ikeda has any shocking revelations for us from the documents." You send a meaningful look in your friend's direction, and get a wordless shake of the head in response. "As we discussed earlier, then. Let's start with the so-called Patriotic Association."

It's a fair walk to the Association's club room. Like most of the more dubious clubs at Kyoutenkan, they meet in the old school building, across campus from the building you take your classes in. The school was renovated in the mid-nineties, and the new building put up at that time, but the original post-war construction was never demolished. The disused classrooms were just given over to cultural clubs. This being the less desirable area for a club room, though, it's mostly clubs with low membership or a questionable record of activities that end up here.

As you're passing by the athletic fields, ears filled with the patter of running shoes on rubber as track athletes push themselves for a shorter time, the clamor of soccer players jostling for position, and the clink of bat and ball at the baseball diamond, Eva speaks up.

"So, why don't you eat sweet foods at lunch anyway, Senpai?"

You sigh. You should've known she'd want an explanation for turning down her good will. "I don't like them, that's why."

"Pfhaha, no way." Eva dismisses the idea out of hand, laughing it off as ridiculous. "Nobody really hates sweet things, some guys just say they do because they think it makes them seem manlier. Don't tell me you're like that, Senpai. Do you think it's girly to eat sugary food?"

So, she's back to teasing you now. First Eva, then Ikeda, now back to Eva; you wonder to yourself just what it is about your personality that gives some people such enjoyment from needling you.

"No," you say evenly, "it's not that. They just aren't filling. In the middle of the day I want something with some nutrition to carry me through to dinner, and a lump of bread with some sugar and flavoring isn't that. Curry bread or a sandwich might not be much better, but they're still a little more substantial."

"Huh." Eva sounds bemused, touching a finger to her lip and visibly giving your answer some thought. "So that's how you think about it, hmm?"

Before you can reply, another voice cuts in, shouting from the athletic field.

"Hey, look out! Get-"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:00:11 No.6261135 Report

Quoted By: >>6261170

WHAP!

The baseball comes hurtling toward the side of your head at the same time as the player shouts, launched with the misplaced force of a batter with all the power for a home run, but completely the wrong angle. It's too fast to react to, so sudden that you only notice the ball when it's slapped into your palm. Your hand, raised beside your head with no conscious intent, without looking, without awareness, caught the ball exactly. You move it in front of your face and look at it in confusion, doubtlessly wearing a foolish expression. Your fingers are wrapped around the hard leather surface. You caught it like you'd been waiting for that exact moment.

"Wow, crazy! I didn't even see that coming..." Eva is saying something by your side, but you hardly hear the girl. Your attention is fixed on your hand. Never really unathletic, you've always kept in shape and performed well enough in the annual sports festivals to keep your physical record on par with your academic one, but this is definitely something of a different kind. Experimentally you look over to the baseball diamond and toss the ball back in the direction of a waving club member, but there's nothing preternatural about your throw. Strong and well-aimed, but without the level of speed or control an active pitcher would have, it's exactly the kind of throw you would expect from yourself. Nothing special, just good enough to get the job done.

After the incident with the baseball Eva seems satisfied not to grill you any further on your eating habits, and you're still a bit preoccupied with the oddness of it all, so that the rest of your walk to the old school building passes in silence. Finally though, you find yourself in front of an old classroom door with a sign that's been erased and painted over to read "Yamatodamashi". Raucous voices are raised inside, punctuated by bursts of laughter and profanity. You slide the door open.

Within the delinquents' den, the tableau is slightly disappointing in its lack of impact. Boys with died hair sitting around in a cluttered room, eating snacks, drinking soda, and amusing themselves. There's an old couch and a coffee table. Someone's brought and plugged in a portable electric hot plate, and there's a kettle on it next to a stack of instant ramen packages piled atop a mini-fridge. Someone has brought a deck of cards, and four of the boys are playing a game around the table. At one end of the room is a slightly overstuffed recliner, with a fifth youth stretched out in it and asleep, his eyes covered by a magazine for motorcycle enthusiasts.

"Whad'you want?" yells one of the card-playing club members, not looking up. "I know y'weren't gone long enough to get the..." Hearing you and Eva walk in, but not answer, he finally bothers to look up and cuts himself off as he gets a look at you. Whoever he thought was at the door, you aren't them. "Wait, aren't you the student council guy?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:01:11 No.6261137 Report

Quoted By:

"I'm Yumigawa Rushorou, student council president," you answer, lacing your voice with authoritative contempt. These people are hardly even worth calling troublemakers; none of them looks strong enough to be intimidating in a fight, they don't have any cigarettes or alcohol, and their card game isn't even being played for money. "Conducting an impromptu review of clubs under probation. You claim to be an auxiliary of the cheer squad. Can any of you explain to me why the cheer squad would possibly need such a thing? It isn't even a consistent body itself, just an ad-hoc group formed for sporting events."

"Hey!" The boy furthest from you, his hair dyed red and black in a dubiously intermittent pattern possibly intended to resemble flames, is shaking the sleeping figure in the armchair awake and talking into his ear. "There's people from the student council here! You're supposed to be club president, what do we do?" The rest are looking uncertainly around the room, as if a solution is to be found in one another's faces.

"Ah?" At length, as you wait for a coherent answer, the sleeper wakes. "Student council?" He sits up and throws his magazine to the floor, revealing a face pockmarked by acne scars and a haircut so conservatively short as to look appropriate on a Showa era soldier. Perhaps this is the one who coined the name 'Patriotic Association'.

"Look," the supposed club president growls, "We're a club, okay? We filed all the paperwork, and nobody else wants the room. Who cares if the cheer squad needs the extra guys? I could say our main activity is kendo, if that'd make you feel better, we do a little of that sometimes." True to his words, there are a few shinai propped up in one corner. A different claim wouldn't make this pathetic assemblage of slackers any more legitimate, though.

"That wouldn't change a thing," you tell him. "Get out. You have no record of club activities and no reason to exist. You're not a club, and you've wasted the school's money buying your furniture. Even if we don't find a better use for this room, cutting off your budget is reason enough." You jerk a thumb back over your shoulder, to emphasize the point.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:02:41 No.6261138 Report

Quoted By: >>6261154 >>6261169 >>6261170 >>6261176 >>6261177 >>6261227 >>6261308 >>6261353 >>6261360

"Aw, hell," the ex-president sighs, getting to his feet. "Shit, I always kinda wanted to try this. Let's see how you make speeches with no teeth, douchebag!" In a sudden burst of energy, he rushes at you, closing the distance with surprising speed. He throws a punch at your nose. At the same time you step towards him, and his fist connects with your shoulder instead. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt a bit. Perhaps he's not as strong as he thinks he is.

>[ ] Give the delinquent a taste of his own medicine and sock him in the face. Eva's on hand to confirm that you're only fighting in self-defense, and you're confident that no matter how far things go the only one facing disciplinary action will be this dirtbag.

>[ ] Grab the delinquent's arm, see if you can twist it behind him and get out of the way of his flailing fists. Better safe than sorry, and if you twist his shoulder hard enough he should give up.

>[ ] Try to knock the wind out of the delinquent with a hard punch in the gut. You don't want to leave any marks on his face and risk a black mark on your record.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:iVMQYLEG Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:14:18 No.6261145 Report

Quoted By: >>6261336 >>6261412 >>6261428

>Pick up one of the shinai and proclaim to everyone in the room “You say your main active is kendo , then I reconsider your club being disbanded if any of you could defeat me in a kendo match!!!”

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:31:23 No.6261154 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261138
>[ ] Dodge his follow-up strike and continue talking. You'll challenge this self-titled kendoka to a kendo match: if he loses to a rank amateur, it proves that his club is failing to justify its own existence and you'll have cause to disband it. If he refuses to take the bait, you'll just get ready for an old-fashioned fight.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Thu 19 Jun 2025 05:52:31 No.6261169 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 19 Jun 2025 06:06:27 No.6261170 Report

Quoted By: >>6261176 >>6261185 >>6261353

>>6261135
New skills just dropped.

Instinct(Balls): D

And

END: E--

I doubt we're just a vanilla human bean after that ball catch, and that we seem capable of warding off the definitely not a mage's hypnosis.

Got a feeling some of the three options might leave this guy a meat puddle given this is nasuverse.

>>6261138
While I appreciate the kendochads above, I don't think this NPC is worth Yumigawa drawing a sword. Pride was a major focus in Akeldama.

>Backhand slap this insolent thug for daring to raise a hand against the student council president.

>Remind him and his entourage of their place.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Thu 19 Jun 2025 06:38:49 No.6261176 Report

Quoted By: >>6261179

>>6261138
>[ ] Grab the delinquent's arm, see if you can twist it behind him and get out of the way of his flailing fists. Better safe than sorry, and if you twist his shoulder hard enough he should give up.
>>6261170
>and that we seem capable of warding off the definitely not a mage's hypnosis.
...what hypnosis ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:39mBJgBq Thu 19 Jun 2025 06:42:31 No.6261177 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261138
>[ ] "I know kung fu". Beat them up without leaving bruises.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 19 Jun 2025 06:51:34 No.6261179 Report

Quoted By: >>6261188 >>6261218

>>6261176
Reread every moment when all of the npcs in the class magically recall Eva and her chosen version of events.

Where do you suppose the magical migraines have been coming from?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Thu 19 Jun 2025 07:09:19 No.6261185 Report

Quoted By: >>6261222 >>6261333

>>6261170
In the original Awakening Mirror, the real Yumigawa was slowly turning into the other Yumigawa because of resonance. My guess is that something similar is happening here because the other Yumi hasn't started calling himself Alberich yet. It's also possible that the other Yumi is slowly taking over this one's body, which might make Yumi a Demi-Servant or just result in an incarnate Servant.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:tnmERGGl Thu 19 Jun 2025 07:17:10 No.6261188 Report

Quoted By: >>6261219 >>6261271

>>6261179
That cigani witch could be one responsible for why those mooks went gung ho on us. She needs a good haymaker in her face for good measure as well.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Thu 19 Jun 2025 08:51:53 No.6261218 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261179
>Reread every moment when all of the npcs in the class magically recall Eva and her chosen version of events.
>Where do you suppose the magical migraines have been coming from?
I just thought it was mc remembering stuff from his past life, but I'll check out now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 19 Jun 2025 09:07:39 No.6261219 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261188
Holy based?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 19 Jun 2025 09:16:21 No.6261222 Report

Quoted By: >>6261228

>>6261185
>A flash of half-formed memory bursts across your mind, accompanied by pain. Beauty. An emotional closeness, hitherto unknown. The energy of life. The taste of coffee, and, was it blood? Fire. Gold. Steel. Feathers. A single voice, raised in song amidst boiling silence. You wince as the migraine sinks vicious claws into the space behind your eyes, but the memories, and the pain, are gone as quickly as they appeared.

These all feel like Akeldama memories being forcefully injected or recalled. Coffee date with Hitler etc. Maybe we're already under hypnosis and the Akeldama memories are breaking the conditioning? Or maybe not!Alberich resonance is injecting servant capabilities into the human version?

Sweets didn't say Awakening Mirror was canon either, and this assumes parts of it are.

Wait and hope.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 19 Jun 2025 09:51:07 No.6261227 Report

Quoted By: >>6261353

>>6261138
inappropriate language
violent assault on fellow student/council president
state of disrepair in the class used by the club
food being cooked here with no authorization
misuse of funds
etc...automatically purged, next club. They are a waste of time and idiotically dangerous to the school.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
>[ ] Backhand slap this insolent thug for daring to raise a hand against the student council president.
>[ ] Remind him and his entourage of their place.
>[ ] Backhand again if the thug can't understand. Tell Eva to record with her phone. Communicate what happened to the school, and wait here for the arrival of the disciplinarian teacher. If the thug and his cronies want to leave stop them and remind them of the consequences of such stupid decision, if what they did already wasn't idiotic enough.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:255p6h0e Thu 19 Jun 2025 10:03:16 No.6261228 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261222
>Wait and hope.
The one copeing will be that Einzbern copycat with his shitty jobber sword. This time around Yumigawa will triumph against Alberich.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:7/UkWxFD Thu 19 Jun 2025 10:54:56 No.6261233 Report

Quoted By: >>6261248

We should also go for MILFs instead of lolis like Alberich did.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:o4xEefdJ Thu 19 Jun 2025 11:41:05 No.6261248 Report

Quoted By: >>6261254

>>6261233
Nah.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Xwm7J25g Thu 19 Jun 2025 12:19:40 No.6261254 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261248
I like big butts and I cannot lie.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 19 Jun 2025 13:02:07 No.6261271 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261188
lol

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Thu 19 Jun 2025 15:33:50 No.6261308 Report

Quoted By:

That's some abnormal physical condition Yumigawa has and rationalizes.
>>6261138
Third vote for kendo duel.
Going to duel other clubs for their right to exist too.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:onL/Mgz5 Thu 19 Jun 2025 16:33:47 No.6261333 Report

Quoted By: >>6261338

>>6261185
So a pseudo-servant is one of those deals where a servant possesses a human body like Waver/Zhuge, right? And an incarnate servant is like Gil after Zero. I get those, but wtf is a demi-servant?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QVejBYUi Thu 19 Jun 2025 16:41:51 No.6261336 Report

Quoted By: >>6261428

>>6261145
This

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Thu 19 Jun 2025 16:46:54 No.6261338 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261333
A demi-servant is like a pseudo-servant, but the heroic spirit does nothing but provide power. Mashu is a demi-servant because Galahad doesn't control her actions, whereas Ishtar/Rin is a pseudo-servant because Ishtar is in control even if Rin's influence makes her less evil.
Zhuge/Waver is not a good example because he's closer to a demi-servant: Zhuge is technically in charge but he decided Waver should have control most of the time for clapbait.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Thu 19 Jun 2025 17:36:47 No.6261353 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261138

>>6261170
>>6261227
I'm going with the backhand crew here, this bum isn't worthy of a duel.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:o4xEefdJ Thu 19 Jun 2025 17:45:33 No.6261360 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261138
>[ ] Grab the delinquent's arm, see if you can twist it behind him and get out of the way of his flailing fists. Better safe than sorry, and if you twist his shoulder hard enough he should give up.

I'm concerned that the backhand option will end with us breaking his neck, and heat is the last thing we need on our plate right now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:o4b2gxkB Thu 19 Jun 2025 18:50:35 No.6261412 Report

Quoted By: >>6261428

>>6261145
+1

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 19 Jun 2025 19:24:32 No.6261428 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261145
>>6261336
>>6261412
Can you link your votes to the update post with the choice? If you post without a link, I'm liable to end up missing your vote sooner or later.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 01:35:11 No.6261674 Report

Quoted By: >>6261835

The delinquent, enthusiasm undiminished by his misplaced first blow, follows it up with another of the same kind. You easily step out of the way of his left hook and let him strike empty air. With no history of getting into fights, it should seem strange how naturally you find yourself reading the trajectory of these punches and avoiding them, but with the pseudo-club president still vigorously trying to beat you down and drive you away, you don't have the time to contemplate the matter. Instead, moving toward the corner of the room as you sidestep one punch after another, you pick up one of the shinai propped there.

"Here," you say, a smile coming unbidden to your lips, "since you claim you practice kendo here, try using this on me. If you can beat a rank amateur, I may let you keep the club room."

You toss the practice blade at your adversary. He catches it easily enough, quickly falling into the orthodox chūdan stance. Whatever his faults, the leader of this bunch of time-wasters evidently has a level of power, speed, and coordination his lanky lackeys do not. You pick up another shinai yourself, holding it in one hand with no particular stance. Just as you proclaimed, you've never trained in kendo. Your opponent grins at your relaxed posture; it's an easy thing for anyone with even slight training to beat down a completely untrained opponent of similar physical capabilities, given that familiarity with the most efficient use of motion is the first lesson learned and the fundamental essence of stances and formalized movements.

With a reverberating stamp of his right foot, the pseudo-club president steps in and strikes an exemplary blow at your head, far too quick for the shinai lazily dangling by your side to get up and block in time. He must have some genuine talent and expertise in the discipline. Perhaps he pursued kendo throughout his school career until recently being thrown out for some impropriety. You bat his strike off to your right before it can connect, then step left and let his momentum carry the fool past you. Before he's turned around to face you again you lay your own shinai across his back, giving the delinquent a strike in the style of an old-fashioned caning.

"Try again?" You don't even try to keep the mirth from your voice. This is, as it turns out, rather fun. Your adversary doesn't seem to see the joke, though. Face contorted with rage he rushes at you again, this time trying to cut across your core in a body blow. You kick the weapon, and its bamboo breaks surprisingly easily over your shin. More like cheap, thin plastic than wood. Not losing a moment, you give the delinquent a lash across the face that snaps his head to one side. It also carries more force than you'd intended, opening a gash that sends blood streaming down his cheek.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 01:36:12 No.6261675 Report

Quoted By: >>6261690 >>6261698 >>6261708 >>6261790 >>6261811 >>6261836 >>6261838

Sputtering incoherent profanity, the delinquent hurls his broken weapon at your face and lunges back toward the corner for another shinai. You don't let him use it. After swiftly knocking the bundle of broken bamboo out of the air you follow him, waiting only long enough for the young man to grab his weapon and turn back to face you before you crack your shinai over the top of his head. Now there are two broken practice swords, and the president of the Kyoutenkan High Patriotic Association drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Do any of the rest of you want to make trouble?"

You run your eyes over the other four club members, all wide-eyed. None of them speaks up.

"Good. Get your friend to the infirmary."

>[ ] Leave with that, and head for the next club on your list. (Which?)

>[ ] Accompany the members of the dissolved club to the school infirmary. You'll have to explain this event to a teacher, and you don't want them telling their own version first. It will take a while, but you'll just have to review the other clubs another day.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 01:38:11 No.6261676 Report

Quoted By:

"To think, you're finally putting your lessons to good use! Sensei is so proud."

Joking aside, I'd like to write another update tonight since this was a fairly short action scene. Try and vote soon, if you're here.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Fri 20 Jun 2025 01:57:44 No.6261690 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:o4xEefdJ Fri 20 Jun 2025 02:07:56 No.6261698 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Fri 20 Jun 2025 02:20:49 No.6261708 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261675
>[ ] Leave with that, and head for the next club on your list. (Which?)
We've wasted enough time with these reprobates. Nobody would take the word of a delinquent over a student council member. Onwards to the electronic communication analysis club.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Fri 20 Jun 2025 04:41:47 No.6261790 Report

Quoted By: >>6261811 >>6261838

>>6261675
>[ ] Accompany the members of the dissolved club to the school infirmary. You'll have to explain this event to a teacher, and you don't want them telling their own version first. It will take a while, but you'll just have to review the other clubs another day.
>[ ] Give them lecture how their actions and their weak, useless club drags down the school and make it lose face. Overall performance of clubs, school festivals projects, partaking in sports events and all other extracurricular activities are monitored by city educational authorities and determine school fundings as well as ranking. That time they didn't show up at sport event last month as part of auxiliary of the cheer squads during sport event? Student council presidents of other schools who took part in it were mocking our school at the event for having listed but non-attending clubs.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ErsXTqvx Fri 20 Jun 2025 05:30:04 No.6261811 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261675
Hit em with the Isseitism.

Tell them they're not living their life correctly.

>>6261790

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 20 Jun 2025 06:58:14 No.6261835 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261674
>"Try again?" You don't even try to keep the mirth from your voice. This is, as it turns out, rather fun.

Surprise surprise, beating the shit out of people is fun.

Good to not be a complete stiff. This feels more like the Akeldama-y living life Yumigawa.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 20 Jun 2025 06:58:33 No.6261836 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261675
>[ ] Leave with that, and head for the next club on your list. (eletronic communication)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 20 Jun 2025 07:01:06 No.6261838 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261675
Gonna go with
>>6261790
Because I think acting this way is important around Eva, but I also think observing how she reacted to all this with some real scrutiny is important. So while hamming it up with Student Council President dialogue, keep a sharp eye on the gyppo.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 07:06:55 No.6261841 Report

Quoted By: >>6261853

Once the four conscious members of the disbanded club have filed past you into the hall, their chieftain slung between the larger two, you fall in behind them. You'll be following them to the infirmary, to make sure they don't go retelling this story in such a way as to make you out to be the villain. Also to drive home to them, over the course of the walk, just what fools they've been making of themselves wasting their student days in that worthless fake club. Just as you're about to begin your lecture, though, a cheerful voice cuts in from beside you.

"That was amazing, Senpai!" Eva is beaming up at you. If her smile is always bright, now it seems so radiant as to be almost blinding. She actually looks respectful. "I'm seeing you in a whole new light! I had no idea you could be so wild, really..." She searches for a word, lapsing into a momentary silence. "Brutal, actually! I mean, you made him look like a child trying to fight a grown man."

"It was really nothing special." You try to brush it off. The fact is, you don't have any more explanation than she does for why you could handle the delinquent so easily. There's nothing to be praised in an ability you don't understand yourself. "He was just out of shape, not as tough as he thought he was."

"No, really! I mean, you're normally such a total honor student, I didn't think you had a violent bone in your body! How'd you learn to fight, anyway?"

"I never learned," you answer with a shrug. "You must have seen that I didn't have a stance or anything, I just used the shinai on impulse."

"Reeeally?" Eva giggles, apparently not believing you but content to play along with your claim. "I guess you're just a natural tyrant then, huh?"

"Tyrant?" How could she even think something like that? Astonished, you pause in mid-step. "What do you mean?"

Eva circles around you as she answers, practically bouncing with amusement.

"Well, think how much more fun you could've had if you'd enforced all of the student council decisions this way for the last three years! Now you're about to graduate, and only just finding out you have a knack for beating misbehaving students into submission. Isn't it a shame, Senpai?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 07:07:56 No.6261843 Report

Quoted By: >>6261865

"Of course not!" You now realize she must have been closely observing the smile on your face, how much you enjoyed humiliating the leader of these slackers. It wasn't the kind of thing an exemplary student should enjoy, and you almost feel ashamed of yourself. Perhaps you were working out the frustration from your incessant headaches on that delinquent, who wasn't even strong enough to defend himself. "I was only defending myself, after all. It's not as though I went in and attacked them myself, that thug turned to violence as soon as I said I'd shut his club down." You're justifying your actions as much to yourself as to Eva. The club leader deserved what he got, of course. He brought it on himself by attacking you. You did nothing out of the character of an upstanding student, even the most law-abiding citizen can be expected to defend himself when attacked.

"But it was fun, wasn't it?" Eva grins up at you.

"That has nothing to do with it!"

Unable to properly retort the girl, you pick up your pace to catch up with the remaining members of the ersatz club, beginning a lecture on all the various reasons to regret their waste of time and money operating in the ill-gotten guise of a club. From draining school resources, to diminishing the school's prestige by reducing the percentage of clubs presenting their activities at the cultural festival or participating in sports festivals, to dragging down the school's average grades by wasting time they could have spent studying, to the fire risk posed by unsanctioned cookware, you keep the lecture up all the way to the infirmary. By the time you arrive, hopefully they'll be so sick of the sound of the words "fake club" that they'll never even contemplate forming another one.

"...and worst of all for you, you're ruining your own futures with this time-wasting activity that could be spent on bettering yourself and your academic record. You never know what unexpected element of your past might end up changing someone's mind about you and ruining a future prospect you're depending on!"

You wind down your lecture as the seven of you arrive at the door to the infirmary. Being on the ground floor, the walk here was slightly shorter than that from the student council room to the old school building, but only slightly. All four delinquents look ready to change places with their leader if only it would no longer being able to hear you, and you judge your job done well enough.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 20 Jun 2025 07:08:57 No.6261844 Report

Quoted By: >>6261853 >>6261865 >>6261872 >>6261887 >>6261983 >>6262003 >>6262027 >>6262175

Ayukawa-sensei, the school nurse, doesn't bother getting to her feet at the sound of the door. Seated on her desk, rather than at it, she's reclining against one of the windows and watching the infirmary door over a cup of hot coffee. Judging from her half-lidded eyes, the caffeine isn't doing much for her. Only when she catches sight of the unconscious student, and his bloody face, does she get up and drift over to have a closer look.

"What's happened to you boys, then?"

Her voice is almost more yawn than speech. Soft, low, relaxed, and eminently disinterested, it is a voice that declares she will listen if you absolutely feel the need to answer her question, but no more. She may as well be asking about the weather in some distant part of the country where she once lived, but has no intention of ever returning.

"These five were operating a club without meeting the required conditions. I told them I'd have to shut them down, and this one," you tap the lead slacker's head with a fingertip as his friends unload him onto one of the beds, "attacked me. I defended myself, and the result is as you see it."

"Is that true?" Ayukawa-sensei slowly looks from one to another of you, examining the expression of each student in her office in turn.

"That's right," Eva chirps, energetic as Ayukawa-sensei is lethargic, once the delinquents have given their uncomfortable assent. "I saw the whole thing."

"Well..." The nurse lapses into a few seconds of silence, then takes a drink of her coffee as she thinks. "I doubt anyone is going to want to take disciplinary measures. You can go."

"Oh." Just as you're turning to leave, she catches herself. "Yumigawa-kun, were you hurt as well?"

>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.

>[ ] Explain that nothing happened to you during the fighting, but you have been suffering from a pernicious headache all day. Is there any chance she could give you something for it?

>[ ] Respond differently. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 20 Jun 2025 07:33:53 No.6261853 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261841
> "I guess you're just a natural tyrant then, huh?"

We iz kangz.

>>6261844
>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.

No I will not take the meds, nor will I mention weakness in front of women.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Fri 20 Jun 2025 08:16:59 No.6261865 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261843
>to the fire risk posed by unsanctioned cookware
good man.
seriously who the fuck does that.

>>6261844
>[ ] Explain that nothing happened to you during the fighting, but you have been suffering from a pernicious headache all day. Is there any chance she could give you something for it?

This headaches are turning us quite angry. Verify why we are so filled by rage. The whole school thinks already we have a weird disease that makes us irrational and angry anyway, we can't get more weird with a check up. Beside it would be funny to learn its actually rabis and not magic.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 20 Jun 2025 08:42:20 No.6261872 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261844
>[ ] Explain that nothing happened to you during the fighting, but you have been suffering from a pernicious headache all day. Is there any chance she could give you something for it?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Fri 20 Jun 2025 09:29:41 No.6261887 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261844
>[ ] Explain that nothing happened to you during the fighting, but you have been suffering from a pernicious headache all day. Is there any chance she could give you something for it?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Fri 20 Jun 2025 16:36:31 No.6261983 Report

Quoted By: >>6262003

>>6261844
>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.
Might as well just take an aspirin at home at this point, doubt she'd have anything much stronger here anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Qxx7uZ5M Fri 20 Jun 2025 17:26:47 No.6262003 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261844
>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.
Meds? No.
>>6261983
She might have alcohol but we could get that home as well. Raid mom's box wine storage.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:qb7nlP8t Fri 20 Jun 2025 18:52:08 No.6262027 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261844
>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.
I'm just fine and dandy.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Fri 20 Jun 2025 23:04:10 No.6262175 Report

Quoted By:

>>6261844
>[ ] Tell her you're unhurt, and depart. Most of the other clubs will have wrapped up their activities, and it's time for you to be getting home.
We don't need no meds

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:13:57 No.6262372 Report

Quoted By:

"I'm perfectly fine, Sensei," you answer in a stiffly formal tone, unpleasantly conscious of the small lie. You've never been entirely comfortable lying to teachers. It goes against the perfectly-behaved identity your father has always cautioned you to maintain. Still, although your headache has yet to disappear entirely, you haven't had any flare-ups as awful as that during the lunch break since. You doubt there's much Ayukawa-sensei could do for a headache anyway, beyond giving you a mild painkiller. It's not as if you need first aid, like the unconscious fool.

"Is that right...?" Ayukawa-sensei drawls. "You don't look it... but if you don't want help, I won't pry." Indeed, her attention is off of you almost before she's finished speaking. With surprisingly quick motions, she's already soaking a wad of cotton in disinfectant and preparing a bandage for the gash on the lead slacker's cheek. Taking her silent work as a dismissal, you and Eva step out into the hall. The four other members of the dissolved club have already fled.

"Well then," you begin, taking the initiative before Eva can resume her commentary on your perceived violent impulses, "I don't believe we have time to review any more clubs today, and that means Monday's student council activities are at an end. Goodbye, Văcărescu." You make for the school building's front door. Eva follows, hands laced behind her back and a bemused smile on her face. When both of you stop at the shoe racks to change back from your indoor to outdoor shoes, you take the point of her wordless joke. Your farewell was premature, since you'll be leaving by the same door. An unusually awkward slip, for someone as scrupulously self-controlled and self-conscious as you normally are. But then, nothing about today has been normal.

Eva follows you all the way to the front gate of Kyoutenkan's grounds before speaking. Mercifully, from here it seems the two of you travel in opposite directions on your paths home, bringing your embarrassment to an end.

"See you tomorrow, Senpai! Don't take that personal training too far again tonight!" She waves to you enthusiastically, laughing as she goes on her way. Energetic and cheerful to the last, you can easily see why such a girl could become as well-liked as she apparently is. How, then, to explain the total lapse in your own memories?

You can't stop yourself from turning the question over and over in your mind as you retrace the familiar path to your house. The peaceful scenery you so enjoyed this morning, of a prosperous garden-city with everything in its proper place and everyone fulfilling their proper role, no longer gives comfort. The wan glow of a winter sun is insufficient to compete with lengthening shadows that seem to cast everything in doubt. In the distance you hear the harsh voice of a crow, heralding the coming night.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:14:58 No.6262373 Report

Quoted By: >>6262388

A chill falls over you, and you stop in your tracks. It isn't the seasonably cool weather or the retreat of warmth from the setting sun that sends this cold prickle down your neck, you feel certain. The sensation is that same sense of being watched that you felt at the school commissary earlier, but far more intense. You look around, scanning every building and alley on the street around you for the shadow of your pursuer as beads of cold sweat form on the back of your neck. You aren't afraid, it's nothing so conscious as that, for you have nothing to be afraid of. The warning comes not from your mind but your body, a primal instinct from every cell telling you of lethal danger.

Finally you spot it. A few dozen meters down the road, where your path home brushes the edge of Yoyogi Park, a blacker shadow in the darkness below a dense stand of trees. It's about the size of a human, though you can make out no more detail than that. You stare at the shadow, certain that it's staring back, contact made between eyes clearly illuminated and those hidden in darkness. You hesitate, unsure whether to go forward or back. To confront whoever it is that's rude enough to stalk you, or to listen to the warning from your instincts and flee.

In the event, you don't need to make the decision. In the blink of an eye the darker place amidst the shade is gone, and so is the oppressive sense of danger. Again there is no sign of anyone walking the street but yourself, and your wire-taut nerves relax. Indeed, the sense of danger fades so suddenly and so completely that you hardly believe it was real at all. After all, what reason could there be for feeling such animal dread here in your own peaceful district? You've never been prey to such anxieties before, either, even when you were a child visiting haunted houses or going on thrill rides at an amusement park. If anything, you tend to be calmer than the average person to an unnecessary degree. Is an unnatural sense of being watched another symptom of whatever plagues you with these headaches? But no, when you felt it earlier the Shijou girl really was staring at you. What, then? Was the shadow a real person, and only your sense of danger artificial?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:16:06 No.6262375 Report

Quoted By: >>6262388 >>6262393 >>6262395 >>6262423 >>6262468 >>6262600 >>6262658 >>6262699 >>6262801

<> <> <>

You reach home before reaching an answer to any of your quandaries. Although happy enough when you arrive, your mother turns glum after a phone call from your father reveals that the family patriarch will be busy working overtime into the night, and won't be making it home for dinner. This is the case more nights than not, but every time your mother is crestfallen anew. Dinner, consequently, is a silent affair, your mother letting her cooking speak for her. The ginger pork, its aromatic glaze perfectly highlighting the succulent flavor of the meat, is delicious without ostentation. Served with cabbage and rice, subtle flavors providing a subdued counterpoint to the sweet and savory pork, Yumigawa Setsuna's humble wish to welcome her husband home, provide him a rest from his labors, and spend the evening by his side can be felt in every bite. You wonder if he appreciates her efforts, on those evenings when he does arrive in time to eat with the two of you.

After bidding your mother good night, bathing, and returning at last to your bedroom to study, you find that your headache has almost completely faded away. Concentrating on your notes and textbooks, on the other hand, remains a challenge. Your mind turns again and again to the strange events of the day. So much appears to have changed between last night and this morning that your entire world seems to be slightly askew. The flaws in your memory, the bizarre displays of physical fitness beyond what you know yourself to be capable of, the way you seem to be being watched... it feels as if you'll never be able to face life normally tomorrow if you don't make some sense out of the chaotic alterations. Perhaps there are answers to be found on your computer.

>[ ] Look for any information you can find on the Shijou family. According to Ikeda they're well-known, and it was Shijou you first caught watching you. It could be that the shadow from your walk home was some employee of theirs. Anything you can learn about those who seem to be following should be useful in some way.

>[ ] Sort through your photos and documents related to the student council. Since Eva has apparently been there for a year, she should appear in event photos and the minutes of meetings. Perhaps reviewing your past interactions with the mysterious girl will jog your memory.

>[ ] Read the local news, looking for any information on criminal activity in Yoyogi. Between this morning's report on vandalism and the person you saw hiding in the park, it seems as if your environment is changing at least as much as your head. It would be a good idea to be more informed about what's going on beyond the confines of your school.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:17:07 No.6262377 Report

Quoted By: >>6262388 >>6262393 >>6262474

>[ ] Forget about online research for tonight. Instead, try testing your physical abilities to see if you really have become unnaturally strong or fast. It certainly seemed that way while you were fighting and when you caught the baseball about to hit you, but you haven't felt any unnatural power at any other time today.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Note that whatever you do, this will be the last choice of February 4.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:37:09 No.6262388 Report

Quoted By: >>6262423

>>6262375
>>6262377
Its doubtful that the internet would have much of use about a mage family. They're too reclusive for that to yield much of value.

I do think searching through photos might catch out the gyppo in her lie, but I'm not sure what we would actually do with that information?

We're still in a pretty sheltered setting between the apartment at night and the school during daylight hours. Also, if there are at least 2 mages at school (and interested in us) too it sort of forces a stalemate between them of sorts as one can't act out without the other knowing. If Ayaka is from some big local family, then odds are her family have authority over the local area. Meanwhile the gyppo might just be a fly in for a possible grail war? That's all pretty meta based though.

I honestly think it would be best to get a grasp of ourselves more than anything. Memory issues, brain damage and superhuman feats, reactions and even something >>6262373 about a sixth sense for possible threats.

Going with
>[ ] Forget about online research for tonight. Instead, try testing your physical abilities to see if you really have become unnaturally strong or fast. It certainly seemed that way while you were fighting and when you caught the baseball about to hit you, but you haven't felt any unnatural power at any other time today.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:49:43 No.6262393 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262375
>>6262377
>[ ] Forget about online research for tonight. Instead, try testing your physical abilities to see if you really have become unnaturally strong or fast. It certainly seemed that way while you were fighting and when you caught the baseball about to hit you, but you haven't felt any unnatural power at any other time today.
Tending to oneself should be the first priority.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:53:23 No.6262395 Report

Quoted By: >>6262397

>>6262375
Although happy enough when you arrive, your mother turns glum after a phone call from your father reveals that the family patriarch will be busy working overtime into the night, and won't be making it home for dinner. This is the case more nights than not, but every time your mother is crestfallen anew. Dinner, consequently, is a silent affair, your mother letting her cooking speak for her. The ginger pork, its aromatic glaze perfectly highlighting the succulent flavor of the meat, is delicious without ostentation. Served with cabbage and rice, subtle flavors providing a subdued counterpoint to the sweet and savory pork, Yumigawa Setsuna's humble wish to welcome her husband home, provide him a rest from his labors, and spend the evening by his side can be felt in every bite. You wonder if he appreciates her efforts, on those evenings when he does arrive in time to eat with the two of you.

Also, this highly skilled cook who is supposed to be Yumigawa's mother didn't even provide us lunch.

I mentioned this earlier as a joke, but look at the effort she puts in to a husband who lives at work. Yet her own son is an afterthought.

Mr perfect has an empty, miserable quintessentially Japanese homelife. He's even noooticing and monologing about it.

Circe was so good for him.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 21 Jun 2025 04:59:19 No.6262397 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262395
I can't even meme arrow correctly.

But it also seems the only genuine enjoyment Yumigawa has expressed all day has been when he was beating the shit out of the degenerate at school. Not even a sense of excitement when he aimbotted the ball out of nowhere. He seems to appreciate the meal he just ate, but more to just observe and narrate the situation rather than him deriving any true personal pleasure from eating.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO James Doakes.jpg, 19KiB, 320x320

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 21 Jun 2025 05:54:40 No.6262423 Report

Quoted By: >>6262427

>>6262375
>[ ] Sort through your photos and documents related to the student council. Since Eva has apparently been there for a year, she should appear in event photos and the minutes of meetings. Perhaps reviewing your past interactions with the mysterious girl will jog your memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2xxizpHuoo
>>6262388
gyppo ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 21 Jun 2025 05:59:59 No.6262427 Report

Quoted By: >>6262432

>>6262423
Eva's surname is Romanian. It's a derogatory term for gypsies

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 21 Jun 2025 06:09:30 No.6262432 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262427
Oh, I see. I thought gypsie was already derogatory, kek.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sat 21 Jun 2025 07:36:12 No.6262468 Report

Quoted By: >>6262472

>>6262375
>Forget about online research for tonight. Instead, try testing your physical abilities to see if you really have become unnaturally strong or fast. It certainly seemed that way while you were fighting and when you caught the baseball about to hit you, but you haven't felt any unnatural power at any other time today.

Ah, I've missed this.
Glad to see you home, Sweets. You've been doing a fantastic job so far! Keep up the good work!

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 07:42:35 No.6262472 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262468
Thanks! I'm glad to be back, very happy to be putting the remake plan into action after all this time. Good to hear you're enjoying things so far!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Qxx7uZ5M Sat 21 Jun 2025 07:46:02 No.6262474 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262377
>[ ] Forget about online research for tonight. Instead, try testing your physical abilities to see if you really have become unnaturally strong or fast. It certainly seemed that way while you were fighting and when you caught the baseball about to hit you, but you haven't felt any unnatural power at any other time today.
Just as sussy as that cigany broad.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sat 21 Jun 2025 14:21:18 No.6262600 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:m/BVNlRz Sat 21 Jun 2025 16:02:55 No.6262658 Report

Quoted By: >>6262661

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:K3jQjXB/ Sat 21 Jun 2025 16:07:24 No.6262661 Report

Quoted By: >>6262690

>>6262658
Men At Work?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:m/BVNlRz Sat 21 Jun 2025 16:50:47 No.6262690 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262661
Half-asleep when posting it but yeah.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 500x500.jpg, 22KiB, 500x500

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Sat 21 Jun 2025 17:03:17 No.6262699 Report

Quoted By:

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 21 Jun 2025 19:16:13 No.6262763 Report

Quoted By: >>6262765 >>6263010

We are tied, four votes for researching Eva and four votes for testing your own physical abilities. I'd like to write soon (and hopefully pick up the pace since it's the weekend again, get a few updates out each day) so if there's anyone who hasn't voted yet or any voters who feel they can sway someone to their side, now's your moment.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Qxx7uZ5M Sat 21 Jun 2025 19:25:20 No.6262765 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262763
switch me up fampai

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Sat 21 Jun 2025 20:27:04 No.6262801 Report

Quoted By:

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:05:33 No.6262970 Report

Quoted By: >>6262999

Booting up your PC, you stare idly at the desktop for a few seconds, considering how you might make sense of the anomalies you've seen today and drumming your fingertips against the keyboard. Although it's tempting to think that online research might yield some explanation for your symptoms or the odd behavior and rumors of Shijou, you eventually decide that's that's more likely to be a waste of time. The most important thing to do, you decide, is to try and find some way of lining up your own memories of the past year with the reports of those around you, and that means looking for records of Eva's existence within the Student Council that might jog your missing memories.

Fortunately your school takes commemorative photos relatively often, and as the Student Council is responsible for managing the distribution of most of these through yearbooks, posters, notices, oversight of the Newspaper Club, and so-on you have plenty of them stored on your computer. You start with the photos from the entrance ceremony at the beginning of the school year, last spring. Although the only pictures of the new students would be photos of the first-year representative speaker and crowd photos, Eva's hair should make her easy to spot in a crowd, even at a distance.

Unfortunately, the entrance ceremony photos capturing the crowd of students only show a sea of unremarkable hair colors. Black, brown, the occasional dark blue or gray, a few girls affecting the gal fashion with bleached hair, but nothing resembling Eva's orange-red ponytail. She must have been out of frame, or else hidden by other students.

Moving on you begin flipping through the folder of group photos from your annual school trip, this year to Kyoto. These were photos of groups of two to four, or as many eight students, taken by the photography club and submitted to the school faculty. The best might end up being used in promotional material for the school, but most are just there so that students who want their photos to remember the trip by can receive a professional print in exchange for a nominal fee. Handling printing, distribution, and collection of money was left to the student council. It takes an age to get through them all, even focusing only on the first-year groups, but eventually you come to the end of the list. You've gone through classes 1-A to 1-E, and Eva is in none of the groups. Very odd.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:06:34 No.6262972 Report

Quoted By: >>6262999

Then again, if she's been sticking by your side as closely as Ikeda says she has, there's a simple explanation for her absence after all. She would have spent the entire school trip with the student council. You yourself wouldn't have appeared in any of the photos of the group you were added to within class 3-B, because you were attending to your duties as Student Council president all through the trip. You hardly even saw Tatsuhara, the group leader, to say nothing of spending enough time with the group to be caught on film. Switching over to the commemorative photo of the Student Council posing in front of Kinkakuji, taken on the second day of the trip, you find... a picture that doesn't include Eva. Mitsuba, the former tennis player you remember as general affairs officer, stands in the same position in this photo as he occupied in your memory. Are your memories accurate after all?

Rushing now, you look through every other photo of the student council you have from the past year, and find no redheaded first-year girl in any of them. Nor in any other photos of the first year students, nor any photos from the athletic festival, nor any photos at all. Every image points to the same conclusion: until today, or at least until sometime after three weeks ago, the date of your last photo, Eva Văcărescu was not a member of the Kyoutenkan High School Student Council and not present at the school.

Is she even recorded on the roll of students? You open your browser. Most of Kyoutenkan's files are on a central server remotely accessible by teachers using online accounts, to make it easier to handle grading and administration from any device, and some of these files are visible to members of the student council. Club budgets, scans of application forms and activity reports, class membership lists, and other documents necessary for the portion of administration delegated to student government.

As you recall, Eva said she was in class 1-A. You open the list of students in the class, momentarily certain that no documentation of her presence of any kind will exist, and find her there. 15 entries down, squarely in the middle of the list. Assigned a window seat, two rows back from the front. Her attendance record has been almost perfect since the beginning of the year; she's been tardy a few times, but not enough for her homeroom teacher to reprimand her over it. There's nothing in the least strange about her entry. Except that it's easier to tamper with a document than photos, of course. If she's been able to somehow convince everyone at school that she's been there all along, she could surely convince her teacher to falsify an attendance record.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:07:35 No.6262973 Report

Quoted By: >>6262999

You breathe a heavy sigh. You should, perhaps, be unnerved by the presence of this strange interloper, but it's a sigh of relief all the same. All day you've been questioning your memories, questioning the acuity of your mind, maybe even starting to doubt your own sanity. Now you can put those worries aside. Your memories of the last year are accurate. Your mind is in working order. As your focus on the task at hand falls away and you begin to relax, the clock in the corner of the screen catches your eye. It's after midnight. Going through all those photos must have taken even longer than you thought. You shut down your computer, resolving to call it a night. Sleep is what you need, and now that you've done away with your self-doubt, you're sure you'll be able to have it undisturbed by nagging worries or maddening dreams.

End of Day 1

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:08:35 No.6262979 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024 >>6263937 >>6285866

"Child," the voice says, "remember the substance of your making. Remember always your birthright."

The voice fills your head, immensely forceful, everywhere at once, and yet simultaneously distant and soft; the voice of a woman, gently beckoning with infinite tenderness, and the voice of a raucous gong, deafening as thunder. It comes from far away, you realize, yet reverberates in your own body as if your bones themselves are vibrating to echo the words of the voice.

You stand in darkness. Not an empty void, firm ground is under your feet, but the world around you and the vault of heaven alike are bereft of light. All save one point. There is a single star in that empty night sky, a lone point of light impossibly distant. It is from that point, you sense, that the voice comes.

"Remember, child," the voice repeats, "remember your nature. Be not deceived by flesh, or sacrifice, or false names."

As you listen to the call of that distant light, and as you stare up into it, you find its luminance growing. Thin rays from the star extend across the empty void, and the point itself grows nearer, greater, becoming an orb of radiance which calls down to you.

"Be ever stalwart in true desire," calls the voice. "Many are those who will seek to dissuade you, but cleave ever to the one desire of your heart, my child, and in time all will be granted."

Suddenly, as if the sight in front of you has come into focus, you realize the extent of the change. It isn't a point of light at all, you now see, but an incalculably vast red flame, filling your vision as it descends upon you - and at the centre, there glimmers the unutterable brilliance of gold.

SOMETHING pierces your chest. Pain sprouts from the core of your being, nailing you to the ground and holding you upright. As you begin to burn from within, merciful darkness cloaks your vision and the unbearable golden light is hidden from you.

<> <> <>

February 5, 2019 -Contemplation-
You wake bolt upright. Sweat is running down your face in rivulets, stinging your eyes, soaking your sleepwear and sheets. You feel horribly cold, all the worse in the aftermath of that impossible heat in your dream. Just like last night, it seems less like a dream than a memory of some past event you had forgotten in waking life. It's impossible, of course. You've never died. Never been subject to immense voices or made the target of falling stars. The strangely involved narrative from last night was one thing, but this nonsense is surely the archetype of a meaningless, fantastic dream.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:09:35 No.6262981 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024

The face of your digital clock is the room's only illumination, casting a faint reddish glow from its numbers. Even that resemblance to your dream sickens you. Red light on a black field; you want to throw the thing out the window, but the emotion fades quickly. 4:00. It's too early to start your day, but too late to go back to bed. Nothing for it; heaving a sigh, you roll off the mattress to head for the bathroom, frigid winter air assaulting you as soon as you're out of the blankets. At least an early shower will wash off the cold sweat.

As you undress and cross the bathroom to the shower, you inadvertently catch sight of yourself in the mirror. You look even paler and more sickly than yesterday. There are bags under your eyes; not surprising, after less than four hours' sleep. Still, if you look worse it only contradicts the way you feel. No matter how unpleasant the awakening, or how little sleep you've had, there's one clear improvement in your condition from yesterday. Now, at least, you aren't being beaten down beaten into the ground by that monstrous headache.

<> <> <>

"Well now, if it isn't Rushorou!"

When you descend to the living room, on your way to the kitchen for a glass of water, you encounter a surprise: your father, impeccably dressed in one of his perfectly tailored suits and sitting at the dining room table, greets you with booming joviality. Before your name is out of his mouth he's gotten to his feet and crossed the room to meet you.

"It's a pleasure to see you this morning, my lad." He pats your shoulder roughly, a slightly awkward, enthusiastic gesture that suggests he isn't quite sure whether to treat you like a child or a man. The smile on his face is unmistakably genuine, though. "What has you up so early? I've still got an hour to spare myself before I've got to be going; you must have two, at least."

"That's right, Father," you answer, putting an expression on your face which you hope combines deference and affection. You can't blame him for his awkwardness. You're no surer of how to interact with with Yumigawa Gorou than he is of how to treat you. You've seen him less and less since you entered high school, though he was always very eager to guide and teach you when you were younger. When you are together, your mother usually mediates the affair. "I can't say just why I woke up so early this morning, but seeing the time I decided it would be too late to go back to sleep."

"Good man!" Another heavy pat on the shoulder. You half expect him to tousle your hair, though he stopped putting you through that indignity at about the time you hit puberty. "You can never get up too early, I always say. There's nothing like watching the sunrise to make you feel really alive, and the more time you put between sleep and work, the sharper your mind will be when you need it."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:10:40 No.6262982 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024

"I'll bear that in mind, thank you." You nod at his advice, which you've heard many times before. Not something easily refuted, of course, but just as difficult to put into practice with the vigor your father does. Between late nights and early mornings you sometimes suspect he doesn't sleep at all. "By the way, has Mother fixed your breakfast? I'm sorry if I interrupted you while you were eating." You look meaningfully past him, at the table. With the lights off, and the house illuminated only by the dim predawn light filtering through the windows, you can't make out whether anything's been set out where your father was sitting or not.

"No, she's still asleep," your father grumbles his answer, his voice long-suffering, "or maybe just now getting up. Eating always has to be the last thing I do before leaving for work, with the way your mother sleeps. In 19 years, she's never managed to learn to wake up at the same time I do." The way he says it, shaking his head as he speaks, implies it's only laziness that keeps your mother from maintaining exactly the kind of inhuman schedule he keeps.

"I see." Your own voice is carefully neutral. Given your mother's obvious devotion you're quite certain laziness has never played a role in her behavior, but speaking up to defend her would be a waste of breath. Your father's mind has obviously been made up on the subject for years.

"I did fire up the coffee machine myself, though." Your father goes on speaking with hardly a pause for your reply. "Have a cup?"

"Of course, thank you." Your throat is utterly dry, and you would by far have preferred to rehydrate yourself before drinking something that will inevitably make you thirstier, but it wouldn't do to refuse a friendly gesture from your father. You follow him into the kitchen, where he fills a mug for you and hands it over before making his way back to his seat. A carton of cream is sitting open on the counter beside the machine, either abandoned or waiting for his second cup of the morning. You lighten your own coffee with it and sit down across from him.

"What've you been doing with yourself lately, anyway? Do anything for fun, outside your studies? I know there's no point asking about girls, with the looks you got from me and your mother I'm sure you've got your hands full with them." Rather than returning to his paper, it seems your father would prefer to seize the moment for a progress report on your life.

"Most of my time is devoted to studying or my work as president of the Student Council." Student Council work is the closest thing you have to a hobby, and the only thing that comes to mind when you try to think of something you enjoy doing. Unpleasantly, the particular image you recall in that search is the one-sided beating you gave that fake club president yesterday. "I don't have time to pursue hobbies aside from my life as a student. I do get along well with my colleagues, though, and I enjoy my work."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:11:41 No.6262985 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024

Your father furrows a pair of thick, bushy, slightly graying eyebrows which you have always observed to be his most expressive feature, and looks hard at you. He looks concerned.

"If you're enjoying it, that's good, but remember this, my lad. Friends, and the pastimes you share with them, can be as important to success in corporate life as your performance in your actual job. Moreso, sometimes. Having something you can invite a coworker, a boss, or a subordinate to do, to enjoy together and take their mind off of work, is often the best way to get what you want from them. A deal more efficient than any meeting at the office. Understand me?"

It's an unexpected speech; you haven't received one of your father's explanations of how to live successfully in years. You had thought he'd said all he had to say, to prepare you for your future, but apparently not. Of course, the idea is hardly foreign to you. You intend to learn to play golf, tennis, and other games in college, as well as observing the actions of your peers and practicing to perform appropriately in those leisure activities which seem likely to carry over into the workforce. You just don't have time for any of that right now. Why would he stress a need for hobbies now, as though they're something to be learned as soon as possible, while you're still in high school?

"I understand, father," you say with a nod, looking genuinely thoughtful as you ponder the urgency in your father's voice. "I'll make certain to remember that."

"I wonder if you do understand." The man sighs, looking suddenly tired. "You'll never be a true success if you don't learn to enjoy your life, my boy. But, I can't live it for you. I just hope you'll see that sooner than later."

"Father, I-"

"Now!" Wilfully reviving his earlier cheer, your father cuts you off. Evidently the conversation is over. "Let's see what's happening in the world, shall we?" He picks up the TV remote and turns on the news, turning to outside information to distract the both of you from problems with no immediate solution.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:12:41 No.6262989 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024 >>6286505

On the television a handsome news anchor is facing the camera and explaining the latest in crime with unflappable good cheer. "Responding to an automated call from a parking garage alarm in south-Shinjuku last night, fire fighters discovered the wreckage of an unusual conflagration, but no actual fire," the man declares. "The structural integrity of the building was damaged by what appeared several explosions, and much of the garage had been flooded by the sprinkler system as a result. Police were soon on the scene to investigate cause. Let's go to our man on the spot, for more information." The picture cuts to a reporter and standing ankle-deep in water, illuminated by floodlights in what indeed seems to be a ruined parking garage. The cement floor must have been cracked and the pieces forced over one another at odd angles, for while you can clearly see the concrete just below a shallow layer of water in some places there are clearly a number of deep pools, their bottoms entirely hidden. Behind him, policemen are swarming back and forth across the scene.

"As you can see, things are a bit confused here at the moment. Although no officers had time for an interview, we have been informed that the investigation has identified this event as no accident. Fires were artificially induced in several parked cars spread around the area, although given the explosive consequences of an automotive fire, detailed analysis was certainly a challenge. Investigating officers also discovered a man's decapitated body, lying next to his own severed head. A head which at this time has no name. Extensive damage to the corpse caused by the fire has rendered most identifying features nonexistent, and the dentition of the deceased has yet to be matched to any known records."

"There you have it, folks," the anchor smoothly continues as the feed returns to the newsroom. "At present, the police have put forward no theory as to the culprit or motive of this monstrous crime, but rest assured we will keep you informed with every detail of this investigation as they emerge. Next-"

The broadcast is cut off. At some point while the two of you were watching your mother entered the room and picked up the remote. Her face is ashen, overcome with horror at the events on the news.

"Now, Setsuna." Your father is the first to speak. "I understand if you don't want to watch the news because the subject matter distresses you, but can't you at least let me watch it in peace?"

"It's not that!" Your mother shakes her head frantically, then pulls herself together with visible effort, propping herself up with both hands on the back of a chair. "Didn't you see where that was? It was on the edge of our neighborhood! You could have been that poor man they couldn't identify!"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:13:42 No.6262990 Report

Quoted By: >>6263009 >>6263024 >>6263039 >>6263074 >>6263083

"I suppose it is a little unnerving to have things like this going on right on our doorstep, so to speak, but that doesn't mean we should start ignoring the news. If anything, it's better to be more informed." Your father makes vaguely mollifying hand gestures, but shows no sign of rising to his feet to comfort his wife.

"You can watch the news if you want to," your mother sighs, looking down and dropping the remote on the table. The exasperation in her voice seems to temporarily overwrite her fear. "I turned it off because I want to talk to you, not because I don't want you watching it! I was following the news all day yesterday, and things like that are happening more and more around here. The city is hardly safe anymore! Break-ins, mugging, murder, arson, it's horrible!" Suddenly she looks back up, first at one, then the other of you, her eyes seeming to flash with tense emotion. "Promise me! Promise you'll come home early tonight, won't you? As soon as regular work is over, and your classes, Rushorou. No overtime and no afterschool activities. It's not safe to be out after dark, I'm sure of it!"

"I really think you're overreacting, Setsuna," your father groans. "People live and work with much worse crime rates all over the world. Look at America, or Hong Kong. Do you think they all rush home before sunset, terrified they'll be cornered and slaughtered as soon as it turns dark? Really. You've always tended to let your daydreams carry you away, but I think you've gotten worse over the years."

>[ ] Make no promises, as your father has. You don't know what could be waiting for you at school with everything Eva's been up to, or how long it might take you to deal with it. This isn't the time to be frightened by the news.

>[ ] Promise your mother you'll come straight home, if only to soothe her fears. Whether you'll actually follow through is another matter, but it would be cruel for her to be faced with two rejections at once. Her mood might have changed entirely by this afternoon. Besides, after your encounter on the way home yesterday it might be wise to leave school a bit earlier.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Screenshot_20250622_101629_Chrome.jpg, 242KiB, 1079x610

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:25:30 No.6262999 Report

Quoted By:

>>6262970
>>6262972
>>6262973
Gyppo mage doesn't understand technology well enough to cover her tracks properly.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:37:28 No.6263009 Report

Quoted By: >>6263024

>>6262990
>[ ] Do something else. (Make no promises, as your father has. Hug her and make a point to at least try to come home early anyway.)

Don't make promises you can't keep, but one should make an effort not to send their mother into an emotional spiral of worry.
She's clearly in quite the state and in need of some comfort. Offer her some.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO orz.jpg, 76KiB, 600x450

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:37:32 No.6263010 Report

Quoted By: >>6263015 >>6263024

>>6262763
So, I said I wanted to pick up the pace, but then I ended up writing a super-long update that took my entire afternoon. Sorry about that, I just couldn't find a place to break it off for a choice. After this, I'll do faster updates until Monday morning!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:38:39 No.6263015 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263010
Nothing wrong with nice long updates if you have the motivation to keep going after the act.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 22 Jun 2025 00:46:13 No.6263024 Report

Quoted By: >>6263306 >>6264043

>>6262979
New ara ara~ headmate just dropped.

So glad we didn't take the meds.

>>6262981
Enter papa-san.
>>6262982
>>6262985
Seems we inherited the autism from the matriarch of the family. This man is based.

>>6262989
Cool and normal Japanese beheading.

>>6262990
Yumigawa needs to take a leaf out of his father's book or he'll be a Japanese betamaxx forever.

>[ ] Make no promises, as your father has. You don't know what could be waiting for you at school with everything Eva's been up to, or how long it might take you to deal with it. This isn't the time to be frightened by the news.

I would include something to help put her at ease though as >>6263009 says.

>>6263010
Nice big tapestry update never hurt. Good stuff.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Sun 22 Jun 2025 01:02:53 No.6263039 Report

Quoted By: >>6263122

>>6262990
>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
Promise her you'll try.

It's the best we can do without straight up disregarding her fears or lying, as it's very likely we'll have to spend some extra time after school dealing with something or other.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 - Early Morning.png, 171KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 01:44:59 No.6263074 Report

Quoted By: >>6263319

>>6262990
Normally this image should have been posted with this post, but I had to make it after I finished writing the update, and didn't want to keep people waiting even longer. Sorry about the delay.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Sun 22 Jun 2025 01:57:51 No.6263083 Report

Quoted By: >>6263124

>>6262990
>[ ] Do something else.
>Promise her we'll try.
>Hug her.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:iVMQYLEG Sun 22 Jun 2025 03:08:29 No.6263122 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263039
+1

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:iVMQYLEG Sun 22 Jun 2025 03:10:38 No.6263124 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263083
Also hug her

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 03:42:19 No.6263163 Report

Quoted By:

Whatever the reasons for your father's coldness toward her, you see your mother's worry in a more serious light. It wouldn't be right, as a filial son, to brush her words aside as he does. You circle the table and draw her into a hug, hoping that wordless closeness will help to soothe her. Though offering comfort has never been a talent of yours, you give it your best attempt. Eventually her shaking stops, and you can feel her growing calmer.

"I'll do my best to get home quickly, Mother," you tell her softly. "I can't say for certain that I'll be here immediately after classes end, there are always unpredictable delays, but I'll be careful, and I'll try to be home earlier than usual."

"Thank you, Rushorou." Your mother steps away, having regained her composure, and shoots a glare at your father. "And you could learn a thing or two from your son, about being considerate."

"Of course I could." Your father just laughs it off, wholly unmoved. "I'll take your advice into consideration and try to avoid any suspicious parking garages. Now, if you want me home early, I'd better leave as early as I can. Would you get my breakfast ready, Setsuna? Or do I not deserve it this morning?"

Your mother stalks into the kitchen without a word. Apparently the anger she feels at having her concerns so casually flouted is enough to change her manner, but not enough to stop her cooking a meal for the three of you. Fried eggs and toast. It's the same breakfast she served yesterday, and just as good as it was then. In spite of the repetition. With your mother icily silent and your father's mind obviously on his work, though, the meal is a silent one. You hurriedly eat and return to your room, to prepare your school supplies and spend your extra hour reviewing the notes you didn't study last night.

<> <> <>

Your walk to school today is under a pall of gloom. Not an emotional gloom, but literal; yesterday's pale, yet valiant sun has given way to clouds, and the winter chill is more oppressive for it. That you're making your walk at the usual time instead of running late contributes, of course. The earlier, the colder. Still, it is a relief to be out of the house and breathing fresh air. In spite of all your mother's worrying and the scare you had on the way home yesterday, today you feel no sense of danger, nor of being watched. From the time you leave home until you reach Kyoutenkan High, it feels almost as if you've returned completely to the peaceful everyday life you experienced until yesterday.

Is that, though, something so much to be desired? The voice from your dream, which hasn't faded in the usual way but remains clear, echoes in your mind. 'True desire'. What is your true desire, and why would you dream of a voice insisting you remain firm in pursuing it? The question has no answer.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 03:43:20 No.6263165 Report

Quoted By: >>6263189 >>6263213 >>6263257 >>6263279 >>6263306 >>6263319 >>6263426 >>6263569

Soon enough you arrive at school, and have to turn your mind to more immediate questions. Yesterday's crowds aren't here yet, only the few students whose clubs have the longest and earliest morning practice. Archery, kendo, and the like. The mysterious Eva is not among these enthusiasts of self-discipline, waiting for you behind the gate as she did yesterday. You can cross to the school building in peace, go up to the Student Council room, and have your usual morning meeting. Somehow, though, you feel inclined to linger. If Eva is here, she'll most likely be in the Student Council room, and if she is not, she'll rush to the meeting when she does arrive. You'll be thrown back into the insoluble mystery of how one young girl could have so thoroughly subverted the wills or memories of practically everyone at your school. Just thinking about the question is so unpleasant it seems to bring your headache back, now accompanied by a sense of deja vu. No, in spite of your duties as its president, you feel somewhat reluctant to meet with the Student Council.

>[ ] Overcome your reluctance and go to the Student Council room anyway.

>[ ] Stop at the Archery Club's shooting range. Observing their meditative practice of war for a while might help steady your mind to clearly penetrate the mysteries before you.

>[ ] Stop at the Kendo Club's dojo. Observing their energetic training might yield some insights into your strange experience of fighting yesterday.

>[ ] Go to the school library for a while. This early you'll most likely be alone there, and in solitary thought you can gird your loins for whatever strange events the day might have in store.

>[ ] Go straight to your classroom, 3-B. You're still somewhat behind on the review you would normally have taken care of last night, after all. That this would be a legitimate excuse for putting off dealing with the Student Council until lunch or this afternoon is nothing more than an afterthought.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sun 22 Jun 2025 04:06:36 No.6263189 Report

Quoted By: >>6263257

>>6263165
Go to the roof. Contemplate the dream. What is our true desire? What is our nature?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sun 22 Jun 2025 04:39:20 No.6263213 Report

Quoted By: >>6263426

>>6263165
>[X] Go to the school library for a while. This early you'll most likely be alone there, and in solitary thought you can gird your loins for whatever strange events the day might have in store.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3vjEHt5/ Sun 22 Jun 2025 05:44:29 No.6263257 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263165
The spiritual successor to bench contemplation in Akeldama will be autistic pondering on the roof

>>6263189

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sun 22 Jun 2025 06:26:11 No.6263279 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263165
>[ ] Go straight to your classroom, 3-B. You're still somewhat behind on the review you would normally have taken care of last night, after all. That this would be a legitimate excuse for putting off dealing with the Student Council until lunch or this afternoon is nothing more than an afterthought.
The international gypsy conspiracy is not an excuse to fall behind on schoolwork.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Alter.Ego.(Larva.Tiamat).600.393 (...).jpg, 112KiB, 600x1057

Anonymous ID:Qxx7uZ5M Sun 22 Jun 2025 07:47:06 No.6263306 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263024
>New ara ara~ headmate just dropped.

>So glad we didn't take the meds.
I remember the original quest had Judas living rent-free inside Alberich's head.
I also vague remember some talks about personal connection to Tiamat but this snippet doesn't sound like her at all.
>>6263165
>[ ] Go straight to your classroom, 3-B. You're still somewhat behind on the review you would normally have taken care of last night, after all. That this would be a legitimate excuse for putting off dealing with the Student Council until lunch or this afternoon is nothing more than an afterthought.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 22 Jun 2025 09:31:24 No.6263319 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263074
np, op
>>6263165
>[ ] Stop at the Archery Club's shooting range. Observing their meditative practice of war for a while might help steady your mind to clearly penetrate the mysteries before you.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 17:24:18 No.6263421 Report

Quoted By: >>6263426

We are still tied.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sun 22 Jun 2025 17:28:11 No.6263426 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263421
>>6263165
>>6263213
Changing vote to
>[X] Go straight to your classroom, 3-B. You're still somewhat behind on the review you would normally have taken care of last night, after all. That this would be a legitimate excuse for putting off dealing with the Student Council until lunch or this afternoon is nothing more than an afterthought.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:02:11 No.6263569 Report

Quoted By:

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 Classroom 1.png, 331KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:24:27 No.6263590 Report

Quoted By: >>6263608

No... it may not be appropriate for your role to cancel a Student Council meeting without advance warning, but you just don't want to be there. Studies do take priority over all else for a student, don't they? That being the case, you should prioritize covering the material you didn't address last night over extracurricular activities. After sending a short LINE message to Ikeda telling him to cancel this morning's meeting, you leave the chilled campus for the shelter of the school building, hurriedly cutting across the main corridor to the stairs and heading for your classroom. Your phone begins to vibrate almost immediately, bombarded with replies from Ikeda you don't doubt. He can be ignored for a while, he's sure to just be complaining about your timing.

To your surprise, class 3-B isn't entirely empty. Despite the fact that anyone here this early can be expected to have arrived only for club practice, one of your classmates is there already: Tatsuhara Satsuki, standing beside her desk as she fishes a textbook and notes out of her bag.

"Oh, good morning Yumigawa-kun." Turning at the clatter of the door, the girl catches sight of you and gives a bright greeting. "You're here early. Isn't the Student Council meeting today?"

"No, our morning meeting has been cancelled." No need to explain that you were the one who cancelled it.

"I'm sorry," she says, seeming to show genuine sympathy over something that, for most, would hardly be a negative event. Then she brightens again. "But still, you must be feeling better, right? Or you wouldn't have gotten here so soon."

"That's right," you nod. "Thank you for your concern. I'm not sure just what had me so out of sorts yesterday, but I've recovered. It did hold my studying back a bit, though, so I thought I'd catch up here in class." You show a self-deprecating smile as you walk over to your own desk and open a textbook on national history.

"That's a coincidence, isn't it?" You look up again to see that Tatsuhara has followed you over to sit down at the empty desk beside you and talk, a smile on her face. Evidently her own enthusiasm for studying isn't quite as fervent as it might be.

"Is it?"

"I just meant, um." Tatsuhara looks suddenly embarrassed, realizing she put her conclusion before the reasoning. "I'm doing the same thing, you know? It's a little bit tough for me to study at home, so I like to stay late and show up early. That way I can keep up with the classwork here." Her smile is more hesitant now, as if afraid you'll mock her for the habit.

"Admirable." Your voice is neutral, stating a plain fact without opinion. "Many students with difficult home environments let their grades slip altogether. I suppose that explains your lack of membership in any clubs."

"Does it?" Tatsuhara blinks. "I-I mean, was that something that needed explaining?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:25:29 No.6263591 Report

Quoted By: >>6263608 >>6263937

"I did think it was rather odd that you should have so many friends, keep up your grades, and not be a member of any club. Most of the more social students, aside from those with no real interest in academic life, participate in some extracurricular activity or other. You seem to be well-liked, well-behaved, have an honest and genuine personality, and are usually at the center of a social group, so not being a member of a club sticks out as the only odd point." You're half thinking aloud, reciting your past musings without a thought to the fact that you're speaking to the subject of that evaluation or her reaction. Perhaps your lack of sleep is still fogging your brain somewhat; your bluntness only occurs to you when you notice the way Tatsuhara's cheeks have pinkened over the course of your explanation.

"Oh, I guess that, um, does make sense..." Tatsuhara's voice is barely audible, and she isn't meeting your eyes.

"Ah, but excuse me." You hurriedly apologize. "I didn't mean to be rude, evaluating your performance as a student as though you weren't here. No one likes to hear themselves analyzed, of course. I apologize."

"No, no," Tatsuhara counters, shaking her head and waving her hands placatingly. "It's not that! I'm happy you told me! I never realized it would seem weird to people that I wasn't in a club, and, I, also didn't think you, um, really ever noticed me..." Her voice shrinks as she goes on, seeming to lose courage, and you can't quite make out the last few words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that last bit. What did you say?"

"Nothing!" Tatsuhara gets up suddenly, her chair sliding back with a clatter. "I just said thank you for telling me, that's all! We should hurry up and study, right?"

Without waiting for a reply, Tatsuhara rushes back over to her desk and buries her reddened face in a textbook. Odd girl. The last thing she said is true, though, and you return to your reading in history. There's a lot of material to cover before the next test, and after yesterday you have a feeling your opportunities for study might be diminished in future. Best to get through as much as you can.

<> <> <>

You haven't had fifteen minutes yet to study when the the sound of running footsteps in the hallway reaches you ears and, a moment later, someone slams the classroom door open. You look up angrily, about to tell the newcomer off for making such an absurd racket when there's plenty of time left before classes begin, but cut yourself off when you recognize the boy storming over to confront you: Ikeda.

"Why haven't you answered any of my LINE messages?" He actually grabs you by the lapels and tries to shake you, obviously furious.

"I've been studying in here, I haven't seen them," you answer coldly, hoping frigid calm will put a damper on Ikeda's over-the-top attitude.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:26:30 No.6263592 Report

Quoted By:

"Well, you should've! The school principal wants to see you right away, it's some kind of urgent situation! He sent the vice-principal over to collect you from the morning meeting, and when he didn't find you there, he told me to get you over there right away! I figured you'd see the messages and be there by now! It's just a good thing you're in your classroom, and I didn't have to canvas the damn school for you."

"This is a bit much, I'm sure it isn't as urgent as all that." You brush off Ikeda's grip on your uniform, carefully straightening your lapels back into their proper shape. "If it were really an emergency, they'd call me over the intercom."

"Are you still asleep?" Ikeda taps your forehead with a rude fingertip, and you bat his hand away. Now he's starting to get you angry. "The only reason they haven't called you over the intercom is because it would look bad to call the valedictorian into the office like a delinquent when he hasn't done anything wrong. Keep them waiting much longer though, and they will use the intercom. Then you'll be in for it."

"Alright, alright." You pack your things back into your school bag and slot it into your desk drawer. "I'll go straight to the principal's office. You go back to the Student Council room and tell the vice-principal I'm on my way to see the principal. Happy?"

"No, I'm not happy," Ikeda snorts, turning to leave with bad grace. "I had to go looking for you like a lost kid. Pay attention to your phone, will you?"

You don't bother to reply, just walk down the hall in the opposite direction. The principal's office is at the far end of the third floor's east wing, taking up the same amount of space alloted to the entire faculty of the year on the first and second floors. Perhaps one of the perks of running a well-funded school with premier academic performance is making a show of your funding, but you've always wondered how he justified it to the third year teachers, crammed into their comparatively undersized faculty room. There's even a waiting room with a secretary to receive those who arrive to see the principal. Teruya-san, a university student performing an internship here preparatory to becoming a teacher, gives you a receptionist's smile as you enter.

"Ogata-sensei will see you right away," she says, gesturing to a double door on the wall behind her. A bit of genuine humor creeps into her smile as she adds, "You've kept him waiting a long time for such an honor student. Careful not to make him any angrier!"

"I appreciate the advice," you say, returning her smile as you pass her desk. "I'll keep it in mind."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 Principal's Office.png, 306KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:27:31 No.6263594 Report

Quoted By: >>6263608 >>6263712 >>6263937

Within the office waits Ogata-sensei, an old man with a completely bald pate and the kind of stout, barrel-chested build that suggests a place on the wrestling team during his own long-vanished student days, wearing a singularly unusual expression. It looks as if rage, fear, and a cringing humility are carrying out a hard-fought battle across the field of his features. You can see them jostle for position as his expression shifts, rage now displayed in one eyebrow, then yielding the position to concern and fleeing up into the pulsing vein in his forehead, while a desire to please stalwartly defends his mouth, set in a fixed smile. Surely he feels neither fear nor humility toward you. You scan the room for other occupants and finally notice the girl standing to your right, in front of a bookcase. Her black hair and old-fashioned black uniform blending right into the dark wood furnishings, you had looked past her without seeing until you thought to look for another person in the room.

"So... You'll be the one showing me around this school?" The girl turns to you with a hesitant smile. Apparently the situation has been explained to her already. Her voice, when she speaks, is so soft that only the purest articulation makes the words intelligible.

"He's the one," the principal growls, "finally. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd keep me waiting all day, Yumigawa."

"I'm quite sorry, sir," you reply with a light bow, "I came as soon as I heard you wanted to see me. It seems there was some delay in my vice-president, Ikeda, relaying your summons promptly."

"Hmph. I have the same problem with the vice-principal." Though he continues to glare at you, there's a bit of gruff commiseration in his voice. You doubt he'll be vindictive about this. "Now, Yumigawa, let me introduce you to Naragasa Tsubaki. This girl is a very important potential transfer student who's come to visit our establishment for a personal tour before making a final decision about whether or not to enroll here. We will be showing her every possible consideration, and since she has asked that the tour be given by a student, you will be providing it." There's no room for any questions in his voice, for any consideration of schedule or other duties. Apparently it is an ironclad fact that you'll be giving this tour, your own opinion in the matter wholly irrelevant.

"Young miss," he continues, his face transforming from the domineering principal to that of a humble servant in a remarkable feat of plasticity, "please allow me to introduce the president of our Student Council here at Kyoutenkan High School. As our highest-performing student, and in light of his exemplary record of behavior, he has been selected to provide your tour." He almost stops there, but catches himself. "If that suits the young miss's fancy, of course."

"I have no complaints," murmurs Naragasa, turning her demure smile back to you. "Shall we go? Where will you lead me?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:28:32 No.6263595 Report

Quoted By: >>6263630 >>6263687 >>6263690 >>6263756 >>6263937 >>6263954

>[ ] Take the transfer student to see some of the club facilities. Setting aside the old building given over to suspect cultural clubs, the dedicated facilities for swimming, archery, judo, boxing, kendo, and other high-performing and highly visible clubs are some of Kyoutenkan's best features. Certainly their construction absorbed a enough of its funding to make them splendid.

>[ ] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.

>[ ] Walk around the main school building first, to give the transfer student an idea of what the area where she'll be spending most of her time is like.

>[ ] Give the transfer student a tour of the outdoor areas of the campus. For a school in the city, Kyoutenkan is built on a shockingly large stretch of land. Being one of its more distinctive features, it may also be one of the more intriguing to a potential transfer.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 22 Jun 2025 20:49:22 No.6263608 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263590
>>6263591

Another Satsuki, ignored.

Isn't it sad?

>>6263594
>red eyes
>transfer student
Big think.

>[ ] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Sun 22 Jun 2025 21:18:54 No.6263630 Report

Quoted By: >>6263632 >>6263937

>>6263595
>[ ] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.
I sure hope Mysterious Transfer Student 2 knows how to make bento.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 22 Jun 2025 21:25:15 No.6263632 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263630
lol
One can only hope, eh?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:lyc/J4cq Sun 22 Jun 2025 23:15:35 No.6263687 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263595
>[ ] Take the transfer student to see some of the club facilities. Setting aside the old building given over to suspect cultural clubs, the dedicated facilities for swimming, archery, judo, boxing, kendo, and other high-performing and highly visible clubs are some of Kyoutenkan's best features. Certainly their construction absorbed a enough of its funding to make them splendid.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 22 Jun 2025 23:18:46 No.6263690 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Mon 23 Jun 2025 00:00:33 No.6263712 Report

Quoted By: >>6263714 >>6263803

>>6263594
>[ ] Give the transfer student a tour of the outdoor areas of the campus. For a school in the city, Kyoutenkan is built on a shockingly large stretch of land. Being one of its more distinctive features, it may also be one of the more intriguing to a potential transfer.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
A transfer student, she might be living alone in the area. Invite her and then Eva to have dinner at our house after school.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 23 Jun 2025 00:05:51 No.6263714 Report

Quoted By: >>6263769

>>6263712
Giving them the old Shirou special?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Mon 23 Jun 2025 00:57:25 No.6263756 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263595
>[X] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Mon 23 Jun 2025 01:29:16 No.6263769 Report

Quoted By: >>6263803

>>6263714
It will all work out if we just sit down to dinner and see what happens, you'll see!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 23 Jun 2025 02:29:30 No.6263803 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263712
>>6263769
>eating with a gypsie

Anon...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Mon 23 Jun 2025 08:30:44 No.6263937 Report

Quoted By: >>6264031 >>6264043

>>6262979
>an incalculably vast red flame, filling your vision as it descends upon you - and at the centre, there glimmers the unutterable brilliance of gold.
flames of an angel ? divine ? Uh headaches create quite the magical thing if left unchecked in this universe then. Good to know, maybe we can test if its the same for other illness. Well at least it wasn't rabies !

Also a beheading. Is our father on drugs to be this passive about it..? or magic again ? There is a subtle line on not caring about anything, when heads start literally dropping though most would make an exception. Maybe he isn't so fine as he appears. Darkers thoughts...madness even....

>>6263591
>your bluntness only occurs to you when you notice the way Tatsuhara's cheeks have pinkened over the course of your explanation.
damn, Yumigawa a casanova without even trying ? Or maybe Tatsuhara liked him by a while and was just waiting for him to talk. I guess in that case even reciting half-musings is like finding a free treasure for her.

>>6263594
>"He's the one," the principal growls, "finally. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd keep me waiting all day, Yumigawa."
expected, our late night activities created problems both for our academic and for our council president role. I feel this will repeat, until a breaking point. Maybe the same will happen at home, if we care or not care of what mother and father say and do.

>>6263595
>[ ] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.
two aliens uh. Ikeda for his insane and inhuman attitude of eating while working, and this red eyed girl. fascinating, i am sure she is more normal than Ikeda at least. Well i guess we are not purging more useless clubs at least this morning. Surely we aren't going to have anons offering more inane fights with kendo for the rest of the school pests hmm?

>>6263630
Ah for the strict culinary requirements of Yumigawa. No melon bread or sweets. Though i wonder if its just that. He is a bit eccentric under that model student face.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Mon 23 Jun 2025 10:25:40 No.6263954 Report

Quoted By:

>>6263595
>[ ] Show the transfer student the library. She seems like the introverted type, and Kyoutenkan's literary selection is excellent.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Mon 23 Jun 2025 15:32:35 No.6264031 Report

Quoted By: >>6264468

>>6263937
>Also a beheading. Is our father on drugs to be this passive about it..? or magic again ?
We could ask next time if they know Eva or not. If they do, that would be the answer.
>Though i wonder if its just that. He is a bit eccentric under that model student face.
The bar is pretty low with Eva so far. Other girls definitely have solid chances.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 23 Jun 2025 16:26:33 No.6264043 Report

Quoted By: >>6264468

>>6263024
>>6263937
Thanks for putting so much of your thoughts down as you read, you two. I always enjoy seeing people's reactions to, opinions on, and theories about what's happening in the updates, it's the most fun part of being a QM.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:33:58 No.6264289 Report

Quoted By: >>6264325

"Let's begin with the library," you suggest, turning to escort Naragasa out of the principal's office. "It is early enough, I think, that we can expect no students there, so you'll be able to look over the collection freely. It's always important to have an idea of what sort of literature is available when considering a place to study, don't you think?"

The observation is accurate in the context of your own recent search for a college to attend after graduation, but you realize only after you've made it that someone looking for a high school to transfer to (and what year would she be in, anyway? You can't easily estimate her age.) may have entirely different priorities. Certainly when you applied to Kyoutenkan your priority was a school with an exemplary rate of acceptance into prestigious universities among its graduates. But then, you never paid the place any sort of visit until the process of application brought you here. Given her desire to look the facilities over, this girl's priorities for high school may be similar to your own thoughts on a college after all.

Whatever her feelings on the subject may be, Naragasa gives no sign. She only nods at your remark, a gesture so slight as to be almost invisible, and follows your lead. The girl's movements are refined and graceful in every detail, visible evidence of the kind of family Ogata's manner has already suggested she comes from. As a result of this traditionalist etiquette of manner they are also noticeably slow, even languid. You realize almost immediately that you'll have to relax your own habitually quick walking pace to match her. That you hold the office door for her she evidently both expects and takes for granted, since she makes no motion of her arm in its direction and offers no thanks for your gesture.

"Naragasa-san," you begin once the two of you are in the main corridor and far enough from the principal's office to be well out of earshot, intending to ask what her interests are and plan the route of your tour around the school accordingly. You don't get any further.

"Please," her murmuring voice, oddly similar to the cooing of a dove, cuts off your question. "Address me as Tsubaki."

"From the way Ogata-sensei spoke to you, I had the impression I was expected to treat you with some deference." Recalling the man's ridiculous display, you put a wry tone in your voice. "Young miss, and all that."

"That person is performing a service for my family," she answers placidly, "and thus obliged to follow certain norms. You are to be my senior at this school, no? Thus, the norms for us are different." Again, the tiny smile. You realize she probably finds Ogata's cringing servility as absurd as you do.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:34:58 No.6264290 Report

Quoted By: >>6264325 >>6264468

"Well then, Tsubaki-san," you pick your questioning back up, not bothering to explain that if she wants to be treated like a normal junior you would call her 'Naragasa' without honorific. You'll only be seeing her for this one day, and possibly the fraction of the school year left before you graduate. If she wants to be called by her given name, it's easy enough to oblige. "What are your priorities in school life? I'm sure it will be more productive if I show you the facilities you care most about right away, instead of wandering around the campus trying to show you everything."

"The library will do." She titters, a hand to her mouth gracefully hiding her laughter. Is everything this girl does an archaism, you wonder? Even her footsteps are so subtle that she makes no sound as she walks, obeying etiquette that was outmoded a century ago. "It interests me to see what areas of this academy its best student prizes most highly."

"That simplifies things," you observe dryly. You'll have to show her everything, then. If you ignore some building or room and she decides not to attend, Ogata will decide whatever area the girl didn't see would've made the difference and have your hide.

The library makes up the majority of a detached building, separate from the main complex dedicated to classrooms, which also houses the computer lab, classrooms specialized for home economics, and facilities specialized for chemistry, so down you go to the ground floor, required to cross the campus again. If there is one downside to Kyoutenkan's generous acreage and multiplicity of facilities, you reflect as you change your shoes at the door, it is the amount of outdoor paths, crisscrossing this way and that, and continuously requiring students to change from indoor shoes to outdoor shoes and back again. Of course, the average student probably isn't required to travel around campus as much as you are, being limited to only one club.

"You have quite a number of uncultivated trees," Naragasa observes, glancing up as you pass under the leafless branches of an oak.

"I'm sorry?" Perhaps it's because you were lost in your own thoughts, but the girl's meaning is thoroughly unclear.

"Your greenery here, it grows wild," she elaborates without explaining. As far as you know, all of the lawns, bushes, and trees were planted by gardeners at various points in the school's history, and they're regularly watered and trimmed. "At the academy where I now study, everything is kept in formal gardens." You picture the meticulously crafted pseudo-landscape of a traditional garden at an old manor house, and take her point. Modern landscaping probably does look almost wild by comparison, but how sheltered is this girl to actually call it that?

"I suppose they aren't put into quite the kind of order you might find in a traditional Japanese garden," you say with a shrug. "That doesn't mean it's uncultivated, though. We have gardeners who planted and maintain most of this."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:36:57 No.6264293 Report

Quoted By: >>6269978

"My." Naragasa's eyes go wide, her hand covering her mouth again to presumably hide a mouth opened in shock. "Do you mean to say that this..." she gestures vaguely at the grounds around you, lawn neatly mown and trees placed at orderly intervals to shade the grounds and compliment the lines of the buildings, "this great jumble is intentional?"

"Yes," you answer patiently, restraining your own surprise at the girl's shock, "the traditional garden isn't all there is to landscaping. Most places today favor a naturalist approach, like this. I believe it came to Japan from..."

You cut yourself off as you see the girl's shoulders subtly shaking, the corners of her eyes beginning to twitch with barely-restrained mirth. Finally she lets herself burst into laughter, though in spite of the appearance of mirth breaking through a facade the sound is as soft as ever. Evidently it was not shock Naragasa was hiding behind her hand.

"How was that? Did I really convince you that I had never seen an English garden?" After a few seconds she calms herself, posing the question between a last few titters. "I thought from my manner that you might guess I was unimaginably sheltered, people always do, but I had to see how far I could go before stretching credulity."

"You were very convincing," you answer flatly, keeping the anger from your voice by main force of will. You've always hated practical jokes, at least when you are the victim. As you come to the library building and stop to open the door, Naragasa draws closer to you, her fingers brushing feather-light against your arm, a placating gesture. She wears black silk gloves, you notice, tied at the wrist with black ribbon.

"You must forgive me," Naragasa murmurs, the the amusement animating her features suddenly, utterly replaced with regret. "Please. I didn't mean to offend you. If I hurt your feelings by leading you on, I do apologize. It's only that people are always jumping to the unlikeliest conclusions about me, and I have to either find the amusement in it or be forever getting angry with them."

Close enough to touch her, you're suddenly aware of Naragasa's scent. Floral, appropriately for her name, yet with another note you find yourself unable to identify, heady and sweet. Whatever perfume she wears must be enormously expensive; it's almost intoxicating, a scent of luxury itself, drawing you in. As she stares up into your face it seems you could lose yourself in her eyes, limpid pools of red that appear strangely, impossibly familiar. You pull away from her, stepping into the library and putting an arm's length between the two of you.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:37:58 No.6264294 Report

Quoted By:

"It's fine," you say gruffly, shaking off the improper desire that had momentarily threatened to take hold. What's wrong with you, suddenly getting the hots for this transfer student when you've been entrusted with showing the school to her and you'll probably never see her again? It's the kind of behavior you'd expect from Ikeda, not yourself. You never knew perfume had such an effect on you. "Just a joke, I get it. I'm not really angry. Come in, I'll show you around the library."

Naragasa assents with a demure nod, and plays no more practical jokes as you lead her around first the reference section, then classics, then popular fiction. She is, however, singularly unmoved. Although the Kyoutenkan High library is spread across three floors, with its own internal staircases and an enormous variety of texts, Naragasa looks it all over briefly, with the impassive gaze of someone who has seen everything in front of her before.

"Not up to your standards?" you ask, having been through most of the library and seen no sign of interest from Naragasa. The two of you stop for a moment at a reading table by a window, looking out on the 'chaotic' grounds as students hurry to and fro.

"It will do." Her soft voice is entirely indifferent. "I had wondered if there might be something unusual about this library, but it is not meaningfully different from that at my current academy. A bit smaller, and rather more modern, but not meaningfully different."

"In that case," you begin, considering where to take the girl that might bear meaningfully on the decision whether or not to study at Kyoutenkan. She did say that she wanted to see the areas you think are most important, but where would that really be aside from the classrooms and the library? Quality of the teachers is the most crucial thing at a school, and you can't exactly go around interviewing the faculty. Morning classes have begun now, and the students still outside are only latecomers.

"Have you read this book?" Naragasa cuts in on your thoughts. Her tone is suddenly as cheerful as if her wholesale disinterest had never been. She's holding a paperback book, its back cover rather than the front pointed at you. It has a library barcode label on the spine, though you had thought the girl took nothing from the shelves, hardly even looking at them.

"This is the only book here which is not also part of the collection at my current academy's library." From the glossy, colorful cover, you have an inkling of why. This likely came from the popular fiction section.

"Have a look." Naragasa holds the book out to you.

"You don't know it's the only one," you reply with exasperation as you take it. "Even if your memory is so perfect that you've memorized the catalogue of your own school, we haven't looked over everything here yet."

"Say it is the first book to be found here and not there, then. I wonder if you have any guesses why it might be that this particular book should be the one."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:38:59 No.6264295 Report

Quoted By: >>6264304 >>6264326 >>6264378 >>6264383 >>6264409 >>6264468 >>6264588 >>6264951 >>6280955

Sure enough it's a popular novel, though not a current one. The title, "Burnt Offerings", tells you little, but the combined summary and advertising copy on the back is happy to make up for the vagueness of the name. 'Originally published in Showa 47, the masterpiece of suspense now reprinted for the first time...' You scan over the superlatives to the plot. Apparently the book tells the story of a police detective who descends into a shadowy demimonde of occultism after his wife is killed in a freak accident. The man eventually discovers that competing factions of onmyo practitioners have been controlling Japan for centuries, killing one another off in secret by channelling the souls of the dead into curses and struggling over a lost relic of Izanagi which contains some sort of ultimate power... you drop the book to the table.

"I expect your school's librarians have better taste than ours," you say bitterly. "This is pulp." Worse, it's pulp that seems to have brought your headache back. Squinting to read the tiny print of a long block of text on a small book-cover must have done it, though you're not typically prone to eye strain. The sense of deja vu is there as well, an unshakeable feeling that you've seen the book before. Of course, if it's as popular as its publisher claims, you probably have seen it before, have read the plot summary and dismissed it as not worth reading before, and have forgotten it until now.

"I don't know, I believe it could be rather interesting," Naragasa is saying from somewhere outside the sphere of pain that encapsulates your head. "A hard-nosed detective who doesn't believe in the supernatural coming face-to-face with ghosts and curses? It all sounds quite amusing."

You close your eyes hard, and think of nothing. Focus on nothing, on a perfectly empty, dark, peaceful space, a space without noise, or light, or anything at all that might wear on frayed nerves, a perfect nonexistence. Eventually, the pain subsides. You open your eyes to see Naragasa, staring into your face and looking faintly concerned.

"I'm sorry," you say. "A headache. Sometimes they come on suddenly, nothing to worry about. Old trouble."

"That is terrible," Naragasa murmurs sympathetically. "Chronic illness is such a sad thing. My father... but you would not care to hear an irrelevant tale. Will you show me another part of your academy?"

>[ ] Take her around the classrooms. It would be rude to go in now, but watching classes being conducted through the hall windows might be informative for her.

>[ ] Show Naragasa one of the club facilities. (Which? Swimming, archery, judo, boxing, kendo, and others have dedicated facilities. If you want to see a club not among those five, ask and I'll tell you about it.)

>[ ] Take Naragasa to see the cafeteria. Although it's not particularly meaningful to you, the available food and conditions at lunch make a significant difference to some.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Tue 24 Jun 2025 03:14:39 No.6264304 Report

Quoted By: >>6264324

>>6264295
Obviously she'd like to see about a practical jokes club, or maybe the Occult club

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 04:16:50 No.6264324 Report

Quoted By: >>6264332 >>6264468

>>6264304
Occult club is a cultural club, so they meet in a normal classroom. As far as you know there's probably going to be no-one there at the moment either, since it's during morning classes right now.
Special facilities mostly go to athletic clubs or clubs that combine prestige with a need for special equipment, like the tea ceremony club or the film club.
As far as you know, there's no practical jokes club.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 24 Jun 2025 04:18:35 No.6264325 Report

Quoted By: >>6264588

>>6264289
First name basis immediately. Slut.>>6264290

>Silent footsteps
>coomer aroma that make Mr. Stiff immediately dropped his spaghetti

Big hmmmmmmmm. Surely the red eyed transfer student who makes no sound as she moves, and is immediately forcing a first name basis is nothing to be suspicious of.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Tue 24 Jun 2025 04:21:31 No.6264326 Report

Quoted By: >>6264328

>>6264295
>[X] Take her around the classrooms. It would be rude to go in now, but watching classes being conducted through the hall windows might be informative for her.
I feel like there is a specific athletic club we could take her to...but I can't think of what it might be.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 04:23:34 No.6264328 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264326
Rhythmic Gymnastics?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Tue 24 Jun 2025 04:37:24 No.6264332 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264324
She can start one, we just cleared out a clubroom yesterday

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Tue 24 Jun 2025 05:27:10 No.6264378 Report

Quoted By: >>6264409

>>6264295
>[ ] Take her around the classrooms. It would be rude to go in now, but watching classes being conducted through the hall windows might be informative for her.
You know, in FSN red eyes were a characteristic trait of demigods.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Tue 24 Jun 2025 05:32:22 No.6264383 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264295
>[ ] Show Naragasa one of the club facilities. (kendo)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 24 Jun 2025 06:00:52 No.6264409 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264378
I got Shuten vibes initially considering what I mentioned before, but Shuten has purple eyes.

The coom aroma especially was interesting as nothing, not even hypnosis from the gyppo, has influenced Yumigawa's mind that much yet.

>>6264295
>[ ] Take her around the classrooms. It would be rude to go in now, but watching classes being conducted through the hall windows might be informative for her.

+ Ask about her family as a topic of small talk. We might have something else to research tonight.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Tue 24 Jun 2025 08:40:21 No.6264468 Report

Quoted By: >>6264474

>>6264031
>We could ask next time if they know Eva or not. If they do, that would be the answer.
Eva sends drugs around ? or you meant like a spell of sort ? i mean sure romanian, but i wouldn't say she is both a mage, witch or what not and also a heiress to a mafia. Then again the Romanian mafia is in fact quite an extensive organization across the globe, though they are mainly in europe and north america going to japan is unheard of. Very far and strict competition here. They are also a violent mafia. Would they behead people ?

>The bar is pretty low with Eva so far. Other girls definitely have solid chances.
To be fair to Eva, she is quite the unknown. I would prefer to see if she can cook . Unless we are trying to avoid that (though is free food i wouldn't mind since she seems so eager to... help ? be around Yumigawa ? Even if i would prefer if our boy makes its lunch on his own, it might satisfy is strict palate better). Hhhhm could she put a spell or a potion in a piece/plate of food ? That would be dangerous.

>>6264043
thank you for the quest. The mystery intrigues me so it makes me want to comment about it, even if i am probably exaggerating or wrong about it hehehe

>>6264290
>Ogata will decide whatever area the girl didn't see would've made the difference and have your hide
I am sorry Yumigawa didn't you just said he wasn't that vendicative..?... mad blooded...

>"You have quite a number of uncultivated trees,"
Peasants out of the way. She is a bit of jokester though heh.

>keeping the anger from your voice by main force of will.
so that anger is still there.

>it's almost intoxicating, a scent of luxury itself, drawing you in.
the first day perfume ? at school of all places. She is loaded, and bold. Doesn't mind touching either.

>>6264295
>a police detective
>A hard-nosed detective
she likes the detective genre, and hinting at magic/supernatural. And we found one of the reason of headaches. This book. Was it doing just now or even before ? Like a magical wifi headache/anger signal around the school ? Could it make us insane with rage if we stay enough time at school ?

>Chronic illness is such a sad thing. My father
Thats interesting.

>[ ] Take her around the classrooms. It would be rude to go in now, but watching classes being conducted through the hall windows might be informative for her.
i suppose this can fit. Or swimming maybe ? Swimming is nice. Fresh, near a pool there is always a smell of chlorine too. If we are afraid the perfume is magical, and not just expensive + hormons, then a pool could do the trick.

>>6264324
the occult club is on the purge list isn't it ? Yumigawa would never stand its existence.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 24 Jun 2025 08:55:23 No.6264474 Report

Quoted By: >>6264509

>>6264468
I think Yumigawa is just bullshitting about the headache to handwave it off.

It always seems to flare up around things that appear to be trying to influence his thoughts.

Interesting theory about the book, given that Yumigawa also states he knows all the books, yet that one isn't supposed to be there. Might be the locus of residual magic. Unfortunately we don't yet seem to have any proper memories of the Akeldama yet, so magic still isn't something we can comprehend.

She'd probably like the Raido games, but Yumigawa wouldn't reduce himself to a surrogate activity like video games, so it's not something he can mention.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Tue 24 Jun 2025 10:46:51 No.6264509 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264474
Anger issues then ? He can be rather fiery and prone to violence even when slightly provoked. And he is losing is cool from how he described himself in the past. Maybe his mind is decaying, or collapsing under the strain of not wanting to accept the existance of witchcraft, necromancy, occultism, magic and magical young women in search of young men in their area.

Or illogical things, the mention of magic, occultism make him rather bothered. Its is understandable, he is an upstanding young man, logical, traditional, well-learned, studious, a valedictorian even. This magical gibberish might as well be a manifestation of primitivism and superstitions in the flesh, in his school. This book in his eyes is the equivalent of a indian shaman chanting to the spirits while dancing and inebriated by fumes. Or for a better comparison one of those girls that look at astrology, crystals an what not. Quite revolting for a young man of modern times.

Indeed, i think its cursed in some capacity. It might be even alive ! Following us. But what if it's something else ? A phylactery ? A necronomicon ? The book seems to be a lot about death, undead, occultism, dark arts...

The SMT series does make nice games. He would probably say they are a misuse of technology. I don't think he would play games, but there are still plenty of book series on the subject not necessarily on occultism either. Yumigawa does seem more academic minded even with books so i don't think he enjoys reading a detective or murder story. All this aside, there is a little coincidence with mentioning such a specific subject and the current murders in our quarter. She is not being subtle.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Tue 24 Jun 2025 16:28:47 No.6264588 Report

Quoted By: >>6264608

>>6264325
>Surely the red eyed transfer student who makes no sound as she moves, and is immediately forcing a first name basis is nothing to be suspicious of.
Now, now, anon. There's already two highly suspicious girls at school, no way we'd get a third one so quickly. I'm sure she's perfectly normal, just very rich.

>>6264295
>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
Her current school is clearly better than ours in every respect, so I say let's go with the one thing that grabbed her attention: worthless mundane stuff (from our perspective). Do we have a games or manga club with a decent collection?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 17:30:48 No.6264608 Report

Quoted By: >>6264614

>>6264588
There is a manga club. It's the Illustrated Culture Studies Club, one of the items on your list of clubs to review for dissolution.
There is no games club; there's a board game club, which mostly focuses on competitive chess, go, and shogi, regularly sending people to tournaments. The computer club might play video games on the sly, but you don't know.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Tue 24 Jun 2025 17:43:42 No.6264614 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264608
I'm going with the Illustrated Culture Studies Club then, it's their chance to avoid being scrapped.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 24 Jun 2025 23:40:15 No.6264778 Report

Quoted By:

I'm afraid I won't be able to update tonight, everyone. Sorry about that; I'm stuck working late. Should have an update out tomorrow though.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 00:50:17 No.6264828 Report

Quoted By:

Apparently all I have to do is announce that I'll be busy for my schedule to clear up. Finished with work after all. Have to eat something, then I'll write an update.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:37:21 No.6264939 Report

Quoted By:

"Of course. That is my job for this morning, after all, and I'll do no slacking on account of a little malaise." You try to make a joke of it, injecting a bluff, soldierly tone into your voice. The last thing you want is for this girl to take a concerned interest and start asking about your health; elaborating on a lie is always a chore. "Let's return to the main building, and I'll show you our classes."

"Oh?" Naragasa looks curious, raising an eyebrow as she turns to follow you toward the library exit. "Do your classrooms bear some especially unique feature?"

"Not as such," you answer. If it's unique strangeness the girl is looking for, you doubt there's any to be found at Kyoutenkan. Even its most unusual facilities, like the dedicated rings for the wrestling and boxing clubs or the full-scale archery range, can be found individually in plenty of other places. Kyoutenkan really only stands out in having as many spare buildings as it does. "Still, you will be spending most of your time in the classroom if you decide to transfer here. Since you've come to look the place over, I expect you'd like to get some idea of how well our classes suit you."

"I suppose so," muses Naragasa, sounding as if the idea that transferring will entail attending classes has only just now crossed her mind for the first time. As you cross the grounds back toward the main building from the library a frigid gust of wind whips at you, loud enough that you almost don't here her next words. "Bring me to your classroom, then."

You had thought to take her around the floor appropriate for the year she'll be transferring into, but it seems that plan doesn't appeal. It could be that she's concerned with how the most advanced subjects are taught, rather than her more immediate future. You can more effectively evaluate the efficacy of a teaching staff judging by those tasked with the most complex subjects, that's true enough, so if that's her reason it's a good one, but somehow you don't feel there's any rational reason behind her decisions. From her attitude so far, it feels more like she's treating the tour as a day trip taken for entertainment than serious consideration of a school.

"Wouldn't it be more useful to look around several classes, so you can watch a variety of different subjects being taught? There's nothing special about my class in particular."

"No?" A hint of amusement colors the tiny voice. "I believe there will be a very interesting sight to take in, though." The words are almost lost in another moan from the wind. Wondering if this pampered girl is struggling with the cold you glance over at her, but her expression and movements remain utterly placid.

"And what would that be? You haven't seen enough of the school to know." Amused by her ridiculous suggestion, you can't help carrying the joke a bit further. "We might keep a caged bear in 2-A, and you'd be missing it."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:38:21 No.6264940 Report

Quoted By:

Naragasa titters gratifyingly at your joke, before answering the question that preceded it.

"I am most curious to see how your teachers react," she murmurs, a twinkle in her eye betraying the energy absent from her voice, "when a student who has decided absent himself from classes without warning suddenly appears in the midst of things to observe them through a window."

You hadn't thought of that. True, there might be something unique about your classroom after all, but it couldn't happen the way she hopes it will.

"You'll be disappointed," you point out. "You should've thought it through; the principal told me to show you around, of course this won't impact my attendance. He'll have notified all the teachers."

"I wonder," comes Naragasa's reply, in a tone that suggests she has nothing to wonder about. "That man was quite frantic when I saw him. I suppose he would have preferred to be forewarned further in advance of my arrival here. He may have forgotten to make arrangements for you."

Surely not, you think. But then, Ogata-sensei has never been a man overflowing with care for the ease of life of his students. If he had more pressing things on his plate, he could easily have decided it would be simple enough to fix your attendance record after the fact. Naragasa seems content to wait in silence until she gets either her show or her disappointment, leaving you to ponder the subject on your own as you head back into the main school building.

It always feels somewhat odd, you reflect, to walk around the school during classes. As many times as you've had reason to step out for some student council task or other while everyone else is at their desks, you're so much more constantly accustomed to the bustle of halls filled with students during breaks that it never quite loses its novelty. Without even the afterschool noises of the clubs, as when the building empties later in the day, the silence and emptiness of the halls feels almost preternatural, as if the building had suddenly and without warning been abandoned in its pristine condition. And yet you can turn your head and see the teachers delivering silent lectures, and the students, some listening with keen attention and others just passing time as they wait for a few minutes of freedom at lunch. It all creates a sense of having been momentarily put outside of society, cut off from the track of ordinary life.

Ridiculous, of course; this is the perspective anyone not a high school student would have when moving through this building, hardly outside of society. That's the strength of habituation, you suppose, that one narrow path comes to seem like the whole world, and to step outside it is to step into unknown space. In a few years, maybe the inside of a high school classroom will feel as strange to you as the view from outside does now.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:39:22 No.6264941 Report

Quoted By:

<> <> <>

In the event, there's no confrontation with your teacher. In fact, no-one in the classroom seems to notice you and Naragasa as you stand outside and observe matters. Although she ends up asking more about your classmates and what you know about their various lives than anything academic, the girl seems entertained enough. Apparently observing the classes is giving her whatever it is she wants from this tour, as with the end of first period she urges you to take her to another class, to observe their routine, and another, and so-on. Before long it's getting toward the end of the morning classes and the beginning of the lunch break.

"Thank you," Naragasa murmurs. "I found it all quite edifying. Now, there is one more thing I should like you to do for me, and then I will release you from your duties as tour guide and let you go about your day."

So, she did realize how offputting you find it to be saddled with the job of selling your own school. Good news if she's cutting things short, though, you won't have to show her around every building on campus after all. At the pace you've been going, that would take until after dark.

"What's that?" You're genuinely a bit curious. Despite spending a morning with her it remains as unclear to you as ever what Naragasa actually came here to see, and what dictates her interests. Frequently, when she was asking you about the other third-year students, you would begin some noteworthy story about an athlete, or the newspaper club's star reporter, or someone else who had been the talk of the school at some point, only for the girl to cut you off and fix on some student with no noteworthy features at all to ask about. You ended up telling her every detail you know about Tatsuhara, for example, and that's not a great deal.

"I've read that at normal schools, there's an area of the roof accessible to students," she says almost hesitantly, as if expecting you to laugh the notion off as absurd. "Is that true here? It does look rather flat..."

"Yes, of course," you answer without a thought. "Most high schools are built that way, I think." Indeed, it might be that a majority of buildings in Tokyo have flat roofs accessible by upper doors. It's so common that you never would've thought to question it.

"Oh, wonderful!" Naragasa fairly beams at the news, her smile the closest she's come to an unrefined gesture all morning. "My current academy is built with a peaked roof, and I've always wanted to try looking out from the rooftop like an ordinary person. Show how one goes about getting there."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:40:26 No.6264943 Report

Quoted By: >>6264952 >>6264953 >>6264955 >>6264976 >>6264977 >>6265146 >>6265157

>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.

>[ ] Show her around, but no more. The school roof in February will be bitterly cold, and you have no wish to spend your lunchtime up there in deference to some imaginary stereotype of student life.

>[ ] Take her up to the roof, but wrap things up as quickly as possible. Eva will probably be looking for you again during the lunch break, and you won't be able to confront her about her nonexistent past with a third party around.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:42:25 No.6264945 Report

Quoted By: >>6264979

Should've noted this in the choice, but if you vote for the lunch option you can add what you'd like to talk about during lunch to your vote.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:50:06 No.6264951 Report

Quoted By: >>6264957 >>6265052

>>6264295
>The man eventually discovers that competing factions of onmyo practitioners have been controlling Japan for centuries, killing one another off in secret by channelling the souls of the dead into curses and struggling over a lost relic of Izanagi which contains some sort of ultimate power... you drop the book to the table.
Here's my take on this. She's trying to hint to us that multiple mage families are trying to claim our power as their own. Rushurou received a lot of power via the Akeldama ritual and he's now somehow held in stasis or in a weird reality marble and some of the heroines we've met so far are their family's representatives trying to investigate us, destroy us, or gain us as their own personal servant. Maybe they think they can take the power generated by the Akeldama for themselves. Maybe I'm grasping at straws but I'm not sure it would be so specifically mentioned if it wasn't relevant.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:57:02 No.6264952 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264943
>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.
>Ask about her family, given how she made the principal react they must be something special.

Bit hmmmm given she's more interested in us and what we have to say than the school at large.

She seems more Yumigawa's type though.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Wed 25 Jun 2025 04:57:59 No.6264953 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264943
>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Wed 25 Jun 2025 05:03:57 No.6264955 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264943
>[X] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 25 Jun 2025 05:04:28 No.6264957 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264951
Given she has red eyes, she has to be something supernatural, usually Divine.

Or is she a Japanese model homonculus?

Seems to have any actual personality though.

Hopefully queries about her family reveals something we can work with (even if it would be a bit ooc until Yumigawa gets his memories back).

Iirc a he has is a single faded dream from a night of limited sleep and terrible headaches.

I'm also not sure if confronting Eva about the memory inconsistency is something we should actually do directly. But I'm not sure what good witnesses will do. Maybe within range of Ayaka to allow some level of mage stalemate?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Wed 25 Jun 2025 05:54:07 No.6264976 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264943
>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.
As long as we don't get a whiff of her pheromones, it should be safe?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 25 Jun 2025 06:03:06 No.6264977 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264943
>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 25 Jun 2025 06:04:13 No.6264979 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264945
talk about hobbies

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Wed 25 Jun 2025 12:28:56 No.6265052 Report

Quoted By:

>>6264951
On second thought she could just be referring to a grail war to jog our memory.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Wed 25 Jun 2025 18:03:29 No.6265146 Report

Quoted By: >>6265157

>>6264943
>[ ] Suggest the two of you eat lunch on the roof. If she's so curious about the 'ordinary' high school experience, that seems like a part of it.
>Ask about her family, given how she made the principal react they must be something special.
>Ask about her father chronic illness

Since she mentioned it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Wed 25 Jun 2025 18:19:45 No.6265157 Report

Quoted By: >>6265189

>>6264943
>>6265146
I agree with this anon, the detail about her father is a good thing to ask about.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Wed 25 Jun 2025 19:52:48 No.6265189 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265157
It should be. I am not fully sure on Naragasa. Maybe she just likes to look around this school with us for whatever magical/sorcery reason. Or she could just be rich.

Like someone pointed she might not even be human. Maybe she is an hybrid or a full magical creature/servant thing.

She is rich and good looking if nothing else. I presume she is marking us or something, either to make it clear to other magical girls to not touch us or for witchcraft reasons.

Whatever she does we have that sun, angel, god blasting light and heat inside our head if nothing else. Though she has that book, and youth on her side. A costly perfume helps too since she can afford it lol.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:41:01 No.6265400 Report

Quoted By:

Seeing how excited Naragasa is at the thought of just looking out from the rooftop for a short time, an idea strikes you.

"In that case," you say, "Why don't we have lunch up there? It's getting towards time for the lunch break, and if you want an experience 'like an ordinary person' you can hardly beat that."

"My, what a lovely idea!" Naragasa brings her gloved palms together in a silent imitation of a clap. "I should love to."

"Let's stop by the cafeteria first, then, and pick up something to eat." You nod in the direction of the descending stairs, almost starting to walk without waiting for a reply.

"Hm?" Naragasa cocks her head to one side, giving you a quizzical look.

"No point in going up to the roof to show it to you, then back down to get food, then back up to eat," you explain, wondering what part of this isn't immediately obvious. "Let's get food first, so we aren't making an extra trip."

"Oh!" Realization visibly dawns on the girl. "I had imagined you must surely have brought your lunch from home, as did I. Please take me up to the roof first. You may go and collect your own meal while I admire the scenery."

So now she steps into the role of a demanding tourist. You sigh. At any rate, that's the finale to your improvised tour settled. Though you were put on the spot, Ogata won't be able to say you didn't give it your all to show the potential transfer a good time. You're even putting off your usual lunch-time student council meeting for the sake of his pet project. Silently, you hope that Ikeda and the rest won't be too annoying about it.

"If that's the way you want it," you reply, letting the exasperation into your voice. "Follow me, 'young miss'."

If Naragasa minds your sarcasm, she doesn't show it. Looking faintly excited, she follows at your heels as you ascend the last flight of stairs up from the third floor. The roof is sometimes locked, and as student council president you have a spare key, but when you try the knob it turns freely. Apparently the faculty hasn't seen the need, at a time of year when so few students are inclined to pass this way.

As soon as you step out onto the roof, you begin to regret your suggestion to eat up here. The climate on the roof is cold. Bitterly, aggressively cold. The temperature is so different from the ground that it almost feels like you've traveled to an entirely different, more northerly climate. The wind, already noticeable at ground level, is continuous and frigid.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:42:02 No.6265401 Report

Quoted By:

If it were only July, the wind four storeys up would be a wonderful thing, a cooling breeze to take the edge from Tokyo's stifling midsummer heat. The rooftop would also be crowded with students eager to enjoy lunch in the most comfortable outdoor environment at Kyoutenkan, or else you'd have to use your key. Thoughts of those pleasant summer days do nothing to ameliorate the cold, though. It isn't July, but February, there isn't another student to be seen from the doorway, and the wind chill is seeping into your bones.

"Let's go around to this side," you suggest as you hurry off to the right. At least on the east side of the building, there will be a wall between you and the wind. If you don't get her behind some kind of shelter, you can expect complaints from Naragasa momentarily. Curiously, though, she seems completely unaffected by the cold. Whether looking into the face of the wind or once you've brought her around to shelter in the lee of the building, her excitement appears undimmed.

"It is lovely," the girl breathes, looking out at the gloomy, overcast cityscape as if it were one of nature's great marvels. "Just like the sights one would see in a story... and look!" She points toward the southeast corner of the rooftop, the least visible place up here from most of the grounds. "There are even students absenting themselves from their classes to smoke! How picturesque."

It's true. Two boys are leaning against the fence and smoking, entirely taking their ease, at the far end of the roof. For a moment, you're not sure whether to laugh at Naragasa's bizarre sense of aesthetics or be angry with the rule-breakers. Anger wins out quickly enough, though.

"What do you think you're doing," you demand as you storm over to the smokers, a pair you soon recognize as third-year members of the Baseball Club. One of them is even a classmate of yours from 3-B.

"Hey, it's Yumigawa." Your classmate, Kato, waves a friendly arm. "Whaddya mean what are we doing? Having a smoke, you can see that."

"That's not the point, you pair of morons!" You're tempted to knock the smug look off this disrespectful bastard's face, but you limit yourself to verbal abuse. "It's not enough to skip classes and break the law, you have to do it on campus as well? What, do you want to be expelled at the eleventh hour before graduation? At your age you should know better!"

"Well, that's a hell of an attitude," Kato growls, turning sullen. "We just cut out from 4th period, you've been skipping all day. With a girl, too. That's not our uniform, did'ja bring her in from another school?"

"I'm giving this girl a tour of the school on the principal's orders," you snap, even more annoyed at being called on to justify yourself to these two jackasses. "I doubt you'd like to take it up with him."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:43:29 No.6265403 Report

Quoted By:

"Awright, awright, if you say so." Kato's smirking again, clearly not believing you. "Our esteemed student council president wouldn't be caught dead breaking a rule, right? Well, we won't do it again, and we'll forget all about seeing you here during class. C'mon Yamada, let's go." With a deft flick, Kato sends his cigarette flying through the chain link and tumbling to the grounds below.

"What, you're just gonna let this officious prick tell you off like that?" Kato's friend, a heavyset pitcher named Yamada known for trick throws and not much else, evidently has more of a temper.

"What, you wanna pick a fight? He'll report us!" Kato turns his palms skyward in a 'what can you do' gesture and grins at his friend. "Yumigawa's right, getting a black spot on our records now would be dumb as hell, and I was almost done with that cig anyway. I'm gettin' hungry, let's get some beef bowl." Turning to you as he passes, he adds, "You and your girlfriend have a good time, Yumigawa!"

Yamada grumbles something indeterminate, but tosses his own cigarette and follows his friend into the school building.

"There's a spot of local color for your tour," you remark, a wry tone in your voice. Somehow, your anger with the two has evaporated, replaced by amusement. Kato's always been a hard one to stay mad at. "Still think it was picturesque?"

"Oh, very." Naragasa is all smiles, evidently entertained rather than being offended at being mistaken for one half of an illicit love affair. "The furious student council president telling off wayward youths, the miscreants wilting in the face of authority... If only they repent of their ways and give up tobacco, the cliche will be perfect."

"Yes, well." You're wrong-footed for a moment by Naragasa's evident satisfaction. Perhaps to those sufficiently wealthy, everything an ordinary person can do seems like a show. "I'll be getting my lunch now, and leave you here to take in the view." You can't help sounding a little sarcastic, looking out on the dreary sight of a winter day with neither snow nor sun.

"Bring me some hot tea when you come back, won't you?"

You leave her with a nod.

<> <> <>

After a short sojourn in the cafeteria, thankfully free of any encounters with Eva or discomfiting sense of being watched, you return to the roof bearing a plate of curry katsu and two hot canned drinks: coffee for you, and green tea for Naragasa. When you circle around the entryway to the east side, you witness the improbable sight of a small black picnic blanket spread out over the rooftop, and Naragasa sitting on it with a four-tiered bento box on her lap. She must have had them both in her bag, although you can't quite picture how a tiered bento would fit into a school bag. She waves a greeting at the sight of you, and you can see her lips moving, but between her soft tones and the wind it isn't until you're within arm's reach of the girl that you can hear what she's saying.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 Rooftop.png, 244KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:44:30 No.6265404 Report

Quoted By:

"Your timing is simply perfect. I've just begun to crave some tea to counterpoint these pickled vegetables." Out stretches a hand, and you deposit the can of tea in it.

"I don't doubt it," you answer. "With all that food to wash down, I don't know if I've brought you enough tea now."

Naragasa only answers your joke with one of her tiny smiles, and takes a drink of her tea.

Once you've sat down beside her and begun to eat your own meal, and just before the silence grows long enough to become awkward, you change the subject.

"You said Ogata-sensei was doing a job for your family," you remark, raising the topic you've been tempted to speculate on since you first saw her. "It must be a remarkable one, with the way he was acting; in three years I've never seen the principal look humble once. What kind of a family do you come from, if you don't mind my asking?"

It may be too personal a question to ask, on such short acquaintance, but the girl has been using you for her entertainment all morning. You feel you're owed at least a bit of satisfaction for your curiosity in recompense. For a few seconds, though, Naragasa gives no sign of having heard your question. She only looks out at the clouds, silently eating.

"I do not mind," she eventually murmurs. "The Naragasa family is very old. Our name, in fact, derives from our origins as an appendage of the Imperial Court at Nara, before the capital moved to Kyoto."

"Really?" That is a surprise, even when you'd already assumed she came from a background both wealthy and traditional. Very few families still exist that can trace their lineage that far back.

"At least, that is the family legend. Historical documents from so long ago are rare, and the story has grown unverifiable."

Naragasa offers you a smile, and makes a slight shrug of her shoulders. Is this another joke in the vein of her suggestion that she'd never seen landscaping other than a traditional garden?

"Is there a verifiable history?" You ask, an eyebrow raised. You'll have to take whatever she says with a grain of salt.

"The first Naragasa we can be traced to with any documentary proof was a wealthy textile merchant in the Edo period." Naragasa pauses to eat a bite of her food, and you realize with surprise that half of her monumental lunch is gone already. You've hardly seen her eat, but the feast of traditional dishes in that box has vanished at a startling rate. "A simple thing for such a man to fabricate a more dignified lineage for himself, wouldn't you agree?"

"Certainly." The difference is semantic, in your eyes. Edo or Nara, a family with money that old is a rarity. She does have a point, though. "Textile manufacturing has been close to the paper trade since ancient times, and a papermaker would certainly be well-placed to forge documents."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:45:56 No.6265405 Report

Quoted By:

"Yes," she continues. "After him, the story becomes more certain. It would seem that our family made a great deal of money out of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration, and was thereafter enmeshed in the politics of the reformed Empire."

You nod. That part is a relatively familiar story. Many of the wealthiest families in the industrializing empire had no connection to the old nobility, and came from merchant roots. Not many survived the war and occupation, though. The occupying forces dissolved the nobility when drafting the new constitution and broke up the zaibatsu.

"You were able to keep your position under the General Headquarters?"

"Somehow. Just what exact method my great-grandfather used to prevent our sharing in the fate of the regime after the war, I don't know," the girl explains, "but it does appear we continued to profit from the occupying forces. The Korean War brought us a great deal of fresh income."

"And you've maintained that wealth to the present day. None of the economic upheavals of the last 70 years has changed things?" It's almost incredible. The only families you've ever heard of having such thoroughly entrenched wealth in Japan are those with famous names like Mitsui, and even they've been obliged to yield influence to time. Yet you've never heard the name 'Naragasa' before today.

"Correct. You will forgive the lack of detail. At my age, only the broad strokes of the family history have been explained to me. As I understand matters, part of the reason we have weathered the ebb and flow of the economy is the fact that the Naragasa have acted as power broker among politicians of the present constitutional government since the beginning.'

"A political dynasty," you muse. "That should make you quite well-known, though."

"You misunderstand," she answers with a small sigh. "We prefer not to be well-known. You will not find our name among members of the Diet, but a majority are in some way connected to our family. The present Minister of Education is married to my aunt, and lives primarily off of her inheritance; when my father asked him for a favor..."

Naragasa gives you a meaningful look.

"You can imagine the sort of pressure that reached any administrator of a public school, I am sure."

"Yes." Not hard to imagine at all. Nor is it hard to imagine there are elements of this story Naragasa is keeping back. The actual source of the family income is entirely unclear, and given their preference for anonymity you can't help wondering whether you've been giving a tour to the daughter of a leading family in the world of organized crime. Certainly the connection between the yakuza and lawmakers has long been a tacitly acknowledged element of national politics.

"And what might your own background be, I wonder?" Now Naragasa speaks up again. "It would be rather unfair for you to hear my story and remain tight-lipped."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:46:57 No.6265407 Report

Quoted By:

"I doubt you'll find any interest in it," you answer. There's almost nothing to tell, after all. "My background barely exists. My father is an executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and a graduate of Tokyo University. His father was an auto mechanic with a shop in Hachioji. What his father did, I don't know."

"Is that so..." Naragasa looks dismayed. You can't say whether she expects everyone to have a background as eventful as her own family history, or just finds your answer particularly boring, but the disappointment is clear on her face. After a few seconds of silence, she seems to get another idea. "Have all of your family suffered from the migraines you told me about?"

If that's her idea of an unusual feature, you'll have to disappoint her again.

"No, that's only me. Why, do afflictions run in your family? You mentioned something about your father."

"Ah, so you remembered that..." Naragasa purses her lips, as if frustrated with her past self for thoughtlessly bringing the topic up. "It is not a genetic malady, but my father was laid low recently. It seems his..." A momentary pause, as if Naragasa is trying to recall the details of the problem, before she continues, "heart has failed him in some way, such that he is unable to perform exercise. I do not comprehend the nature of the illness, but his doctors have predicted he will be bedridden for the rest of his life."

"Ah." Even as quiet as she is, you can hear the gloom weighing down Naragasa's voice and realize you've asked an insensitive question. "I'm sorry to have brought it up, that must be very hard for you."

"No," she says, suddenly brightening as she rises to her feet. She must be putting on a brave face, though you can't see any difference from her earlier cheer. "I had raised the subject first, it was my own mistake. Today has been lovely. I must thank you for the tour, and for sharing lunch with me. I have enjoyed myself quite thoroughly."

She's getting ready to leave, you realize, and would probably like you to get off her blanket so she can pack it away in her bag. Accordingly, you get out of the way. Indeed, both of you finished your food some time ago; only the conversation kept you.

"Not at all. I'm glad you enjoyed looking around our school. Perhaps we'll talk again, when you transfer."

"Yes," Naragasa agrees. "I do very much hope we can meet on this rooftop again, later."

With that, she makes an unexpectedly quick exit, almost vanishing around the wall and through the rooftop door. You're left alone, as the bell heralding the end of lunch and beginning of fifth period begins to toll. It seems you'd best be getting to your own business.

<> <> <>

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 Shoe Rack.png, 149KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:48:44 No.6265409 Report

Quoted By:

Afternoon classes pass without a hitch, interrupted by neither headaches nor other students demanding your attention. With the end of classes a few do crowd around you to ask questions, apparently having heard rumors of your skipping class to walk around the school with a beautiful girl no-one could recognize. You brush past them without comment, making a mental note to take revenge on the rumor-mongering Kato and Yamada. Not to the extent of getting them expelled, but you should be able to find something. As you leave the classroom and begin your walk to the student council room, your phone vibrates.

"Did you meet Gen. Affairs-chan at your classroom? Not here. If you're just doing club review again I'm for home," reads a LINE message from Ikeda.

"Not here. Go home if you want, I won't keep you," you send back. The girl is probably just on her way from her class, the first year rooms are two floors down after all. The thought puts an idea in your head, though. Ikeda is leaving already, there's nothing really pressing about reviewing the clubs, and any plan put forward by the girl with the unverifiable past is suspect. Why wait for her and go along with the program she inserted into the Student Council's business under your name?

Once thought of, the choice couldn't be clearer. Feeling self-satisfied and comfortably relieved of the burden of strangeness that clung to you throughout yesterday, you make your way to the ground floor. There, in your shoe box, you discover a new oddity.

The envelope is an extremely pale pink, so near to white that its coloration is hardly visible. The floral perfume clinging to it is more blunt, and the elaborately decorated, highly feminine stationary within still moreso. Even before you read the note, you have a sense of what it will contain. It won't be the first confession you've turned down.

"Dear Yumigawa Rushorou," the letter begins.
"Although I have long known you from afar, in these past days my feelings have grown such that I can remain silent no longer. I must speak with you, regarding a matter of the utmost delicacy. A matter which I dare not commit to paper. When afternoon classes have finished, please come to the lawn beside the western wall of the main school building, where it borders a broad swathe of trees. We will have privacy there, that I may reveal to you the depth of my feeling. Although I understand what important matters must fill your schedule, I must ask that you make the time to meet with me. It would be impossible for me to overstate the importance of this conversation to me, and possibly to you."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 03:49:44 No.6265410 Report

Quoted By: >>6265413 >>6265414 >>6265464 >>6265535 >>6265544 >>6265577

There is no signature on the letter, and although the hand is as delicate and overtly feminine as the stationary, you don't recognize it as any particular handwriting you've seen before. Then again, the only people whose handwriting you've seen enough of to memorize it are Ikeda and Segawa. You wonder what this girl would've done if you'd gone to the student council normally. You wouldn't even have seen the letter, and she'd be left hanging. People really ought to plan their schedules with more precision.

Looking at the letter again, you feel no great desire to face the sender and reject her feelings. You don't have the time for a girlfriend, but it isn't as though you enjoy seeing the looks of disappointment on their faces when you reject them. On the other hand, to just ignore a love letter and leave the girl standing there waiting for someone who won't be coming is far more cruel, and would destroy your reputation among the student body. To a certain extent, you have to see her.

>[ ] Go to the area next to the west end of the school building. It wouldn't be right to abandon someone who poured out her feelings that way, and it wouldn't fit the role you play either. You can try to be as quick as possible about it.

>[ ] Ignore the letter and go home. You did promise your mother you'd hurry, after all.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Thu 26 Jun 2025 04:04:35 No.6265413 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265410
>>[ ] Ignore the letter and go home. You did promise your mother you'd hurry, after all.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Thu 26 Jun 2025 04:06:45 No.6265414 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 04:39:09 No.6265438 Report

Quoted By: >>6265454

>no write in prompt

>only 2 choices

Hmmmm...

Will it be Satsuki, after the autistic analysis we gave her the other day.

Doubtful its Eva, she'd just come talk to us directly. No sign of the gyppo all day either.

Ayaka gave us a stare down the other day. Maybe its her turn?

Or a new, yet unnamed girl? No tomboy archetype yet.

A very important decision. Is a promise to the mother that doesn't even make us lunch worth not exploring the possibility of finding a girl who may, in fact male him lunch?

Or is this letter a trap and we're about to get our ambushed by the delinquents or smokers we pissed off earlier?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 05:06:39 No.6265454 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265438
It's a pretty binary choice, so I didn't really think a write-in option was necessary. If you guys have a bright idea you can always throw it out there, even without a prompt. If it gets sufficient traction with other players I'll use it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 05:46:45 No.6265464 Report

Quoted By:

Red eyes had the most natural chemistry with Yumigawa so far. Shame she's probably a DA or some other supernatural abomination that will try and kill us later.

She even had a proper home made bento...

>>6265410
>[ ] Go to the area next to the west end of the school building. It wouldn't be right to abandon someone who poured out her feelings that way, and it wouldn't fit the role you play either. You can try to be as quick as possible about it.

Just as likely to get shanked for rejecting a letter as we would following one at this point. Let's see what's behind door number 1.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 26 Jun 2025 08:45:19 No.6265535 Report

Quoted By: >>6265554

>>6265410
>[ ] Go to the area next to the west end of the school building. It wouldn't be right to abandon someone who poured out her feelings that way, and it wouldn't fit the role you play either. You can try to be as quick as possible about it.
I don't want to be a dick to this girl (unless is a trap), but rethinking about the state of our mom huh she really shouldn't be left simmering on tv news about brutal and raising murders on her own. So..
>Write in
>[ ] If there is a girl at the west end of the school building, and not a group of delinquents or someone else, mention you are in a bit of hurry when you see her. Also send a message to mom we have to talk to someone before getting home.
This should work out. Really totally the perfect solution, and not something that will backfire for the simplicity.

The red eyed girl is weird. Could this ruin our family and academy life in one single move, as our mom gets worried and worried and worried, and we will not have time to finish our homework. Will it come to that ? Probably. Yumigawa might be able to patch up the disaster at home, i think. Or no ? Perhaps he will think about magic or want to look in to a background of unknown sorcerers.

Another social bomb to defuse. Surely us and this girl will not remain talking hours until midnight. This is probably going to make things dangerous and complicated. Yumigawa rep did tank the whole anger issue disease and going around with a new grill, can it tank not looking at a love letter ? Japs are weird. Or it might be a moment of truth where we see magic or something, and Yumigawa mind can snap and go on a frenzy rampage of pure rage while he screams that magic doesn't exist (influenced by that book magical signal perhaps ? or by his own madness from father ?). I like to think it would really be a "take the bull from the horns" kind of reaction.

It also seems Yumigawa is ready to shoot her down at a moment notice, if its a love confession. I wonder if he shouldn't do the opposite, his father and mom could be happy about it, and it would act as deterrent for those witches and supernatural girl entities. Then again, some women do go after someone in a relationship.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Thu 26 Jun 2025 09:32:03 No.6265544 Report

Quoted By: >>6265554 >>6265568

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 10:23:26 No.6265554 Report

Quoted By: >>6265592

>>6265535
Or we could just be a trophy husband to a rich (certainly not magical) family.

She mentioned this as an option.

Yumigawa can just play politician for sport.

Remember his father's advice that grades aren't everything.

I also like your simple but effective idea of just messaging ahead. Telling someone potentially about to spill their spaghetti all over the floor that we don't have time for them isn't a good idea if we don't want to meet >>6265544 this anon's captcha.

Magic is very real in Typemoon settings. The problem is, most magically aligned beings treat humans as niggercattle.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 11:23:49 No.6265568 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265544
>Going into something you expect to be a trap
Missing the Tiger Dojo, are we?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:l0F7uA34 Thu 26 Jun 2025 11:50:29 No.6265577 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265410
>[ ] Ignore the letter and go home. You did promise your mother you'd hurry, after all.
"Be not deceived by flesh, or sacrifice, or false names."

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View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 School Grounds Afternoon.png, 489KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:05:34 No.6265581 Report

Quoted By:

Yes, you decide, you really ought to make the time to see this girl. It does bother you a bit to break the promise you made this morning, though; even if it was only a promise to try to get home as quickly as you could, delaying to meet with another student is going against your word to a certain degree. As such, before doing anything else you send a quick email to your mother explaining that you'll be stopping briefly after school to meet with another student, but coming home after that. She's never bothered to update to LINE messaging and a cell phone, so short of calling the land-line at home this is the most immediate way of contacting her.

With your promise settled, and peace of mind thus assured, you pocket the note and leave the school building to follow its wall around to the western side. Sure enough, there's someone waiting for you, just out of sight from the majority of the school grounds, and as expected the sender is a female student. Surprisingly enough, you recognize her as Shijou Ayaka; the girl who was staring at you during yesterday's lunch break. Of course, you realize it isn't the strangest thing for someone infatuated to stare at their crush when they think they aren't being observed, but her expression at the time was hardly redolent with affection. Nor is it now, as you approach. There's almost no expression at all on her features, and no clear emotion.

"You saw my note," she says, making it half a question and half a statement, as you approach. "I'm glad you didn't decide to ignore it."

"It would've been a cruel thing to do, the way you emphasized how important this is to you. Although what you observed in your note about my being quite busy was correct, it wouldn't say much for my time management if I couldn't make time for a short conversation. Whatever it is you'd like to tell me, please do."

Shijou gives a short nod.

"Sorry to take up your time, Senpai. I suppose I should introduce myself first, shouldn't I?"

...That's something she shouldn't have to ask you. You already know her name anyway, but you may as well let her go on uninterrupted.

"I'm Shijou Ayaka." For a moment the girl turns quiet. After a pause as if only just remembering her next words, she continues, "I'm a second-year."

Since you still haven't heard why she's asked you to meet her here, you remain silent. She must be building up to the confession gradually; perhaps her calm expression is a mask, and internal nervousness is holding up her speech.

“Sorry, this may sound strange, but um... Senpai is a Master, right?”

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:06:35 No.6265582 Report

Quoted By:

The girl stares straight into you with an oddly defiant gaze, as if rebelling against her own shyness. Everything about her body language, the hunched shoulders, the way she can’t keep her hands still and keeps fidgeting, how she puts her weight on the balls of her feet, ready to flee at a moment’s notice; it all communicates intense embarrassment. Only her face is expressionless. Saying something that bizarre, without context, you would’ve expected a blush.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

You brush her off flatly and turn to go. It isn’t exactly true. In fact, the question reminds you of something from the dream you had the night before last. You have the feeling that in that dream people were calling you “a Master”, but when you try to pull details to mind the pounding in your head threatens to return.
.....Anyway, whatever this girl is talking about, you're sure you have no time for it.

"Wait!"

Shijou's desperation stops you. Not the desperate tone in her voice, but the fact that she's darted forward and grabbed your sleeve. Even if you're in a hurry, it's not urgent enough that you need to actually shake her off of you. You can spare a few minutes.

"Can I, um," she's stammering, apparently taken aback by her own forwardness. "Can I see your hand, please? Then I'll stop bothering you, I promise."

You turn a dispassionate gaze on the girl. Whatever she's getting at, there's an odd feeling that it is related to you. The intense itching the other night that started in your hand comes to mind, and something else. Your hands were important in the dream, weren't they? Feeling faintly ridiculous, you extend your hands to Shijou. First left, then right, she takes each one of your hands in both of hers and examines them, front and back. Her eyebrows are furrowed in concentration, as if she's working on some particularly tough exam question. You're quite sure there's nothing for her to see, though.

Just then, an ethereally beautiful woman clad in armor appears from nowhere about a metre behind Shijou. She doesn't step out of the shadows of the building, or show herself from some other hiding place. She appears there, half in shadow, where there was empty air just a moment before.

"You see? He has no command spell, it is before your own eyes." A voice like the sound of a bell, pure and beautiful, even while she delivers what sounds like teacher's reprimand. "I told you before that I felt the energy of a Servant about him, while you felt only the faintest twinge of a Master's presence in your spell. Now it is clear beyond any doubt. This is no Master of the War."

Shijou turns, dropping your hand with a suddenly frightened expression on her face.

"But Lancer, it's Yumigawa-senpai! We can't-"

"No." The woman cuts her off bluntly, but there's an odd cheerful note to her tone. She wears a smile. "Any more excuses would put you in danger, Master."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:07:36 No.6265584 Report

Quoted By: >>6265592 >>6265593 >>6265609 >>6265626 >>6265648 >>6265682 >>6265719

Suddenly there's something in her hand that catches the setting sun and glows. A line of fire, from a point above her shoulder down to the butt-end resting in the dust at her feet; it's a spear as beautifully forged as her armor, something as alien to the ordinary schoolyard as if the setting sun had dropped out of the sky and taken physical shape.

"There's nothing more to be done."

>[ ] Interject, telling them to wait. This all sounds too similar to your dream for it to only have been a dream. Tell them you were a Master, but you've lost your Servant and Command Spells for some unknown reason.

>[ ] Cut in before the armored woman does something drastic. This all sounds too similar to your dream for that to have been meaningless, and you remember the priest telling you that you would have a different role instead of Master after everything there was over. Swear to the pair that you aren't a Master.

>[ ] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.

>[ ] Do or say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:42:37 No.6265592 Report

Quoted By: >>6265598 >>6265671

>>6265554
>trophy husband
possible, beside whatever value we have to that sun ? god ? angel ? big ball of magical fire ? in the dream we are not important outside of being an exceptional student.
>Yumigawa can just play politician for sport.
that would be quite the change.
>father's advice
dad had good advice, fair

>messaging ahead.
it was a simple idea, but it might backfire i fear. Or perhaps not. Because i do believe our mother is right about our family security. But in the wrong way. Its not us or our father that are at risk : its her, she is just a housewife and for the majority of the work week she is doing home tasks alone or going outside for other basic life tasks (go to the market etc..) alone. She is a far weaker target than a young man or a man.
>spoiler
roger, death to the enemy of men.

>>6265584
fake note then, is this a execution or a recruitment i wonder. She is the first of the girls that jumped in full the proverbial secret fence about magic. Did she feel pressed because of the other girls approaching us ? Question : is Yumigawa remembering his past from those first options, or he is bluffing for staying alive a moment more in the face of what could very well be madness in front of him ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:44:29 No.6265593 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265584
>[ ] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.
I don't think she's going to let Yumi plead his case.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:49:53 No.6265598 Report

Quoted By: >>6265600

FYI, I should be able to call the vote and post the next update in about 8-10 hours.

>>6265592
Both of the first two options represent memories from his 'dream', including the conflicts between them.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 26 Jun 2025 12:53:23 No.6265600 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265598
thank you for the information.
:)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 26 Jun 2025 13:30:34 No.6265609 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265584
>>[ ] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.
There is no dishonor in survival against great odds.

Neither of the two are trustworthy.
The witch lied first with the letter, then she lied again when she promised to not bother us only to be easily convinced to go with what her magical creature is about to do. The magical creature has already a weapon in hand, this is enough said.

Such a master when her idea is turned upside down so easily, seems the roles are reversed.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ss+c7Tjt Thu 26 Jun 2025 14:02:56 No.6265626 Report

Quoted By: >>6265642

>>6265584
>[ ] Cut in before the armored woman does something drastic. This all sounds too similar to your dream for that to have been meaningless, and you remember the priest telling you that you would have a different role instead of Master after everything there was over. Swear to the pair that you aren't a Master.
I'm not confident we can escape even if we run away.

What do we actually remember?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 15:17:18 No.6265642 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265626
Right now you only remember what's alluded to in the update and choices. If you'd like to know what the protagonist will remember once he regains all of his memories of the 'dream', the archived threads of Fate/City Akeldama are the record of those memories.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Thu 26 Jun 2025 15:37:50 No.6265648 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265584
>[ ] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 16:33:33 No.6265671 Report

Quoted By: >>6265688

>>6265592
>fake note then,
Technically everything Ayaka said in the note was true, you know. Read it over carefully.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:21:08 No.6265682 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265584
>[X] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.
Can't imagine this ending in anything but a dead end. No way we out run a Lancer, let alone their lance. Especially when his plan is calling the cops. But spilling the beans about half remembered information based on threats doesn't....feel right to me.
So might as well try to see if we can get Rushorou to rush away from danger and regroup somewhere.

Side note, despite this confrontation, I am happy were doing this here, instead of at or near home. I doubt us not coming to this meeting now would have led to anything but putting Mama Yumigawa in danger...not that she's not in danger right now regardless.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:35:19 No.6265688 Report

Quoted By: >>6265694 >>6265698

>>6265671
...maybe i am just very stupid, i am not sure i follow what you mean even if I re-read it. I assume i am not completely retarded yet, and that we might mean two different things, her intentions (so her feeling that was building this days was to tell the truth) and the real nature of the encounter (not a love confession, which is why I call it fake. She doesn't seem in love, maybe embarassed of talking of this but in love ?).

It wasn't a love confession while the letter was presented at such. Light pink, decorations etc .... and instead we are talking about magic right now. Well, we were talking about magic before she decided to look at our hands and then the servant thing arrived, they talked with eachother, and then spawned a weapon with clear killing or harming intent

How the letter presented it self and what is happening now doesn't feel to me like the same thing at all. One was seen as a love confession, when this is a magic reveal that is getting too dangerous for comfort.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:41:28 No.6265694 Report

Quoted By: >>6265697 >>6265698 >>6265699

>>6265688
Nothing actually printed in the letter was a direct falsehood. The "feelings" referred to are her mounting suspicions that the protagonist is secretly a Master. She's known him from afar for a long time, as most students at the school have; he's the president of the student council, scores the top place on every test, also consistently places highly in athletic festivals without being on any of the sports teams, etc. Probably the most recognized student at the school. While someone would normally assume a "matter of utmost delicacy" for a student would be a love affair, magi take secrecy very seriously. Being a matter of life and death, she can't overstate the importance of the discussion.
As for the stationary, that could be what she uses for all communications on paper. You don't know what her habits are.
It was very misleading, and the protagonist certainly made some inaccurate assumptions, but not actually lying.
Get it?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:47:46 No.6265697 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265694
Stationery. God damn it, I can't believe I made that mistake twice.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:48:41 No.6265698 Report

Quoted By: >>6265710

>>6265688
Ayaka and Lance have noticed something strange about Rushorou.
Both of them are unable to figure out what it might be. Is he a servant or servant's familiar in hiding or is he a potential Master.
Lancer, as servants are want to do at times, thinks the best way to handle the situation is violence.
Ayaka, being a high schooler, clearly doesn't want to murder her sempai in cold blood. Feelings of romance on her part may or may not be involved. It doesn't really matter.

They both know something needs to be done about this very suspicious boy.

A plan is formed.

Ayaka will send Rushorou a note, designed to look like your average mundane confession letter to avoid suspicious. She will then confront Rushorou and hopefully verify he's a master so they can settle the her servants worries and possibly make an alliance.
No command seals are found. Rushorou must then obviously be a servant or a construct of a servant and as such a clear threat that must ne dealt with, so thinks Lancer.

Lancer goes to strike Rushorou down, against Ayaka's wishes or expectations.

>>6265694
Lol, you didn't have to explain it, it was all very clear. Thank you.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Thu 26 Jun 2025 17:49:24 No.6265699 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265694
I understand, thanks for the explanation.
I suppose i also made assumptions since i don't know everything of her or the quest.

Still what I have read so far tells me to not trust her. Or at least thats my opinion.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Thu 26 Jun 2025 18:04:29 No.6265710 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265698
Reasonable to how it would have gone from her side of things.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 18:33:21 No.6265719 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265584
>[ ] Flee. It may be ignominious, but faced with a deranged person carrying a bladed weapon, it's best to get the authorities involved.

SHAMK prophecy (true)

Fleeing gives us at least some chance to have a crowd of mundanes or even another mage pop out and interrupt the shamking process.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 20:54:57 No.6265804 Report

Quoted By: >>6265827

As you look into the laughing purple eyes of the armored woman, a sensation recurs to you. The chill down your spine, the oppressive sense of danger pervading your senses, is the same dread you've felt twice before, now raised to a more fevered pitch than either previous episode. The message, the warning screamed from every cell in your body, is clear: to stand in front of this immense mass of energy densely formed into the shape of a human, is a death sentence.

You need to flee, but your body refuses to move. Frozen by the oppressive killing intent like a mouse in the gaze of a viper, you remain stock still. Even your breath stops.

Then you regain control. By an immense effort of will you flex the muscles in your legs, begin turning to run, and-

She sees your intent, understands the full motion from the minutest shifting of tendon and muscle.

The line of fire flashes. Before you can react, before you can see it move, suddenly it's searing into your chest. A female voice shrieks "Stop!" Pain, unbelievable, impossibly intense pain, floods into your brain. There is a second, flash, crimson, this from the girl's hand. A white-hot flame of agony spreads through your nerves from the violated nexus where blood begins to stain your uniform. It's worse than anything you've felt before, worse than any injury that has occurred in your oppressively ordinary life, worse even than that moment in the impossibly vivid dream when the woman who fought beside you cut off your hand, because this is pain that can't be taken back.

Pain that tells you something truly horrible is happening.

Something all-important is being gouged out of you.

It must be something that drives all the actions of your body, because you can feel blood throughout every millimetre of the system of veins that runs through you slowing down and stopping, like a traffic jam spreading out across every bit of road in some horribly choked city. As your vision goes hazy, you dimly realize that the point of the woman's spear is driven through your heart. The strength goes out of your legs, but that steel pole is supporting your weight, so all that happens is to send an extra flare of agony spiking into your nerves.

Your mind races, struggling for life while you feel yourself dying, spiked on that horrible needle like a lizard hung up by a shrike. Lancer, the girl said. Command spells. Servant. Master. War. Energy that can be felt. A warrior who looks more than human and moves with more than human speed. All of these are things from your dream, suddenly here in the real world. Are you dreaming again? Did you somehow fall asleep during the day? You-

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 20:55:58 No.6265807 Report

Quoted By: >>6265827

There is a horrible tearing sound as the woman pulls her spear-tip from your chest and flicks the blood briskly off of it. Something hard and metallic, like a shattered chunk of clockwork, goes with it. You watch it fall to the ground as you fall, landing with a heavy thump on your side, your eyes on that weird chunk of bloodstained garbage. There's a circle of black around the edges of your vision now. Your eyes are going, consciousness is slipping away, and things are only making less and less sense. If only things really were the way they were in that dream. If only you had power. You felt so strong earlier, so alive, and didn't that priest you had to defeat in the dream promise you power? It was a ritual to empower people, he said, and you were going to take his place, so why...

The darkness closes in further. Your vision is nothing but red and black. The underclassman girl and the woman she called Lancer are talking up there, but they sound as far away as the rooftop. You can't make out a word they're saying.
It can't end like this.
You can't end like this!
This can't be all there is to your life, with nothing proved, nothing done!
You can't die here, lying in the dirt like a rabid dog, put down for some reason you can't even understand!
If only you could have the power that dream promised you, if only you could live the way you did in that dream, you would do anything!

THUMP

The sound rolls through your ears like thunder.

THUMP

Suddenly the sluggish blood clogging your veins is galvanized back into action.

THUMP

It's a heartbeat. Your heart, that you thought was pierced, pulsing with life.

THUMP, THUMP

With more than life. You feel a red-hot energy, an electric flame, running through you.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP

There's a pressure behind your eyes, as if your brains are boiling to get out and act on their own even if your body won't move.

THUMP, THU-THUMP, THU-THUMP

Your vision is clear again, and suddenly your body feels as light as a feather. You hardly think about it before you're on your feet, facing the girl and Lancer again, and... looking down at both of them. The "tall woman", still a head or two higher than the girl, seems suddenly short.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 2 School Grounds Afternoon 2.png, 547KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 20:56:59 No.6265809 Report

Quoted By: >>6265825 >>6265827 >>6265839 >>6265853 >>6265911 >>6265991 >>6266143 >>6266211 >>6266284

No, you look down at yourself and realize, it's that you've grown taller. Nor is that the only change. You're dressed bizarrely, wearing nothing but a cloak wrapped around your shoulders. It's some unrecognizable black material, and it stretches right to the ground. It looks like the sort of thing a traveller in a fantasy movie might wear to keep the rain off and blend in at night, but for some reason it feels perfectly at home on you. It's as if this is exactly what you should be wearing, almost like it's a part of you. Though you should feel the bite of winter so lightly dressed, the cold doesn't touch you. The cloak is warm as an embrace, intangible as nothing. A memory flashes through your mind of the cloth that woman made for you in the dream that seems not to have been a dream, and you realize the inky blackness of that cloth is the same as the color of this cloak. You realize then that you're smiling.

"So, you show your true colors," the beauty called Lancer observes laughingly. "Why give me the first blow? Who are you? Assassin, from your aspect?"

For all her cheer, the woman's barrage of questions proves her confusion. Obviously, even thinking you were a "Servant," she expected her attack to be a killing blow. Shijou, who's retreated behind her in the time you spent on the ground, seems hardly to be paying attention by contrast. She's holding the chunk of bloody scrap metal, staring at the thing with intense curiosity.

"Archer."

It comes out of your mouth before you think to answer, and as you say it you realize that it's true. You don't have a reason, but you can tell now that you are Archer, just as your enemy is Lancer, two beings of the same kind and different specialities, and that means that this is a very dangerous distance to be fighting at.

Status Updated

"What of the rest, then? Why did you let me draw so close at all?

>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.

>[ ] This moment, while she's expecting an answer in words, might be your only opportunity for an attack to take Lancer by surprise. Materialize the weapon of a Servant and strike at Lancer's throat while she's distracted. Finish her in one blow, before she finishes you.

>[ ] "I am a Servant without a Master." Show Lancer and her Master your empty hands, and that you mean them no harm. "Nor true name, nor clear understanding of how I came to be a Servant. I have no quarrel with you. Is it your way, knight, to strike down an unarmed and unresisting man?"

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 26 Jun 2025 20:58:08 No.6265810 Report

Quoted By: >>6266658

From now on, the Servant Status menu will be available at this link.
https://pastebin.com/VbRZ5pwX

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Thu 26 Jun 2025 21:20:30 No.6265825 Report

Quoted By: >>6265828

>>6265809
>>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.
kill on sight

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO images (5).jpg, 72KiB, 812x378

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 21:23:21 No.6265827 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265804
>worse than any injury that has occurred in your oppressively ordinary life, worse even than that moment in the impossibly vivid dream when the woman who fought beside you cut off your hand

I'm thinking we're back. Akeldama memories becoming real.

>>6265807
>If only you had [i:lit]power[/i:lit].
Channelling Vergil for a second there.

>>6265809
>That image

Looks like Lancer is Brynhildr. As usual, also totally deranged. Ayaka even burnt a CS to try and control this lunatic.

>https://pastebin.com/8WRJDEeM
That D+++ END clutching here. Archer this time around too, so we should have Independent Action and might not need a Master. Do we even have a Master? Was this why Eva was trying to buddy up to us?

Big guy UUUU ph6sucal status, and we have the magical tool Circe made for us at the end of Akeldama out of our own hand. I wonder how it's manifested now, likely a NP.

If we're Archer, and have no obvious form of physical armour we have no place trying to engage a CQC servant like Lancer (who, if it is Bryn probably has some form of Mana Burst) in melee combat. Time to gtfo.

>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.

Hopefully the CS Ayaka burnt and the situation give us time to make distance. We can always try and talk to Ayaka in future down the line, but Bryn doesn't seem in the mood for a discussion right now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 21:25:25 No.6265828 Report

Quoted By: >>6265857

>>6265825
You're gonna get us killed bruv.

Especially if we count as a 'Hero' afyer what happened in Akeldama, Brynhildr's Beloved trait is just going to make her NP scale up even stronger against us.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 26 Jun 2025 21:28:58 No.6265832 Report

Quoted By: >>6265935

If we are both human Yumigawa and now Archer, who was Alberich?

Does he even exist in this version of events?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:/mdKrF6x Thu 26 Jun 2025 21:39:47 No.6265839 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Thu 26 Jun 2025 22:19:15 No.6265853 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265809
>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.
Not the most useful character sheet so far. Let's see what we can do.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Thu 26 Jun 2025 22:25:26 No.6265857 Report

Quoted By: >>6266013

>>6265828
nah i don't think so

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Thu 26 Jun 2025 23:26:20 No.6265891 Report

Quoted By: >>6265951 >>6266211

>No, you look down at yourself and realize, it's that you've grown taller. Nor is that the only change.
Awww, I would have liked to stay Rushorou for a little while longer. But that's just me being sentimental softy I think. I enjoy a nice slow burn and I wanted to spend more time with him as his school life was torn away from him slowly, much to his slowly dawning delight.

Oh well, time to lock in. We have a Murder Death Kill to win.

>[X] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Thu 26 Jun 2025 23:45:16 No.6265911 Report

Quoted By: >>6266013

>>6265809
>[ ] "I am a Servant without a Master." Show Lancer and her Master your empty hands, and that you mean them no harm. "Nor true name, nor clear understanding of how I came to be a Servant. I have no quarrel with you. Is it your way, knight, to strike down an unarmed and unresisting man?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 00:15:05 No.6265935 Report

Quoted By: >>6265942 >>6265991 >>6266013 >>6266069 >>6266108

>Check the Servant Status menu
>Alignment: Neutral

YES!
We're not going to be fucking suck this year!
I loved Alberich in all his cringy edgelord glory, but this is shaping up to be a nice change of pace already.
We'll see how long it lasts.

>Something all-important is being gouged out of you.
>There is a horrible tearing sound as the woman pulls her spear-tip from your chest and flicks the blood briskly off of it. Something hard and metallic, like a shattered chunk of clockwork, goes with it. You watch it fall to the ground as you fall, landing with a heavy thump on your side, your eyes on that weird chunk of bloodstained garbage.
>Shijou, who's retreated behind her in the time you spent on the ground, seems hardly to be paying attention by contrast. She's holding the chunk of bloody scrap metal, staring at the thing with intense curiosity.

Also, genuinely worried about this.
Is that an us thing or an enemy servant thing? Can any FateGo Knowers in chat assuage or confirm my worries?

>>6265832
Reminder this is a remake of the first run of Awakening Mirror, those events are non-canon.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 27 Jun 2025 00:26:14 No.6265942 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265935
Remember your Origin, the one Caster explained to you in the Akeldama?
An essentially Hollow person could only be Neutral.
Whether you change that state of affairs remains to be seen.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 27 Jun 2025 00:40:45 No.6265951 Report

Quoted By: >>6265961 >>6266107 >>6266284

>>6265891
>I enjoy a nice slow burn and I wanted to spend more time with him as his school life was torn away from him slowly
This is very interesting to read! I was trepidacious about this prologue (the first two in-story days have been the prologue) because it seems like people on /qst/ don't get as much out of a slow burn story as they do from one with high stakes and action right from the start. Just compare the posts in this thread to those in the first thread of Fate/City Akeldama if you want to see what I mean.
Still, Tsukihime and F/SN both build their excellent tone by setting you off in the protagonist's ordinary life and letting the strange worm its way in over a day or two, and I wanted to see if I could do a decent job of the same kind of thing.
It also gave readers a chance to get to know Rushorou before the changes his experiences in the Akeldama put him through, which was an element of the character I never really explored in the original quest.
Stretching it any longer than two days seemed like it would be straining players' patience, though.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 01:05:18 No.6265961 Report

Quoted By: >>6266013

>>6265951
>It also gave readers a chance to get to know Rushorou before the changes his experiences in the Akeldama put him through, which was an element of the character I never really explored in the original quest.
Yeah, I loved getting to see Rushorou in his natural habitat as it were.
And I loved watching him work through the mystery of what was going on around him.
Watching him piece things together about Eva at the end of the first day was a wonderful scene, even if player choice led to it not going anywhere, unfortunately. I would have loved to see that have time to go somewhere, to continue the Mystery.

>Stretching it any longer than two days seemed like it would be straining players' patience, though.
I was enjoying myself honestly, to the point where this confrontation and transformation felt a bit sudden.
Might be because we jumped plot hooks from the Eva investigation thing to the Naragasa thing, and now haven't gotten a chance to "solve" either mystery while Rushorou was still "normal" and missing information.
I would have liked to have Rushorou settling one of those plot threads being the cause of the transformation plotwise. Or have seen these three elements (Eva Mystery, Naragasa Mystery, and the Ayaka Mystery) come to a head be what causes the "Big Return".
For Rushoru's desire to keep digging and figuring out what going on to be the cause of his transformation, as opposed to getting jumpscared by the Murder Death Kill outta nowhere.

But it's all good. Nothing wrong with how things are progressing now and you can only do so much with the time given and the paths chosen.
Something to note down for the official Akeldama/Awakening Mirror VN, right?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Fri 27 Jun 2025 02:34:24 No.6265991 Report

Quoted By: >>6266013

>>6265809
>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.
>>6265935
>Is that an us thing
Looks like an us thing, but it's not normal for people to have chunks of metal sitting in their hearts. Maybe it's a remnant of the Akeldama Grail?

Anonymous

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Anonymous ID:Gn7D0ran Fri 27 Jun 2025 03:22:32 No.6266013 Report

Quoted By: >>6266019 >>6266044 >>6266069 >>6266085 >>6266108

>>6265857
I read your response way too early and thought you were picking the stay and fight in melee option. Apologies for the retardation.

>>6265911
>kneeling

>>6265935
>>6265991

I think its just flowery language describing our innards becoming outards.

Sweets can you confirm? Is there a piece of us on the ground still?

Bryn has no Gae Bolg type skills. Just high spec physical combat, flame base mana burst, scaling NP against 'heroes' and rune magic of some description. Melee bruiser with a huge variety of support magic. Her main downsides are being mentally ill and a high mana cost to maintain. Practically a berserker.

Speaking of rune magic, even Cu can use tracking runes so if they pursue we're fucked.

Alberich (True) will be the final boss for peak cinema. Mark my words, canon be damned.

>>6265961
I feel like given that we're starting out Neutral and we have more 'Rushorou' in us this time, we can make the decisions to follow up more human centric plot threads, rather than dropping it all for the murder death kill. We're bound to meet them again at some point given this just confirmed we're in the middle of a grail war, so the supernaturally kind are almost definitely connected to it. We honestly should be extremely careful around any of them now given they also likely have or are Servants themselves.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 27 Jun 2025 03:51:36 No.6266019 Report

Quoted By: >>6266107

>>6266013
Ayaka is holding and looking at a broken/twisted metal object, resembling some kind of mechanism, which was pulled out of your chest when Lancer pulled her spear back after stabbing you. It was stuck to the tip of the spear, so she probably stabbed it inside you.
With how fast this has all happened you haven't had time to work out more details.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 04:34:36 No.6266044 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266013
>I feel like given that we're starting out Neutral and we have more 'Rushorou' in us this time, we can make the decisions to follow up more human centric plot threads, rather than dropping it all for the murder death kill.
While I very much hope that's the case, that's not exactly the point I was getting at here.
It's more a matter of pacing and the ideal hypothetical transition between the early "Slice of life with magical elements creeping in" bit and the Murder Death Kill.

It was telegraphed pretty clearly in the morning scene with Mama Yumigawa we would probably be thrown into it on this day, but I had hoped to stay "Base Rushorou" a little longer. I wanted to see a more conclusive bow put on the Eva and Ayaka parts of the prologue and see how Base Rushorou continued to react to the encroachment of magic into his mundane life.
A mysterious confrontation with Eva where Rushorou presses her for what she knows and she smirks and says some cryptic shit before leaving.
At least one scene with Ayaka trying to confront Rushorou subtly before going in for this particular plan of hers.
Feels like we missed both of those things with our player choices in favor of starting and wrapping up a completely new plot hook with Naragasa instead. And now that Rushorou has gone Hero mode and has realized everything, those are scenes, that at least to me, feel critical to the story that we'll never get. Scenes that can't happen or will fundamentally play out differently.
While there are still mysteries abound, we have thoroughly stepped into the next part of the story.

It's just one of those narrative cohesion things we deal with by having the story be a quest instead of a true VN, but I still can't help but find the literal missed opportunities eat at me a little bit.

It's all good though. As I said, Sweets is doing a great job and has their reasons for moving forward as they have. I'm still plenty excited to see where things go next.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 27 Jun 2025 05:04:53 No.6266069 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265935
>Check the Servant Status menu
>Alignment: Neutral
what ?
>>6266013
>kneeling
didn't notice the dubs, nice

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 05:43:27 No.6266085 Report

Quoted By: >>6266107

>>6266013
>Alberich (True) will be the final boss for peak cinema. Mark my words, canon be damned.
While I doubt that it will be the same Alberich we left behind in the first Awakening Mirror, Akeldama did end with a version of Rushoru (Saber) waking up in Jean-Pierre Vaisset's house to replace Cid.

In theory, this bit at the very least is still canon and has still happened.

If we go back and look at those morning news stories more, those past acts of violence might even be somewhat familiar...but who can say.
I've only reread Akeldama in preparation for this remake.

But yes, my assumption is that Rushorou (Saber) is also around. Making messes. Causing problems. Hitting on Einzbern girls.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 27 Jun 2025 07:09:35 No.6266107 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266019
Oh, so she did perform heart surgery on our pacemaker mystic code? Shame it'll probably be lost in the chaos of our escape. We could check back here later, maybe they'll leave it? Maybe the request to meet red eyes chan on the rooftop again will manifest?

>>6266085
>Hitting on Einzbern girls.

Not if we beat him to it.

Also, having almost finished reading back Akeldama now, it's interesting seeing what Sweets mentioned here >>6265951 about how starkly different the atmosphere of the board is compared to pre coof. Thread was a lot more loose, talkative. We seem to have similar, maybe even more concurrent players as the original right now but its the minority that are interacting in thread other than just silently voting.

How times have changed.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Fri 27 Jun 2025 07:14:37 No.6266108 Report

Quoted By: >>6266111

>>6266013
np. we are on the same team, no ?

>>6265935
kinda curious about that metal object. Since it was inside us it must had a function for help us. Maybe a seal of sort ? Something against magicians ? Maybe it was what something to make our Servant/Master energy appear low or insignificant. A magical energy stealth device of sort.

Whatever it is, i kinda want it back.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 27 Jun 2025 07:21:38 No.6266111 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266108
Sure am senpai, Archer disengage option is a go.

Would be nice if we could grab it on the way out, but that's probably a dead end. We don't even know if there's a Taiga dojo anymore.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Fri 27 Jun 2025 09:01:50 No.6266143 Report

Quoted By: >>6266211

>>6265809
I'm enjoying the school life and finding pieces of the mystery so I think I'd have liked it to go longer. Another day to confront Eva. But I suppose I'd try to channel that into MC's dislike or hate for this servant who has now stolen that.

That said, the girl has our 'heart' or whatever that metal thing is. I'd imagine we might want that. They stopped attacking so would now be the time to ask her master to give it back lol.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)
Ask for the 'heart' thing back

I mean the lancer could just attack again if she could, she did in the first place. So can she not attack or does she really need to hear some answers that we can hold off on until they give us some.

>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 12:47:48 No.6266211 Report

Quoted By: >>6266259

>>6266143
Just asking for it back isn't a good move. It wastes escaping time talking and confirms to potential enemies that it's important to us.

>>6265809
>>6265891
But I would officially like to make a point of not straying too far from it. That we fight not just to escape but to loop back around to snagging the heart piece back.
I think it unwise to allow them to keep hold of it, even if they think it junk.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Fri 27 Jun 2025 15:32:51 No.6266259 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266211
My student council president would firmly ask for his heart back, and that a spear is against the law

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:k9hsWLFS Fri 27 Jun 2025 16:58:27 No.6266284 Report

Quoted By:

>>6265951
>Just compare the posts in this thread to those in the first thread of Fate/City Akeldama if you want to see what I mean.
I would blame the state of this cesspool of a site, everything felt more alive a few years back. Hell, I'm only here because you returned.
I agree with other anons about being Rushorou for a while longer while we have mysteries to investigate, but I guess we could have just gone straight home instead of risking it. It's all good.

>>6265809
>[ ] To answer would be to give Lancer time for another attack. Use the time you have to put distance between you instead, and battle at a range more suitable for your class than hers. Launch yourself into the forest to your right; the school grounds give way to a greenbelt there, and knowing the terrain you can quickly gain distance.
Her Master clearly can't control her, I don't think there's any way we can reason with her right now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Fri 27 Jun 2025 17:02:04 No.6266285 Report

Quoted By: >>6266303 >>6266315 >>6266386 >>6266734

Given what I've seen, I can tentatively say that:
>Bryn probably outspeeds
>Yumi somehow qualifies for Brynhildr's Beloved given her behavior (and the spear actually did damage). This is the biggest surprise since nothing he did should've looked heroic to Bryn except the kendo fight
>Yumi is buck naked under his cloak

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:R97X4Qp3 Fri 27 Jun 2025 17:47:51 No.6266303 Report

Quoted By: >>6266359 >>6266386

>>6266285
>Yumi is buck naked under his cloak
Servant class: The Flasher

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:WLE9IqyO Fri 27 Jun 2025 18:23:28 No.6266315 Report

Quoted By: >>6266340 >>6266386

>>6266285
>Yumi is buck naked under his cloak
Adamic hero? Are we channeling some kind of primordial first man identity because of the biblical power source of akeldama? Or is that connection too schizo?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Fri 27 Jun 2025 19:28:17 No.6266340 Report

Quoted By: >>6266386

>>6266315
Knowledge of magic has banished him from his idyllic garden of Eden student council life...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:R97X4Qp3 Fri 27 Jun 2025 19:35:10 No.6266343 Report

Quoted By:

We have two leads.
Ayaka is either a hit on us sent by delinquents we squashed.
Or she could even be a mastermind behind all those fake clubs in our school.
We got targeted because we messed up with real fund embezzlement scheme. But Eva was the one who sent us to on those tracks and she clearly messed up with everyone. Could she be trying to take us out so that she could take our place as student council president? Was she working with Ayaka and those delinquents? Were all other clubs honeypots to take us out like the kendo guy tried?
Whatever we were researching into school funding was clearly important, we sure as hell made somebody gun for us with lethal intent to prevent us from finding out the truth.
Worse yet. Could school admin be also in cahoots with them?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 27 Jun 2025 19:57:54 No.6266359 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266303
https://youtu.be/bXSVxkCwPF4?si=a7kKILL4mdmw0A3R

Anonymous

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Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 27 Jun 2025 20:30:42 No.6266386 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266285
>>6266303
>>6266315
>>6266340
ENTER

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:5YF6tKuL Fri 27 Jun 2025 21:26:50 No.6266410 Report

Quoted By: >>6266475 >>6266484 >>6266533

>bloody scrap metal
So a heart of iron?
on a serious note, that's probably an aspect of our little Berserker friend.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:25Rc331r Fri 27 Jun 2025 23:28:40 No.6266475 Report

Quoted By: >>6266484

>>6266410
My thoughts exactly

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 27 Jun 2025 23:38:46 No.6266484 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266410
>>6266475
Even more reason to get it back to Rushorou if that's the case.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 27 Jun 2025 23:54:52 No.6266498 Report

Quoted By: >>6266504

The metal pacemaker was destroyed, and suddenly we're a servant again with memories of Akeldama all flooding back in clearly.

Maybe it was a sealing mystic code?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sat 28 Jun 2025 00:07:08 No.6266504 Report

Quoted By: >>6266508 >>6266533

>>6266498
I think it's probably an Adelheid linked trait that makes us more resistant to damage.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 00:21:56 No.6266508 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266504
Or a very ranked down variant of Akeldama Archer's Iron Plate NP?

We might have composite skills of everything from inside Akaledama even.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sat 28 Jun 2025 01:52:56 No.6266533 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266410
>>6266504
>evil yumigawa gets traits by eating his enemies
>good yumigawa gets traits by making friends
I love this trope.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:36:29 No.6266612 Report

Quoted By: >>6266626

It's a rare thing in this life-or-death struggle, for a Servant to stop in the middle of a fight and talk rather than pursuing the kill to the best of their abilities. Though your memories of that other time and place are still a confused muddle, this you feel instinctively. A moment ago she was ready to kill you with hardly a word exchanged, and now Lancer is looking for information with that absurd cheer; it can be because she's completely confident she can kill you before you make a move if you're uncooperative. You're inclined to disagree. You feel, know, yourself immeasurably stronger than the you of a few moments earlier.

Born of confidence or anything else, this moment of hesitation on Lancer's part is still a precious gift. Wasting it answering her questions would be the act of a moron with a death wish. You gather all the strength in your body into your legs and dart off to the right while Lancer is waits for an explanation.

"Kya!"

Shijou's voice, raised in shock as you move. It occurs to you that a cloak fastened at the neck is hardly the most conservative of garments, but a girl's embarrassment at your nudity is hardly something to pause over. Before she's finished her squeak of alarm it's faded into the distance behind you as you plunge into the screening foliage.

The woods around you should be blurring, you realize. You're moving that quickly, and have lost your glasses into the bargain, but every detail is perfectly clear. You can count the feathers of a crow perched on a bare tree branch even as you whip past the tree in a fraction of a second. Nor is that the only shift in your perception. Without the need to think, every footfall as you run finds the most steady ground amidst spongy mud, evades the twisted tree root threatening to trip a man up, lands at the proper angle against the unexpected hillock or decline.

Behind you, and getting further, someone isn't doing so well. Lancer's progress is plodding when compared to her spear-thrust, as if something more than the terrain is impeding her. You recall the flash of light, and an explanation from your memories floats just out of reach. It disappears when you try to comprehend it, back into the muddle. Whatever it is that's holding Lancer back, it's doing you a favor.

The lack of progress doesn't seem to inhibit Lancer's mood any. Her voice, raised somewhere between laughter and song, echoes through the woods.

"Hoyotoho, hoyotoho! What man would flee a slight maid such as I? Heiaha! Come back, Archer, and dance with me a while! Heiaha!"

If the spear-work she did earlier was Lancer's idea of dancing, it's a style you'll have to forego. You don't have the stamina for it. Blood from your chest-wound still runs down your side with every step, giving Lancer an easy trail to follow. For now the best you can do is try to wrap your cloak more tightly around yourself without slackening the pace; stop to tie up a bandage, and you'll be caught in no time.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:37:30 No.6266613 Report

Quoted By: >>6266626

"Hahei! Hahei! Heiaho! Why don't you speak, Archer? How disheartened you seem! Have we not descended hence to make war? Do you not love battle? Hahei! Heiaho! Hoyohei!"

Strange and aggressive though Lancer's hunting calls are, she can't attack you with anything but words. Even her voice is growing more and more distant as you gain ground on her. Of course, that only makes the two of you even. You had hoped that as you ran, more of your nature as a Servant would become clear to you, but it hasn't played out. If you could be certain of your own capabilities you'd turn and fight, or perhaps circle around back to the school and take out her Master, but when you ask yourself how to draw forth a weapon and attack only uncertainty replies.

An Archer should strike from a distance, that's clear enough, but you still don't know what sort of weapon you've been endowed with as a Servant, how to materialize it, or how to use it if you do. Even your True Name, which should be the core of any Servant, comes to your mind only as indeterminate vagary, a question where there ought to be the basic fact all answers derive from. Whatever it might be, you've never been called by it.

Status Updated

You aren't sure just how long you've been running, but eventually you realize you can no longer hear Lancer crashing through the woods behind you. The terrain has changed somewhat, too. You seem to have gotten onto the grounds of a park, landscape shaped to look natural rather than merely abandoned to nature. Less encouraging is the fact that the black is creeping in around the edges of your vision again. Servant or no, profuse bleeding isn't doing you any good.

A few more steps, and grass gives way to gravel. Though you've left the shadows of the wood, it's still dark overhead. The sun must have gone down sometime during your escape. You've exited the treeline onto a path, and a short way further it widens to a paved clearing lined with benches and lit by streetlamps. There's even a vending machine. A startling return to civilization, even if the whole thing does look a bit rundown.

Veering away from urgent matters, a loose strand of your mind wonders if you somehow ended up going all the way out of Yoyogi and into a more depressed area. You seem to be growing light-headed, having a harder time with focus. It's grown hard to breathe. More likely the wound than exhaustion, you suppose. At least you're alone here. If you get to one of those benches, you can sit down and catch your breath.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:38:43 No.6266614 Report

Quoted By: >>6266626 >>6285866

"Good evening."

A clear voice, like a bell made of sugarglass. Altogether of a different quality than the martial clarity of Lancer's call, sweetly ringing without volume, and sounding quite pleased with itself. Its owner has just received a pleasing surprise, the voice suggests, like an unexpected gift from a miserly friend. The pleasant sound is incongruous in the dingy, shadowed park. Your ragged body doesn't want to acknowledge that anyone could be in such a good mood right now.

Ahead of you is a beautiful face you recognize, and a beautiful face you don't. One new, one sprouted from the dream that wasn't a dream. You wonder if the shock of being stabbed has had a delayed effect, and together with the blood loss is making you hallucinate. It's the new face, the fairy-like girl, who's greeted you as though you're meeting at a well-mannered cocktail party. The elf-like woman by her side keeps silent, just looking at you with an enigmatic smile.

"Say, mister, you'll die if you go on like that."

The girl observes it with a friendly, detached concern, as if warning you that the string is coming loose on one of the buttons on your jacket, and it's about to fall off. You look down at your blood-soaked cloak, clinging wetly to your chest and growing more sodden every time you feel your heart beat. There are spots of blood like lost change dripping onto the ground by your feet. Even those are being stained.

"I'm sure you're right," you answer without emotion. The voice seems to come from far away, as if it's someone else speaking. In fact, you're beginning to suspect you might die right now. You take one last look at the strange girl and the familiar woman, as the black at the edges of your vision creeps ever inward.

The gravel comes rushing up at you.

<> <> <>

The harvest moon is half-covered in silt.

The waves that cover it surround you also. Immersed in the same water it is immeasurably beyond you, illuminating its environs while you remain shrouded in darkness. Yet the water is the same.

It calls to you in three voices, melodious and sweet, inviting you to shake off your lassitude, to strain your muscles and cut through the waves, that you two may savor the light.

The golden moon sings in praise of its own beauty, calling all to marvel at its splendor, unequalled in all the world. Calling you to cut through the waves, that you may draw near and hear its voice clearly. Even now the water that separates you muffles it, both distance and obstacle.

Light and song call all the world to admiration, but to you alone this perfect orb calls, 'embrace me'.

<> <> <>

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:39:44 No.6266615 Report

Quoted By: >>6266626

February 6, 2019 -Identity-

You open your eyes, and see an unfamiliar ceiling. No, on reflection, it isn't a ceiling after all. What you are looking at is the canopy of a canopied bed, a sheet of wood covered in intricate carvings. It reminds you in a vague sense of the Nineteenth Century, though you don't know enough about antiques to say whether the impression is spot on or 300 years off. A theme of vegetation seems to have been on the artist's mind. There are oak leaves, fig leaves, vines bearing grapes, plants of no clear identity, and even the occasional stylized flower. The overall intent seems to have been to leave no place where the occupant's eye might fall and not find some evidence of the artist's skill. You wonder if staring at such a thing would help you sleep. Perhaps the combination of busy detail and monotony is intended to lull the viewer into a doze as they try to vollow every element of the pattern.

At any rate, you needed no help sleeping last night. That, by rights, should have been a sleep from which there is no awakening. A hand goes to your chest. No wound. No pain. You can breathe without difficulty. Oddly enough, the cloak that appeared on you yesterday is still there. But then, as you think back you reflect that Servants may have to dematerialize their equipment intentionally for it to disappear. Certainly you never say Caster lose any of her jewellery, loose as it was.

That thought brings another to mind. Your chest isn't all that's healed. Your mind. Your memory. It's all clear. The sudden awakening in an unknown place, those ten hectic days of war, your newfound friends Matsuda and Ogawara, the elfin witch Caster, the charming Berserker, Truvietianne who was your greatest ally for a time, the deceitful Munahara, and most vivid of all, the loathsome Cid Ajisartous. You remember too his promise that you would take his place, and yet... why did you return to your home? Why were you returned to being a human? Why did your memories disappear, save the uncertain consciousness of a phenomenally vivid and strange dream? None of it connects.

One thing you can be certain of, the Grail War he spoke of is real and you've been brought into it. To think a junior of yours had secretly been a magus, all along! That Eva girl probably is one as well, you reflect. Must have used some sort of magecraft to get the other students backing up her story. Why didn't it work on you, then, when you had been turned back into an ordinary human? Why were you a human again?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:40:47 No.6266616 Report

Quoted By: >>6266633 >>6266634 >>6266653 >>6266686 >>6266687 >>6266734

You sit up. Lying here thinking is going to have you turning logic in circles, getting nowhere. Caster was with that girl you saw before passing out. If it wasn't a hallucination, that and the fact you're still alive should mean both are reasonably friendly. Hopefully they can answer your questions. Looking around, you find that you seem to be in a well-appointed bedroom, if a little old-fashioned. The whole style of the place seems to match the bed, dark wood and ornate designs. Heavy velvet curtains are drawn over a large window on one wall, and opposite that is a door standing open that leads to a bathroom. The door next to that might lead to a closet. There's a third door opposite the foot of the bed. You'd guess that's the exit, from the layout of the room.

>[ ] Get out of bed and look out the window, try to see where you might be before you do anything else.

>[ ] Go into the bathroom and get a good look at yourself in the mirror. See if examining your own face gives you any further insight into your nature as a Servant. Understanding yourself is the most important thing.

>[ ] Lie in bed for a while and try to regain the consciousness of your magic circuits you trained while you were in the Akeldama. At that time you had a connection of magical energy to Caster and Berserker, and being a Servant now you should be connected to a Master as well. If you can feel your magical energy and those connections, perhaps you can get some more understanding of your situation.

>[ ] Go out the door you think is an exit and look around for the occupants of this place. You really would like some answers.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 05:45:44 No.6266617 Report

Quoted By: >>6266628 >>6269406

And with that, we are done with the prologue! Congratulations! Fireworks!
Now, if this were a real VN, I would cut when he passes out from the game engine to a video clip of the characters animated in various impactful scenes from the narrative while the game's OP plays over it all. Sadly, I have neither animation nor an OP theme. If anyone here avidly listens to Japanese music and has an interest in these kind of side details to a quest, feel free to suggest one!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:05:04 No.6266626 Report

Quoted By: >>6266653

>>6266612
>Ayaka spaghetti at the naked man

>CS nerfing her pursuit
No Taiga visit today!

>>6266613
Good thing too, Bryn is unsurprisingly deranged.

>statsheet
>AGI: B
>END: D+++
>Str: C-
>Unranked Instinct (Solid upgrade from Akeldama Mind's Eye)
>Unranked Independent Action (depending on the rank, we may need to find a mana source in a few days)
>Unranked Magic Resistance
>Clairvoyance: C

Well, we've got close to EMIYA stats, albeit a bit tankier. Definitely geared to run away and shoulder a bit of damage between the END and AGI, and modern mages won't give us too much trouble going forward depending on the rank of the MR.

>>6266614
>Pic
Wife returns in our hour of need.

>Golden moon
SE.RA.PH..?

>>6266615
Full Akeldama memory just dropped.

That's a lot to pick through in one update.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:06:49 No.6266628 Report

Quoted By: >>6266636

>>6266617
>Prologue

Was this the expected outcome of the first few days?

Would Lancer have just killed us if we stayed?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:13:49 No.6266633 Report

Quoted By:

>Wasn't able to retrieve the heart piece.
I wonder if it was possible if more people bothered to vote for it. Or if losing it was even avoidable from the start.

>You open your eyes, and see an unfamiliar ceiling.
>At any rate, you needed no help sleeping last night.
Oof, guess we didn't make it home like Rushorou said he'd try to do. Poor Mama Yumigawa is probably beside herself with worry.
Here's hoping we're still at least vaguely Rushorou-looking enough to convince her we're her son because I won't stop bringing her up until we put a bow on that plot point.
Also, the Kira Alberich stopped being funny after a while, so I hope Rushorou's current look is a bit different even if the white hair and red eyes are mandatory.

>Caster and A cute White Haired girl
We've been past the point where this has been a way better start than the first Awakening Mirror, but this takes the cake.
Welcome back, my beloved! I'm happy beyond words we don't have to spend half the quest hunting you down!

>>6266616
>[X] Lie in bed for a while and try to regain the consciousness of your magic circuits you trained while you were in the Akeldama. At that time you had a connection of magical energy to Caster and Berserker, and being a Servant now you should be connected to a Master as well. If you can feel your magical energy and those connections, perhaps you can get some more understanding of your situation.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:13:53 No.6266634 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266616
I'm gonna go with something a bit out of the box, and..

>Closely examine the Cloak you were equipped with when you gained a Servant form. You theorise it was something related to the magical tool Circe made from your hand for you in the Akeldama.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:16:04 No.6266636 Report

Quoted By: >>6266637

>>6266628
Not necessarily. There were a lot of ways for the first two days to end, with significant differences between them.
As for Lancer, she might've, but that wasn't the only way things could play out. Negotiation was possible.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:19:51 No.6266637 Report

Quoted By: >>6266654

>>6266636
Guess Ayaka really didn't intend to outright kill us. No wonder she blew a CS.

We might be able to ally a bit later, provided we can hold our own enough for Bryn to not want to kill us on sight.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 06:50:27 No.6266642 Report

Quoted By:

Just checked, Bryn has A AGI in her stat sheet too.

Definitely would have been fucked if not for a combination of what was probably Instinct guiding our path (possibly even towards Circe and her likely new Master) and the CS nerfing her. She could have easily switched on her Flame Mana Burst and just cleaved through the forest to reach us otherwise.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 28 Jun 2025 07:30:45 No.6266653 Report

Quoted By: >>6266658

>>6266616
>[ ] Get out of bed and look out the window, try to see where you might be before you do anything else.
>>6266626
>statsheet
where did you see this ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 28 Jun 2025 07:31:48 No.6266654 Report

Quoted By: >>6266658

>>6266637
>Guess Ayaka really didn't intend to outright kill us. No wonder she blew a CS.
a what ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 07:38:20 No.6266658 Report

Quoted By: >>6267137

>>6266653

Check the pastebin link here
>>6265810

>>6266654
Command Seal/Spell https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Command_Spell

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:x+5qhjqj Sat 28 Jun 2025 09:38:15 No.6266686 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266616
>>[ ] Lie in bed for a while and try to regain the consciousness of your magic circuits you trained while you were in the Akeldama. At that time you had a connection of magical energy to Caster and Berserker, and being a Servant now you should be connected to a Master as well. If you can feel your magical energy and those connections, perhaps you can get some more understanding of your situation
Staying in this bed sound like a good idea just for the blood loss alone. Some rest will do nicely. After that trying to understand what we can from our appereance and clothing (not a lot of clothing, very revealing) perhaps ? We have nothing but time at the moment, and the place seems safe. Maybe see if we can summon our weapon. Then.... probably talking with anyone here and thank them for saving our life first, then questions. Get a hearty breakfast if that helps or if we still need to eat.

We will get back our iron heart one day. Not now since I don't think we are strong enough for deal with the Lancer, and i have an hard time trusting a negotiation if that thing appears again. We would be the weaker party in the negotiation too being 1vs2, kinda want to balance this. In general I dont trust that kind of behavior and i don't find it healthy for any collaboration nevermind an alliance. At the moment out of precaution, i want an healthy distance from Ayaka say a few km. Eva too. Gypsy magical mafia. After we have some backup and can summon our weapon, then i think we can talk (even if i ll keep my opinion of them).

I actually wonder how we are going to deal with our normal life now. Or if that even matters. Cant exactly return to school when surrounded by all those mages, need some help. It seems to not be a neutral ground if such a thing exist. We probably lost our cellphone after being killed, same for any personal object like a wallet and so on (unless our magic somehow took them ?). Our mom might had a panic attack. Successfull student council president dissapears, blood found at school (though Ayaka would probably clean up that).

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sat 28 Jun 2025 09:42:39 No.6266687 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0ct2flia Sat 28 Jun 2025 12:45:37 No.6266734 Report

Quoted By: >>6267336

>>6266616
>[ ] Lie in bed for a while and try to regain the consciousness of your magic circuits you trained while you were in the Akeldama. At that time you had a connection of magical energy to Caster and Berserker, and being a Servant now you should be connected to a Master as well. If you can feel your magical energy and those connections, perhaps you can get some more understanding of your situation.
Teenwife... could it be that I have found my home at last...
Last post was >>6266285 in case my ID changed.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 28 Jun 2025 20:10:06 No.6266992 Report

Quoted By: >>6267025 >>6267090

Well, it's been two weeks and one narrative arc since I started running this, after five years away from the board and about 4 years' off-and-on planning (admittedly, more off than on).
I'm curious to know what you all think of the quest so far. Presentation, writing, characters, style, anything that comes to mind. What did you enjoy? What do you think could be better? What are you hoping to see in the quest going forward?
My writing's pretty rusty after the inactivity, and I realize the style's changed quite a bit since 2019. I might be more out of step with the rest of the board now than I was then, I'm not sure. Still, I've enjoyed getting back into writing, and I'd like to hear from old players how you think this compares to my older stuff and from new players how it strikes you overall, coming in fresh.
I'm particularly curious how you think the artwork/ersatz screenshots are working out. AI art is somewhat controversial, and the style of a VN's screen layout without the interactivity of an actual engine can be somewhat obstructive, but keeping to a consistent style of presentation seemed important to me. Is it paying off?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sat 28 Jun 2025 21:18:11 No.6267025 Report

Quoted By: >>6267111

>>6266992
Narratively, I feel like I've given my thoughts on things plenty. You're doing a great job with it. This feels way cleaner than the original Awakening Mirror.
Presentation wise, it's pretty cool. The VN screenshots are a great idea and while I'm anti AI for most things, Akun has softened me on the ideas of using slop for this type of thing. At this level it's basically a Nasu version of those digital dress up dolls. Original art will always be better, but this is passable for a free interactive fanfic.
Just make sure not to use em for the actual VN and you'll be fine.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 28 Jun 2025 23:46:27 No.6267090 Report

Quoted By: >>6267111

>>6266992
You seem to have a lot more planned out this time around, art and story direction wise. Is the art premade or made for each post? The file names and your post from ages ago in qtg makes me think a lot of it is.

Do you have plans for all the content you've made and planned for that anons will ultimately skip by virtue of the nature of a CYOA type story? It feels like we're playing just one route of a VN at this point, and I don't want to feel like I've missed all this potential story which was my main gripe with Overgrowth. Anons got probably the shittiest end as per qm's final few posts and then he just disappeared into the aether. Always left a bad taste of 'what if'

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 29 Jun 2025 00:22:56 No.6267111 Report

Quoted By: >>6267115 >>6283196

>>6267025
>This feels way cleaner than the original Awakening Mirror.
Glad to hear it, thanks.
>Just make sure not to use em for the actual VN and you'll be fine.
Ha. As soon as I find an illustrator who's both talented and passionate enough to work for free, I'll make the switch. Doubt a random guy could get the license for a proper spin-off VN, though. Wonder how the Empire of Dirt dev handled his monetization.

>>6267090
>Is the art premade or made for each post?
Maybe half and half right now? I had a few images stocked up ahead of time, but I've been making a lot at the same time as writing the updates.
>Do you have plans for all the content you've made and planned for that anons will ultimately skip by virtue of the nature of a CYOA type story?
Once players reach an ending, I'd like to let you folks go back to the beginning and explore a different 'route', so to speak. Following the structure of a VN, as you mentioned. It's hard to make predictions about how interested people will be, but as long as anons have the enthusiasm to go back and take the paths you ignored on the first go around I'd like to show them off.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 29 Jun 2025 00:36:14 No.6267115 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267111
>replay options

Kino. Don't think I've seen that in a Fate story on /qst/ before. Looking forward to it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 29 Jun 2025 01:24:30 No.6267137 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266658
thanks

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 29 Jun 2025 03:20:37 No.6267192 Report

Quoted By: >>6267211

Before finding out where you are, before washing up in the bathroom, before talking to the occupants of this place, there's something more important for a magus. A daily practice you've been neglecting since returning from the Akeldama, that you neglected to an extent even while you were there. No more. Regular training is the most important thing, especially for someone as new to magic as you.

You close your eyes, focus on emptiness, and turn your perception inward. You search within for the sensation of a body part not composed of physical matter, for that mystic parallel to the nervous system which separates magi from the ordinary run of mankind. 126 lines, channels, converging to form a single united system, the great Magic Circuit of your body, now dormant from lack of use. Lack of awareness?

You find this second nervous system with surprising ease, a sensation as faint as the touch of mist, but undeniably part of you. You maintain your inward perception with great care, conscious that at any moment the slightest slip in concentration could return you to perceiving only the mundane, and remember the teaching you received. You only need to activate the circuits now, wake them by means of your own will acting on the second energy of life. A hypnotic trigger, to flex the body part which has no muscle, no sense, no substance, no innate consciousness and control. Within your mind, on the edge of empty space, you visualize a door, closed, dividing the ordinary darkness of reality from the vastly empty void where infinite irrationality and infinite possibility lies. You open it.

Energy flows in 126 channels within you, circulating through the greater circuit. A closed circuit, you realize now that you feel the circulation of magical energy. Your elation at having completed first step in practicing magecraft again is cut off at the knees. There's no energy flowing out of you to a Servant, as you felt in the Akeldama. Could seeing Caster before you passed out have been a hallucination after all? Surely, if she and Berserker were manifesting in the world as Cid promised, they would be receiving magical energy from you.

There's no energy flowing into you from a Master either, as you know is required to sustain a Servant's existence. How then, you wonder, are you still alive at all? Remaining in the world without a supply of magical energy should be a death sentence. Then again perhaps it is. It could be that you're maintaining yourself only through the Class Ability of Archer, putting off the noose rather than freeing yourself. In any case, doomed or living it's clear that you are a closed and isolated system, like a vessel holding its own contents in reserve, neither filling nor emptying.

Status Updated

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 29 Jun 2025 03:21:38 No.6267193 Report

Quoted By: >>6267211 >>6267335

Nor is that the only change you find has taken hold since you last took the measure of your own magical capacity. Magic Circuits were always a parallel to the nervous system, a linked network running throughout your body, yet you have the sense that they appeared more distinct before, more separated. The first time you activated your magic circuits there were very clearly 126 lines of energy, you remember that. No more and no less. Now, though, the number feels more like a habitual and arbitrary designation. Depending on how you were to look at the system, how you were to divide it in your measurement, it seems that it could be one single magic circuit, or ten, or a hundred, or any number you like, just as the linked system of roads across the country can be divided into any number of streets, highways, avenues, and boulevards depending on where the names are changed. That wasn't how it was before, you're certain.

As the circulation continues, and you maintain your focus, searching for an understanding of this change, more and more details of how the energy moves within you become clear. As this goes on, it eventually becomes apparent that the way your magical energy flows through this magic circuit has changed as well. If your magic circuits seemed in the past like neatly organized irrigation channels with exactly as much water flowing through each as it could contain, now a starkly different image comes to mind. A vast reservoir, enough to fill with an inland sea, standing dry and empty. Only a puny stream flows across its base, making its way from one end to the other. Yet for all that, you don't feel that the amount of magical energy within you has grown any less; only the capacity of the circuit has changed. Is this what it is to be a Servant?

You open your eyes and sit up with a yawn. Puzzled at the changes in your constitution, yet relieved to discover yourself still capable of magecraft, you've at least put yourself on a surer footing than yesterday's utter confusion. It seems you'll have to find a source of magical energy sooner or later, but for the moment you have enough to function. Perhaps, you think, it was an instinctive aversion to wasting magical energy that has kept you from materializing a weapon.

Sliding off the bed and onto your feet you stretch hugely, and a series of pops like a string of firecrackers runs from your shoulders down your spine. Dying is rough work, you suppose. For all that, you feel uncommonly healthy. No pain, no weakness, and your head feels clearer than it's been at any time you can remember. It's as if a fog that had lingered about you all your life has only now been burned away.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 29 Jun 2025 03:22:39 No.6267194 Report

Quoted By: >>6267203 >>6267204 >>6267211 >>6267213 >>6267322 >>6267335 >>6267739

Your stomach groans, interrupting your pleasant liveliness with a demand for sustenance, and you realize you haven't eaten since yesterday's lunch. An old-fashioned clock hanging on the wall tells you that it's a quarter past eleven, so unless you've slept for only a short while or slept through an entire day, it's approaching 24 hours since your last meal. Someone must have heard you getting up, too, because at just that moment you hear a knock at the door. Three, in fact, precise and measured as a metronome.

>[ ] Let the knocker in.

>[ ] You still don't know who brought you here, or why, and you have no way of knowing whether the two you saw before collapsing last night were an illusion. Take no chances, find somewhere to hide and wait until the person at the door comes in so you can get a look at your 'host'. (Where would you like to hide? Feel free to suggest anything you can think of, I'll tell you whether it's possible.)

>[ ] You still don't know who brought you here, or why. Get back into bed and pretend to be asleep, so you can catch them by surprise, incapacitate, and interrogate them when they draw near.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Sun 29 Jun 2025 03:55:14 No.6267203 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267194
>[X] Do something else. (Get a clear look around the room for the best possible escape strategy, then just tell the knocker to come in. Be ready to dash if you don't like who you see opened the door.)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sun 29 Jun 2025 04:01:59 No.6267204 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267194
>[ ] Let the knocker in.
No need for paranoia right now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 29 Jun 2025 04:24:48 No.6267211 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267192
Mana & Luck both A rank?

That's quite the upgrade from Akeldama.

We should have a pretty decent battery life then, atleast until we need to utilise something like a Noble Phantasm or use a ton of Magecraft and no one is holding our reigns either.

This is a much better start than Alberich had in terms of freedom.

>>6267193
>Dying is rough work, you suppose. For all that, you feel uncommonly healthy. No pain, no weakness, and your head feels clearer than it's been at any time you can remember. It's as if a fog that had lingered about you all your life has only now been burned away.

Circe used an Immortality Potion on us? Or we have a revival skill..?

>>6267194
We had plenty of chances to be taken advantage of while we were unconscious/incapacitated. No need to be autistically on edge for now.

>[ ] Let the knocker in.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 29 Jun 2025 04:32:02 No.6267213 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267194
>[ ] Let the knocker in.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:CtQm3vEt Sun 29 Jun 2025 12:43:58 No.6267322 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267194
>>[ ] Let the knocker in.
It should be someone friendly at least to offer us a bed, heal us and not bother us. More friendly than what happened so far...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 29 Jun 2025 14:07:58 No.6267335 Report

Quoted By: >>6267336

>>6267193
>. A vast reservoir, enough to fill with an inland sea, standing dry and empty. Only a puny stream flows across its base, making its way from one end to the other. Yet for all that, you don't feel that the amount of magical energy within you has grown any less; only the capacity of the circuit has changed.
That's unusual, to say the least. Even Servants should have magic circuits... maybe Yumi the White's circuits turned into a magic core?
>>6267194
>[ ] Let the knocker in.
As other anon pointed out, we were much more vulnerable while unconscious.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 29 Jun 2025 14:11:29 No.6267336 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267335
ID changed from >>6266734 after all.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 04:23:17 No.6267710 Report

Quoted By:

The thought occurs to you that you can use this moment to get the drop on whoever it is that brought you here, hide or catch them by surprise and squeeze some information out of the one knocking at your door. You put the notion aside after a brief reflection. Whoever picked up your body and took it here, and whatever their reasons, they had plenty of time to work out their hostility while you were asleep. That you've healed instead suggests they'd prefer to be friendly, and if that's the way things are now you can learn more by keeping them that way.

You open the door to see a young woman in a maid's uniform, white hair tied up in a ponytail and red eyes looking up into yours with an expression of intense disdain. For a moment you try to identify her with the girl you saw before passing out, but dismiss the notion almost immediately. You very much doubt this maid could ever give anyone the impression of a fairy.

"You've finally awoken?"

There's no trace of servility in her tone. Wherever you might be, it doesn't seem the staff specialize in hospitality.

"Seems that way," you answer dryly.

"Follow me," comes the clipped reply, and almost before it's out of her mouth the maid has turned on her heel to stalk away down a hall. Taking a look at the place while you follow her, you find the impression of the bedroom is thoroughly overturned. This corridor looks more like it belongs in an upscale condominium than any old-fashioned villa. You don't get to see much of the place, though. The maid leads you straight down the hall to an elevator that smoothly opens at her approach, perhaps operated by a motion sensor. The digital readout inside informs you that you are on the 52nd floor, which also happens to be the highest option below roof access. The maid thumbs a button marked 34, and down you go.

"Your boss doesn't object to meeting someone undressed," you ask by way of making small talk. Though you are still wrapped in the cloak that materialized at the time of your transformation, it's hard not to be aware of the elevator's marble flooring against your bare feet and the palpable sense of wrongness it imparts.

"I expect the mistress will mind," the maid answers icily. "You should have dressed yourself before I arrived, but I was ordered to bring you without delay." You wonder whether this woman gets some pleasure out of discomfiting her mistress, or only has a grudge against you. That's not the sort of misinterpretation someone could make unintentionally.

"The people who stole you clearly did a poor job of assigning parameters," the maid sniffs, and with that the conversation fades back into silence. The comment is so bluntly enigmatic that there's no reply you can make to it.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 04:24:18 No.6267711 Report

Quoted By:

Thankfully, you don't have too long to wait before a chime from the elevator signals the end of your brief trip. As the doors slide open again you take in the view of a completely empty restaurant in the cafe style, adorned with tasteful furniture, a variety of potted plants to provide a touch of life as well as interrupt sight-lines from one table to another, and a large number of windows looking out on the Tokyo metropolis in all its sprawling splendor. Only the clientele is conspicuously lacking.

"Follow," the maid instructs, and leads you to a table beside a window where sit the only customers in the place: Caster and the fairy-like girl you saw her with last night, each dressed at least as strangely as yourself.

"Finally," the girl gushes, motioning energetically for you to sit, "We had quite nearly begun to eat without you!"

"Far be it from me to keep a lady waiting," you reply, a wry tone in your voice as you sink into a chair. This one, you note with some amusement, hasn't complained about your lack of decorum. "I take it I have the two of you to thank for my survival?"

"That's right." Caster speaks up. If her manner is oddly calm and distant, her voice at least is unchanged from your memories. "It seems you have no trouble healing yourself by consuming magical energy, but you had almost none to use. After we brought you back to the hotel, my Master supplied you with her own magical energy until you had finished healing."

The weight she puts on the word 'Master' is unmistakeable. While you were cut off from her, it seems Caster made her own arrangements to ensure she wouldn't disappear. Understandable enough, no one wants to die. Odd, though: if she was able to convince her new Master to bring the two of you together, why did it take two days? Between her scrying and transportation by magic, Caster should have been able to meet you bright and early on Monday morning.

Just as you're opening your mouth to ask about this, the sour-looking maid returns to interrupt the conversation by setting out three plates of breakfast. Waffles, piled high with whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and fruit compote. Evidently the new Master of Caster has a sweet tooth. The mild displeasure you feel at not having had the chance to order your own food can't measure up against 24 hours worth of hunger, though, and you're soon eating with gusto.

Breakfast finished, you can return to more serious topics.

"It's clear that you two are in possession of more of the facts than I am," you observe, and wait. However they want to tell their story, they must plan to, or they wouldn't have brought you here. Caster glances from you, to her Master, and back, but remains silent. It seems to be the girl's show.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 04:25:19 No.6267712 Report

Quoted By: >>6267714 >>6267722 >>6267739 >>6267741 >>6267772 >>6267907 >>6268017

"I ought to begin with an introduction," the fairy-like girl says, giving you a soft smile. "My name is Liliesviel von Einzbern. I have come to Tokyo as the founding family's representative in the Holy Grail War. You don't need to tell me your name. I know who you are, and of course you and Caster know each other." Falling silent for a moment, Liliesviel touches a finger to her lips as if in thought, and a sparkle of mirth gleams in her eyes.

"The main thing you'd like to know, I think, is that the other Caster was my Servant. Judas, I mean."

You stiffen, keeping a look of shock off your face by an effort of will. That should be impossible. Hadn't Judas claimed he was Servant to a magus called Vaisset? He was hardly the trustworthy sort, of course, but what about the last part of your memories? Of appearing in that workshop and taking his place? It was curious already that there was no connecting memory between that place and your awakening in bed, but this throws a new layer of strangeness over everything.

"The last order Grandfather gave me before coming here was to make sure he used his Noble Phantasm," going on with her story without missing a beat. If she noticed how much her claim threw you off, she's considerate enough not to have acknowledged it. "I didn't think it would work. Isn't it too much like the mistake we made in the third War? But I couldn't make my own choices as a Master until I finished Grandfather's instructions, so I told him to use it. After that, this Caster took his place."

Caster nods. "After you finished Judas off, everything began to dissolve. His constructed world was collapsing, and we were thrown out into the reality where he'd carried out the ritual. The next thing I knew, I was in the Workshop in this building."

>[ ] Ask Caster, "What kept you from finding me sooner? I assume you were looking for me, or we wouldn't have met last night. You usually work faster, if you want something done."

>[ ] Ask Liliesviel, "Why save me, then? Trying to gather up everything useful that came out of the failed ritual?"

>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Mon 30 Jun 2025 04:34:07 No.6267714 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267712
>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:04:02 No.6267722 Report

Quoted By: >>6267726

>>6267712
>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"
I knew it, this is a Holy Judas War.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:18:24 No.6267726 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267722
Judas battling Judas for the chance to make a wish on the Holy Judas...
That's hell right there.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:39:30 No.6267739 Report

Quoted By: >>6267743

>>6267712
>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

>>6267194
>An old-fashioned clock hanging on the wall tells you that it's a quarter past eleven, so unless you've slept for only a short while or slept through an entire day, it's approaching 24 hours since your last meal.
Not that there's an immediate opportunity but... we really ought to call home at the first reasonable chance to start damage-controlling our mom's mental state. No idea what kinds of underdetailed handwaves or lies we'll want to spin. Our friends pulled us into one fine mess after another, a girl's love-letter was involved, our phone has been unavailable for our use for a while, something?

Also, this is my first post in the thread. Hello. Things are looking rather interesting so far.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:45:30 No.6267741 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267712
>>[X] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 05:51:27 No.6267743 Report

Quoted By: >>6268065

>>6267739
Good to have you, anon. You might want to work that story out ahead of time for a write-in.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Mon 30 Jun 2025 07:33:17 No.6267772 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267712
>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Mon 30 Jun 2025 15:14:34 No.6267907 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267712
>>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"
head empty

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 16:38:01 No.6267922 Report

Quoted By:

I might not be able to update tonight, my schedule is looking odd, so here's an interlude to tide you over. I believe it has information some of you might have been quite curious about.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 16:39:23 No.6267923 Report

Quoted By:

Interlude
February 4, 2019 -Rampage-

Darkness, but not silence. A familiar musty smell, old tatami mats that the last tenants hadn't taken care of, mold in hidden corners that we could never get rid of, the mixed food and tobacco smells of the snack bar downstairs. There was the inner handle of my closet door. I knew everything had changed. Took a mental inventory, and the last thing I was doing was waiting out an air raid in a basement. Now here I was back home, right where I'd gone to sleep before all the craziness. That meant the whole sorry show must be over, and I hadn't gotten to see it. I knew I should've come out when the explosions stopped.

The noise was coming from motorcycles. Some assholes were holding a midnight rally, and from the sound of it they were right out front. I wanted to give them a piece of my mind, so I got up and out of the closet, took a look around my room. Nothing had changed, this was the same run-down hole I remembered. Pillows in the shape of a sleeping body were in their usual spot on the futon. The clock said it was past midnight, and I was angry enough to hear the blood in my ears. Sure, this wasn't exactly the kind of neighborhood where they rolled up the streets at nine. Sure, the only people who lived around here were living above cabarets, izakayas, massage parlors, or bars, and they were liable to be awake anyway, but damn it, we had the night off and these fuckheads were going to ruin the one night a week my ma got to sleep normally.

When I pushed our front window open the latch snapped off. So much for security in this dump. I should've remembered it was locked, but at least now I knew the lock didn't mean anything. I was taking the front window because leaving normally would've meant going past the bar entrance, and that would've meant talking to people. I wasn't in the mood. It wasn't that far down from the second floor if you landed the fall right, and I had plenty of practice. Sure enough, the fuckers had their bikes set up in a circle in the middle of the road, the whole gang just shooting the breeze in a spotlight from their pooled headlamps. While I watched, one of the thugs still sitting on his bike revved the engine, just to make sure he was making enough noise. Cute.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 16:40:24 No.6267924 Report

Quoted By:

Any other night it would've crossed my mind that this was a damn stupid idea. There were twelve of them, and one of me. The most I'd ever gone before was one to five, and most of these guys looked to be out of school. Tonight, the odds didn't even cross my mind. Not after fighting fuckin' skeletons like some hokey old horror movie, and watching one of the corny fucks put a sword through my buddy's head just as real and as bloody and as serious as you could ask for. Not after showing the ropes to an honor student who could hit like a truck, but didn't know how to throw a punch, and who I still owed my life to. After watching magic come out of the movies and into real life, stinking and burning and killing, was I going to be afraid of some bosozoku assholes who just wanted to make noise and scare drunk salarymen?

I picked up a rock and pitched it at one of the bikes. Knocked out the headlight. That got their attention.

"Pipe down, fuckers. You're wakin' the whole neighborhood up."

I looked the lead biker in the eye, a stupid-looking bald thug with a white jumpsuit and flames tattooed on his scalp. He wasn't the biggest or the meanest-looking, but from the way the rest flicked their eyes at him before they moved you could see he was on top. He was grinning like I'd just told the best joke he heard all year.

"Whassamatter, kid," he shot back with a laugh, "missing sleep make you suicidal?"

The crack got a big reception from his buddies, but he wouldn't be making the variety shows any time soon. From the litter of empty Sapporo cans around their tires, these retards would've laughed at anything. I hucked another rock and caught Tattoo in the knee. That wiped the grin off his mug. He let out a yell like murder and went down, but I didn't see there was anything off about me yet. Figured maybe he was just the sensitive type. The rest were coming at me. I squared up, watched them coming at me, and let my instincts take control.

Lead pipes, chains, brass knuckles, and knives, these guys might've been just out to make noise but they had all the tools of the trade for a fight. I must've gotten faster after training with that albino monster Kaichou though, 'cause they were practically moving in slow motion. I didn't hardly have to try to slip them, whether they came at me with a wild swing, punch, stab or grab, and the first one I clocked got his nose smeared across his face like an old rotten strawberry. I didn't bother thinking about it in the fight. I just wanted to blow off steam, and this was easy. They were too drunk, or something. I punched, I kicked, they took the hits like sandbags and went down like bowling pins. I grabbed a hand shoving a knife at me, twisted it back, and heard about a dozen cracks. I must've done something more than break his wrist. After that, things went blurry.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 16:41:25 No.6267925 Report

Quoted By: >>6267941 >>6267992 >>6268149

It wasn't 'til I noticed the wet was soaking through my shoes that I took stock of things again. None of the bikers was moving, except the cue ball I'd taken out with a rock. He was trying to climb onto his bike, but couldn't seem to get the messed up leg over the seat. He was hanging onto the handlebars like a drowning man hanging on a log. The rest of them looked like worn out bandages, just ragged messes soaked with so much red it should've made me sick to look at. Funny, it didn't.

When I got over to the cue ball, he gave me a look that said he'd sobered up fast and forgotten all about comedy. I guess I must've had plenty of blood on me myself by then. I hauled him up by the collar, and it was about as hard as picking up a convenience store bag. This guy couldn't have weighed less than 80 kilos, no matter how lean he was under that jumpsuit, and I didn't even feel the weight. That was when I really knew something about me had changed.

I popped the thug one more time in the face to see what would happen. I felt his skull crack under my knuckle, he went limp, and I dropped him on the pavement. I wasn't angry any more, but I was pretty sure I was in deep shit. You don't just beat 12 guys to death in the street and get away with it. I looked around for the passersby snapping photos, the people on their phones, maybe a cop car pulling around the corner, and all of a sudden I realized we were alone. All the shops on the street were dark, even the places open 'til dawn. Even the street lights were out. The only noise came from the still-running bikes propped up in their little circle of lights.

"It seems, my son, that you've awoken quite splendidly without my help."

That voice went down my spine like an electric shock. I was throwing a punch in the fucker's direction before I knew what he was saying. It was the voice of Cid Ajisartous, the scumbag priest who got the drop on me back in the woods. Sad to say, I couldn't give him any payback. My fist went through his head like a fog, and he was still smiling at me past it. I stowed my hand in a pocket.

"Whaddya want, preacher," I spat. "Ain't your war over?" If he was some kind of ghost now, I wasn't going to let him see me surprised. I leaned back against a wall, ready for a sermon.

The priest spread his hands, theatrical as ever. "Oh, indeed," he said, "as you can see, we are no longer in the world of my creation, my Akeldama. Yet, there are things you must know. Before he took my life, I revealed to your leader the true nature of the war in which you all fought. You, much to your misfortune, were not present. Now I have come to explain matters to you.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 16:45:02 No.6267928 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:LTd49gl4 Mon 30 Jun 2025 17:26:33 No.6267941 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267925
>fight a few skellies
>hang out and spar a bit during Akeldama
>contribute nothing directly
>still gets empowered at the end
Matsuda really did nothing and got the full reward just for being alive at the end

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Mon 30 Jun 2025 19:12:06 No.6267992 Report

Quoted By: >>6268009 >>6268016

>>6267925
Ok, so let's start with what we know for sure.
>Cid is still sorta around in some way shape or form.
Well, aight. Good to confirm that.
>Matsuda got a power up.
Good for him!
Looks like that plotline is coming back for the remake too.

So this could mean...
>A)Cid had more influence on the distribution of the Akeldama's power flow than we thought and gave Matsuda in particular a power boost.
If this is the case, he might have the clockwork heartpiece limiter in his body keeping him "human" like Rushorou did. Or he simply hasn't noticed the appearance change that came with becoming a servant. He didn't notice the power boost until now, afterall...whenever "now" is in this intermission. Reading back, the when seems to be shortly after waking up from the Akeldama, and Matsuda remembered everything instantly upon waking up, so...might not have the heartpiece.
Also there's the question of why Cid would do this for Matsuda in particular, I don't know. If he wanted a puppet to use for his plans, I'd assume he'd go for the weaker willed Ogawara or maybe someone else....
Biggest traitor forcing traitor plots, maybe?
>Make a psudo messiah of the new age >Send a betrayer after him.
>???
Profit?

>B) All the survivors of the Akeldama got a power boost, including non masters like Matsuda and Ogawara.
This means we possibly have like...30 or so super powered individuals out there that may or may not have all been totally mundane before now and may or may not also have the capacity to be servants. This depends on if Rushorou's clockwork heartpiece was unique.
Truvei might have gotten a power boost of some sort, as well as a possibly unbrainwashed Super Kikuko to boot. Fun!
Though, not as fun as you'd expected from a bunch of normies waking up with super powers.
You'd think the Clocktower would be swarming the city.
You'd think at least one of the mundane survivors waking up with power would be causing a mess...though they might actually be already depending on if the news violence is just the normal shit you'd expect from a Murder Death Kill.
Maybe we should have checked online to see if there was any rumors spreading about people with powers and strange dreams about a weird city.

I do find this second option in particular very interesting, but there's no way to know where this'll end up just yet.

I'm looking forward to the next update.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 30 Jun 2025 19:30:25 No.6268009 Report

Quoted By: >>6268032

>>6267992
I thought the date might make it clear, but so there's no confusion, this interlude starts at the exact same time Yumigawa woke up in the first post.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 30 Jun 2025 19:59:57 No.6268016 Report

Quoted By: >>6268032 >>6268065

>>6267992
>B) All the survivors of the Akeldama got a power boost, including non masters like Matsuda and Ogawara.
This means we possibly have like...30 or so super powered individuals out there that may or may not have all been totally mundane before now and may or may not also have the capacity to be servants.

Having recently read back through Akeldama I could have sworn of those 30 people Assassin had in that building, only Chad Thundercock (USA) survived to recontract with Rider.

Realistically it may only be mc, matsuda, truvi, ogawara and brainwashed jk onahole. I don't think there were any other living humans at the end?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 30 Jun 2025 20:02:42 No.6268017 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267712
>[ ] Ask Caster, "At the end, there, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

+ if possible, some mention of why it took so long for her to find us. We had that many mages crawling all over us at school, and Bryn almost gave us a prostate exam at the end.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Mon 30 Jun 2025 21:07:21 No.6268032 Report

Quoted By: >>6268040

>>6268009
Ah! My eyes must have just glazed over that.
Well that answers that question, though I was sure that was the case anyway.

>>6268016
>Having recently read back through Akeldama I could have sworn of those 30 people Assassin had in that building, only Chad Thundercock (USA) survived to recontract with Rider.
Ah! You might be right.
I remember, something happening to those guys but I had it in my head they were with Kikuko in the bunker.
Either way, just the idea of those 4 being around and powered up is still something to consider, especially since I doubt a powered up Kikuko would still be brainwashed.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 30 Jun 2025 21:25:38 No.6268040 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268032
Metagamey because Awakening isn't real but Matsuda in that was a Lancer he was also summoned in at death's door with no mana supply.

Here he acts more like a Berserker. His interlude is even titled 'Rampage'.

He also doesn't seem to be running on fumes either. Just sort of blacks out mid fight and suddenly 12 people are paste. No sign of fatigue or anything. Maybe he's subconsciously absorbing the mana of those he's killing?

Mc has no master, but as Archer he can make do. I wonder if the same cma be said for Matsuda, and any others?

Maybe they all have a solid mana battery left over from Akeldama's mass sacrifices? It works from a story perspective, it means the start for everyone isn't cucking to a master or kneeling with no mana. Allows them to function as more autonomous entities this time around. Same with mc's Neutral alignment, more freedom to actually pick and choose how he interacts with the world.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Mon 30 Jun 2025 22:18:47 No.6268065 Report

Quoted By: >>6269415

>>6267743
Hmm. Ok, I drafted an "alibi" that could be spoken over the phone and adjusted to fit Rushorou's word-choice/speech patterns/etc.

>Hello mother, apologies in how long it took me to contact you and the worry I've no doubt made you feel on my behalf. I'm alright, I've simply been dragged from one mess to another for the past 24 hours. My routine's derailment escalated yesterday afternoon when I went to meet a girl who left me a very carefully-worded and thoughtful letter. The finer details of what happened after that are somewhat embarrassing, but suffice to say it ended with me relying on the hospitality of a new acquaintance due to a debilitating headache. If you've contacted the police you can tell them that their assistance is no longer required, if the school contacts you inquiring about my unexplained tardiness... please buy time to allow me to give an explanation. Thank you.

Other anons, does the above sound ok? I tried to balance being considerate, not telling too many outright lies, and staying in-character.

>>6268016
>Realistically it may only be mc, matsuda, truvi, ogawara and brainwashed jk onahole. I don't think there were any other living humans at the end?
I think this is correct in terms of potential candidates. Also I believe only Matsuda Ryuuta and Ogawara Yatsuhide had "main character potential", so they may be the only other ones who get buffed. And I wouldn't be surprised if Ogawara (and Kikuko if she got buffed too) would never notice the buff (or have a practical use for it) because they never get into physical altercations in their day-to-day life.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Tue 01 Jul 2025 02:31:08 No.6268149 Report

Quoted By:

>>6267925
mysterious guy

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 02 Jul 2025 02:53:28 No.6268704 Report

Quoted By:

"Caster," you interject, "At the end, when he was explaining what had really been going on, do you remember Judas saying anything about a 'Vaisset'?"

"No." Caster gives you a blank, puzzled look. "I don't think I've ever heard the word before. Or is it a name? Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing." You shake your head. "I must've misheard something he said." A discrepancy between your memory and that of others, again. After having your memories of the Akeldama sealed off for two days, have the details become twisted in the memories you regained? Or is this another product of someone's scheming, like Văcărescu's manipulation of the mundane students at Kyoutenkan? You can't imagine someone being able to brainwash a witch from the Age of Gods with magic, though.

"I see." Caster and Liliesviel look at you curiously, but both seem content to let the matter pass. "After that, I told Liliesviel-chan what had happened inside of Judas's constructed world, and she took an interest in meeting you almost immediately."

"I had a suspicion about you," Liliesviel explains, smiling, "but we couldn't make certain of it until last night."

"That the sacrificed power from the Akeldama had turned me into a Servant?" If it's something that could only be confirmed last night, that would have to be it. Perhaps Caster was monitoring you through scrying, waiting for you to show signs of being something other than an ordinary human before meeting you directly. Though, considering that possibility only turns you back to the question of why you had been transformed back into your old self in the first place.

"Not quite. The bother of it was, that it took that long to find you." The girl pouts cutely, as if reliving her frustration. You look to Caster and silently raise an eyebrow. That can't be true.

"I'm afraid my magic hasn't been quite as useful as it was in the Akeldama." Responding to your bemused look, Caster shakes her head. "I haven't been able to perform any sort of effective divination. Another Servant must be using a powerful Noble Phantasm specialized in concealment, or in the prevention of observation, I think. I was only able to find you by spreading my familiars out across the city, and since last night even they've started disappearing once they've gone too far from me."

"I take it you don't know much about the other Masters and Servants, then."

"No," Liliesviel agrees, looking out the window with a thoughtful expression, "you had a wonderful advantage in the War you fought before, one which we shall have to do without." Then, brightening as she turns her eyes back to your face, she adds cheerfully, "But there's something else you should be more curious about! We may not know much about the other Masters, but we do know more about you!"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 02 Jul 2025 02:54:29 No.6268705 Report

Quoted By: >>6287237

"Really, now?" Cheering news, if it's true. Given the paucity of information you can bring to mind about your own nature as a Servant, if Caster and her Master have somehow learned more it would be quite a relief to find out.

"To begin," Caster says, looking at you without meeting your eyes, "I should confess to a certain mistake. Not really a mistake, of course, I had incomplete information to work with, but..." she purses her lips. Clearly, acknowledging an error doesn't come easily to her. "When I assessed the nature of your existence, and the effects your experiences had on you within the Akeldama, the conclusions I came to weren't right. It could be that your body there was a kind of mental projection, or represented your self-perception, or it could be that Judas had intentionally manipulated the Akeldama to misrepresent you..."

She seems so intent on making excuses that finally you have to cut in.

"Are you trying to say that I'm something other than a human who was reinforced by various elements of Judas's Noble Phantasm?"

"That's right," Liliesviel answers for her Servant. "While I was pouring magical energy into you so you could heal, I had Caster analyze you to see if my suspicion was correct, and it was! You're the member of our family who was stolen in 1998! Isn't that marvelous?"

"That's Liliesviel-chan's theory, at least." Caster speaks up now, while Liliesviel is making a show of her excitement at a discovery you still don't quite understand. "What I was able to tell for certain is that you are a homunculus, created from the same artifact primary material and with the same ritual of origination she was. Similar, also, to the other Einzbern homunculi. Until last night, something was continuously maintaining a magical effect which caused you to appear in the form of an ordinary human and conform to human norms. Since the effect originated within your body, I would guess it came from a mystic code built into your composition. The effect was deactivated sometime before we found you last night. I can't be sure of your history beyond that, but Liliesviel-chan has some ideas of her own."

You take it all in silently, without shouting your disbelief or demanding more information. Hard as it is to swallow the idea that you were never an ordinary person, even before the Akeldama, the number of strange events you've been party to recently must have numbed you somewhat to shock. Even as one part of you reels at the idea, you feel an icy composure settling over the back of your mind, like clear water bubbling up from some hitherto unknown and untapped reservoir.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 02 Jul 2025 02:55:30 No.6268707 Report

Quoted By: >>6268985

"Let me explain," Liliesviel says, taking over the conversation now that Caster has said her piece. "In 1998, a portion of raw material which was intended to be used to create a homunculus of the Einzbern house was stolen. This was material that had been prepared to become a Vessel, a homunculus of the higher order; if you hadn't been stolen, I suppose you might be sitting in my place now."

The thought must amuse the girl. She lets out a silvery giggle before continuing.

"I wasn't alive then, but what I've learned since is that the head of the family at that time allowed the theft to occur. His own efforts to replicate Justeaze, the great ancestor whose example we are all meant to follow, had not been as successful as would have liked." At the mention of this Justeaze the girl's voice turns sardonic, as if she finds the notion of imitating this forebear repellent. Perhaps she does. You yourself never found any great pleasure in trying to replicate the life of the senior Yumigawa.

"He must have thought that by observing what another magus clan might do with our material he could enrich his own studies, and that it would be a simple thing to steal back their homunculus once they had finished creating it. It was expected that the stolen homunculus would appear in the Holy Grail War fought in 2004, since they sent it to the Far East to grow, but it never did." Liliesviel shrugs her small shoulders, putting on an expression of confusion. "For a while, no one knew what had happened to you." Then she smiles again, mirth sparkling in her ruby eyes. "Apparently they were keeping you here, for this War."

"Suppose I am this homunculus you're describing," you allow. "If I'm meant to be the same kind as you, and you're intended to replicate this ancestor of yours, why am I a man?" It's not the strangest detail in her story, but it is a point of odd inconsistency. "You and I don't look much alike," you add, in wry understatement.

"That was one part of what we learned while their project remained in Europe." Liliesviel looks a bit pleased, as if she was expecting the question. "Their Vessel was to be male, and they had unusual methods planned for his growth. I suppose the latter referred to growing you at the speed of a human being. We ordinarily reach maturity in a much shorter time."

"And my parents?"

"They must have been members of the group, or perhaps ordinary people who had been conditioned to believe you were their child," Liliesviel explains. "I suppose they wanted to see what would happen if a homunculus were to be given a human's childhood, instead of being raised as a tool." A melancholy tone creeps into the girl's voice as she adds, "I'm a bit jealous."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 02 Jul 2025 02:56:31 No.6268709 Report

Quoted By: >>6268712 >>6268731 >>6268735 >>6268766 >>6268988

>[ ] "Do you have any proof of this story?" It's all too much to believe on faith, even if you have trusted Caster up until now. What would the point of such a bizarre scheme be? If this shadowy group had created you for their own ends, why haven't they appeared to try to use you? Wouldn't there be some control mechanism to keep their stolen lifeform from falling back into the hands of the Einzbern?

>[ ] "You said I was meant to be a 'vessel'. What do you mean by that? A vessel for what?" Even if the story is true, there's still too much you don't understand. This doesn't bring you any closer to grasping your abilities as a Servant or shed any light on what you ought to be doing. Perhaps if you understand what you were created to accomplish, it would clarify matters.

>[ ] "Just who is this magus clan, or group, or whatever it is that you say has been engineering my life? What are they trying to achieve?" Even if the story is true, there's still too much you don't understand. Perhaps being a homunculus has given you abilities beyond those of ordinary people, or made it possible for you to become a Servant, or something like that. Even so, you can't see the reason in creating such a being and letting it grow up as an ordinary person instead of indoctrinating it to carry out some task. Perhaps this would make more sense if you understood the goal behind it all.

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Wed 02 Jul 2025 03:07:27 No.6268712 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268709
>[ ] "Just who is this magus clan, or group, or whatever it is that you say has been engineering my life? What are they trying to achieve?" Even if the story is true, there's still too much you don't understand. Perhaps being a homunculus has given you abilities beyond those of ordinary people, or made it possible for you to become a Servant, or something like that. Even so, you can't see the reason in creating such a being and letting it grow up as an ordinary person instead of indoctrinating it to carry out some task. Perhaps this would make more sense if you understood the goal behind it all.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Wed 02 Jul 2025 03:47:15 No.6268731 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268709
>[X] "Just who is this magus clan, or group, or whatever it is that you say has been engineering my life? What are they trying to achieve?" Even if the story is true, there's still too much you don't understand. Perhaps being a homunculus has given you abilities beyond those of ordinary people, or made it possible for you to become a Servant, or something like that. Even so, you can't see the reason in creating such a being and letting it grow up as an ordinary person instead of indoctrinating it to carry out some task. Perhaps this would make more sense if you understood the goal behind it all.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 02 Jul 2025 04:00:39 No.6268735 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 02 Jul 2025 05:21:05 No.6268766 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:u8WdXiNg Wed 02 Jul 2025 14:08:08 No.6268895 Report

Quoted By: >>6268903

What are the odds that Circe brainwashed Liliesveil to believe all this so that we could stay here with her?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 02 Jul 2025 14:41:25 No.6268903 Report

Quoted By: >>6268907

>>6268895
Definitely possible for her, even if she would have to tamper with the food in secret. And Lily's story did sound sketchy in places.
But if Circe did do such a thing, one wonders why she didn't go all the way and make Lily a mindless puppet. Maybe she couldn't make a brew that strong without being noticed?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 02 Jul 2025 14:55:47 No.6268907 Report

Quoted By: >>6268973

>>6268903
Oh, and the fact that Matsuda is similarly boosted makes the homunculus narrative even more questionable, even if it's OOC knowledge.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:YDMEPwO3 Wed 02 Jul 2025 18:07:43 No.6268973 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268907
The odd thing then becomes why we had that mystic code doing exactly what she says inside us.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 02 Jul 2025 18:52:46 No.6268985 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268707
>"Their Vessel was to be male, and they had unusual methods planned for his growth. I suppose the latter referred to growing you at the speed of a human being. We ordinarily reach maturity in a much shorter time."

> "In 1998, a portion of raw material which was intended to be used to create a homunculus of the Einzbern house was stolen. This was material that had been prepared to become a Vessel, a homunculus of the higher order; if you hadn't been stolen, I suppose you might be sitting in my place now."

> "For a while, no one knew what had happened to you." Then she smiles again, mirth sparkling in her ruby eyes. "Apparently they were keeping you here, for this War."

We're a cup. And so is she.

>"And my parents?"

>"They must have been members of the group, or perhaps ordinary people who had been conditioned to believe you were their child," Liliesviel explains. "I suppose they wanted to see what would happen if a homunculus were to be given a human's childhood, instead of being raised as a tool." A melancholy tone creeps into the girl's voice as she adds, "I'm a bit jealous."

We should pinch a mundane's phone or use one in the apartment asap. We can call up and try and confirm this narrative even indirectly by talking to both parents in such a way that asks about how they met maybe?

I don't know if, even if Circe is lying, how this is actually bad for us. We don't have a Master connection, we confirmed that ourselves examining the circuits and magical flow.

If anything, if we are a cup, we might have been Installed with aspects of Akeldama heroes and empowered like that? Only way to kind of explain servant skills (and also the description of the magical circuits, that reminds me of Ilya's in fsn).

We'll probably get more clues if/when we get a better read on our skills and NPs. We seem to be subconsciously restraining them due to a mana shortage though, so its likely that we aren't a very good or are a leaking cup vs a traditional Einzbern made homonculus.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 02 Jul 2025 18:57:43 No.6268988 Report

Quoted By:

>>6268709
The first prompt is a bit of a waste, as its likely that metal thing Bryn shamnked was such a device?

We'll find that out if we encounter Ayaka again I guess.

>[ ] "You said I was meant to be a 'vessel'. What do you mean by that? A vessel for what?" Even if the story is true, there's still too much you don't understand. This doesn't bring you any closer to grasping your abilities as a Servant or shed any light on what you ought to be doing. Perhaps if you understand what you were created to accomplish, it would clarify matters.

We have no knowledge about cups/vessels in character. Probably important we ask, even briefly. But we do need some kind of proof, as well as some info on whatever clan supposedly modified us as we're likely to have someone come knocking if we are meant to be their key to the greater grail in this war.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 04:58:38 No.6269232 Report

Quoted By: >>6269245 >>6269415

"Just who is this magus clan, or group, or whatever it is that you say has been engineering my life," you demand, flattening one of your palms against the table. Voice still quiet and composed, a note of anger creeps in. More frustrating than the implausibility of the story is the vagueness of it all, an undefined enemy with an unclear purpose. "What are they trying to achieve?"

"Why, of course." Liliesviel's eyes widen. She looks surprised at the question, as if she'd intended to explain that already and you're only just reminding her that she forgot. "I suppose you wouldn't know your intended function. One becomes so used to homunculi with innate knowledge... they really did create something unusual in you."

The girl looks at you with a mix of curiosity and anticipation, as if she's found an unusual treasure. From that look you're sure that however strange her story may sound, she at least believes it.

"Yggdmillennia," she pronounces, returning to the subject of your question. "That is the name of the clan of magi responsible for your theft. They are a contemptible bloodline, surviving only by stealing the research of more competent lineages and, when they can, absorbing them in their entirety. Still, they have collected an eclectic variety of techniques through these endeavors. I suspect that is why the previous family head thought they might bring a new approach to the development of a Vessel. As for their reasons, I should first explain the nature of the Holy Grail War."

"I think I understand that fairly well," you interject, "having won one already."

If your confident interruption bothers Liliesviel, she doesn't show it. She gives you a sweet smile, before dumping ice over your assumptions.

"Caster has explained the Akeldama ritual to me. Judas copied the form of the Holy Grail War, but not its nature. The purpose of the Heroic Spirits' deaths in the true War is not to empower its overseer, but to actualize the Holy Grail and complete the ritual miracle of the Heaven's Feel, achieving the Third Sorcery."

You blink, expressionless. The girl is using too many proper nouns and not giving enough explanation. Perhaps she's fallen back into the habit she mentioned before, of expecting a homunculus to have certain knowledge inborn.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 04:59:39 No.6269233 Report

Quoted By: >>6269245

"But that doesn't mean anything to you as I've said it, I apologize," Liliesviel continues, apparently reading your reaction correctly and catching herself. "The Holy Grail, the essential tool in the final ritual of the War, is a combination of three things. First, a grand ritual constructed underground, at the conflux of potent leylines. This is known as the Greater Grail, and its existence makes the manifestation of Servants, the powers of the Command Spell, and all the other elements of the Holy Grail War possible. Second, an immense mass of energy which exists in spirit, and which a magus would be able to use to grant almost any wish. This is what those who do not understand the Heaven's Feel refer to as the 'Holy Grail' when they speak of the prize at stake in the War. Third, the physical object which serves as a receptacle for the energy of spirit collected when a Servant falls, and which, when filled, connects the material world with the Holy Grail. This is known as the Lesser Grail, and is a homunculus prepared by the Einzbern family for the purpose."

"So, when you mentioned a 'Vessel'," slips out of your mouth almost involuntarily, as understanding dawns.

"Correct. You and I are both Lesser Grails," answers Liliesviel, her bright smile seeming almost impossible. How can someone identifying herself as a mere tool in a magical ritual be so cheerful? Just because she's found another person like herself? "Brought to life from the same material, with the same ritual. Since you were created first, you could say you're a sort of elder brother to me."

"A living ritual device," you muse, almost surprised at the effect the notion has on you. Not the loss of humanity, perhaps. To think you had become something more than human, as you did before, wasn't any sort of blow. No, it's the thought of being used as a tool in the hands of some unknown wielder that rankles. A profound fury at the idea of serving to fulfill another's ambition, bereft of your own will, rises within you. The humiliation would be too great to bear.

You look at Liliesviel, and wonder again how the girl can bear it. Is it a matter of having that purpose ingrained in her for her entire life? Is she simply hiding her true feelings of rage and despair, knowing she can't escape her circumstances? Will she be free to pursue her own ends after the Holy Grail War, and is she only putting up with the life of a puppet in expectation of that future? You can't say, but thinking on the circumstances of another faced with the same role as yourself does help you calm down.

"Then their goal was to take control of the War," you explain, the whole picture coming into focus with the explanation of that missing piece. "If the Einzbern Master is essential to victory, then everyone else has to either cooperate with you or handle you with kid gloves, but the Yggdmillennia would have a free hand to do anything they wanted if they had their own Grail in reserve."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:00:39 No.6269234 Report

Quoted By:

"Exactly right," Liliesviel beams. "I'm sure there's a Master from the Yggdmillennia family out wandering Tokyo right now, looking for you and feeling wonderfully frustrated!"

You shoot a questioning look at Caster. She's been silent through the whole exchange, but it's ultimately she who's in the best position to understand the nature of a magical lifeform. Is it all true? Or is this business of your being a vessel for the energy of the Holy Grail a continuation of Liliesviel's theorizing about your origins?

"I wanted to wait until Liliesviel-chan had explained how this Holy Grail War functions, so you would understand the rest of my analysis," Caster offers by way of explanation for her silence. "You are the same type of homunculus she is, created to hold and process the mystic energy of slain Heroic Spirits. It does seem as if those who worked on you made some modifications to the Einzbern design. You aren't connected to the Greater Grail as she is; your Magic Circuits turn inward, instead. I expect the Yggdmillennia have prepared some way of changing that at the crucial moment, to keep anyone else from using their Grail. Otherwise your design is the same. Even your lifespan is,"

"Caster," Liliesviel cuts in. Suddenly, she isn't meeting your eyes. The cheer at finding a 'brother' has gone out of her face. She looks sorrowful. "This will be the hardest part for you to hear, but I think it would be crueler not to tell you. Homunculi are created for a purpose, quickly grown, used, and disposed of. We learn quickly, have physical or magical abilities beyond human limits, and can do things impossible for a human being, but we don't have their lifespan. Although it seems the Yggdmillennia prolonged your development, you and I were created for this Holy Grail War. When it has ended, so will we."

Caster nods silently. Somehow, this news doesn't have the same impact that the notion of yourself as a tool did. Perhaps it's because you already felt running out of magical energy to be a death sentence. You look at the two girls numbly, trying to think of what it is you would do with the time left to you. You can't return to your human life. You have no intention of serving the people who apparently made you. What goal worth striving for could be accomplished in the short span of the Holy Grail War? How long do you even have? Ten days, the span of the War in the Akeldama? Two weeks? A month? It can't be long.

"You don't have any objection to serving in the Einzbern ritual and then dying?" In the absence of a rational plan of action, what you end up voicing is the basic curiosity at Liliesviel's attitude you've felt all along.

"I do," comes the answer, with surprising defiance. Her expression is anything but resigned; perhaps you had been misunderstanding the girl's attitude.

"What, then? If this expiration date is built into your body, do you plan to find another?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:01:40 No.6269236 Report

Quoted By: >>6269243 >>6269245 >>6269287 >>6269318 >>6269366 >>6269382 >>6269415 >>6269503 >>6269541

"You're close." What you had intended as an absurdity, the girl answers seriously. "The Heaven's Feel achieves the Third Sorcery, materialization of the soul. I intend to use it for my own sake, rather than Justeaze's, and put an end to this chasing after the past the Einzbern have been mired in."

Suddenly, Liliesviel reaches across the table, wrapping two dainty hands around your own large one. Magical energy passes between you, from her skin to yours, and suddenly you're aware of every detail of her Servant's abilities. It's an unprecedented show of trust, even after hearing her declare you part of her family.

Status Updated

"If you will only return to us," Liliesviel says, wide eyes staring up at you, "and help me to reach victory in the Holy Grail War, I promise to find a way to extend your own lifespan as well."

You think for a moment, silently taking this in. You doubt there's anyone more qualified to alter a homunculus than a magus of the line best known for them. Even in the Akeldama you ended up hearing of the Einzbern and their famous expertise with homunculi. Nor are you likely to meet anyone more expert in magic than Caster. Even if you were thinking of an alliance only in terms of pursuing victory for your own sake, these two would be a considerable asset. Caster's abilities were crucial in winning you the War in the Akeldama, and her reserves of magical energy have grown significantly with the change of Master. A testament to Liliesviel's power as a magus. Recalling your own abnormal quantity of magical energy in the Akeldama, you guess this girl to be the only Master likely to be capable of supporting two Servants at once.

On the other hand, if Liliesviel believes her own path to survival is the "miracle" that the entire Holy Grail War is staged to create, it suggests you might have no chance at all. In that case, neither answer would be better than the other. Work with Liliesviel and her Servant or against them, your death will be certain either way. The only other paths you can conceive would be to hope the Yggdmillennia Master knows how to achieve this "Third Sorcery", get the information out of them, and do it yourself, or to try to get the same information out of someone else who might know. You can't imagine there are many.

>[ ] Agree. If everything you've heard is true, Liliesviel is likely the only person in Tokyo you can make common cause with. Besides, Caster was always a reliable ally in the other War.

>[ ] Tell Liliesviel you can't agree to support her in the War. You have to find your own path.

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:30:19 No.6269242 Report

Quoted By: >>6269246

Reminder, the status menu is at:
https://pastebin.com/VbRZ5pwX

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:30:57 No.6269243 Report

Quoted By: >>6269246

>>6269236
>[ ] Agree. If everything you've heard is true, Liliesviel is likely the only person in Tokyo you can make common cause with. Besides, Caster was always a reliable ally in the other War.
To be honest... turning it down at this point is just prolonged suicide, with Bryn out there and our NP nonfunctional.
Besides, I'm not letting go of Circe this time. Even if she comes with Liliesviel.

>Strength: E -> D
>Magical Energy: A+ -> A++
Now that's an upgrade.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:35:41 No.6269245 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269232
>Yggdmillennia

Apockeks we are so back.

>>6269233
We iz cupz

>You aren't connected to the Greater Grail as she is; your Magic Circuits turn inward, instead. I expect the Yggdmillennia have prepared some way of changing that at the crucial moment, to keep anyone else from using their Grail.

We're gonna vore enemy Servants again like Awakening methinks.

>Otherwise your design is the same. Even your lifespan is,"

And we're unable to take the Carnival Phantasm Kuzuki/Medea option and just leave the war.

>>6269236
Einzcunny has pretty much put all her cards on the table here, I don't think there's a reason not to work with her for at least the time being. Complimentary birdwife too.

For the linklets, Circe's sheet just dropped in the main pastebin https://pastebin.com/vHFTkUKG

Her STR is up from the E it was in Akeldama, and her Mana has gone from A+ to A++ too.

Not much of a choice really, would be pretty retarded to pass up the oppertunity, even if only temporary.

>[ ] Agree. If everything you've heard is true, Liliesviel is likely the only person in Tokyo you can make common cause with. Besides, Caster was always a reliable ally in the other War.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:38:25 No.6269246 Report

Quoted By: >>6269248

>>6269242
Oh hey, Sweets posted it himself this time.

>>6269243
Statsmind

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:42:21 No.6269248 Report

Quoted By: >>6269253

>>6269246
>147cm/39KG
my wife is a flyweight

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 03 Jul 2025 05:45:18 No.6269253 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269248
With her STR upgrade she can actually kind of wrestle back against mc's C-

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Thu 03 Jul 2025 06:55:50 No.6269287 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Thu 03 Jul 2025 09:01:22 No.6269318 Report

Quoted By: >>6269366 >>6269503 >>6269541

>>6269236
>[X] Tell Liliesviel you can't agree to support her in the War. You have to find your own path.
>[X] Say something else. (Say that all of this is very sudden and you need time to take stock of the situation and handle other affairs. Promise to be her ally in an alliance, return with any information we find that might be useful and come to her aid if she's in dire need of us.)
As much as I adore Circe and like Liliesviel, I can't allow Rushorou to hand over his freedom this early. Not without scoping things out first.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:waT7ABUX Thu 03 Jul 2025 12:11:43 No.6269366 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269236
>>6269318
+1

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:77tyxJP0 Thu 03 Jul 2025 14:14:33 No.6269382 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269236
>>[ ] Agree. If everything you've heard is true, Liliesviel is likely the only person in Tokyo you can make common cause with. Besides, Caster was always a reliable ally in the other War.

well yumigawa never felt truly human, he is inhuman. I suppose that madness of his is now fully explained. Perhaps some of his school friends are too ? Now what since he is an object with a short lifespan. Rage perhaps ? Its so easy. Maybe that dream ball of fire/sun/angel thing has an idea ? Was that shadow back then a Yggdmillennia watching us ? Probably no. So much mystery. The tool that moves out of his own will and desires, what a funny concept. Will it strike back at his makers or fall in line...

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 03 Jul 2025 15:35:46 No.6269406 Report

Quoted By:

>>6266617
I found a song.
Better late than never, right?
Here, for your listening pleasure, is the OP to Fate/Awakening Mirror - Distortion of Aqueous Moon:
https://odysee.com/AMQST-OP1:3

I'm afraid you'll still have to imagine the animation, though.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Thu 03 Jul 2025 16:03:32 No.6269415 Report

Quoted By: >>6269541

>>6268065
>And I wouldn't be surprised if Ogawara (and Kikuko if she got buffed too) would never notice the buff (or have a practical use for it) because they never get into physical altercations in their day-to-day life.
I remember in the original run Ogawara turned himself into his oni waifu. Might the case again just like how Matsuda got powered here too.
>>6259099
>Eva Otilia Văcărescu
>>6269232
>Yggdmillennia
Darnic's little bitch...
That explains it.
>>6269236
>[ ] Agree. If everything you've heard is true, Liliesviel is likely the only person in Tokyo you can make common cause with. Besides, Caster was always a reliable ally in the other War.
Worst comes to worst we backstab first. Hopefully we don't have to and it will be smooth with Circe.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:qV/Ff9MK Thu 03 Jul 2025 21:33:38 No.6269503 Report

Quoted By: >>6269508

>>6269236
>>6269318
Support.
We gotta find our own way. I wonder what the Yggdmillennia mage would offer us. If their plan was to give their lesser grail a taste of a real life, surely they're planning on using that as leverage for whatever plan they had to approach us.

Who knows what else they had implanted in us too.

Also if we ally with the Einzbern right off the bat we'll become a huge threat to all the other master/servant pairs, having two servants on the same side and all.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:qV/Ff9MK Thu 03 Jul 2025 21:45:53 No.6269508 Report

Quoted By: >>6269541

>>6269503
I'm also curious where Adelheid is, she should've came through as well, and why hasn't Circe brought her up once? This is all felling pretty suspicious to me. I feel like they're trying to make us their own puppet instead of Yggdmillennia's.

There's also the discrepancy in our memories that's gone totally unaccounted for about becoming a saber.

That dream about the flames, dying, and then waking up to the news that an unidentified man has been beheaded at the scene of an arson, made me think that we could've been resonating with "saber yumigawa", and he got killed. But since he wasn't a spirit a body was left behind, maybe? It would explain why the headache stopped that morning too.

I think we need more information altogether here, there's too much unanswered for us to tie ourselves down comfortably at this moment.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Fri 04 Jul 2025 00:04:46 No.6269541 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269236
>>6269318
I'll support this as well. Liliesviel seems to mean well, but I'm not sold on getting yoked to her right away when there are so many unknowns still to be addressed.

>>6269415
>I remember in the original run Ogawara turned himself into his oni waifu. Might the case again just like how Matsuda got powered here too.
Perhaps. Or perhaps he will find Kaleido Ruby and become a Magical Trap.

>>6269508
>I'm also curious where Adelheid is, she should've came through as well, and why hasn't Circe brought her up once?
It would sort of make sense that she'd find an affinity for the Yggdmillennia, since they were allies of the 3rd Reich in the 1940's.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Fri 04 Jul 2025 00:29:23 No.6269544 Report

Quoted By:

Though the sequence of events is a bit strange. Lily says Caster Judas was her Servant originally, he gets unalived by Rushorou, Lily scoops up Circe, makes sense so far. But how did Judas get read-in on the humanoid-homunculus project if it was a Yggdmillenia operation and they weren't sharing notes with the Einzberns? Fishy...

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 04:30:33 No.6269605 Report

Quoted By:

You sigh. It irks you to feel there's only one path you can take, but that does seem to be the case. As you are now, there's most likely only Master in the Holy Grail who wouldn't seek to use or kill you, and she's the one asking you to align yourself with her.

"Very well. If I'm of the Einzberns as you say, it seems there's no better place for me." You pat the girl's hand before withdrawing your own from her clasp and rising to your feet. "Master of Caster, you have the support of Archer now as well," you declare, before adding in a wry tone, "though it seems I have little fighting power to contribute, lacking weapons and unaware of my True Name. Or did you learn about those as well when you analyzed me, Caster?"

"I learned a certain amount," Caster replies, answering your sardonic attitude with one of enigma. "Occupying the role of a Servant while not a Heroic Spirit, you have certain formless qualities. I think it's because you never had a true name in life that you have no True Name now. As for your arms, you have two Noble Phantasms. One is the cloak you wear, and the other has yet to coalesce into a material form. If you'd like to relocate to the hotel's training hall, I can help you draw it out and accustom yourself to using it in physical combat. I suggest you make use of your natural talents and develop your magecraft as a primary means of battle, though."

"Oh, are we to see Ani test his abilities? That sounds lovely," comments Liliesviel, eyes twinkling with curiosity. With some bemusement, you note how she refers to you. Evidently the girl was serious about regarding you as an elder brother. You have a great deal to learn, you suppose, about the family structure of your fellow homunculi. Also, their methods of using the language.

"Ani?"

"That's right, as I said before, you are my elder..." Liliesviel trails off, struck by a realization. Her cheeks go pink. "Excuse me, in that context it would be 'Onii-sama', wouldn't it?"

"That's right." You find yourself a bit relieved to see a human flaw in the girl, whose composed manner has been so at odds with her youthful looks. "One of the most common errors a talented student ends up making, learning another language. Knowing the right word, and using the wrong form." Without thinking, the kind of reassurance you used to give other students at Kyoutenkan falls out of your mouth.

"Yes, well," Liliesviel says, obviously still embarrassed. "I'll make sure not to make the same mistake again. Caster, let's go." Following the example of the two of you, she hops off her chair and starts off toward the elevator.

"Wait," you cut in, recalling a word in Caster's explanation and curious. "Before we move on, Caster called this 'the hotel'. I still haven't heard where we are, and this seems like as good a time as any. I assume this is your base of operations, but what sort of place is it?"

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 04:31:35 No.6269606 Report

Quoted By: >>6269672

"Oh, of course! You wouldn't know. This is the Marco Polo Hotel, a luxury tower hotel in Shinjuku." Liliesviel turns back to face you, spreading her arms to encompass the building and obviously happy to speak on a subject she's well-informed about again. "My family built it here a few decades ago, in case we needed somewhere to stay in Tokyo. It has always made quite a profit, and bounded fields keep mundanes from noticing any of the parts of the building we use. Everyone in this restaurant forgot it existed and left a few minutes before we came in. When they come back, they won't know anything was unusual about their day."

"Quite a method, for hiding in plain sight," you muse. From the way Caster and Edelfelt had talked about the workshops maintained by magi, you had the impression they would try to keep everyone out, and set up shop in the seclusion of a sealed mansion, or isolated tower. This is something else again.

"Yes." In spite of your compliment, Liliesviel pouts as if you'd voiced a critique of the hotel, one in which she shares. "In Fuyuki, where the previous Holy Grail Wars were fought, we had a marvelous castle built far outside of town, in a forest which was entirely maintained as the castle's estate and covered by its bounded field. But then, that was built two centuries ago, and there was far more space available. We must make do with what we have."

"I guess you do, at that." So, your first guess was more accurate after all. Remembering Caster's comments in the Akeldama about the necessity of solid gold decor, you can't help finding the whole thing a bit comical. From the most ancient right down to the present day, it seems an enchantress will always crave the showiest possible home. Forced to use it she might have been, but you prefer Liliesviel's home here in Tokyo to the castle she describes. Blending in with the ordinary folk strikes you as quite a bit wiser than making yourself a gleaming target, in a Holy Grail War.

"If your curiosity is satisfied, Archer," Caster begins, interposing her voice over your thoughts on strategy, "shall we make our way to the training hall?"

With a nod, you follow Liliesviel to the elevator and the three of you depart, leaving the sour-faced maid (or perhaps her colleagues) to clean up the restaurant and return it to its ordinary occupants. With a slender finger Liliesviel presses the button marked '44', and after a a short period of movement the doors slide open to reveal... a steaming jungle.

"Here we are," Caster declares brightly, stepping out into the brilliant greenery. "Shall I tutor you in magic, or would you prefer to train in physical combat?"

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 04:32:35 No.6269607 Report

Quoted By: >>6269616 >>6269638 >>6269648 >>6269657 >>6269672 >>6269743 >>6269833 >>6269884 >>6269912

>[ ] "Archer or not, magecraft seems to be what comes most easily to this body. Let's focus on that."

>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."

>[ ] "Hold on! What is this floor, some kind of indoor conservatory? How can you call that a training hall?" (Also vote for which type of training you'd like to prioritize after learning more about the forty-fourth floor.)

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Fri 04 Jul 2025 04:45:58 No.6269616 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
>[ ] "Archer or not, magecraft seems to be what comes most easily to this body. Let's focus on that."
Training arc before Tournament arc?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:00:45 No.6269633 Report

Quoted By: >>6269642

Also, Status Updated

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:07:05 No.6269638 Report

Quoted By: >>6269649

>>6269607
>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."
Half the classes have Magic Resistance and I don't want to bet that the imaginary elements can punch through it just because they're spirits.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:14:16 No.6269642 Report

Quoted By: >>6269645

>>6269633
>Anti-Self
Is that supposed to be Anti-Unit (Self)?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:21:15 No.6269645 Report

Quoted By: >>6269651

>>6269642
Now that you bring it up, I suppose it could be classed as an Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm, similar to God Hand. Equipment is always in an odd spot on the Anti-[_] spectrum, since the terms were obviously devised for offensive Noble Phantasms first.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:32:55 No.6269648 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."

>[ ] "Hold on! What is this floor, some kind of indoor conservatory? How can you call that a training hall?"

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:33:55 No.6269649 Report

Quoted By: >>6269651

>>6269638
>Half the classes have Magic Resistance
really ? fuck

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:42:15 No.6269651 Report

Quoted By: >>6269652

>>6269645
I meant that Anti-Self has only ever been used for The Queen's Glass Game, which turns back time to the start of the battle if you don't kill Nursery Rhyme before she uses it.
I personally apply Anti-Unit (Self) to NPs that primarily or solely affect you, and Anti-Unit to NPs that can affect any one person (which may or may not include you). God Hand only ever affects Herk, but Gae Bolg (the thrust) can affect anyone that Cu chooses to stab.
>>6269649
Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider. That's three classes out of seven which resist magic. That doesn't make Casters helpless by any means, considering that most of them are legendary magicians, but it does make things harder for them.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 05:51:10 No.6269652 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269651
There's no (Self) on it in the oldest example I have, just Anti-Personnel, so pulling from the canon I'd use that.
I've used Anti-Self before in Akeldama, but that NP was Anti-Self in a more literal sense.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Fri 04 Jul 2025 06:06:31 No.6269657 Report

Quoted By: >>6269679

>>6269607
>[ ] "Archer or not, magecraft seems to be what comes most easily to this body. Let's focus on that."
Magic Resistance can be annoying, but there are workarounds. Self-buffs and illusions could be good places to start.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 04 Jul 2025 06:31:29 No.6269672 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269606
>Shapeless Isle 2? 3?

We should have jumped out the window.

>>6269607
We need a full grasp of our abilities, and given we're an Archer, if we have to compromise and choose, I feel physical combat is where we really should hold off on.

I'd honestly like something halfway I between some of these options. We need to know what our NPs even do, and then given we have a goddess of magic here to tutor us for a bit, we should make use of that in case this alliance falls apart.

>Magecraft seems to be what comes most easily to this body. Let's focus on that. However, I would like to draw upon my Noble Phantasms first, before any heavy mana expenditure. They are too crucial to still know little to nothing about.

Given they've had plenty of time to molest us while unconscious (where did the mana refill come from?) they probably have more idea about our statsheet than we do at the moment too, which is actually probably more risky than a brief reveal in front of them here.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 04 Jul 2025 06:50:29 No.6269679 Report

Quoted By:

As a few anons have mentioned, Magic Resistance tends to cuck a lot of damage and debuff type magic unless we plan on hunting masters instead.

Because of this, >>6269657
support magecraft is probably ideal, as you say. We have such high Mana we can just use reinforcement to cover holes. We could also potentially make broken phantasm lite type projectiles if we do have a ranged weapon that actually synergies well with that type of magecraft.

I do think we should check what the NPs do before spending time on magecraft that might be completely redundant though, depending on what our equipment actually does and its mana efficiency.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Fri 04 Jul 2025 13:57:42 No.6269743 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."
Let's see what we're working with and then we can identify what areas need shored up by magecraft.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 19:23:30 No.6269824 Report

Quoted By:

Happy Independence Day, anons! Having plans for the holiday, I won't be able to update tonight. I do have an interlude for you, though:

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 19:24:31 No.6269825 Report

Quoted By: >>6269968 >>6269978

Interlude:
February 4, 2019 -Indulgence-
When I woke up, everything was different. Nothing was different.
I was lying in bed. I had been lying in bed before. I was lying in bed now.
There was no light on, but in the dark I could make out the features of the room perfectly clearly. A high ceiling that was built a long time before I was born. Tatami mats with a welcoming, traditional odor. The futon that (I had slept on for 18 years) I had never slept on before. The tower of a computer on (my) his desk, standing like a vacant office building with all of its lights dead.
The moon was shining somewhere, but in this room there were no windows.
I could feel that clear, white light.
I craved it. Wanted to drink it like sweet milk.

The clothing on my body felt heavy and strange when I stood up, layers of silk that felt like I'd been wrapped up like some pampered character's expensive present. They were perfectly familiar. This was how I should dress, not in that trash (I) he'd walked around in. Why would I want to wear something that had come over the sea?

My feet made no sound as I crossed the black space of the room. The door was silent too, air swirling thickly around it as I slid it open. Without the moon or the smell of anything living, this house was down at the bottom of an abyss, a noiseless, lightless world that someone had put me in to keep me from living. It wouldn't do any longer. I drifted down the corridor and the wake I left in the sluggish air drifted with me, whispering to the dead wood of the mansion about the changes that were coming.

I walked down the hall in the world of silence.

I opened the doors to the rooms where the people slept in their own black little incensed boxes, decorated with the things they loved and choking without the moon.
I hated them. I pitied them. I resented them. I wanted nothing to do with them.

I wove my way further out, until the air grew fresher. Before me was the door opening on the garden.
I touched it.
I felt the chill of living air.
Sound spilled into the world of silence.

The sounds of the garden were faint, subtle; soft wind rattled the branches of leafless trees, water in the pond shifted against itself as koi moved through it, somewhere in the distance a thrush cried. None of the people in the house would wake from the sounds, but however subtle the something may be its difference from nothing is infinite. Out here was the life of the world, all the delectable aromas of that life carried on the air. I breathed of that life, basked in the moonlight, and lived.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 19:25:32 No.6269826 Report

Quoted By:

I stared, for a time, at the moving koi. The entrancing shimmer of white moonlight refracted into all the varying colors of the prize fish the family had raised at great expense, sparkling patterns of bright red, blue, silver, orange shifting freely as the koi swam over and around one another. I thought for a moment that they were playful, but seeing the face reflected in the pool the realization entered my mind that they were frightened of a predator. I looked at the sky then, staring into the purity of the moon.

A voice, pale and ephemeral, spoke in my ear. The voice of the moonlight. It explained who I was, how I had come to be and what had become of him. Told me of my true kin, winning life for me, and the freedom I now possessed. It was the longed for dream of his ancestors, made real through spilt blood, and as I pondered on it I discovered my name. There was much to be done.

I returned to the silent manor, thinking on the people who had seemed so alien when I awoke. They could not be dismissed. They could be used. I felt his hatred of them at a distance, felt a stirring of hunger. Still, all slept. The nightingale floors that might once have alerted occupants of the antique building to intruders' presence made no sound as I passed with weightless feet.

Sleepers undisturbed by my silent passing were as oblivious to the influx of lively air into the stagnant place. No longer drifting, I moved with purpose to Ogawara Seiichirou's bedroom. His eldest brother, the future heir to the clan's wealth and repository of all hatred. The chill air of winter stole in with me and Seiichirou burrowed further under his blankets, unconsciously fleeing the tendrils of night.

Seiichirou's hair was smooth and slippery between my fingers. A poor handhold, but sufficient to haul him to his knees. He was as light as a rag doll now, ephemera of humanity easily moved by inhuman reality.

"Ngh- wha-?!"

Incoherent noises spilled from befuddled lips as the eldest son struggled to waken and understand his situation.

I don't know what he saw in my face, but it must have frightened him. Perhaps he, as the koi had, saw in me a predator. Tears welled in his eyes, and for the first time I saw weakness in a man who had spent his life treating his younger siblings as pebbles by the roadside. The eighth son would have wanted to take his time wringing every bit of emotion that could be got from Seiichirou, and I felt an echo of that desire. How pleasant would it be to stretch out his torment and let him feel every part of his body break before the end? There was something better to be gotten from him than his pain, though.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 19:26:33 No.6269827 Report

Quoted By: >>6269916 >>6269952

With my empty hand, I took hold of the heir's shoulder. I grabbed his jaw with the other. Before his first cry, I ripped the head from his shoulders. Life poured from his body, rather black than red in the night, and I drank deeply. I was electrified with it. Power ran through my body, invigorating every muscle, every tendon, every strand of hair. This was the true experience of living, of which the first breath had only been a thin foreshadowing.

When I had drunk all there was of the eldest son of Ogawara I made my way to the bedroom of the family head, the heir's head in my hands.

"Grandfather!"

My voice, I found, was soft, yet clear. It rang through the silent room and roused the old man. His reaction could hardly have been more different from Seiichirou's; his eyes fixed on my horns, naked glee on his wizened features. This was what he had waited all his life for, after all. He hardly looked when I tossed him the head of his eldest grandson.

"Ogawara Yatsuhide awoke the oni blood. From what he was, I have come to be. Henceforth this house will serve the legitimate head. Have you any complaints?"

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 04 Jul 2025 19:40:11 No.6269833 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
This choice is still open, to be clear. Interlude doesn't cut voting off on that. I'll be closing that vote and updating tomorrow.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:4nUTe+fp Fri 04 Jul 2025 22:30:17 No.6269884 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
>>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:unfGGftZ Sat 05 Jul 2025 00:08:24 No.6269912 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269607
>[ ] "Hold on! What is this floor, some kind of indoor conservatory? How can you call that a training hall?" (Also vote for which type of training you'd like to prioritize after learning more about the forty-fourth floor.)

>[ ] "Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else."

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 05 Jul 2025 00:30:17 No.6269916 Report

Quoted By: >>6269982

>>6269827
is that the same guy who killed the bosozoku ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Sat 05 Jul 2025 02:13:49 No.6269952 Report

Quoted By: >>6269982

>>6269827
RIP Yatsu-kun, hello Crimson Vermillion Oni dude... Onigawara.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 05 Jul 2025 02:39:19 No.6269968 Report

Quoted By: >>6269982

>>6269825
>A voice, pale and ephemeral, spoke in my ear. The voice of the moonlight.
I hope that's some kind of information-gathering skill and not his invisible grandfather whispering in his ear.
>Ogawara Yatsuhide awoke the oni blood
One wonders how a mixed-blood family managed to survive this long in a Fate timeline with a much stronger human order. Maybe it's because the counter force was pushing down on them that they failed to recreate an oni? Or maybe it became unviable generations ago and the Ogawara family are only persisting because they haven't realized it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 05 Jul 2025 03:11:32 No.6269978 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269825
>My feet made no sound as I crossed the black space of the room.

>>6264293
Even her footsteps are so subtle that she makes no sound as she walks, obeying etiquette that was outmoded a century ago.

Could it be?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 05 Jul 2025 03:16:21 No.6269982 Report

Quoted By:

>>6269916
Do you mean that other interlude where Matsuda made human paste out of the bikers? They have totally different interlude titles, and that event was clearly from Matsuda's PoV.

>>6269952
Awakening 2

>>6269968
In Matsuda's interlude, Judas spoke to him. Who else would it be? Unless oni papa-san is Zolgen-lite fun grandpa.

Ogawara is basically staking claim for the family in that last post though.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 06 Jul 2025 05:20:22 No.6270439 Report

Quoted By:

Though the scenery on the other side of the elevator doors is startling, you don't let it show. After Judas and his enclosed artificial world, you don't suppose any impossible feat by a magus will truly shock you. A jungle indoors is just one more impressive achievement, nothing unprecedented. You do wonder about Caster's intentions in calling this a 'training hall', or for that matter training in it, but perhaps rough terrain figures into her plans for combat training.

"Learning to draw out my proper weapon and getting used to physical combat as an Archer takes priority over everything else," you explain as you step out to follow Caster. The moment you cross the threshold, the heat and humidity hit you like a slap in the face. You hadn't thought it particularly wintry in the other areas of the hotel, the climate control being too effective for it to be really cold, but compared to this the inside of the elevator was a freezer. For the first time today, you're actually glad you didn't find any clothing to put on in the room where you woke up. The ephemeral cloak is plenty for this heat. Caster's light garb, which had looked absurd on a winter night in the park, is equally well-suited. Only Liliesviel seems out of place now. Glancing down beside you, you can see her practically wilting in the heat.

"Follow me, then," Caster chirps, and quickly makes her way further into the greenery. To your surprise, as you follow you discover the jungle to be not quite so wild as it first appeared. Though bird and insect calls resound through the foliage, which grows in mad profusion, at your feet is a well-kept gravel path extending from the elevator into the jungle. At least, you muse, there's no danger of getting lost.

After perhaps fifteen minutes of walking through the green tunnel, you break out of the treeline and onto gleaming white sand. The ocean, sparkling a brilliant blue pocked with occasional whitecaps, stretches off to the horizon in front of you, where it meets an equally blue sky. The sun is directly above your head, like noon at the height of summer. If this is all a facsimile, it's a very convincing one.

Although the beach continues for a great distance off to your left, until a curve in the coastline leaves only ocean visible, on your right the sand is broken some distance up the beach by a large river, emptying from the channel it cuts through the jungle into the ocean. On its bank sits a beautiful house of the kind one might expect to see lording over a tropical plantation in the days when colonialism was at its height, all porticos, columns, and balconies shining white to throw off the sun and heat. It is toward this luxuriant manor that Caster is now leading you.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 06 Jul 2025 05:21:22 No.6270440 Report

Quoted By:

"At last," Liliesviel cries as you reach the place. She rushes to the entrance; looking for something less stifling than countless layers of silk and velvet, you suppose, or at least for a cold beverage. You don't see the inside of the house yourself; Caster stops when you reach the grounds, where sand gives way to a manicured lawn and freshwater mixes with the salt.

"Here will do," Caster announces brightly, turning to face you. "Now, heed this." She raises one finger, posing as a teacher. You wonder for a moment whether this is a joke, or only a habit of hers while explaining things, but don't speak up. What she's saying is more important than such concerns.

"I've taught you before how to feel mystic energy within yourself and in your surroundings. Close your eyes, and feel for your own magical energy resting outside your body. It surrounds you in two parts, amassed as your cloak and in a formless body without physical presence."

You follow Caster's instructions, shutting out your ordinary sensations and turning the sense of the immaterial to the air around you, rather than inside yourself as you did this morning. It's true. Although it gives off so little energy that one wouldn't be able to tell without looking for it, the cloak wrapped around you is made up of your own magical energy, densely shaped into a physical form. If you exert your will on it, draw that energy back into yourself, the cloak should dematerialize. So this is how Servants summon and dismiss their weapons so easily.

The other portion, the shapeless energy, is clinging to you like a cloud of scent, surrounding you and keeping with you, but never solid. You lay your intent on it, willing it to take its proper form as the cloak has, but it only swirls around you, moved by your will to no purpose. It seems to have no inherent shape, even if you try to make it coalesce, only a sense of power intended for aggression.

"I have them," you say, "but the second power has no true form, even when I draw it together to materialize it."

"No," Caster agrees, "It is formless. A power with intent, but no identity. You need to give it its form, Archer, the form of your proper weapon. Envision your bow, the weapon perfect for you and no other, existing to slay your enemies and usable by none but you, the perfect bow for your hands. Only you can string it, only you can draw and fire it, it strikes only your foes, for this bow is your identity..."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 06 Jul 2025 05:23:15 No.6270442 Report

Quoted By: >>6270463 >>6270465 >>6270472 >>6270475 >>6270556 >>6270938

As Caster speaks, her words gradually taking on a rhythmic, almost hypnotic character, you deepen your focus on the energy around you until your conscious mind no longer hears her. Gradually you do find the image of the weapon taking shape in your imagination. A long, curved streak of darkness, like a perfect branch cut from some tree where light has never been, the same shadow-substance as your cloak, while being of a wholly different consistency. It is elastic, yet hard, both durable and flexible, a profoundly complex mystic code which functions as a conduit of magical energy to send your arrows anywhere you wish them to be, and a simple line of shadow. You open your eyes, and the bow is in your hands. Without string, without arrows, but perfectly usable just the same.

Status Updated

"Wonderful," comments a silvery voice. Looking up from the bow you realize that while you were focused on your weapon Liliesviel has returned from the house, a cocktail in hand, to curiously examine your weapon. Her outfit has changed as well, the exaggeratedly formal and decorative gown replaced by a swimsuit comparatively scandalous in just how much skin is on display, a sarong and a frilled bikini top. The change is so complete that for a few moments all you can do is stare in shock.

"I was certain you would have no trouble," Liliesviel goes on. "Still, is it not a marvelous thing, a Noble Phantasm created without a legend? Do show me what you can do with it, won't you?"

Before you can answer, Caster cuts into the conversation with a snap of her fingers. Light sparkles from the point of contact as if she'd struck flint and steel, and the flowing sparks rapidly spread and coalesce into the forms of seven lions spread protectively around her. All of the beasts have their eyes fixed on you.

"Now you have manifested your arms," Caster declares cheerfully, "we must get you used to combat. Go!"

At a wave of the witch's hand, the seven beasts leap toward you in unison. From the magical energy packed into their bodies and your memories of the Akeldama, you're quite sure that these creatures are a good bit stronger and tougher than the genuine animals.

>[ ] Back off toward the sea, hitting them with arrows once you've got a bit of space to work in.

>[ ] Meet the lions' charge, striking with your bare hands. Get a feel for the limits of your body's strength and agility now that you're a Servant, before relying on weapons.

>[ ] Grab Liliesviel and get her out of harm's way before battling Caster's familiars. A frail Master can't be left defenseless on a battlefield, especially when the weapons being used are wild animals.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 06 Jul 2025 06:40:34 No.6270463 Report

Quoted By: >>6270472

>>6270442
>[ ] Grab Liliesviel and get her out of harm's way before battling Caster's familiars. A frail Master can't be left defenseless on a battlefield, especially when the weapons being used are wild animals.
Tactics dictate that the fragile Master be removed from harm's way before a counterattack.
Moving on to the NPs, it looks like Yumi's built for wearing down singular targets with crippling debuffs before he goes for the killshot with an NP activation. He's a bit lacking in raw firepower or AOE for now, which could be a serious problem against Servants with defensive NPs. Ideally he should be the aggressor in a fight, since he's not built for defense.
>>In addition, with training the Shroud can be used to construct magic formulae, shorten incantations, and otherwise amplify [Archer]'s ability to activate magic.
Neat. Guess training magic will be our next priority.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 06 Jul 2025 07:04:33 No.6270465 Report

Quoted By: >>6270472

>>6270442
> “ ”, the Hollow Limb of Destiny: E++
>Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm. A strange-looking bow that [Archer] can manifest out of thin air. It is constructed out of that material which is the origin and element of [Archer], Imaginary Numbers, while both string and arrows are shaped from magical energy when the bow is drawn. While arrows fired by this bow lack the destructive power of conventional projectiles, they are highly effective against those whose nature involves Mystery, such as spiritual beings. Such beings struck by these arrows suffer additional direct damage to their soul and the conceptual foundation of their existence in the World. A Servant or other summoned familiar struck by this weapon's arrows will have its container and manifestation gradually eroded. While multiple strikes are required for damage to be permanent, this weapon is nevertheless the bane of spiritual beings. In addition, as all components of the bow are manifested of a mystic element, [Archer] can use it to fire various types of shots ranging from small rapid fire shots to massive charged arrows or trick shots. It is unknown what this weapon may be capable of when its True Name is invoked.

>INS bow created from the limb of a tree.

Considering we have the Adamic hero physiological and aesthetic going on, could this be a branch of the Tree of Life/Knowledge? Or Yggdrasil?
Also, it kind of reads like a spellbow in that the ammunition is whatever it is charged with. We could use this and Clairvoyance to launch curse magic across the city. It seems to inflict a spiritual bleed with successive shots too. I wonder if we can emulate or make better upon Gandr or some other debilitating curses that might inflict damage over time, or other status effects (Gandr is effectively a stun, functions as such in Extra). Sleep, burn etc and completely cripple something without it ever having the ability to engage us. I feel EMIYA had the potential to do stuff like this with all of the miscellaneous ammo he could have had access to but never did.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 06 Jul 2025 07:23:04 No.6270472 Report

Quoted By: >>6270501

>>6270465

> “ ”, the Shroud of Emptiness: A
>Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm. Once a more modest tool constructed by Circe of Aeaea, this fabric has developed into a Noble Phantasm. Hiding [Archer] from head to toe, the Shroud provides protection of a varied nature. The extent will remain unknown until tested in combat.
>Moreover, the Shroud itself is capable of movement; an extension of [Archer]'s own existence, its fabric can act as an additional limb under [Archer]'s direct control. The Shroud's Strength and Agility are equal to [Archer]'s own, although its Endurance is far less. The substance of the Shroud, composed of Imaginary Numbers, also possesses the same efficacy in combating spiritual beings as [Archer]'s arrows of the same substance. In magecraft, it acts as an efficient Support Formal Wear, acting as a conduit and amplifier of [Archer]'s magical energy akin to a magus's staff and partially akin to a magic crest. Through the conduit of the Shroud, magic can be activated from its surface as though from [Archer]'s body. In addition, with training the Shroud can be used to construct magic formulae, shorten incantations, and otherwise amplify [Archer]'s ability to activate magic.
>This may not be the full extent of the Shroud's abilities, as it has yet to be tested in combat.

I really wonder what's under the hood here to make it A rank. It was made from our hand in Akeldama, so its more physically 'us' than the imagined Bow.

It seems like with the extra limb feature it's not too different from the Sloth authority in Re Zero? Could likely catch someone off guard I guess.

Seems to be more of a magical amplifier than anything for now, so our magecraft capacity is likely much higher, and where we probably get our AoE from given as >>6270463 said, the bow is very much for bullying one target.

>>6270463
I wonder if there is even a point to grabbing her? It is her servant's familiars after all.

I guess its a good chance to test the clock's extension of the body feature. We already know our physical capabilities as stats, and we're an Archer so bow>fists.

>>6270442
>Channel your magical energy into the cloak to grab Liliesviel and pull her out of harm's way while gaining distance and striking the familiars with your Bow.

I had to reread to make sure we didn't actually dematerialise the cloak yet, because then we'd be grabbing the cute and funny while stark naked. We may still do this if the cloak doesn't extend as far as I'm assuming it can

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 06 Jul 2025 07:36:26 No.6270475 Report

Quoted By:

>>6270442
>[ ] Meet the lions' charge, striking with your bare hands. Get a feel for the limits of your body's strength and agility now that you're a Servant, before relying on weapons.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 06 Jul 2025 08:40:10 No.6270501 Report

Quoted By:

>>6270472
>I really wonder what's under the hood here to make it A rank. It was made from our hand in Akeldama, so its more physically 'us' than the imagined Bow.
I would say probably the breadth of effects. It acts as a third limb, it works like a crest to enhance [Archer]'s magic, it can most likely become a portal to IN space when it's activated.
>I wonder if there is even a point to grabbing her? It is her servant's familiars after all.
Sparring only helps if you treat it as seriously as live combat.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sun 06 Jul 2025 12:24:33 No.6270556 Report

Quoted By: >>6270801

>>6270442
>[ ] Back off toward the sea, hitting them with arrows once you've got a bit of space to work in.
Experiment with arrows. Bladed arrows, arrows that bind with imaginary ropes or chains upon impact.
If a lion gets close see if our cloak can be used for attack by manipulating it into a sort of whip or a set of closing jaws. It seems possible that damage done to spiritual beings with the cloak could translate to spiritual energy being absorbed by it, I wonder if we could use that to refill our reserves?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 06 Jul 2025 15:07:27 No.6270594 Report

Quoted By: >>6270801

>it kind of reads like a spellbow in that the ammunition is whatever it is charged with
I think it just means the bow and arrows are made of magical energy, same way other Archers can just manifest infinite ammo as a handwave, but even more so. It might even be that the NP is technically the ability to create a bow, rather than a singular, defined bow.
It does occur to me that if our cloak can be repaired with magical energy, we could indeed 'launch magic' by tearing pieces of fabric from the cloak and fixing them onto conjured arrows.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 06 Jul 2025 21:39:46 No.6270801 Report

Quoted By:

>>6270594
I wonder if there cloak maintains the link if torn from our person though? You lose the ability to move a finger if it is amputated for example. Depends how literal the connection turns out to be?

What magic did we actually master in Akeldama? I know Transference was a big one, and we also learned to direct the flow of mana between two servants so we should have aptitude with dual wielding NPs, especially ones which are described as extensions of ourself.

The Cloak is an extra limb, made from our own body, while the Bow Circe described almost as of it's a projection of pur Ego or Identity (we had a pretty big one in Akeldama given the Pride focus). Bows are weapons of kings on the hunt, but also that of a Robin Hood type bandit while in a lower or disadvantaged position (seems to be where we're stsrting givne its only E rank, and the Cloak is a much higher level of mystery).

We may have taken in aspects of Robin Hood (who was Assassin) from Akeldama, and so the cloak and bow might be able to utilise cursed poisons like Yew Bow or offer stealth like his May King or that unexplained wooded mask he wore. Given that he was Assassin not Archer, the stealth and Assassin techniques are probably more prominent and that might explain the much higher rank of the Cloak than the Bow?

>>6270556
Binding threads like this anon mentions would be really potent if they're made of INS, you'd have Sakura (negro)'s shadow line ribbons combined with Ilya's Einzbern thread weaving magic, given we're supposed to be an Einzbern. We actually need to get a good look at how Lilie uses her magecraft, Circe has already told us in Akeldama her method of HSDW magic isn't compatible with modern mages, but we might be able to pick up Einzbern magic pretty easily and then ramp up the potential manifold with A Mana and the Cloak amplification factor.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 07 Jul 2025 01:59:51 No.6270920 Report

Quoted By: >>6270938

We're tied. I'd like to start writing within the next few hours, is there anyone who has yet to vote?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Mon 07 Jul 2025 02:41:30 No.6270938 Report

Quoted By:

>>6270442
>[ ] Back off toward the sea, hitting them with arrows once you've got a bit of space to work in.
>>6270920
May as well break the tie

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 00:09:59 No.6271454 Report

Quoted By:

Apologies for the delay in posting. Some IRL problems cropped up last night, and I haven't had time to write. Here's another interlude, until I'm back to normal posting.

Interlude:
February 4, 2019 -Rampage-
When I got back to my bedroom my head was spinning like I'd just got through a bender. I took a long look at myself in the mirror, and that got it sorted out straight. Reflected in the cracked mirror, my life was looking just as split. On one side of tonight, a normal life. On the other, something else again. My eyes were red, most of the dye had run out of my hair leaving the blond my shitheel dad left behind streaked with black like a tiger's pelt, and there were points on my teeth I'd never noticed before. I couldn't quite say for sure, but I might even be a little taller. Sure, I'd felt the change fighting, and the priest explained it all to me, but it was those changes staring me in the face that brought it home. If I ever met Kaichou again I couldn't call him a monster anymore. I was one now too.

None of that really mattered though. What *did* matter was getting my hands on some money. The priest said he'd clean up the mess I made of those bikers somehow, but I trusted him as far as I could throw him and right now I couldn't even put hands on the fucker. Shit was bound to hit the fan sooner or later, and I wanted a fund to keep my trouble from coming down on the old lady. I went out there to keep the fuckers from waking her up; it'd make me some special kind of scumbag if she ended up in the shit on account of my fight. The bikers had some cash in their pockets, but nothing like enough to run from the law or the yaks. Lucky me, I knew a way of multiplying cash that my newfound skilllset made me prime for.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 00:10:59 No.6271456 Report

Quoted By:

Illegal gambling dens. Everybody knows they exist, but not everybody has the connections to get in and play. I did. While I stripped off my bloody clothes and went digging through the closet for something presentable, I tried to remember the exact address of the place one of my buddies had introduced me to. He had an older brother that worked there, and any friend of his was welcome. I hadn't gone too often, having cash to burn was rare, but what I did see was enough. They had a no holds barred fighting ring in the main hall, mostly professionals, but they took challenges off the street for entertainment value. Word was in the back rooms they held death matches for the real VIPs to watch and bet on. Never felt like being a gladiator before, but now? It was a whole different story.

There was just one problem. This goddamn hair wouldn't cooperate. I spent at least a half hour in front of the mirror, working pomade into it and trying to comb it up like normal, but it wouldn't do a goddamn thing except hang down to my shoulders. Finally I yanked hard enough the the fucking comb snapped in half right in my hand. Fucking hell, I just about put my fist through the wall. It was just the thought of my ma crying over the money to plaster up a hole that kept me in place. The cheap fucking shit was weaker than my hair, and that meant the end of my effort to fix my style up. I looked like a wannabe rocker on top of a foreign punk, but I had to give up and leave it now. The priest said I'd "find it difficult to hide your true form", but who the fuck would think that applies to hair products?

An hour later I was walking the mat in a fighting ring. The bouncer at the gambling den recognized me even with my new hair and eyes, probably just figured I changed my look up, and the fight manager just laughed when I said I wanted to take on their fighters. The fat pig was oozing contempt like the sweat on his forehead, but when I put a wad of cash down to bet on myself he took it. Figure I looked uncomfortable, and he caught a whiff of desperation. It wasn't the prospect of the fight or my lack of cash that had me on edge, though. In here I could smell every cigarette, every drink, every hunk of dried squid or grilled chicken skewer in every customer's hand, not to mention the sweat, cologne, and perfume they had on. If I focused on the fight manager's suety face I could see every pore in clear relief, and it wasn't much of a sight. I'd have some real adjusting to do, getting used to the new senses.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 00:12:00 No.6271458 Report

Quoted By:

The guy in shorts at the opposite corner looked like a boxer, bouncing back and forth with that dancing footwork, but we didn't have any gloves on. Seemed like these street challenges were a bit of a joke before the real fights, taking some untrained tough off the street, feeding him to the wolves, and letting him take his beating without any of the protection an athlete would have. He had 7 or 8 kilos on me. With me standing there flat-footed and distracted by the stink of the place, he must've figured he'd KO me in jig time. Anyway he came right at me as soon as the announcer finished introducing us. It was the same slow-motion spectacle as the bikers. Maybe even worse, now that I was getting used to things. I could watch the poor sucker's body uncoil like a spring to throw that punch, see the fist coming at me with all the speed of a forklift, and have plenty of time to roll my head out of the way. I tapped him on the chin with a light jab and he went down like I cut the power to his brain.

"This bum the best ya got?" I wanted to needle the manager, make sure they kept bringing lambs out to the slaughter, and that meant putting on a show for the crowd. I gave 'em my best grin. Here I was, a punk off the street, still in shirt and pants, with my hands in my pockets, and I'd put down their boxer without breaking a sweat or taking a step. Any stable of fighters that did that badly against me had to be faker than pro wrestling; that's how the fans would see it, anyway.

"What kinda shitshow're you runnin' here, huh," I yelled to the manager. "I came in for a fight, not a face-off with some bitch with a glass jaw! You make a habit of sending pussies like that out to test whether a challenger can throw a punch? I'll stake my winnings on myself, so gimme someone who can fight!"

<><><>

Yamazaki Rintarou enjoyed the nightly fights at Tagawa's quite a bit. The unassuming exterior of the building concealed a splendid old-fashioned gambling hall where one could bet in all sorts of traditional dice and hanafuda games. The prize attraction of the establishment, though, was without question the unsanctioned arena where professional fighters who, for one reason or another, had been barred from official combat sports staged nightly bare-knuckle bouts. It was the most brutal, authentic kind of fighting: no holds barred, no protection, and no decisions. Fights continued until submission or knockout. He couldn't make it every night, but whenever he had time and money to spend Rintarou hurried here. Tonight he had expected the same enjoyment as any other evening at Tagawa's, until the posturing young man with obnoxious tiger-striped hair entered the ring. An amateur challenger, his tall, well-muscled frame suggested a fighter, but his utter contempt for the ring made it obvious he was no athlete. Rintarou expected the youth to be quickly humiliated and sent on his way.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 00:13:01 No.6271460 Report

Quoted By:

Instead, the unthinkable happened. The arm of the youth blurred, too fast to see, and his opponent dropped to the mat like a sack of rice. Rintarou didn't want to believe it, but the hitherto authentic arena seemed to have begun staging their fights. Perhaps the young man, Matsuda, was a relative of someone to whom the management was in debt, or something similar, and his opponent had taken a dive. Rintarou's suspicion deepened as Matsuda began haranguing the crowd and management about his disappointing opponent and demanding another fight with a blatantly theatrical air. Still, Rintarou had paid good money for his seat for the night, and he'd watch the farce to the end before drawing his conclusions.

At first, things seemed to be looking up. The next fighter brought out to face Matsuda was one Rintarou had seen a number of times before, a Brazilian mixed-martial artist and specialist in jiu jitsu, Joao Rogiera. Although Rogiera's wins were usually by submission, he was a competent striker and well-rounded fighter who never turned in a boring performance. Unfortunately, tonight turned out to be his first. As soon as Rogiera got within striking distance of his relaxed-looking opponent, Matsuda's right arm blurred again. Rintarou could just make out Matsuda's fist buried deep in Rogiera's side for a moment, bending the man almost at a ninety degree angle, before the youth's hand was back in his pocket and Rogiera was slumping to the mat, foaming at the mouth. If he was taking a dive, it was a very well-faked knockout.

The third opponent, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth brought out before Matsuda went largely the same way. As soon as they entered striking distance, they collapsed from a single punch. When one struck from outside Matsuda's reach to land a high leg kick to the temple, it seemed for a moment that things had changed, but the challenger took the blow without a twitch, grabbed his opponent by the ankle, and slammed the heel of his palm into the man's temple with a lazy flick of the wrist. One more fighter had crumpled, sent sliding across the mat by the force of the blow, and the surreal image of an enormous cat toying with man-sized mice occurred to Rintarou. It wasn't just the coloring of the youth's hair that resembled a tiger; the way he stalked angrily across the ring between fights, pacing like a caged and hungry predator was the same. Rintarou blinked the image away. It was all ridiculous, a crude theatrical show to make this young man seem like a monster.

<><><>

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 00:14:01 No.6271461 Report

Quoted By:

By the time I'd finished six fights, all the seats around the ring were empty. Seemed the crowd wasn't interested in fights this one-sided, whether the management kept taking my challenges or not. No more spectators meant no more bets, and that meant the end of my winnings. I'd gotten enough out of the night's work to pay for a new place for a while, anyway, and the purple shade the manager's face turned as his bookie forked over the loot was plenty satisfying on its own. They'd probably be coming back for a reprisal, but it didn't matter. At this point, nobody could touch me.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 08 Jul 2025 15:53:51 No.6271857 Report

Quoted By: >>6271985

This is a non-sequitur, but in hindsight it's a neat coincidence that Alberich had Instinctive Magic as a skill, while Thia Escardos from strange fake performs magic by raw calculation and interacts with the magical structure of the world through his regular senses.
It's almost like Judas was setting out to create a new prime species or further evolution of mankind and reached the same conclusion as Mesala Escardos from a different angle. Slightly ironic, given how much Narita tries to tie strange fake to every other TYPE-MOON work.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 08 Jul 2025 19:07:50 No.6271985 Report

Quoted By:

>>6271857
>Slightly ironic, given how much Narita tries to tie strange fake to every other TYPE-MOON work.
All the moreso as I've never gotten around to reading Strange Fake. People are always coming around to similar ideas, eh?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pK8vq4Pz Tue 08 Jul 2025 20:33:11 No.6272048 Report

Quoted By: >>6272209

Am I the only one pissed that Ogawara and Matsuda got a cut of the power from the Akeldama? Their contributions were minor. Matsuda gave us some tips for fistfighting but did nothing directly. I know we had Ogawara researching servants to figure out their identity but I don't remember him actually getting any results. The fact that they got the same reward as us is strange. Maybe it's not truly a reward at all. I'm sure it's part of Judas' long term plans.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Wed 09 Jul 2025 02:15:03 No.6272209 Report

Quoted By: >>6272661

>>6272048
I mean, Ogawara Yatsuhide is kinda dead and his body was hijacked by an oni's genetic-memory wraith thing. That's not exactly a win for him. And while he has it a bit better, Matsuda Ryuuta seems to be turning into some kind of tiger-yokai/creature. We'll find out later if their human bodies are 100% dead, in which case they'd also probably need a substantial amount of magical energy all the time to not disintegrate.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:BI0c0VD3 Wed 09 Jul 2025 03:10:55 No.6272250 Report

Quoted By: >>6272306

Who is best girl so far?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 04:41:58 No.6272284 Report

Quoted By:

Before the lions can close distance with you, you leap back toward the sea. Like a skipping stone, the moment your feet touch the sand you're in the air again, widening the gap between you and the beasts far too quickly for them to catch up. For a moment you wonder whether Liliesviel will be alright, but quickly dismiss the concern. These are her own Servant's familiars after all, there's no chance they'd attack her.

When you feel the sea around your calves you finally pause to take aim. The lack of string or arrows should be a problem, like your lack of training, but you use the bow as naturally as if it were part of your body. At your empty-handed gesture of drawing the weapon back, a shadowy string of energy extends from your fingers to each of its ends, while the knocked 'arrow' forms as a narrow, shifting, conical mass of semi-darkness, like a whirlwind turned on its side. For a moment you tense, conscious of the fact that you've never so much as held a bow before today. Even your cloak, normally in constant motion, seems to wrap more tightly around you, as if the wind too were holding its breath.

You breathe in, then out. Loose. Shift your aim. Repeat. Three shots are fired in less than a second. Each finds its mark.

You observe the arrows' impacts with some interest; their effects are as unusual as their shapes. Rather than puncturing the lions' flesh as you'd expect, they blow holes in the familiars' bodies on impact. It looks as if the lions were made of wood, and each of your arrows burned a chunk of the material away. Around the edges of the cavities, the magical energy making up their bodies shimmers as it tries to repair the familiars.

A smile comes unbidden to your lips as you draw back your bow for another three shots, to finish off the wounded beasts. Just before you fire, though, you feel an urgent impulse and dodge to the right. In the space where you'd been a moment before, a shark of monstrous size lunges out of the deeper water, furiously snapping jaws that could powderize granite and raising a colossal splash in the pleasantly cool water. The shark has beached itself in the shallows, and looks doomed to suffocate, but that would be no concern if it had gotten its teeth into you. Thanks to your sudden motion though, the ambush was good for nothing more than soaking you in the sea. If anything, that's more of a positive.

As you look back to the lions, you realize what happened. Caster is no longer where she had been when she summoned them, but has disappeared from the scene to prepare further opponents for you. You must've seen her disappearance out of the corner of your eye while attacking the lions, and unconsciously realized it would mean a sudden attack. Clearly, physical abilities aren't all that was augmented when you became Archer.

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View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Day 3 Self-Reflection.png, 189KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 04:43:06 No.6272287 Report

Quoted By: >>6272306

"Splendi~~id," shouts a high voice, reaching your ears at length from the shore. Off in the distance you can see Liliesviel, sipping her drink and waving her free hand, cheering you on. As you watch her, you see an additional squad of lions materialize to supplement the first, all charging toward the sea with abandon. You nail two of them with arrows while jumping out of the way of another aquatic attack from behind, warned by the subtle change in the sound of the water. You'll have to be on the lookout for attacks from all angles, now.

Glancing down at the shark to send a shot into it, you catch sight of your face reflected in the ocean. The first look at yourself you've had, you realize, since your transformation. Not a bad face, you reflect. It's rather like the face you had in the Akeldama, all sharp edges and hard lines, as if a sculptor had set out with the outline of handsome features, but called the job finished before working in any soft curves. There's not much of Yumigawa Rushorou in the face, but for the Servant Archer it's good enough. It'll have to be, as it's apparently the face you've had all along, behind the fake one. Even the long hair framing your features suggests the passage of time. It looks as if it's never seen a barber, lacking any distinguishable cut lines. Was the hair you were having cut for the last eighteen years another phantom, conjured up by the magical illusion that made you look human? Maybe you'll never know now.

One of the lions, having finally closed the distance, interrupts your musing. You give it a kick in the nose for its trouble as you back off up the coast, sending an arrow into its flank before it can recover. There seem to be no end to Caster's familiars; apparently this is set to be a long training session.

<> <> <>

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 04:44:07 No.6272288 Report

Quoted By:

Interlude
On the roof of what Liliesviel von Einzbern called, with grandiose understatement, her 'bungalow', sat Circe of Aeaea, the Servant Caster, watching her former Master do battle against her familiars. This way and that, he cut through the water, constantly outpacing the animals when they gave chase, finding a way out if she tried to encircle him, and all the while peppering them with his strange arrows. That the cloak he wore blurred his form and difficult to focus on the man even when she knew where he was, made the beasts all the less likely to catch him. She yawned. It was an undeniably effective strategy, but terribly monotonous. Were this a real fight she would simply immobilize the space around him or the water at his feet, and strike while he was held in place. For the first day of training, though, that would be going too far. Thus, the repetitive running battle.

"He does learn quickly, does he not? I've yet to see him miss, and he never held a bow before today."

Caster spoke to the one sitting beside her, one of the Einzbern homunculus maids. This one was a combat model, seemingly incapable of emotion, but interested enough in the training of one of her 'family' to stop in her duties and watch from here. Caster was glad of the company, however bland the maid's manner.

"We all do," the maid declared simply. "If his role is to be an archer, he should know archery as soon as the bow is in his hand. But why does he not use magic, like Lady Liliesviel? For a Masterpiece to fight with a weapon is wasted ability."

"Perhaps because he has yet to learn enough of magic," Caster answered, surprised at the question. The maid didn't seem to distinguish between the way she had been programmed and the way Archer had learned things over the course of a human life. "It seems he received none of the conditioning the Einzbern give homunculi."

"Senseless," the maid declared bluntly. Her tone and expression stayed perfectly neutral, but her words conveyed a sense almost of anger. "The Einzbern magic is in the core of him, he must be able to perform it."

"Some deem it best to train one's weakest point first." Caster was willing to concede the point, having no particular desire to argue with the maid. "Perhaps that is the method Archer follows. Or it may be that he hopes to prepare for all situations. You mentioned Master, but she wouldn't be able to defend herself against an enemy with strong Magic Resistance, would she?"

"That..." The maid faded into silence, staring intently at Archer's high-speed battle with the familiars. "It could be true."

"Ask him yourself, if you would know," Caster suggested, patting the obviously confused maid in a friendly way. "I'm sure Archer wouldn't mind."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 04:45:07 No.6272290 Report

Quoted By:

"No, I mustn't." The maid shook her head quickly, twintails bobbing with the energy of the gesture. "Stängel says it is not the place of failures to speak impertinently to a Masterpiece like Lady Liliesviel. It must be the same with him."

This, Caster doubted. The other maid had been so ill-tempered in leading Archer to their table that she had expected Liliesviel to tell her off, but the girl never seemed to take a disciplinary stance with her maids. If this one asked the other about how to treat Archer, she would probably be told he deserved none of the respect due Liliesviel. Of course, Caster had no reason to share this surmise with the maid. It was no concern of hers whether the maid ever had her curiosity satisfied. With that, the conversation seemed to be at an end.
interlude out

<> <> <>

By the time Caster's through, the sun is half-sunk in the ocean, the sky is tinged with pink, and you have reason to know that even a Servant can tire. Before long she had eagles divebombing you, crocodiles snapping at your ankles and rushing along in the shallows, as well as agile panthers and wolves to supplement the lions and sharks. You must've killed at least 300 animals today, and kept yourself moving so fast that you've sweat enough to be soaked even if you hadn't been fighting in the sea. Still, you can be proud of one thing: Caster's familiars never laid a claw, fang, or beak on you.

As for getting used to using your bow, you're quite confident you have no need to go any further with that discipline. When your class was determined as Archer, you suppose mastery of the bow must have been imparted to you by the Holy Grail, or some other mystical phenomena. Shots of inhuman speed and precision feel second-nature to you, no more difficult than breathing. If there is more to learn about how to use your bow, it can only be in the operation of its magical functions as a Noble Phantasm. You even learned some of the nature of your cloak's functions, gradually becoming more aware of the effects caused by the energy it consumes as your fight went on.

Status Updated

Slumped in a wicker chair across from Caster and Liliesviel, you feel a bone-deep weariness unique in your life up until today. Perhaps it's the sense of having expended magical energy on physical exercise, or perhaps it's simply a matter of having kept yourself constantly working beyond human limits for so long, but it's a strangely refreshing weariness. It carries the sense of having genuinely tested your limits for the first time, something done in the spirit world of the Akeldama before, but never here in reality.

The three of you are sitting around a table on the balcony of Liliesviel's tropical manor, waiting for a maid to bring dinner around. Liliesviel looks thoroughly pleased with your performance, while Caster seems a little frustrated. The ease with which you handled her familiars surprised her, you don't doubt.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 04:46:08 No.6272291 Report

Quoted By: >>6272306 >>6272307 >>6272398 >>6272514 >>6272587 >>6272626 >>6272657

"Well," Liliesviel begins cheerfully, "it now seems quite clear both of you are thoroughly capable in combat. Let us go into the city tonight, and look for our enemies!"

"Have you forgotten that my divination has been incapacitated?" Caster asks testily. "Unless you care to wander aimlessly, there is hardly a point in going out blind."

"Onii-sama can perform our reconnaissance," Liliesviel counters, her cheer undimmed. "An Archer must have splendid vision at extreme distances, no? For leads, we can use the overseer sent by the Holy Church. She must have had contact with at least one or two Masters. Can you not track a Servant by the traces of magical energy it would have left at the Church?"

Caster bites her lip, either irritated by the contradiction or put out at not having had the idea herself.

"That may be possible, depending on the Servant," she hedges. "If we have no more direct leads, we might take that course."

Liliesviel turns to you, expecting a reply.

>[ ] Agree to search for enemy Masters and Servants beginning from the overseer's base of operations.

>[ ] Suggest the three of you remain in the hotel tonight. While Caster may be fine, you need to replenish magical energy, not rush into a potential battle.

>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life.

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 09 Jul 2025 05:08:46 No.6272306 Report

Quoted By: >>6272318 >>6272657 >>6272866

>>6272250
I was going to say Circe, but as of this update cloak-chan takes the lead.
>>6272287
Roa looks very pasty, he needs to get some sun.
>>6272291
>[ ] Agree to search for enemy Masters and Servants beginning from the overseer's base of operations.
>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life.
I've been wanting to do this in case Yumi's parents follow a trail or get taken hostage. Plus, it's closure for our old life as a feeble human.
I think scouting should be safe since we can see other Servants from a great distance and we have some degree of Presence Concealment so they can't sense us from the same distance. The only unknown should be Assassin but we have Instinct to help with a potential sneak attack.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Wed 09 Jul 2025 05:09:44 No.6272307 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272291
>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life.

Gotta let mom know we're ok.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 05:23:08 No.6272318 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272306
>as of this update cloak-chan takes the lead.
It's a Rank A NP for a reason, the thing is exceedingly versatile.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:waT7ABUX Wed 09 Jul 2025 11:59:32 No.6272398 Report

Quoted By: >>6272866

>>6272291
>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UMt2nASI Wed 09 Jul 2025 17:24:50 No.6272514 Report

Quoted By: >>6272866

>>6272291
>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life: call Student Council members and relay your last orders. Mention all clubs who need their budget cuts, revised, go through all preparation you had for future School Events and pass on all plans, passwords and data which Student Council needs to function.
Duty beyond identity/ego death.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 09 Jul 2025 20:07:28 No.6272587 Report

Quoted By: >>6272866

>>6272291
>[ ] Ask if you can borrow the use of a hotel phone, explaining that before you focus on the War you need to resolve some things from your human life.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 09 Jul 2025 22:01:35 No.6272626 Report

Quoted By: >>6272642 >>6272868

>>6272291
The write-in from UMt2nASI brings to mind a potential difference of intent I hadn't considered. As I was planning it, the "borrow a phone" option would lead [Archer] to call Yumigawa's house. I see two of you definitely had the same idea, one differed, and two voted for the option as written where it isn't specified. If you want to call someone other than Yumigawa's home, you can add it to your vote or reply to this post with who you want to call.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Wed 09 Jul 2025 23:00:36 No.6272642 Report

Quoted By: >>6272866

>>6272626
I like calling up the Student Council too, maybe getting a feel on Shijou's movements as well.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 09 Jul 2025 23:30:29 No.6272657 Report

Quoted By: >>6272866

>>6272291
>>6272306
Call home, and a friend from Student Council (maybe call Eva intentionally and try and set up a meeting actually?)

I had a huge post ready to send about what's transpired in the update and the interlude and update but I swapped tabs to post a link it it disappeared. Phonekekking is truly the worst hell.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 09 Jul 2025 23:48:09 No.6272661 Report

Quoted By: >>6272840

Cloak-chan has us kitted up to be a very effective Sniper, all we lack is raw fire-power. Something is cockblocking scrying too which is odd, given how powerful Circe is as a mage and her now A++ mana. We're probably the best kitted Servant of the war in terms of recon and intel gathering now thanks to Clairvoyance/Instinct/Cloak-chan fortunately.

Given it has a whole bunch of skills you could easily attribute to Robin Hood's May King NP, there's a good chance everyone who was empowered (or cursed) by Akeldama has a mishmash of skills from the servants that died in that ritual.

Blackbeard's kit is interesting, as he can enslave crewmen, so I wonder who got that.

There are also two sets of Battle Continuation potentially floating around, and I'm pretty sure JUSTinian had Territory Creation for his cathedral NP.

Archer's Fragarach style NP and his Iron Plate were incredibly difficult to deal with so I wonder who got those.

Fortunately it seems like Matsuda is still a pretty good guy at heart, he's trying to make money to get his mother out of the situation he's now in. I don't think he killed anyone in the fight club, either. His rage blackout against the bikerpaste suggests Madness Enhancement, so maybe Adelheid died and didn't find a Master like Circe?

Perseus' toolkit is a huge wildcard. I wonder if anyone got the Medusa Mystic Eyes?

>>6272209
Onigawara seems to be voring family to stay alive for now, and Matsuda killed all 12 bikers, but neither have demonstrated anything other than raw Servant stats. Akeldama Matsuda spawned back to reality at death's door due to mana bleed, and this one seems a lot more lively. He also recalled us positively and has a life debt to us in Akeldama. Might be a good front-line fighter ally if circumstances allow.

I do wonder though, we likely have Archer's Independent Action, but the other two don't seem to be starving for mana like Matsuda was in Awakening. Did they get a starting mana battery from all the dead servants? Or given that these new 'servants l' had physical human forms they are now demiservants/pseudoservants of a sort, and can stay manifested without a master (mana usage is another story).

Or, given that this was the handiwork of Judas of all people, and he has what amounted to a Hero Maker type ritual NP, there is always that other 'Independent x' skill that allows for beings to persist without a Master..

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 10 Jul 2025 05:43:26 No.6272840 Report

Quoted By: >>6272845

>>6272661
I would say Ogawara probably got the enslavement and other esoteric powers, while Matsuda got things like Iron Plate and Battle Continuation. I'm guessing the three Akeldama winners were meant to work as a team, Matsuda drawing all the attention and tanking hits (based on what I've seen), Yumi sniping enemy Servants with soul-shredding arrows, and Ogawara providing support (speculative).

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO SMT_III_White_Rider.png, 1MiB, 1200x920

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 10 Jul 2025 06:51:38 No.6272845 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272840
Given how most Oni act, Onigawa could be Berserker/Assassin/Caster..? We'll see if any weapons help give it away in future interludes as I doubt going to the overseer is going to have us crossing paths anytime soon.

Was also a Caster in Awakening.

Matsuda seems most akin to a Berserker so far, but his NP might mean he's a melee based knight class..?

Was originally Lancer in Awakening.

We're an Archer, but we also have high aptitude for Assassin/Caster too given what Cloak-chan offers and our Magecraft potential.

That covers all but Rider and the Extra classes. Maybe, given all the girls we've been presented we have Rider aptitude? There was a 4th playable character way back at the start of Akeldama too, the office worker we curbstomped. Maybe Judas was making the 4 horsemen or something within his ritual space?

These combinations all feel very alterego-y honestly. Especially if the powers are composites of what was absorbed in Akeldama. I wonder if we're going to get schizo headmates of dead Akeldama or even freshly killed servants given we're an cup and should vore those that die. Would fit the white rider idea too, as the master of death?

On that note, who actually gets to eat the servants who died now that there are two cups?

Are we gonna end up a vegetable like Ilya/Iri as we vore servants?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 10 Jul 2025 07:22:34 No.6272866 Report

Quoted By: >>6272867 >>6272873 >>6272875

>>6272657
Just to clarify, you don't know Eva's phone number, so she's not an option.

>>6272514
>>6272642
You could call Ikeda, Yumigawa's friend from the Student Council.

>>6272306
>>6272398
>>6272587
Who did you three want to call? I'm guessing that's Yumigawa's house for QOwslPbx. I ask because there isn't a clear majority here, and who he would think to call first when reflecting on his human life is a significant characterization point for the protagonist which your vote would determine. Whether he values the 'family' he was given more or the 'role' he was taught. Or, if you want to call Ikeda just to get information on Shijou, that would be a different characterization again.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Thu 10 Jul 2025 07:24:11 No.6272867 Report

Quoted By: >>6272868

>>6272866
I didn't know we had to specify. In that case, our house/mom to calm our parents down.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 10 Jul 2025 07:26:40 No.6272868 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272867
Like I said here, >>6272626, I had written the option with calling Yumigawa's house in mind, but the write-in of calling someone else opens the question. Thanks for clarifying.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 10 Jul 2025 07:41:46 No.6272873 Report

Quoted By: >>6272875

>>6272866
Cheers for clarifying senpai. Removes that fleeting fancy to investigate her.

My vote was originally to call home/stuco and then go scout. I think order wise the parents are probably most important even if they're surrogates. They still gave him a normal life that a homonculus is often denied. Yumigawa was pretty successful honestly as a human, the Emptiness is probably a symptom of being a hollow vessel and maybe even a curse if our Origin.

Unkess any other anons would maybe consider the option of calling home, and then scouting, but go scout out that building we saw on the news that had the beheading episode? Or the other house that had red goo everywhere (that sounds like a summoning ritual desu).

We could try tracking those locations for mana signatures before the lead runs cold. Circe might be able to advise if there is likely tonstill be traceable mana residue after 2+ days. We can always just visit the overseer another time, right?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 10 Jul 2025 07:43:18 No.6272875 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272866
You're right, I want to call Yumigawa's house and tell them everything's OK.
Like >>6272873, I wanted to call home and scout afterward.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 10 Jul 2025 09:40:04 No.6272895 Report

Quoted By:

You answer Liliesviel's expectant look with a lazy smile, uninclined in your weary lassitude to match either her cheer or Caster's shows of emotion. You can't exactly agree with her proposition, though. Something has been nagging at the back of your mind ever since you woke up this morning, and it's high time you give it a portion of your focus. For one night, at least, this can take priority over the Holy Grail War.

"The plan sounds fine," you answer, "but I can't follow it with you right away. I'm afraid there are some affairs from my human life that need to be wrapped up before I can give the War my attention. You wouldn't mine lending me a hotel phone, would you?"

"Hm?" Liliesviel's eyes widen. She regards you with blank surprise for a moment, before regaining her self-control and composing her features back into a polite smile. "No, of course not. You're welcome to use the facilities of our hotel as you like. We have no telephones on this floor, but a maid will lead you back to the elevator."

"Thank you, but I can do without." You give Liliesviel a sardonic grin, remembering the thoroughly unpleasant attitude of the maid she sent to bring you to the restaurant. As you get to your feet you look hard at the jungle canopy, an impenetrable mass of green to human eyes. Now you can just pick out glimpses of the white gravel path you followed here through tiny gaps in the foliage. No, you'll have no need to put up with any hostility from a guide.

"O-oh, I see." Perhaps remembering her own struggle to navigate the jungle, Liliesviel sounds surprised and a little impressed by your refusal. "In that case, I hope your business goes well."

"Thank you. I'll try to work things out quickly, but in case I don't return in time." Giving each of the two a nod, you saunter toward the edge of the balcony. "Liliesviel, Caster, enjoy your dinner. Good evening." You hop over the balcony railing and plunge into the greenery below.

A short while later, after retracing the path you mapped out with your eyes from above, you find yourself standing in front of the elevator. It's a surreal sight, in the jungle. It looks like a tiny metal building, perhaps a sort of shed, protruding out of the ground. There's no wall beyond the four sides of the elevator itself, and no shaft for it to ascend through, though you know this isn't the highest floor of the hotel. You hadn't looked back before, when entering this odd space, and so had just assumed there must be a wall here as on the other floors. Instead you find yourself face to face with something that should be completely immobile. When you press the call button, though, the doors slide open readily without so much as a sign of poor maintenance. One more idiosyncrasy of the world of magi, you suppose.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 10 Jul 2025 09:44:38 No.6272897 Report

Quoted By:

For a moment you consider taking the elevator down to the lobby, where one would traditionally find public phones in a hotel, but with the decline of public telephones everywhere in the last 30 years there's no guarantee there will be any in place. Instead you ascend, retracing the path that led you down into the hotel from the top-floor rooms where you awoke. What you had assumed was a condo at first glance you now guess is likely a sprawling hotel suite, and if there's a phone anywhere in this place it should be there.

Sure enough, after passing down the corridor opening on the elevator and crossing a living room immaculate in its magazine-like luxury modern furnishings, you find a land-line telephone sitting on a side-table set up at one arm of a recliner beside the picture window. A commonplace piece of furniture in the 20th Century, for a man looking to use the phone wile relaxing and enjoying the view from the 52nd floor, but nothing else in the suite looks that old. Lucky for you, you suppose, that the practice of keeping conventional phones in hotel rooms for ease of communication with the front desk has outlasted their common placement in almost any other setting.

You punch in the phone number of the Yumigawa family's apartment, suddenly uncertain how this conversation might go as you listen to first the dialtone, then the electronic sound of ringing. You had wanted to reassure the woman you've known as your mother until now, tell her that you're fine, weren't the victim of some crime last night, invent some excuse for why you haven't been home, but more foundational questions occur to you now as you wait for her to pick up. Will she even recognize your voice as that of Yumigawa? With the change in body size has come a shift in vocal tone, your seemingly older body possessing a deeper voice at odds with that of the teenage Yumigawa. Supposing she does recognize you, how can you reassure her when you have no idea when you'll be able to visit the apartment and see the Yumigawa couple again?

As you turn these questions over in your mind, the phone at Yumigawa's apartment rings, rings again, and rings some more. After the synthetic tone repeats itself nine times, the ringing cuts off and a robotic voice informs you that the party you are trying to reach is unable to answer the phone at this time, offering you the opportunity to leave a message. A sense of unbalancing assails you, as if you'd taken a step down a stairwell and thrown your foot into empty air. In the early evening, Yumigawa Setsuna is always at home; she would never be unavailable to answer the phone at this hour, unless her husband were there with her to occupy her time, and that's hardly a likely prospect. Even then, you would hear her own recorded voice explaining that she couldn't get to the phone. You dial the number again, wondering if you'd made a mistake and called some other line instead, but the same result repeats itself.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 10 Jul 2025 09:45:39 No.6272898 Report

Quoted By: >>6272902 >>6272958 >>6273040 >>6273044 >>6273244 >>6273251 >>6273888

The undeniable conclusion impresses itself on your mind. Something or someone has either replaced the phone receiver at the Yumigawa home or rerouted line to connect the number to another location. What fails to present itself is a motive. Just what is this? A ploy to get at you? Some obscure grudge against Yumigawa Gorou from the business world? Unlikely as it may seem, a simple and badly-timed technical breakdown?

>[ ] Return to the training area to tell Caster and Liliesviel that you're returning to your previous home to investigate. Something must have happened.

>[ ] You remember the girl who knew your identity and whose Servant tried to kill you yesterday, Shijou. What might she have done after you disappeared? Explain your suspicions and find out if Liliesviel knows anything about her.

>[ ] Put the issue out of your mind. Whatever happened to the Yumigawas, with the identity of their son stripped from you it's no longer your concern. Focus on the Holy Grail War and the hunt for enemies beginning with the overseer's base of operations.

>[ ] Put the issue out of your mind. Whatever happened to the Yumigawas, if it involved Masters and Servants you're in no condition to hunt for the perpetrators tonight. You need to recover your magical energy before starting any combat.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 10 Jul 2025 10:14:03 No.6272902 Report

Quoted By: >>6273040 >>6273260 >>6273888

>>6272898
>[ ] You remember the girl who knew your identity and whose Servant tried to kill you yesterday, Shijou. What might she have done after you disappeared? Explain your suspicions and find out if Liliesviel knows anything about her.
>[ ] (Write in) Ask Caster to send some familiars to the Yumigawa apartment. Even if they are killed, you will have defused a trap.
A move like this isn't Ayaka's style, and I doubt she would allow Bryn to do anything like it. I think someone else saw Yumi turn into Archer and decided to lure him away from the Einzbern and a Caster.
On account of that, I'm voting that we have Circe send familiars before jumping in. If the enemy doesn't respond, we find out what happened to the Yumigawas; if the enemy kills the familiars, we know it was a trap, and we might get a glimpse of the Master or Servant; if the enemy somehow compromises the familiars, Circe might notice it and let us know.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:UtSFdjsj Thu 10 Jul 2025 15:15:10 No.6272958 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 10 Jul 2025 20:53:55 No.6273040 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272898
This is a pretty good option >>6272902

However, given Circe's PoV in that update I'm not sure how she's going to take to us trying to give her commands. We aren't her Master anymore. Cute and funny seems like she wouldn't be too upset about it though.

Could have sworn we had Charisma in Akeldama, which would help. I wonder what happened to that?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Thu 10 Jul 2025 21:04:41 No.6273044 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272898
>[X] Return to the training area to tell Caster and Liliesviel that you're returning to your previous home to investigate. Something must have happened.

Even if we're allied we still have our own autonomy, and this is Rushorou business. Let's get to the bottom of this, as it's likely related to Yggdmilennia; that is if they really were behind our "family life".

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 11 Jul 2025 05:34:44 No.6273244 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:N61h6fPH Fri 11 Jul 2025 06:09:45 No.6273251 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272898
>[X] Return to the training area to tell Caster and Liliesviel that you're returning to your previous home to investigate. Something must have happened.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:lMIzrc8/ Fri 11 Jul 2025 06:56:22 No.6273254 Report

Quoted By: >>6273260

I've just finished 13 hours of traveling and sat down in my hotel room to see if I could get any writing done tonight, and I see we're tied.
Between the late hour and the tie, and considering this is a fairly important choice, I'll let you work out what course of action you'd like to pursue and update tomorrow instead.
FYI, I'll be on a road trip for the next week, so that's bound to impact the quest.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 11 Jul 2025 07:37:08 No.6273260 Report

Quoted By: >>6273888

>>6272902
>>6273254
I'll drop the write-in to have Caster send familiars if nobody else breaks the tie.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Sat 12 Jul 2025 18:05:24 No.6273888 Report

Quoted By:

>>6272898
>>6272902
Support, if the writing hasn't started yet

>>6273260
Keep it :)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:3Pbbd+Q6 Sun 13 Jul 2025 06:09:25 No.6274138 Report

Quoted By:

Sorry for the lack of posting. It's been a very hectic last couple of days, and I've had no time to think about the quest. Hopefully things will settle down tomorrow and I can get an update out in 14 or 20 hours or so.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO It's over.png, 49KiB, 335x332

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Wed 16 Jul 2025 03:23:33 No.6275390 Report

Quoted By: >>6275394 >>6275423

Is it over?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 16 Jul 2025 03:29:14 No.6275394 Report

Quoted By:

>>6275390
nah, he said this week would be complicated for doots.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:if+3gvSP Wed 16 Jul 2025 04:59:48 No.6275423 Report

Quoted By:

>>6275390
Day 6 of travel. Sorry again, of course haven't been able to update again. I won't make any promises about when I can write during the trip, since the last one turned out wrong, but the day after tomorrow I expect to be home and back to my usual schedule.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 01:36:14 No.6276325 Report

Quoted By:

You drop the receiver in its cradle and think, reflecting on all that's happened since you left the Yumigawa house. You're still turning possibilities over in your mind as you start making the return trip to the forty-fourth floor and its island. There's only one real clue to what might have happened there in your absence, the one event that stands out most clearly from all the rest: the attempt on your life last night. After you escaped from Shijou and Lancer, she might've gotten your address from the school and gone to wait at your house, hoping you'd return to lick your wounds at home. It would be a trivial thing for a magus to get that kind of information out of the school authorities, and she has enough motive to want the Yumigawa family out of the way.

The strange thing about this theory is the message on the telephone. As far as you know, someone would have to go out of their way to reset the outgoing message on the voicemail to the factory standard, and there's no reason for someone hoping to lay an ambush for you to warn you like that. Could some third party have changed it, hoping to alert you to the situation? It seems far-fetched. Then again, whatever the holes in the Shijou explanation might be it's the only one you can act on; the only other explanation that comes to mind is this being the work of the mysterious Yggdmillennia family Liliesviel spoke of, and you have nothing to go on in that line but the name. If you're to investigate any potential culprit, Shijou seems the best.

How to investigate her, though? You don't know where Shijou lives, if you wanted to confront her directly, and rushing back to the Yumigawa house where you expect a trap seems like a thoroughly ill-advised course to take. The only thing to do is gather as much information as you can. Although she said she didn't know much about the other Masters, Liliesviel may have gathered information on the local magi; hopefully you can get a better grasp of the situation by asking her about Shijou.

By the time you've made up your mind, you've also made your way back to the tropical villa on the forty-fourth floor's island. You leap up to the balcony to find Liliesviel and Caster still mid-meal, enjoying an enormous roasted tuna with lemon slices wedged into its gills, while an expressionless maid waits beside the table to clear away dishes or refill drinks as needed.

"Ah, Onii-sama has returned," observes Liliesviel with a smile, and waves a limp hand in the direction of the empty seat and place set at the table. "Have you finished your personal business? Please join us, I believe we shall never finish this monster without help."

"Not exactly finished," you answer dryly. "I had hoped to explain my disappearance to Yumigawa's parents, but the home seems to be empty. I expect another Master is involved." You cross to the table and drop into your chair, but don't join the other two in eating. There may not be time.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 01:37:15 No.6276327 Report

Quoted By:

"Oh?" Liliesviel perks up, curiosity writ plain across her features. "Do tell."

"I don't know how much of my experience last night you observed," you begin, "but the wound I had when you found me was Lancer's handiwork. I had a run-in with her Master, a schoolgirl named Shijou Ayaka, and that confrontation seems to be when the illusion keeping me appearing human broke down. How it felt to me was that Lancer killed Yumigawa Rushorou, and I came back as Archer."

"A death and rebirth," Liliesviel murmurs, touching a finger to her lips. "What a romantic way of experiencing such a transformation..."

"Romantic?" You raise an eyebrow. Whatever appeal the girl finds in your experience, it wasn't apparent to you. "At any rate, Shijou seemed to think I was a Master, her Servant thought I was a Servant, and it came to blows. I shook Lancer off once I knew I couldn't defeat her in close quarters, fled into a nearby greenbelt, and eventually arrived in that park." Thinking back on it again, you now suppose you have your cloak to thank for your survival. Without the Shroud of Emptiness masking your presence, you're sure an accomplished warrior like that woman could have chased you down.

"But the key thing is, Shijou knew about Yumigawa Rushorou." You tap your fingertip against the glass tabletop to emphasize the point. "If she was set on taking me out of the War, it's not much of a stretch to think she would wait for me at Yumigawa's home. That said, I don't know enough about her to say whether it's in her character. Considering that she's a local magus, do you know anything about the girl?"

"Shijou?" Liliesviel turns an impish smile on you, seemingly pleased to be relied on. For a moment you wonder how isolated she must have been until now, to take such pleasure in simple interactions like this, but you put the thought from your mind and focus on immediate concerns. "I do know of her family, at the least. The Shijou lineage is the Second Owner of this area, and when Einzbern prepared the Holy Grail here we cooperated with them in using the land. I had heard the current head was a young girl and a coward, but I suppose her blood made her a Master in spite of inclination."

"The Second Owner?" Although it isn't exactly material to your line of investigation, the unfamiliar term provokes your curiosity.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 01:38:16 No.6276328 Report

Quoted By: >>6276837

"A sort of territorial lord within the structure of the Mages' Association," Liliesviel explains smoothly, as if expecting the question. Evidently she's acclimated to your ignorance of magus society. "Those who choose not to enter the Association's community ignore the system, but for magi who operate within its rules, the Second Owner of a region is a significant figure. Any given magically rich region will have some line of magi with a connection to the land designated by the Association as its representative or lord, the Second Owner. The head of this family presides over local magi, and coordinates between they and the broader Association's upper hierarchy. For a magus to operate in an area without the permission of its Second Owner is a breach of the Association's etiquette, and depending on the strength of the Owner's connection to the land, could have significant magical consequences."

"I see. Shijou should be aware of most anything happening in the vicinity then, provided it's above board with this Association." You're half conversing, half thinking aloud as you formulate a conclusion on what sort of a danger Shijou might represent. "She would be aware of this Yggdmillennia project you've told me about, potentially even working with them on it, no?"

"Her parents would have known," Liliesviel answers with a shrug, "but as you said, the younger Shijou is a child. I doubt she has the capacity to properly carry out her role. One imagines there has been no oversight of magi here in ten years, aside from that provided by the Holy Church. Even were that not so, a Shijou would never collaborate with an Yggdmillennia now."

"Oh?"

"Magi from the Yggdmillennia tried to wipe out the Shijou ten years ago," Liliesviel explains. "It was a horrendous scandal, they were attempting to take ownership of the territory by force and any number of ordinary people died. The fools destroyed several city blocks. The Association and Church were put to a deal of trouble preventing the mundane world from learning too much, and Yggdmillennia was harshly chastised. One must suppose the last Shijou loathes them with every fiber of her being."

"Sounds like the preparation for this War was a bit of a war itself," you observe with amusement. "If the Yumigawas were involved with Yggdmillennia, and Shijou learned about that only recently, it would give her another reason to launch an attack. I think it's safe to say she's the one."

"But surely you don't intend to go there and confront her." Liliesviel makes the statement a question, her fine brows drawing together in concern. "Shijou Ayaka will have Lancer waiting for you in ambush, if she has done as you suspect."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 01:39:19 No.6276329 Report

Quoted By: >>6276837

"No... It is a shame we can't rely on Caster's scrying. The thing would be done in no time." You finally cut a fillet off the fish and serve yourself, as you consider how to investigate the ambush without stepping into one. It's delicious, both succulent and filling, while remaining light; cooked just enough that none of the fish's essential flavor is compromised. The quality of the fish itself is so perfect that any seasoning would only detract from it.

"If you would care to try your own hand at divination, you are welcome to," Caster replies testily. The comment has literally ruffled her feathers, you notice with a smile. It seems Caster's pride in her magical potency has just as much of a competitive edge as it did in the Akeldama.

"Of course," you continue, as if you hadn't heard her remark, "you can still gather information through your familiars, can't you? Training with me hasn't worn out your capacity for summoning?"

"Of course I can!" Caster's irritation at your friendly needling boils over. Though you often saw her mock others during her time as your Servant, clearly she has no tolerance for being poked fun at herself. "I have no need to summon them! My falcons are already all around this hotel, keeping watch outside the boundary fields. At my command, they'll search that house so thoroughly that even the mice will be counted!"

"Good. Look into it for us, then. If we're lucky we'll find Shijou, and you'll have done just as your Master wished and tracked down one of our enemies tonight."

"That sounds lovely," Liliesviel chimes in. "Please do look, Caster."

With that, the matter is settled. You give Caster the Yumigawas' address, and the focus of her eyes turns to somewhere in the middle distance as her will extends out into the flock of birds she uses to gather information. For a while you and Liliesviel quietly eat, just enjoying the meal and waiting for Caster's report.

"The house is dark," Caster announces. "It looks unoccupied. Nothing moves inside, there are no lights, and there is no presence of a Servant in the area. There are others, humans, outside. Who are these?" This last question seems more directed at herself than you, and you remain silent while Caster continues.

"There are six men in the yard, dressed in some kind of canvas uniform. It looks like a work uniform of some kind, perhaps. One of them carries a camera, he's photographing the house lit by sunset. Another is planting a sign in the lawn, hammering a stake into the turf. It says the house is for sale. A third of the workmen has a clipboard, it looks like he's taking notes on the condition of the house, its interior area, and so-on. The others are just standing around. Wait!"

Caster's focus pulls back into the here and now with a sudden twitch, her eyes now on you. She looks shaken.

"I was watching that house from three different vantage points, through the eyes of three falcons. All vanished at the same moment."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 01:40:20 No.6276330 Report

Quoted By: >>6276352 >>6276402 >>6276405 >>6276523 >>6276660

Apparently there is a trap set, and it's a subtler one than you'd expected. Unlike the straightforwardly violent Lancer, though this could be Shijou's touch. Then again, perhaps you're reading the situation wrong altogether, and it has nothing to do with the Master of Lancer.

>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, it's an area dangerous enough to be worth avoiding. Go forward with Liliesviel's original plan of looking for other Masters from the overseer's base of operations.

>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, you'll have to visit in person to get a clear idea of the situation. Tell Liliesviel and Caster you want to investigate directly.

>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, it seems dangerous enough that you shouldn't get involved in the situation while low on magical energy. Spend tonight recovering what was expended while you healed and during training, then investigate tomorrow.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 18 Jul 2025 02:23:16 No.6276352 Report

Quoted By: >>6276368 >>6276837

>>6276330
>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, you'll have to visit in person to get a clear idea of the situation. Tell Liliesviel and Caster you want to investigate directly.
Those workmen should be employees for a Yggdmillennia front, in which case the ones standing around must be supervisors of some sort, maybe even magi. The fact that the three falcons disappeared at the same time indicates... some kind of mystic code or bounded field embedded in the household and only recently activated? If it were a Servant acting manually, it would have to be a ridiculously fast one with Presence Concealment, or else one with an equivalent ability to the aforementioned security system. Maybe the real Caster cut Circe's bond with her familiars, but that would be an astounding feat to say the least.
Either way, it's a risk we have to take for an opportunity to sneak in and grab a workman. We'll just have to avoid getting into a protracted engagement with an enemy Servant (if any).

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 18 Jul 2025 03:30:13 No.6276368 Report

Quoted By:

>>6276352
>Maybe the real Caster cut Circe's bond with her familiars, but that would be an astounding feat to say the least.
Now how did that make it in the final post? The statement still applies to any magus working for the Yggdmillenia in general.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 18 Jul 2025 05:24:12 No.6276402 Report

Quoted By:

>>6276330
>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, you'll have to visit in person to get a clear idea of the situation. Tell Liliesviel and Caster you want to investigate directly.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 18 Jul 2025 05:26:13 No.6276405 Report

Quoted By:

>>6276330
>[X] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, you'll have to visit in person to get a clear idea of the situation. Tell Liliesviel and Caster you want to investigate directly.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Wbjm8Uwc Fri 18 Jul 2025 14:07:19 No.6276523 Report

Quoted By: >>6276570

>>6276330
>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, it seems dangerous enough that you shouldn't get involved in the situation while low on magical energy. Spend tonight recovering what was expended while you healed and during training, then investigate tomorrow.
I had to endure the posting timer literally 4 times to make this vote

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 18 Jul 2025 16:16:33 No.6276570 Report

Quoted By:

>>6276523
It really isn't as user-friendly a site as it was 5 years ago.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:5yNlvnEK Fri 18 Jul 2025 20:30:04 No.6276660 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 19 Jul 2025 03:50:51 No.6276837 Report

Quoted By:

>>6276328
>The last Shijou

Manakachads.... its so over.

So much in the way of magi politics.

It seems like there might be possibility of a Einzbern alliance with Ayaka, because there is a history of cooperation, she's also the second owner.

Lilie also just told us she's most likely alone and has a lot to prove. She was also reluctant to have Bryn kill us, even wasted a CS to try and do so. Bryn is really going to be the only issue there. A strong melee based Servant would definitely help sure up the Caster/Archer set so far though.

However the Ygg master might also be keen on having Ayaka dead so the family can claim Territory, which is also a negotiating chip even if they don't win the war, they gain a ritual site for the future and more land.

Guess it depends what kind of Servant and Master we'd be dealing with from te Yggdmillennia camp and if they're someone we could deal with after other threats are removed. Ayaka seems naive enough that she could be dealt with as an Assassin would even if we can't face Bryn in direct combat.

>>6276329
Tease the birb.

I wonder who was phone?

Considering they all went down at once, as >>6276352 says, its most likely a bounded field around the house. Could also be an NP, but then the only reason to knock them out like that would be to bait in an attack? Different vantage points implies different distances too. Are we dealing with a very large AoE NP or magecraft?

I sincerely doubt this is Ayaka. Bryn is more direct, and Ayaka's magic is Witchcraft in normal TM works.

Everyone already seems to want to go investigate which is fair, its a trail that will go cold if ignored, and the Overseer can be visited another time.

We really need to lean into the Assassin style kit we have if we're investigating this.

>[ ] Whatever is going on at the Yumigawa house, you'll have to visit in person to get a clear idea of the situation. Tell Liliesviel and Caster you want to investigate directly.
>Do so utilising your Clairvoyance, Instinct and the Cloak to gather information as you approach, keeping a high vantage point and surveying for Mana residue as you travel.

We can hopefully avoid an ambush and also scout enroute if we play it carefully.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 20 Jul 2025 01:03:52 No.6277444 Report

Quoted By:

That settles it. There's only one way to learn what's happened to the Yumigawas, and it can't be done at a distance. You get to your feet.

"I'm going to the house."

"Has becoming a Servant stolen your wits?" Caster looks at you with sharp disappointment, like a teacher watching her star pupil fail a test. "The enemy has clearly prepared some subtle defense of your former home. Concealed defenders, perhaps, or an ancient magic so utterly strange that even I cannot perceive it."

"Or a Noble Phantasm specialized in preventing observation," you counter. "This morning you told me that your scrying is being interfered with by an unknown cause, and that since last night even your reconnaissance familiars are being destroyed if they get too far from you. If this is happening across the entire city, it may have no connection to what became of the Yumigawas."

"The counter-divination technique which troubles us may be dissolving Caster's familiars over time," Liliesviel interjects, "but it seems hardly reasonable to credit an unrelated cause with this case, when you already anticipate an ambush at this house."

"No, it isn't likely," you agree. "Still, trap or no trap, I intend to find out what happened there. If the only way to learn is with my eyes, I'll use them."

"Your concern for an illusory family blinds you," Caster warns, channeling the divinity she once had into her expression as she looks at you with icy judgment.

"Just the opposite. I can see much further than when I was a human. At least four kilometers." You smirk at the enchantress, letting her disdain roll off you. Though it stings to be looked down on by your closest ally in the Akeldama war, you won't let it show. "I'm not just going to walk up to the house and ask them nicely to explain what's going on. I'll go over the rooftops, keep to the shadows, and watch from the greatest distance possible. There are too many buildings and other obstacles in the way for me to see from this hotel, but I doubt I'll have to go far to find an place where I can observe the workmen you saw, and hopefully spot whatever destroyed your familiars."

"Hmph". Caster doesn't seem too impressed by your precautions. "You will be in less danger if you keep your distance. I advise against pursuing the matter, but it seems my words fall on deaf ears." With that, she seems to dismiss you and turns to Liliesviel. "Master, I trust we will not involve ourselves in the trap set for Archer?"

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 20 Jul 2025 01:04:53 No.6277445 Report

Quoted By:

"Wrong," the girl declares cheerily. "Caster, what has frightened you so? With your magic unburdened by any limits on mystic energy, and Onii-sama drawing the focus of any attack while able to evade and protect himself with his robe, surely we three have nothing to fear from any enemy Servant. Whether this trap was set by Shijou Ayaka, by the representative of Yggdmillennia, or by someone else, what's to stop us simply crushing their little tactic with greater force? We mustn't simply hide from the enemy because we believe they have some slight advantage, or we should never win the War."

With Liliesviel coming in on your side, it seems Caster's personal war against involvement with the force that destroyed her familiars is lost. Crestfallen at this announcement of policy, she seems to have hoped for just the opposite: to convince Liliesviel to make a fortress of the hotel and wait for the other Masters to come to them. Caster assents silently, with a shrug of her shoulders and an expression prepared to say 'I told you so' at the earliest possible opportunity. Thus, your course is set.

<> <> <>

On the roof of the Marco Polo Hotel, the view is much as it was from the window of the top floor, albeit far more expansive. The other towers of Shinjuku still block your view of the Yoyogi residential district where Yumigawa Rushorou grew up. The air is deliciously chill after the tropical heat of the training area, wind whipping around you in eager haste to gather clouds at some point in the distance. Indeed, it seems the weather has a concrete destination; a swirling tower of black thunderclouds has coalesced over the waterfront. Anyone hoping for an evening stroll through one of the harbor parks must be having a miserable time of it. That, however, is off to the southeast. Your destination is more directly south.

Taking a running start, you leap across the breadth of a street, the power of a Servant launching you so fast that you seem almost to fly. Far below you occupants of the city swarm like ants, rushing to and fro about their evening business as tiny streetlamps, car headlights, and lighted signs illuminate them amidst the world of a city reluctant to sleep. You hope none look up, briefly wondering how the secret-keepers of the Moonlit World would attend to such a moment. Then you're on your feet on the roof of the tower block opposite the hotel, surging forward to jump to the next building, and the next, and the next. Caster flaps lazily after you, flying above with a look of dissatisfaction at having to carry her diminutive Master in her arms.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 20 Jul 2025 01:05:53 No.6277446 Report

Quoted By:

After a brief journey you come to the end of the skyscrapers, and can look out over the more constrained constructs of Yoyogi. Here, finally, you can see your own former home from high above and far-off, the hawklike eyes of an Archer easily picking out details in the dark over a kilometer away. The scene is much as Caster described it, except that the lights in the house are turned on and the workmen now have flashlights to help them see. Of the six, one has gone inside. You can see him moving around through the windows, still taking photos. The man with the clipboard has seemingly finished his notes, and is now tapping the back of his pen impatiently against the clipboard's metal tab. One, probably the one who had been hammering the sign into the lawn, is leaning against the van parked on the street in front of the house, drinking a bottle of water. The back doors of the van are open, but pointed away from you. An unremarkable name and logo, Yoyogi Realty, is printed on the side of the vehicle.

As you carry out your reconnaissance, a persistent flashing in one corner of your vision continuously distracts you. The storm over the harbor is generating plenty of lightning, it seems. There's a flash of it every second or two, and even at this distance the roar of thunder is continuously audible. Fortunately there are clear skies over your own head, so no rain is interfering with your vision. You focus on the workmen again.

The three men Caster described as just standing in the yard are somewhat interesting. Rather than looking at their colleagues or the house, they're watching the street on either side of it, flashlights pointed into the dark areas between the streetlamps' cones of light. They have the posture more of security guards than laborers, though you can't see any difference between their uniforms and those of the other three, nor batons on their belts. All six workmen look like ordinary citizens, Japanese men in their late twenties or early thirties. One seems to be suffering from a receding hairline, another might be recognized by the large mole on his nose, a third wears his hair fairly long, but none of these distinguishing marks has the kind of abnormality you associate with magi and their world.

In the vicinity of the house, you can see nothing out of the ordinary. No lurking Servant or Master, no notable mass of magical energy (though sensing one at this distance might be beyond your abilities, you're not sure how far away you can feel these things), nothing to suggest a danger of any kind. You can't scrutinize the corpses of Caster's familiars to see how they might have died, of course, the creatures' bodies promptly vanish when they cease functioning. Of course, no hidden boundary field or assailant is attacking you either.

"Caster," you call up to her, "were the falcons this far away when they disappeared?"

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 20 Jul 2025 01:07:21 No.6277447 Report

Quoted By: >>6277452 >>6277499 >>6277601 >>6277627 >>6277721

"One circled above the house," comes the reply. "The others were perched on utility poles in either direction along the street. All were closer than you stand."

You turn your attention to the air above the house and the power lines along the street, looking for any traces there. A few crows, a common sight here for the few hours before and after sunset, perch on the line, but there is nothing else to be seen.

Another flash of light off to the east prods at your attention, bright yellow at odds with the white lightning, more as if the sun had come out for a brief moment. You involuntarily glance that way, and see an odd sight. The rough cylinder of the thunderhead has been flattened on one side, as if an enormous scraper had removed about a fifth its volume on the right. The wind seems to shift as you watch, and the clouds shift and reform, swirling around until the original shape is clear again. All the while lightning crackles brilliantly within, but all white. Whatever produced the golden lightning seems not to be as continuous as the ordinary variety.

>[ ] If you can't see anything unusual from a distance, you'll just have to put yourself right into the situation. Close distance with the empty house, and if nothing happens when you're in its vicinity, you can grab one of the workmen and interrogate him.

>[ ] Probe the house from a distance by firing an arrow at one of the workers. If he's a human without any magical characteristics it shouldn't do more than break a bone or two, and he'll have no idea what happened. A magus, though, he'd have a more colorful reaction.

>[ ] Whatever strange thing happened at the Yumigawa residence, you seem to have missed it. You've seen Yoyogi Realty signs on houses in this area before, it's a genuine company, and the workers look like they're carrying out a routine inspection. On the other hand, the storm seems odd. In any other circumstance you might dismiss the golden flash and strange shape as tricks of your eyes or unusual weather phenomena, but this isn't any other circumstance. You have a hunch that a battle between Servants is going on along the waterfront. Investigate.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sun 20 Jul 2025 01:14:06 No.6277452 Report

Quoted By:

>>6277447
>[X] Probe the house from a distance by firing an arrow at one of the workers. If he's a human without any magical characteristics it shouldn't do more than break a bone or two, and he'll have no idea what happened. A magus, though, he'd have a more colorful reaction.
>[X] Whatever strange thing happened at the Yumigawa residence, you seem to have missed it. You've seen Yoyogi Realty signs on houses in this area before, it's a genuine company, and the workers look like they're carrying out a routine inspection. On the other hand, the storm seems odd. In any other circumstance you might dismiss the golden flash and strange shape as tricks of your eyes or unusual weather phenomena, but this isn't any other circumstance. You have a hunch that a battle between Servants is going on along the waterfront. Investigate.

I think we should try to poke out a reaction, and if none is forecoming, then we pivot to the odd storm.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 20 Jul 2025 02:47:50 No.6277499 Report

Quoted By: >>6278445

>>6277447
>[ ] Probe the house from a distance by firing an arrow at one of the workers. If he's a human without any magical characteristics it shouldn't do more than break a bone or two, and he'll have no idea what happened. A magus, though, he'd have a more colorful reaction.
>Should nothing come of it, investigate the waterfront. You have a hunch that a battle between Servants is going on.
That was obviously an Anti-Army or Anti-Fortress NP going off. Judging by the golden color, it might be a holy beamsword? Tough to say from a single flash of light.
Come to think of it, does 'hunch' in the third option imply that our Instinct is pitching in here?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 20 Jul 2025 07:50:44 No.6277601 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 20 Jul 2025 10:17:29 No.6277627 Report

Quoted By:

>>6277447
>[ ] Probe the house from a distance by firing an arrow at one of the workers. If he's a human without any magical characteristics it shouldn't do more than break a bone or two, and he'll have no idea what happened. A magus, though, he'd have a more colorful reaction.

The stat window description mentions trickshots, so probably would be a good idea to fire a lobbed shot that strikes from above and impales the foot. Restricts movement and also avoids giving away our location somewhat?

If nothing of note comes of that, then we should head to the active conflict and observe that before it disappates.

There's also a good chance we could snipe and kill a Master and net a free servant kill while two or more head to head flashy servants are busy with their conflict, or catch one trying to escape unawares.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:wv13eqf0 Sun 20 Jul 2025 15:25:55 No.6277721 Report

Quoted By:

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 21 Jul 2025 18:52:47 No.6278375 Report

Quoted By:

Though odd, and possibly magical in nature, the storm isn't your priority; the house is. These workmen aren't visibly unusual in any way, but that hasn't proved them ordinary. Fortunately an idea soon comes to mind for a test you can put them to. Your arrows, though highly effective against spiritual bodies, lack the brutal destructive power you usually associate with a Servant's weapons when applied to mundane people and objects. It should be easy to limit the impact to breaking a few bones, giving you an opportunity to read the target's response. An ordinary person should be confused and terrified by the impact from an unknown source, while any magus can be expected to sense that what struck him was a mass of magical energy and react with greater composure.

You draw back your bow without delay for second thoughts. To wait and consider the situation any further might be to see it evolve in an undesirable way, and the sense that the storm over the harbor is an unnatural product of the Holy Grail War is a sharp reminder that your enemies will not idly wait for you to work out the perfect strategy. There may be plenty of time to think in the daylight hours, but nights in the Moonlit World will require snap decisions and quick action.

No human should be able to track the direction your arrows are shot from by kinetic vision; your bow sends them off with more speed than most bullets. Still, there's no reason to forego caution. You fire up into the sky, letting the arrow drop straight down on your target so as not to give your position away to even the most astute observer. You can almost hear the crunch as the kneecap of the man leaning against the van shatters and his right leg buckles under him. His face contorted with pain, he looks to be yelling for help from his coworkers. There's no hearing him from this distance though, your ears not having become as supernaturally potent as your eyes.

While there's nothing of the magus in the reaction of the man you shot, the other five do behave somewhat oddly. Instead of rushing over to provide first aid, trying to get him into the van to be taken to the hospital, or even pulling out a phone and calling emergency services, they converge on the spot where he's fallen only to spread back out around him in a rough protective circle. Each is looking in a different direction, scanning the horizon for a possible source of their colleague's injury. All are looking slightly upward, focused on the rooftops rather than the street. None of them, you're sure, can see you.

As the seconds tick by, the five workmen keeping still around the wounded sixth, you contemplate whether it might not be best just to knock them all out and collect the six of them for interrogation. You clearly remember the unnatural ease with which Caster opened Munahara's mind in the Akeldama, no more troubled than if she were paging through a book with an especially stiff spine.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 21 Jul 2025 18:53:48 No.6278376 Report

Quoted By:

Before you can make up your mind whether to attack the rest of the workmen, a new development precludes your decision. Their formation breaks. Four go dashing into the van, while the fifth helps the one you shot onto his feet, slinging the injured man's arm over his own shoulder and taking care to keep other man's the weight on his one good leg. The others have all reached their seats and the van is running now, but the last two seem likely to take a while longer to hobble into the vehicle. They won't have the chance.

The decision made for you, you reflexively fire the arrow you'd previously drawn for a first shot against the stationary workmen. The last uninjured worker on the lawn drops to the turf under his friend's weight, now sharing the other man's pain in a far more authentic way than lending a shoulder. Now there are two broken kneecaps on the property. The sight must spook the others in the van, because it goes speeding down the street without a moment's hesitation. No doubt they're searching for a place less seemingly haunted to continue their work for the night. You let them go; it's the injured ones who interest you.

<> <> <>

A short time later you drop into the front yard of the Yumigawa house. The workmen incapacitated by your arrows are still lying there, unable to move well unaided. It seems some blood has oozed from their wounds, soaking into the dark canvas of their uniform pants, but neither is bleeding enough to be in serious danger. As you move closer one of them looks up at you, and for a moment it seems you can feel the energy of a Servant; then the illusion is broken. It's your own magical energy on these people, dispersed with the impact of your arrows and sticking to them like the smell of powder after an explosion.

"Help," groans the workman propping himself up to look at you. "I'm not sure what happened, but me and him, we're hurt. If you could call an ambulance..." He seems to be struggling to get the words out. Obviously neither of the two is acclimated to pain; the other looks to have passed out.

"If it needs to be done," you answer ambiguously. You stalk across the grass, reach down to grab the man by his collar and haul him to his feet. Looking down into his face, the clenched jaw and strained features running with cold sweat, you see only naked confusion, undisguised pain and fear. Unless he's a very good actor, the man is no magus.

"Why were you here tonight? This house should be inhabited." You shake him a little to keep the man focused, it looks like getting to an ambulance is the only thing on his mind.

"We were, we were... I..." Every time he tries to string his words together, a spasm of pain runs through the workman's face and he falters. "Call an ambulance, man, please...."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 21 Jul 2025 18:54:49 No.6278377 Report

Quoted By:

"Answer the question first." You shift your hold so the man's weight settles onto his broken leg. Unfortunately, the effect runs counter to your intent. Overwhelmed by pain, the man's eyes roll back and he goes limp. Just as you're dropping him in disgust, Caster catches up to you, flapping down to land on the grass beside you. She lets out a sigh of relief as she sets Liliesviel on her own feet again.

"Perfect timing." You gesture to the two unconscious men. "Caster, mind reading the minds of these two? I tried to get answers out of one, but all he could think about before he passed out on me was his leg."

Caster looks between you and Liliesviel before answering, then shrugs. She makes no attempt to conceal her feelings on the matter. Watching her expression shift, you can see her thinking through whether or not to reiterate her suggestion to abandon the investigation, then resigning herself to going along with it anyway.

"Very well."

Standing over one limp form, Caster murmurs an incomprehensible word. You feel the energy coalesce around her, growing dense and taking form even before her magic becomes visible. Then light extends from her fingertips to converge on the man's skull, bathing him briefly in an ethereal glow before dissipating. The whole exercise takes only a second or two. When it's done, there's a far more perturbed expression on Caster's face than her previous dismissive looks.

"Queer," she mutters. "He must have been in another's power, yet..." The enchantress trails off, crossing her arms and tapping a fingertip against her forearm as she thinks.

"Now Caster, you mustn't keep secrets from us," interjects Liliesviel's playful voice. While the you were focused on the workman and Caster's magic, she's sauntered over to take her place between the two Servants, and now looks on with intent curiosity. "What have you discovered?"

"This man recalls nothing of the last week," Caster explains, brows furrowed. "The recent past has been wiped clean in his mind. It must have been done by magic, yet I can find no traces of the technique used. No modern magus can hide the structure of their handiwork from me, even after the effects have faded. It makes no sense."

Shaking her head, Caster murmurs another incantation and conjures a web of narrow chains of light which picks up the unconscious body, holding him up for her to examine more closely. The enchantress presses a fingertip to his forehead and closes her eyes, concentrating. When she opens them again, it's with another sigh.

"His energy shows little, even when I examine it closely," she declares with disappointment. "This is an ordinary man, without magical energy of his own, and the bulk of what lingers with him is the residue of your arrow, Archer. Beneath that lie traces of another Servant's presence, but I can say no more about it than that he was in close proximity to an unknown Servant at some recent time."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 21 Jul 2025 18:55:49 No.6278379 Report

Quoted By: >>6278391 >>6278418 >>6278619 >>6278715 >>6278816

After dropping the unconscious man and walking over to his colleague Caster repeats her process of examination, but shakes her head as she finishes. There's clearly no difference.

"My, but the two of you look grim," Liliesviel comments. "It isn't such a dead end as that, is it? We've found that one of the other Masters is making use of ordinary people in some fashion, isn't that a worthwhile thing to know? Now we've learned of the fact, we shall be better able to guard against this enemy's machinations. It does violate the rules of the Holy Grail War, too. If we tell the overseer of this, she may use her leverage to gather together any additional Masters she can to hold a hunt for the miscreant."

"You may have a point," you nod, "but it's hardly the clear answer I'd planned on ferreting out tonight. As for Caster, I'm sure she's more frustrated by her magic inspection being thwarted than anything else."

"You think me petty and insecure," Caster says, bristling. "Does it not concern you that there may be a Servant capable of concealing magic even from me?"

"Of course, of course. Now..."

>[ ] Now you ought to be pursuing what leads you do have. The unnatural storm off to the east is still raging. If it's a battle between Servants, they haven't finished it yet, and it would be wise to get a firsthand look at the abilities of some of your enemies.

>[ ] Now you should be taking whatever action you can against the mysterious Servant connected to mundanes. Liliesviel's suggestion of bringing the information to the overseer is a good one, and you had considered paying this individual a visit tonight in any case.

>[ ] Now you should be pursuing the Yoyogi Realty van, if possible. There's still a chance that one of the other four men may have more information, and while it drove off at speed it would be difficult for any vehicle on city streets to evade your combination of long-distance vision and speed over rooftops.

>[ ] Now you should do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:VSyRK5dT Mon 21 Jul 2025 19:32:08 No.6278391 Report

Quoted By: >>6278418

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 21 Jul 2025 20:43:38 No.6278418 Report

Quoted By: >>6281856 >>6287256

>>6278379
We can visit the overseer tomorrow during the day, not a huge level of urgency there honestly.

Tracking the van is also a bit of a dead end, as soon as we directly engaged with the normies the controller cut the cord and even Circe couldn't track the residue properly, so we'll just get stonewalled again or worse baited into an ambush.

Seems it's gonna have to be
>[ ] Now you ought to be pursuing what leads you do have. The unnatural storm off to the east is still raging. If it's a battle between Servants, they haven't finished it yet, and it would be wise to get a firsthand look at the abilities of some of your enemies.

Would be very silly not to at least get a glimpse of the heavier hitting Servants before their conflict is done. If we're quick enough we might still be able to pick off a kill or see a NP in use.

>>6278391
Maybe we're too much like Odysseus in our current form? An Archer with lots of underhanded/Assassin style kit. We're also not paying her bills mana wise, and are ignoring her advisory skills to chase something she sees as mundane and beneath her. Also, her magic keeps getting cucked which is frustrating her and probably putting her into an overall sour mood.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 21 Jul 2025 21:22:55 No.6278445 Report

Quoted By: >>6278619

>>6277499
>Come to think of it, does 'hunch' in the third option imply that our Instinct is pitching in here?
Although it's not quite as impulse-based as reading the situation in a fight, this was a similar feeling of information processed by a shortcut to a conclusion bypassing reasoning as when you anticipated the surprise attack by Caster.
It's safe to say that hunch is coming from the same skill.
Good catch!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 22 Jul 2025 02:33:03 No.6278619 Report

Quoted By: >>6278748

>>6278379
>[ ] Now you ought to be pursuing what leads you do have. The unnatural storm off to the east is still raging. If it's a battle between Servants, they haven't finished it yet, and it would be wise to get a firsthand look at the abilities of some of your enemies.
The fact that Caster couldn't detect any traces of influence indicates that these people might have been controlled by a non-magecraft skill or NP. Maybe our Assassin is some kind of spymaster? I'd be pretty scared if the Yggdmillennia have George Washington running a Culper Ring or something.
>>6278445
I'll keep that in mind.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Tue 22 Jul 2025 07:37:17 No.6278715 Report

Quoted By:

>>6278379
>[ ] Now you should be pursuing the Yoyogi Realty van, if possible. There's still a chance that one of the other four men may have more information, and while it drove off at speed it would be difficult for any vehicle on city streets to evade your combination of long-distance vision and speed over rooftops.

Anonymous

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Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 22 Jul 2025 08:48:07 No.6278748 Report

Quoted By: >>6278772

>>6278619
Mk Ultra glownigger Assassin?

Or..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra

>Origin of the project
>During the early 1940s, Nazi scientists working in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during World War II conducted interrogation experiments on human subjects. Substances such as barbiturates, morphine derivatives, and hallucinogens such as mescaline were employed in experiments conducted on Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and other nationalities' prisoners of war.[20] The aim of these experiments was to develop a truth serum which would, in the words of one laboratory assistant to Dachau scientist Kurt Plötner, "eliminate the will of the person examined".[20] American historian Stephen Kinzer said that the CIA project was a continuation of these earlier Nazi experiments, as evidenced by MKUltra's use of mescaline on unwitting subjects, replicating previous Nazi experiments conducted at Dachau.[21]

Maybe it's cute and funny moustache man? Surely Circe could detect the use of drugs though given the nature of her magecraft.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 22 Jul 2025 10:04:48 No.6278772 Report

Quoted By:

>>6278748
If it's an MKUltra situation then naturally there would be an effect to make the tampering undetectable. An NP that does this would probably defeat even Circe's attempts to dig it up.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ErxGoNv2 Tue 22 Jul 2025 13:56:59 No.6278816 Report

Quoted By:

>>6278379
>[ ] Now you should do something else. (Write in)
>investigate our house, maybe we can find something about what happened here.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 00:08:47 No.6279504 Report

Quoted By:

Sorry once again for the lack of communication and lack of updates. it's about eight here, and I just finished a work day that's supposed to end at five. Although I got back from my trip on the seventeenth, work since has been pretty draining which has made it somewhat hard to write even when I am free.
Anyway, working on an update now. Storm conflict should be an interesting sight for you folks.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 04:57:53 No.6279631 Report

Quoted By:

"Now I have something to say I expect you'll be glad to hear, Caster," you announce sardonically. "I'm through investigating this house, at least tonight. It seems we have a more immediate lead on an enemy Servant."

"The unnatural storm?" Caster looks unsurprised, though you can tell she's a bit mollified by your giving up on the hunt for answers about what happened to your former home.

"So you recognized it as well?" That's a bit of a surprise. You could make out the abnormality clearly because of your heightened senses, but what would have clued Caster in?

"I may lack your eyes, Archer, but such a colossal mass of magical energy as fills that cloud is plain at any distance." Caster looks self-satisfied, as if this success overwrites her failure to glean any information about the magic used on these workers. Not that you feel like arguing the point. If that kind of observation makes her feel like more of a success, the improved morale can only be a benefit to your little team.

"Hm?" Liliesviel gives Caster a quizzical look. "How is it that you could sense such a thing? The mana of the land in this city is so confused, I should think no magus could sense magical energy more than, perhaps, one hundred meters away. That storm is quite some way off."

"About eleven kilometers southeast," you comment automatically. A bit of the honor student's officious need to show off any trivia he might know still lurks in you, you note with irritation.

"The tangled knot of leylines does pose a challenge," Caster concedes, "but what is impossible for a modern magus is a trifle to me. Then too, some things are too enormous to hide. Only a battle between Servants could charge a storm with so much energy."

"Is that so...?" Liliesviel hardly sounds satisfied with the answer, and keeps a searching gaze on her Servant. She asks no more questions, though.

"If we're agreed, then." You speak up, breaking the tension between the two. Whether Caster is keeping some element of her abilities back or Liliesviel is being overly suspicious, this is hardly the time to let a conflict build. "Let's get a look at our enemies."

<> <> <>

Standing on the roof of a warehouse a few blocks back from the actual shore, you watch through sheets of torrential rain as a fantastical scene unfolds over Tokyo Bay. As you suspected, a battle unfolds between two Servants, opposites in almost every respect. In stature, sex, dress, method of fighting, and even the mood of their demeanor, they are utterly opposed, but there is one point of commonality between the two: the massive concentration of magical energy radiating from each warns that both are Servants of the most dangerous kind.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 04:58:54 No.6279632 Report

Quoted By:

Over the churning waves, at the heart of the storm, rides a man of dark aspect, bedecked with gold and silk. He pilots a golden chariot, encrusted with jewels and pulled by a horse which seems itself almost part of the lightning, the animal is so totally wreathed in electricity. Rider, you have to assume; the man is constantly in motion, racing back and forth across the sky in broad arcs, and each time he passes by the point of his progress nearest his adversary, he hoists a spear aloft and throws it at her with a thunderous crash.

Spear, though, may be a misnomer; the thing is a bolt of lightning itself, or close to it. It looks like a spear only while Rider holds it, and the moment he hurls it lightning crackles to its target, leaving a burnt and blackened crater in the pavement. Then the spear is in his hand again. Maybe, you think, it's more like a wand, or your own bow, a tool which fires bolts of lightning without actually being thrown, and Rider's gesture is some obscure sleight of hand. It could be that it's a kind of incantation by motion, necessary to mime throwing a spear in order to activate the weapon. Just watching him, you can't tell.

Rider's adversary has neither projectile nor vehicle. A diminutive, fair, golden-haired warrior, more girl than woman, clad in simple, heavy steel armor. For all her slight stature, her power seems no less than Rider's. As he races across the sky, she remains obstinately still on the shore, moving only to dodge his attacks. From the look of things, you judge the Servant on the shore to be trying to bait Rider into close quarters. She seems to be unarmed at first glance, but on closer scrutiny you can make out the form of a weapon in her hands, insubstantial and vague though it may be. It seems to be a construction of the wind itself, a tiny whirlwind clasped between her gauntlets as one might carry a claymore. From that posture, more than anything else, you judge this to be Saber.

Carrying a blade of wind as her weapon, you wonder why she doesn't engage Rider in his own style of combat. Such a weapon, you would think, should be able to extend and change shape at will, perhaps launching separate wind-blades with a slash or commanding the wind to entrap Rider in a cyclone. If Saber has enough control over the air to make a sword of wind, there should be more effective ways of using it. Could you be misunderstanding something?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 05:00:17 No.6279633 Report

Quoted By:

Then there's a change, shaking you from your contemplation. One of Rider's circuits of the air takes him too close to Saber, and she moves at last. With an explosion of magical energy at her feet the slender knight is launched up toward the air-born chariot with incredible force, more like a shell fired from a cannon than any human mode of transportation. She strikes at him in one smooth motion, her blade of wind carrying all the force of her surging assault, and suddenly everything goes white. Lightning flashes at the very point of their contact, and both Servants are hurled in opposite directions along the coast, crashing to earth like downed aircraft. For all the explosiveness of the contact, though, neither is hurt. Even Rider's chariot, which you might expect to splinter against the pavement, is undamaged. It is a victory for Saber in only one respect, that she's finally pulled her supercilious foe from the sea. From the determined set of her features and the cold glint in her golden eyes, it's plain she has no intention of wasting the moment.

Saber charges Rider again, surging forward like a freight train, and what unfolds is an almost one-sided beating. Though Rider does an impressive job of parrying Saber's invisible blade with his gilded spear, and each time their weapons clash a miniature bolt of lightning arcs into Saber's body, she seems not to feel it. He, by contrast, is driven further back with every blow. The blade of wind may be insubstantial, but it seems its strikes carry plenty of weight. The arrogance of Rider's expression as he circled Saber casting down lightning is nowhere to be found now, replaced by a kind of pained resentment. He looks as if he expects death at the next moment, but plans to spit in the eye of his killer.

Death, however, does not find Rider just yet. At a critical moment he allows himself to be cut, receiving a deep wound in his left arm in exchange for the opportunity to dart his spear at Saber's feet. The resulting explosion of lighting blinds you again for a moment, bathing the scene in brilliance, but it clearly does its work. When your eyes clear you can see that Saber and Rider have been thrown apart once again, and Rider's horse is desperately racing up into the clouds. Before long, if Saber doesn't reveal some counterattack, the situation will have returned to its initial state.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 05:04:15 No.6279634 Report

Quoted By: >>6279645 >>6279656 >>6279864 >>6279979 >>6280013

Status Updated

>[ ] Continue to watch, ensuring you aren't discovered by making no moves. You still haven't seen what the golden glow was that temporarily flattened one side of this storm, and if you just wait, the two Servants may wear each other out.

>[ ] Change location and try to spot the Masters of these two combatants. Though the Servants are obvious enough, you haven't seen any magi yet, and you'd expect the Masters to be around somewhere.

>[ ] Intervene in the fight by firing a barrage of arrows at Rider. Since he enjoys ranged combat, he may as well have his fill.

>[ ] Intervene in the fight by firing a barrage of arrows at Saber. She was able to avoid Rider's bolts, but the two of you together may be able to pin the knight down and defeat her.

>[ ] Ask Liliesviel and Caster what they think of the situation. Though they can't see the fighting as clearly as you can, you're much closer than the limits of your vision, so they should have some idea of the progress of Saber and Rider's fight.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Thu 24 Jul 2025 05:29:32 No.6279645 Report

Quoted By:

>>6279634
>[ ] Change location and try to spot the Masters of these two combatants. Though the Servants are obvious enough, you haven't seen any magi yet, and you'd expect the Masters to be around somewhere.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 24 Jul 2025 05:56:50 No.6279656 Report

Quoted By:

>>6279634
>[ ] Continue to watch, ensuring you aren't discovered by making no moves. You still haven't seen what the golden glow was that temporarily flattened one side of this storm, and if you just wait, the two Servants may wear each other out.
So Artoria is fighting... what looks like a demigod who was raised to godhood, judging by Divinity A. His divine parent was a sky god or storm god, but the spear and clothes look unfamiliar to me. The returning spear and golden chariot should be major clues but I can't think of anyone who comes to mind. For what it's worth, the horse seems to be mortal, since he only has Riding A.
So far, it seems that Artoria has the advantage in close quarters, but Invisible Air doesn't have the reach of Mana Burst (Lightning) and the spear. Now we can guess the golden light was an excaliblast, which she probably used to try to break the deadlock (and she just failed).
Rider has a major advantage in being able to engage and disengage on his own terms, but this is now a battle of endurance between Masters. Better wait and see if one of them has a way to break the deadlock.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 24 Jul 2025 21:19:10 No.6279864 Report

Quoted By: >>6279976

>>6279634
Watching is probably the best option here, we risk giving our position away and if these are 'honourable' Servants, they won't take kindly to their duel being interrupted.

>[ ] Continue to watch, ensuring you aren't discovered by making no moves. You still haven't seen what the golden glow was that temporarily flattened one side of this storm, and if you just wait, the two Servants may wear each other out.

An oppertunity of a snipable Master may yet present itself.

Artoria's Instinct would alert her of our attempts anyway, but that's ooc to know.

Rider is brown, so Persian? If it was a Black horse you could imply it was Zeus!Iskander as they're chucking lightning and recalling it.

Lugh's Gae Assail works similar, but he isn't gonna be brown, nor is it likely to be Taranis who is also a celtoid.

Could be a poojeet, but Indra who is the nost obvious would have a Vajra as a primary weapon, or thebaeafoam sword used against my wife. Does fit the rain/storm appearing somewhat though. Rider Arjuna..? With more of his father's Divinity at the helm?

The spear does look like a smaller Vasavi Shakti, but I'm really not sure yet. Hopefully we see a NP clue.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 24 Jul 2025 22:57:13 No.6279889 Report

Quoted By:

FYI, I'm going to call this and write in about 5 hours. If you haven't voted yet, please do.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 25 Jul 2025 03:03:25 No.6279976 Report

Quoted By: >>6280047

>>6279864
I might've thought Arjuna, but he's controlling the chariot himself.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 25 Jul 2025 03:07:40 No.6279979 Report

Quoted By:

>>6279634
>[X] Change location and try to spot the Masters of these two combatants. Though the Servants are obvious enough, you haven't seen any magi yet, and you'd expect the Masters to be around somewhere.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 25 Jul 2025 04:20:53 No.6280011 Report

Quoted By:

Looks like we're tied up. I'll wait for a tiebreaker, then.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 25 Jul 2025 04:26:15 No.6280013 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 25 Jul 2025 06:25:57 No.6280047 Report

Quoted By:

>>6279976
If it is Arjuna, he didn't get the bonus of Krishna this time around, so he has to manage on his own. Probably why he's without the Gandiva bow as that couldn't be used while also piloting his chariot. Maybe he'll use it dismounted?

He's also using Lightning Mana Burst as freely as Arjuna's quiver would allow one to shoot the energybolt like arrows, and Gandiva's strings are said to sound like thunder when pulled.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 25 Jul 2025 23:36:01 No.6280344 Report

Quoted By:

You've seen plenty of two Servants you'd pose little threat to in a direct fight, but not so much of any information you can act on. What you need to find are the Masters, rather than the Servants. Unfortunately the Masters of Rider and Saber seem to have taken a prudent course and either chosen to observe their Servants' battle from a great distance or hidden themselves with care.

Moving with a care to stealth, not wanting to alert either Servant to a third party observing their combat, you creep to the edge of the warehouse rooftop you currently occupy and jump to its neighbor, moving south in a line parallel to the shore. Without drawing nearer or further from the Servants' battle, you reason that shifting your angle of observation might make the presence of a Master hiding between the buildings clear. What greets your eyes, though, are only more stretches of soaked pier and alleys made rivers by the torrential downpour. If there's any human form enduring this tempest at the harbor, it doesn't seem they're out of doors. Perhaps with a Master's ability to feel the presence of others' command spells you might be able to canvas the buildings to determine which contains a hidden Master, but as a Servant that task is no longer a convenient one for you.

The change of vantage point does clarify one thing, though: a strange point on the sea, off in the distance, which you had initially dismissed as happenstance from the shifting storm, remains consistent from different angles and in spite of changes in the wind: a rough circle of calm, undisturbed by the raging waves, howling wind, or downpour, where floats a well-appointed yacht. This, you guess, contains one of the two Masters. You should have seen it earlier, really, but the idea of a mage intentionally taking to a boat in the midst of a storm whipped up by a Servant seemed ludicrous. If the mariner were Saber's Master, he should have fled the weather, and if Rider's, he should not have conjured it in the first place. Of course, now that you're certain the area of calm is consistent, matters are shown in a new light. This must be the Master of Rider, restricting his Servant's aerial weaponry to avoid his own location.

You focus your eyes on the yacht, drawing to the fullest on the preternatural long-distance vision of an Archer. As seems to be the case more often than not with mages, luxury is the order of the day. The boat is larger than the average house, and seems quite sufficiently appointed for someone to live on it. Multiple decks are stacked one above the other, extending out from broad glass-walled cabins and dotted with couches, reclining chairs, and even what looks like an enormous hot tub sunk into the frame of the boat. At the rear of the lowest and largest deck, standing beside a full bar, you can see the Master of Rider.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 25 Jul 2025 23:37:03 No.6280345 Report

Quoted By:

With long blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, the man looks more suited to Saber than his own Servant, but his imposing stature differentiates him from both, and the man's unique costume mark him as indisputably a magus. At least 2 meters tall, broad-shouldered and seemingly of an athletic build, he would tower over both Rider and Saber, and even has a few centimeters on you. He's dressed archaically, wearing a black suit that wouldn't have looked out of place in some European city 150 years ago, with what look like solid gold buttons and plenty of gold trim, along with a frilled ascot fastened with a sapphire. Even his hands are white-gloved, and he carries a walking stick with an ornate silver knob, with which he occasionally makes little gestures as he watches the Servants' battle. It all gives the impression of a man out of the past, attending an opera rather than participating in a duel to the death.

It occurs to you to wonder, between this man's outfit, Liliesviel's garb, and the similarly archaic clothing you observed Edelfelt's preference for in the Akeldama, if all magi cling to these accoutrements of past aristocracy. Does it provide them a means of recognizing one another more easily? Was the influence of magi perhaps a dominating influence in world affairs prior to the First World War, and do they persist in the culture of those days out of nostalgia for bygone glory? But then, if magi stuck to clothing determined by the era of their greatest predominance, you'd expect them to look like people out of the Medieval period, or still further back. An odd quirk, anyway.

You contemplate whether to send an arrow at the Master of Rider. He appears largely defenseless, and he isn't so far from shore that it would be a challenge to hit him. Then again, to attack would give away your position, and given the specialization of your arrows in damaging spiritual bodies, he might be able to weather their impacts surprisingly well. You can't guess what tricks an unknown magus might have up his sleeve, after all. Though there's no clear basis, you have a hunch that attacking the Master of Rider now will do you no good, and stay your hand. You'll wait to see whether he or the other, unseen Master, intervenes in the fighting.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 25 Jul 2025 23:38:03 No.6280346 Report

Quoted By:

There's no need to wait long. Evidently fed up with her stalemate against Rider, either Saber or her Master decides to change tactics. Using the same explosion of energy at her feet as when she launched herself up to strike at Rider, Saber charges directly toward the Master of Rider, into the sea. To your surprise, she isn't required to swim. The diminutive knight's boots are planted as solidly on the water as on the harbor's concrete, and she seems to have no more trouble running along the surface of the ocean than she might charging over rough terrain. When a massive wave whipped up by the gale threatens to crash over her, Saber leaps up and surmounts it as if alighting on the crest of a hill, keeping up the charge without a break. If Rider doesn't stop her, it seems that in short order his Master will be doomed.

The aerial Servant isn't letting her pass without a fight. His lightning strikes rise to a fever pitch as he races above Saber, casting his spear down at her constantly in an attempt to impede her progress. Each strike only sees her shift the angle of her approach, though, never actually managing to halt the knight's inexorable progress. Frustration at his ineffectual attacks and the impossibility of victory if he descends to block Saber's path directly contorts Rider's features. Only his Master seems to have faith in Rider's abilities; the mage goes on watching with an amused expression as Saber charges forward to cut him down, as if he remains an uninvolved spectator.

When only a few meters remain between Saber and her quarry, the magus finally takes action. You watch his lips move as he forms syllables inaudible at this distance and incomprehensible through lip-reading, then snaps his fingers. All at once, a wide circle of ocean around the yacht is illuminated with glowing runes, seeming to float on the surface of the water like bioluminescent jellyfish. Something about the water itself changes. Perhaps if you were within or near the circle you could feel it, identify the shift, but from here all you can say for certain is that some intangible quality of the seawater in that circle of runes has altered. You recall you fought a user of rune magic in the Akeldama, the Master of that war's Saber, but your encounter was far too brief for you to have gained any useful knowledge on the nature of such techniques.

The effect, at least, is plain enough. At the moment the runes appear, the ocean beneath Saber's feet loses its solidity. The knight, running with ease across its surface just moments ago, drops like a stone into the dark water. For a few seconds the ocean churns as she thrashes about, and then there is stillness. For all the superhuman powers a Servant might evince, it looks like heavy armor can still drag a swimmer down to death.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 25 Jul 2025 23:39:04 No.6280347 Report

Quoted By: >>6280377 >>6280394 >>6280397 >>6280408 >>6280515 >>6280522

You feel it at the edge of your senses. Something like the pop of gunpowder, the crackle of an electric arc between faulty wiring, the flicker of a drop of alcohol set alight and vanishing in the same moment. It's the briefest flash of magical energy, but you recognize it: the flash of disappearing magical energy when a command spell is used, felt from a inside a warehouse a short distance away from you. The heavier energy of a Servant settles beside it in the same moment, and you don't need to read the Master of Rider's lips as he grumbles "she got away," to know what's happened. Saber's hidden Master is revealed, but he now has his Servant by his side. The battle between Rider and Saber seems to be over for the time being, as Rider fades into the form of a pure spirit and his Master's yacht begins motoring slowly away from the harbor.

>[ ] Chase after Rider and his Master. Although you don't have Saber's trick of running on the ocean's surface, you are confident in your swimming ability. If you lurk in the water out of sight, you may be able to overhear the man discussing the War with his Servant and gain some useful information.

>[ ] Get closer to the building containing Saber and her Master. Hiding in the shadows, you should be able to set up an ambush to attack the beleaguered Servant while she's still tired from her clash with Rider.

>[ ] Wait for Saber and her Master to leave the warehouse, then follow them at a distance back to their base of operations. If you know where they're acting from, you should be able to put a plan together to take them out later on.

>[ ] Consult with Caster and Liliesviel as to the best course of action, and whether they learned anything from the fight between Rider and Saber that you may have missed.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Sat 26 Jul 2025 00:50:17 No.6280377 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280347
>[ ] Wait for Saber and her Master to leave the warehouse, then follow them at a distance back to their base of operations. If you know where they're acting from, you should be able to put a plan together to take them out later on.

We're not really an assassin but I think we can follow them without being caught. In any case I believe we can flee.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sat 26 Jul 2025 01:40:44 No.6280394 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sat 26 Jul 2025 01:53:25 No.6280397 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280347
>[X] Wait for Saber and her Master to leave the warehouse, then follow them at a distance back to their base of operations. If you know where they're acting from, you should be able to put a plan together to take them out later on.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 26 Jul 2025 02:24:27 No.6280408 Report

Quoted By: >>6280473 >>6280516

>>6280347
>[ ] Wait for Saber and her Master to leave the warehouse, then follow them at a distance back to their base of operations. If you know where they're acting from, you should be able to put a plan together to take them out later on.
First the wobbly fists and now the wobbly water. Not looking good for your track record, Instinct...

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 26 Jul 2025 03:39:37 No.6280473 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280408
Poor Saber, ever the laughingstock...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 26 Jul 2025 05:20:21 No.6280515 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280347
>[ ] Consult with Caster and Liliesviel as to the best course of action, and whether they learned anything from the fight between Rider and Saber that you may have missed.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 26 Jul 2025 05:21:22 No.6280516 Report

Quoted By: >>6280522

>>6280408
wobbly fists ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 26 Jul 2025 05:48:29 No.6280522 Report

Quoted By: >>6280524 >>6280721

>>6280347
Imagine losing a CS because your servant forgot floaties.

First britoids get their posting loicence on 4chan revoked, then a Saber wastes a CS on an enemy Master because she lost her swimming loicence.

Rule Brittania!

As for the vote, I think some advice/confirmation from Circe about what magic Rider's master might have used, and also borrowing from her Advisor to Heroes skill might help. Would prefer this is a very brief consultation with our intent to try and determine Saber and her Master's base of operations is, and if she has anything to add to or if there was anything wrong with tracking them directly.

>[ ] Consult with Caster and Liliesviel brielfy as to the best course of action, and whether they learned anything from the fight between Rider and Saber that you may have missed.

Debrief full details later. If there are no obvious red flags to pursuing then..

>[ ] Wait for Saber and her Master to leave the warehouse, then follow them at a distance back to their base of operations. If you know where they're acting from, you should be able to put a plan together to take them out later on.

Considering the second option requires sus to wait, we may as well get some extra info/avoid accidentally tunnel visioning here.

>>6280516
https://youtu.be/wbvLvgD84iY?si=0lAnhnZULxW5hZTP

Saber has a consistent habit of jobbing to wobbly things and also being unable to swim.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 26 Jul 2025 06:08:22 No.6280524 Report

Quoted By: >>6280526 >>6280561

>>6280522
>Saber has a consistent habit of jobbing to wobbly things and also being unable to swim.
how the fuck did a regular guy stomp saber ?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 26 Jul 2025 06:16:29 No.6280526 Report

Quoted By: >>6280701

>>6280524
A combination of his wobbly fists and Medea's absurdly strong reinforcement magic.

https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Souichirou_Kuzuki

Circe can likely buff someone as well as this (she would claim better).

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 26 Jul 2025 09:44:41 No.6280561 Report

Quoted By: >>6280701

>>6280524
One of those circumstantial exceptions that pop up all the time in Nasu's writing. He was reinforced by Medea; Saber underestimated him; and his Snake style is an unarmed assassin's martial art based on striking vulnerable parts of the body with curved, whipping strikes (wobbly fists). All three of those factors have to converge for him to win a fight against a Servant.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 26 Jul 2025 16:50:51 No.6280650 Report

Quoted By: >>6280725

Strategic analysis.
>Saber's blessing comes from Vivian, so it's highly unlikely that the Master of Rider improvised the spell that nullified it. Coupled with his attitude toward Saber's approach, it implies he's been watching her for a while and the water-wobbling spell was prepared for exactly this scenario. In the worst case, he might have learned her true name before this engagement.
>The plan was to lure Saber onto the sea and kill her while she was off-balanced from losing her footing. It only failed because Saber's Master used a command spell to bail her out.
>The man also has cross-shaped pupils. Mystic eyes?
>He brought a yacht to this War, so he's probably from a prestigious family and not a ruined one.
I think our next course of action should be to offer Saber an alliance against Rider. Based on what's been shown so far, we cover each other's weaknesses perfectly.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 26 Jul 2025 18:51:38 No.6280701 Report

Quoted By: >>6280725

>>6280526
>A combination of his wobbly fists and Medea's absurdly strong reinforcement magic.
>https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Souichirou_Kuzuki
>Circe can likely buff someone as well as this (she would claim better).
>>6280561
>One of those circumstantial exceptions that pop up all the time in Nasu's writing. He was reinforced by Medea; Saber underestimated him; and his Snake style is an unarmed assassin's martial art based on striking vulnerable parts of the body with curved, whipping strikes (wobbly fists). All three of those factors have to converge for him to win a fight against a Servant.
If her reinforcement is that good, could she beatdown saber herself ? since it made a human capable of damaging a servent.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 26 Jul 2025 20:56:32 No.6280721 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280522
>video
Damn, it always surprises me to look back on how terrible Ufotable's UBW anime looked. There really is no good adaptation of FSN.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 26 Jul 2025 21:22:16 No.6280725 Report

Quoted By: >>6280736

>>6280650
She'd compliment nicely.

Chemistry between her, her Master and our trio is what it really comes down to though.

Remember her first instinct in FSN was to cut down EMIYA and leave him wounded unless Shirou burnt a CS. She's spamming her Mana Burst like mad, while we were watching her, likely she was fighting like that well before we got there too. This is also after firing off Excalibur at least once. She also has very high stats. I'd say she has a very strong Master this time around.

As for Rider's master, if he's come with a Yacht he's well prepared. There's a good chance, if he researched any of the prior wars he would have identified the same Saber appeared at least twice consecutively and then planned accordingly, including devising countermeasures. A modern mage isn't piercing MR A, but with his Mystic Eyes and high grade rune magic, while also summoning a demigod who is operating on permanent Lightning Mana Burst while mounted, he's jacked to the tits.

He was also over 2m tall, so he might even have Jotun lineage with really solid foundational early generation rune magic. He could be the Bazett equivalent in this war.

His rune spell might have been a countermeasure designed specifically to interfere with Fae blessings/connections the reverse side, or designate the water with a property that weakens Gaia's connection to the land which has a similar effect. Maybe even designated the territory as his own, or like that of a smaller texture that contains no Fae presence or is hidden from them? Any of these would interfere with quite a few Servant's blessing type skills without targeting them directly and being stonewalled by Magic Resistance. I do honestly think we need to be consulting Circe soon about a display of Magic like that.

There is a chance he also has some form of specific preparation for an Assassin with PC with a niche rune spell. So we'll want to engage from afar, fortunately he was preoccupied in the fight and didn't pay us much attention.

Is good to note though, that although the terrain advantage denied Saber's Master the chance to act it seems Rider's master isn't the offensive type. He may have some plans and his Mystic Eyes might even reveal Servant information to allow him to act optimally, but he never actively attacked. He just used boundary type rune magic and was happy reclining/spectating, so if we keep distance against him I don't think he could threaten us all that much. We also prefer fighting at a distance. Just need someone to distract Rider and get some more anti human fire-power. We should work on magic when we can that'll likely supplement our lack of direct damage.

>>6280701
Kuzuki had the skills and circumstance.

She could hypothetically buff someone who had skill to match a monster. Medea was able to buff Kojiro enough to at least push back Herc in FSN. Circe herself has little to no fighting skill and very low STR/END, she'd get bodied by a melee focused Servant if she tried.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 26 Jul 2025 22:06:35 No.6280736 Report

Quoted By:

>>6280725
Just an extra thought, she would have also revealed her identity in using Excalibur, which means maybe he only determined her identity in that moment and reacted accordingly.

His Mystic Eyes might be like Ophelia's in that they allow one to determine the optimal action or prune inoptimal possibilities?

The prolonged engagement using Rider to stall also would have drawn in a crowd, and in doing so showed the whole war what Saber is capable of including a NP reveal and a CS loss, while Rider just spammed auto attacks.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:01:22 No.6280768 Report

Quoted By: >>6280783

This will need to be handled with care. With Rider departed, you and Caster are now the only Servants in the area. Your cloak may be able to mask your presence, but that does nothing for Caster. Get too close, and she might be detected; after seeing Saber in action, you have no desire to get yourself drawn into a fight. Though you haven't seen the extent of this Saber's Magic Resistance, it's likely to pose a challenge for Caster. As for you, you've seen how effectively Saber can close distance with a ranged enemy already, and you don't have Rider's convenient option of retreating skyward. As the rain begins to slacken, you race back to the rooftop where you left Caster and Liliesviel.

It's a three-story building, broader than it is tall and obviously connected to shipping in some way from the location as well as its main rooftop feature: a large area is given over to a helicopter landing pad. Beside that there stand a few glass and steel shelters, presumably for those waiting to meet a helicopter to shelter from any inclement weather. Your two companions have been waiting out the storm in one of these.

"Could you feel that?"

The two girls startle in unison as you slide out of the darkness, and you can't help smiling at the identical looks of surprise on their faces. Good to know your cloak is hiding you effectively. You wonder what they'd have done if you were an enemy, though. It doesn't say much for Caster's ability to defend Liliesviel against Assassin, if you can take her by surprise so easily.

"Do you mean Saber's appearance onshore?" After getting a look of composure back on her face, Caster gestures vaguely in the direction of the warehouse containing Saber and her Master.

"That's just what I mean." You nod. "Her Master used a Command Spell to get her out of a bad situation. I intend to shadow them, now they're together, and find out where they have their base. I need you to stay far enough away that Saber doesn't feel your presence."

"You don't believe we two can defeat Saber if we strike now?" Caster arches a pink eyebrow, giving you a smile that seems half-mocking.

"Discretion is the better part of valor," you quote, not bothering to hide the irritation in your voice. You should already be back at the warehouse tailing Saber, at this distance you can't feel her energy any more than she can feel Caster's. They could have left already, and none of you but Caster would know. "Perhaps you weren't watching her fight as closely as I was. We need preparation and a good plan to defeat that Servant."

"Good!" Instead of matching your irritability, Caster looks both pleased and satisfied. "I feared you might rush heedlessly into battle as you rushed to investigate the fate of those humans. Proceed with your reconnaissance, then. Liliesviel-chan and I shall return to the hotel."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:02:23 No.6280769 Report

Quoted By: >>6280783

You look at Liliesviel, wordlessly asking if that's really her intention. Although you do need them to keep their distance, splitting up entirely wasn't quite what you had in mind. Then again, given the defenselessness you just observed, it may be wiser to get the two of them back inside their magical fortress. Caster's boundary fields, at least, shouldn't miss any incursion by a stealthy foe.

"If Caster believes that's what we ought to do, I suppose we'll do so," the girl says ambivalently. She seems somewhat distracted, and it occurs to you that she's probably focused on trying to plan around the capabilities you observed from Saber and Rider. For someone who expects to be the one orchestrating the events of the war, seeing two Servants who handily outclass her own must come as something of a shock. Then she seems to snap out of it and focus on you.

"Do take care, won't you, Onii-sama? If anything should happen to you, it would be just horrid." She reaches for your hand, squeezing it for a moment between hers as she makes her plea. "Stay well out of sight, and keep from an altercation. It would be lovely if you found their home, but not all-important. Come back to us soon."

"Of course." You nod at her, struck by an emotion hard to categorize. The girl's concern for your safety is touching, but that feeling is chased by the thought that her concern is surely the same as that expressed by Caster and Berserker during the Akeldama, only rational self-interest in the wellbeing of an ally. In the first place, she isn't in a position-

You cut the chain of thought off, turn away from Liliesviel and Caster. You need to be getting information on your enemies, not your emotions. It doesn't matter why anyone is invested in your wellbeing, and you have no reason to react to it. Hoping you aren't too late to catch up with Saber and her Master, you rush across the rooftops back to the place you felt their presence.

<> <> <>

You aren't too late, but only just barely. As your feet land on the roof of the warehouse you felt Saber appear in, she and her Master are walking out the staff entrance, headed toward the city. Saber has exchanged her heavy armor for a dark blouse and skirt, you notice, and in the ordinary clothing she looks no different from any foreigner in Tokyo. Unusually beautiful, perhaps, but certainly human. Why she didn't just fade into spirit form is a mystery, but her Master seems to know a bit more about blending in than most magi. He doesn't look greatly out of the ordinary either, a big man with a steel gray crew cut and eyes of the same color, wearing the kind of trench coat you tend to associate with police detectives. Useful in Rider's storm, you don't doubt.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:03:24 No.6280770 Report

Quoted By: >>6280783

Master and Servant walk without a word, and you have little to observe as you follow them along their route. You'd hoped they might carry on some discussion as to the outcome of the match with Rider, but it seems you aren't so lucky. At best, you can tell they aren't happy with the outcome. Saber looks subdued and dispirited, while her Master has a stoic look about him that seems more in spite of frustration than because of equanimity. Of course, you hardly needed to look at their faces to know they'd be frustrated and downcast after that debacle of a battle.

As you, Saber, and her Master move steadily out of the rain-soaked harbor area and into the parts of the metropolis still bustling with life, you moving along the rooftops and the other two treading the sidewalk, they begin to have trouble with interested pedestrians. It shouldn't surprise you, of course. Two good-looking foreigners, one bulky and the other diminutive, naturally attract attention. No-one actually succeeds in asking for a photo or even striking up a conversation, though. Every interested party who slows down to eye the pair up seems to wilt on receipt of a glare from the Master of Saber, while the Servant herself doesn't seem to notice them at all.

As you're watching with some amusement the sight of the weaker of two individuals frighten away people trying to approach someone far more dangerous than himself, Saber and her Master finally change course. They duck into a stairwell descending to a subway station. Somehow, though it's the most common way of getting around Tokyo, you hadn't expected it. A Servant can easily jump from rooftop to rooftop, crossing the city as the crow flies and running quickly enough to keep up with most motor vehicles. Magic, too, can speed travel in any number of ways. Even Rider's Master used a private yacht. The idea that a Master and Servant would travel by metro train just didn't occur to you.

Unexpected or not, it poses a challenge that stops you cold. Follow them into the subway, and you'd have to move through crowds, mix with the passengers, stay close to keep from losing Saber's position. You can't be sure how that would impact your presence concealment, and being spotted by an excellent close-quarters combatant while stuck in the tin can confinement of a subway train would just about be a worst-case scenario.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:04:25 No.6280771 Report

Quoted By: >>6280783 >>6280784 >>6280824 >>6280834 >>6280943 >>6280980

As you're considering whether to take the chance or give up on your tracking, something across the street catches your eye. A familiar face, surrounded by a group of unfamiliar ones. It's Naragasa Tsubaki, you realize, the girl you'd shown around Kyoutenkan yesterday morning. A strange reminder of your human life, in the midst of the fantastical circumstances of the Holy Grail War. She has tears in her eyes, the reason for which quickly becomes apparent as a similarly human one, even prosaic.

A group of three young men surround Naragasa, obviously pick-up artists. You don't need to hear their words to tell that; the leers on their faces are enough. As you watch, Naragasa shakes her head frantically at their words, looking more and more frightened, then suddenly breaks away from them and flees like a rabbit. She runs down a dark alley, chased by the young men. A choice you expect she'll regret; it doesn't take much guessing to surmise what kind of misfortune is waiting for her back there.

>[ ] Follow Saber and her Master into the subway station. If you take care, you may be able to maintain your stealth while tracking them to their base of operations.

>[ ] Follow Naragasa and the young men, and intervene to protect the girl. You have nothing to gain from involving yourself, but in a way you did make yourself briefly responsible for her wellbeing. It would bother you to sit by and do nothing while she suffers the indignity those hounds have in mind. It's not as if a few ordinary people can pose a threat to you now, besides.

>[ ] Return to the hotel, and explain to Liliesviel and Caster that you followed Saber as far as you could, but pursuing them into the subway would have risked a fight.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:44:12 No.6280783 Report

Quoted By: >>6280824 >>6280827

>>6280768
Interesting that Caster's advice was to leave. Maybe if we hadn't returned Assassin itself would have got the jump on them..? Lucky break given how ill prepared they were for us appearing with only C Presence Concealment.

>>6280769
Mc is catching feelings for the cute and funny ToT

>>6280770
Surely they picked up us tailing them to head into the subway.

Seibah's master reminds me of Harris from Awakening too. He might still have that sensory magecraft?

Doesn't seem like they're an absolutely awful person give they left the NPCS alone despite being bogged down by them. May have also been testing our intentions too to see if we would strike pre-emptively through a crowd of civvies.

We have to assume they're reading us as we are them.

>>6280771
Stucopres wife returns?

However..

>Red eyes
>Fleeing down an alley like a 'rabbit'

That's bait.

I'm assuming following Seibah is an easy dead end. We're absolutely fucked in a Subway Station if this is an ambush.

>[ ] Follow Naragasa and the young men, and intervene to protect the girl. You have nothing to gain from involving yourself, but in a way you did make yourself briefly responsible for her wellbeing. It would bother you to sit by and do nothing while she suffers the indignity those hounds have in mind. It's not as if a few ordinary people can pose a threat to you now, besides.

I feel we've maintained a lot of our humanity this time around, especially for nostalgic remnants of stucopres life.

But I bet you she's not what she seems here, its too convenient.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:vH650CN2 Sun 27 Jul 2025 01:51:10 No.6280784 Report

Quoted By: >>6281202

>>6280771
>[ ] Follow Naragasa and the young men, and intervene to protect the girl. You have nothing to gain from involving yourself, but in a way you did make yourself briefly responsible for her wellbeing. It would bother you to sit by and do nothing while she suffers the indignity those hounds have in mind. It's not as if a few ordinary people can pose a threat to you now, besides.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 27 Jul 2025 02:48:30 No.6280824 Report

Quoted By: >>6280827 >>6280980 >>6281202

>>6280771
>[ ] Follow Naragasa and the young men; watch, and intervene if it becomes clear she cannot defend herself. You suddenly remember that book, "Burnt Offerings", and it warns you that she may not be as helpless as she seems.
She's luring them into a dark alley where she can handle them without being seen.
>>6280783
>Mc is catching feelings for the cute and funny ToT
>Seibah's master reminds me of Harris from Awakening too.
Don't you fucking put that evil on me. I will blow the horn and summon Tiamat if this quest gets Lily'd or Harris'd again.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 27 Jul 2025 02:53:22 No.6280827 Report

Quoted By: >>6281202

>>6280783
I'm actually going to switch to your write in here >>6280824

Its basically what I was assuming anyway.

If we're wrong, 3 quick shots fix the problem.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 27 Jul 2025 03:01:39 No.6280834 Report

Quoted By: >>6281202

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sun 27 Jul 2025 09:22:04 No.6280943 Report

Quoted By: >>6280955 >>6281202

>>6280771
>[X] Follow Naragasa and the young men, and intervene to protect the girl. You have nothing to gain from involving yourself, but in a way you did make yourself briefly responsible for her wellbeing. It would bother you to sit by and do nothing while she suffers the indignity those hounds have in mind. It's not as if a few ordinary people can pose a threat to you now, besides.

Whether she can handle herself or not, putting ourselves in front of the attackers sends a message of its own, especially when we don't know her capabilities.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 27 Jul 2025 10:34:47 No.6280955 Report

Quoted By: >>6280964

>>6280943
If she's a Master or she knows about the magical world (vaguely implied, see >>6264295) the message is that we're still attached to our human life and we can be baited into a trap... which may or may not be true, but let's not send that message. If she's actually a normal person, we put ourself in front of the attackers and four people can identify us if we're seen again somehow.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sun 27 Jul 2025 11:49:44 No.6280964 Report

Quoted By: >>6280974

>>6280955
We're Archer, I assume Yumigawa will be attacking from range. Whether he introduces himself afterwards, I don't know if he would. I assume so.

Just watching is pretty rude, he doesn't know anything is off with her, and being extremely cautious over some completely vague implication doesn't seem like him.

Also, Instinct isn't really going off in a negative sense, so there shouldn't be anything really wrong with an intervention anyway.

That message was already sent to whoever cleaned up our house very loud and clear, it's not like its a secret, and still the amount of people who even have an idea that Yumigawa Rushorou is anything but a High School student who's gone missing is a small group of people to begin with.

We're more of an enigma at this point, and we haven't introduced ourselves to the other players of the war yet, so I don't really understand why this would be such a big problem in the first place.

We're just teaching some hoodlums a lesson. It feels pretty natural coming from Yumigawa and how he acted in Akeldama.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 27 Jul 2025 12:50:35 No.6280974 Report

Quoted By: >>6281058

>>6280964
>We're Archer, I assume Yumigawa will be attacking from range.
Fair enough. I've had a couple of run-ins with QMs who pulled the "you knew what you were voting for" card, so I may sometimes word my votes to make it more explicit.
That aside, I think one of our biggest advantages is being a surprise and an enigma to everyone else, and I would like to keep it that way as much as possible. A Grail War is as much an intelligence and surveillance war as it is a martial engagement.
>Also, Instinct isn't really going off in a negative sense, so there shouldn't be anything really wrong with an intervention anyway.
Good point. It hasn't gone off at all, so there should be no immediate advantage to any action we can take.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Sun 27 Jul 2025 13:12:28 No.6280980 Report

Quoted By: >>6281202

>>6280771
>>6280824
Support this write-in.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sun 27 Jul 2025 15:55:17 No.6281058 Report

Quoted By: >>6281203 >>6281205

>>6280974
It's also a turning point for Yumigawa, is he going to do as he did in the Akeldama and protect those he's brought under his wing? Or just wait and watch? Being decisive in choices like these are all the difference between becoming Alberich again, or going a totally different route.

It's similar to earlier about the intent on using the phone when the option to call the student council was brought up instead of phoning home. The intent behind the action has ramifications on how Yumigawa views the world and himself in it.

I'd rather he continue to be the person who he showed himself to be in the Akeldama, protecting his own and taking out those who'd deign to harm them. Being proactive is the important thing here.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 19:19:42 No.6281202 Report

Quoted By: >>6281203 >>6281205

Follow the girl to protect her.
>>6280784
>>6280834
>>6280943

Follow the girl to find out whether or not she needs protecting.
>>6280824
>>6280827
>>6280980

3 vs 3. Unless someone wants to cast a tie-breaking vote, I'm going to combine these.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 27 Jul 2025 19:22:19 No.6281203 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281202
I'll switch back to the original wording to protect her.

>>6281058
Made good points why

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 19:23:19 No.6281205 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281202
To clarify though, what >>6281058 says carries weight. Motivations on the choices you make define [Archer]'s characterization. Whether you follow her out of suspicion that she may be something more than she appears or follow her out of a desire to protect a girl who you briefly knew and who's about to become the victim of a crime makes a difference to his thought process and attitudes. If I combine the vote, it'll be a mix of both.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 21:43:47 No.6281287 Report

Quoted By:

Though your first thought is to follow Naragasa and her pursuers, you stop and think for a few moments longer. Naragasa always struck you as somewhat unusual; if nothing else, red eyes alone are a sign of a more than ordinary existence. Who have you met with such a characteristic but yourself and Liliesviel, beings fundamentally infused with magic? It could be that she doesn't need your help at all... but no, you put the thought from your mind. You're sure the fear in the girl's eyes was real. Even if there is something unnatural about her, right now she needs help.

Moving at a run you jump to the other side of the street, a dark blur sailing over the heads of pedestrians and cars before landing like a diving bird on the sidewalk at the mouth of the alleyway. Your cloak's abilities seem to be holding fast in shielding you from the undue interest of ordinary people, as no commotion is raised by the surreal event. You wonder, though, as you slip into the darkness and begin tracing the path followed by Naragasa and her pursuers, if the sight won't linger in the memories of some of these people. How many unsubstantiated stories of UFOs, UMAs, and other modern folktales might actually reflect glimpses of the Moonlit World, rather than mere hoaxes or delusions?

Though you should be gaining quickly on Naragasa and the young men, you strangely don't hear the sounds of pursuit, protestation, or a struggle. Only the sounds of the street behind you, fading as you descend into the silent, abandoned space between commercial buildings. No light from the streetlamps leaks into the alley, nor does moonlight ease the darkness; the moon and stars are still blocked out by clouds lingering from Rider's tempest. The fire escapes hanging above you and walls to either side are only blacker shapes against a backdrop of shadow. Far above, the still darker silhouettes of crows dot the edges of the buildings' roofs.

It occurs to you to wonder how anyone without the enhanced vision of a Servant could manage to keep up any kind of pace running down this hole. The footing is hardly even, dumpsters and other bits of utilitarian detritus planners prefer to keep away from the public eye rearing up out of the dark to impede you. The alley isn't as simple, short, and straight a path as you'd expected, either. It must connect to other interstitial spaces between buildings on other streets, as you soon find yourself at a four-way intersection with no clear idea of where any of the three paths ahead of you might lead. The muddy prints of the young men's sneakers, and the lingering scent of Naragasa's distinctive perfume make your path clear, though. A left turn.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 21:44:49 No.6281288 Report

Quoted By:

Inhaling that heady scent again, though diminished by her brief passing, you recall the strange effect it had on you yesterday. Maybe these men, already on the prowl for a woman, experienced the same intoxication and lacked your inhibitions. But then why, you wonder, would a girl habitually wear something with such an extreme effect on those around her? Simple ignorance of the dangers of the world? Could it be some game among the elite, using psychoactive substances to unexpectedly cloud one another's minds, and she thoughtlessly made the mistake of carrying the same accessory into the world of common people? The question has no clear answer, but realizing that time is passing and Naragasa could already be suffering the worst, you quicken your pace and prick your ears for the telltale sounds of conflict.

It's hard to say how long you've been following the winding alleyway when you finally reach your destination, but you're sure that more time has passed than this ought to have taken. Then you can go no further. It's a dead end, and an empty one. The scent of Naragasa's perfume is all around you, but its owner is nowhere to be seen. Though the footprints you've followed mill about here in a mad jumble, none retraces the course out of this three-walled enclosure, and there are no feet her to have left them. You're alone with blind, mute walls of unadorned concrete, their featureless look marred with streaks of blood.

That's the unlooked-for detail that gives the lie to any notion of this dead end as a riddle without answer. If you were only human, it would be impossible to make out. More filth in the general grime of these environs, one more shade of black in the night. To your eyes, though, it's plain. Red gore, stark and fresh, smeared against the wall seemingly by a body slammed into it with enough force to shred skin and burst veins.

The area isn't bathed in gore. It's hardly some unheard-of scene of horror, no suggestion of the abattoir or charnel house. Really there are only two things here to suggest the violence that must have gone on before your arrival: that one striking stain on the wall and a single body part lying on the ground. It's a hand, closed for a punch and raggedly torn off at the wrist as if by an animal. Not a girl's hand, you note as you pick it up to examine it. This is the hand of a man, large and calloused, and not closed in a fist after all, you realize. It's holding something.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 21:45:49 No.6281289 Report

Quoted By:

You uncurl the fingers of the dead hand to find not a button torn from the killer's jacket, not a distinctive piece of jewelry torn in the moment of death or any other clue from the annals of investigative cliche, but a letter. It's enclosed in a traditional envelope, vertical, rather than the more common western style, and you can guess before opening it who it must be from, and who for. It's a sickening disappointment, to think you had so thoroughly mistaken predator and prey in your assessment of the situation. You open the letter.

"My Dear Archer,
Though winter's chill eases, and spring draws nearer, the trees remain bare and icy gloom retains its hold on the land. Have you seen any signs of the new-flowering life to return? I have not. Though winter blooms have their own loveliness, I long for spring to hasten and bring cheer with its flower-scented breezes, and summer after it to usher in halcyon days of languorous ease. Still, I hope the season finds you well.
I was terribly aggrieved not to see you again on the roof of Kyoutenkan High, though I waited hours. Can you have failed to understand my request, or did you simply think it not worth your time? I know not. That Lancer made clear in her own brutish way what I had hoped to explain offered scant relief. How it gladdens my heart to see that you escaped your encounter with her unscathed, you cannot know.
Though a rendezvous tonight is impossible, I will be watching your exploits with the keenest interest, and dearly hope that we might meet again soon.
With my support,
Tsubaki"

The letter is handwritten in an archaic cursive script you would find illegible if you hadn't been such a devoted student. Only the great pains you took to master understanding of classical literature enable you to read it, and the whole appearance of the thing is more suggestive of a Shinto or Buddhist ofuda than a personal note. The juxtaposition of positive sentiment and its macabre setting give the impression of a grim joke. You wonder if Naragasa would have tried to kill you if you'd returned to school today and gone back to the roof for lunch, or if her letter could be in earnest and she might have wanted to suggest an alliance. From the contents of the letter, she's likely a Master and magus, and one who could tell more about your nature than Shijou could. Just how many had gathered at your high school?

Glancing around, you realize Naragasa could still be lurking somewhere around here. If her abilities as a magus were sufficient to hide her magical energy from you completely up until now, not to mention the presence of her Servant, it stands to reason she could be watching now to see how you react to this letter.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 27 Jul 2025 21:46:50 No.6281291 Report

Quoted By: >>6281305 >>6281402 >>6281435 >>6281525 >>6281527

>[ ] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.

>[ ] Go back the way you came. Naragasa is probably gone by now, and left the letter behind exactly because she planned to be gone by the time you got here.

>[ ] Return to the hotel by way of the rooftops instead of retracing your footsteps. Although Naragasa has probably left, there's no reason to take chances by keeping your view blocked off in this warren of alleys.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 27 Jul 2025 22:30:34 No.6281305 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281291
>[ ] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 28 Jul 2025 02:51:51 No.6281402 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281291
>[ ] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.
At least her perfume isn't messing with Yumi anymore. We really should check his level of MR with Circe, it'll be a controlled setting.
Anyway, if she's not here, we lose nothing by saying something out loud. I think her Servant might be Assassin, because even if she can hide herself, a Servant's presence should be too strong to conceal to the same degree with modern magecraft.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 28 Jul 2025 05:23:02 No.6281435 Report

Quoted By: >>6281444 >>6281525

>>6281291
Rip NPCs.

>[ ] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.

Bit lol if she's already left, but being autistic is on brand for Yumigawa anyway.

I do love how we're still doing all of this in the nude.

I hope we never wear clothing. It would be an insult to Cloak-chan.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 28 Jul 2025 05:40:32 No.6281444 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281435
>I hope we never wear clothing. It would be an insult to Cloak-chan.
All we need is to learn how to make that cloak change shape, and Unlimited Cloak Works will be ready.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Mon 28 Jul 2025 13:17:08 No.6281525 Report

Quoted By: >>6281584

>>6281291
>[ ] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.

>>6281435
I want to have pants, going around in a cloak only is kinda slilly. Makes Yumi look like some weird pervert from a Japanese porn.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Mon 28 Jul 2025 13:29:32 No.6281527 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281291
>[X] Call out to Naragasa. Although her letter claims she doesn't want to face you tonight, you might at least be able to provoke some movement and find her hiding place.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO SFIII Gill Makoto.jpg, 136KiB, 1280x720

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 28 Jul 2025 16:45:29 No.6281584 Report

Quoted By: >>6281602

>>6281525
>some weird pervert from a Japanese porn.
The vibe I had in mind was a bit more along the lines of Street Fighter III's Gill. Getting clothing is definitely an option though, I was surprised you didn't vote to do so at the hotel.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 28 Jul 2025 17:23:41 No.6281602 Report

Quoted By: >>6281617

>>6281584
I just assumed Yumi would take five minutes to do that before heading out to see what's become of his parents.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 28 Jul 2025 18:02:19 No.6281617 Report

Quoted By: >>6282522

>>6281602
Maybe if he were in his own home, but finding an outfit in a building owned by someone else takes a few more steps. Besides, I like to make a scene out of it when the main character has an image change. Right now you're doing the Vitruvian Man thing, finding an outfit would shift the visual theming. If you transform your cloak, all the moreso.
There'll be time to work out things like that during the daylight hours of February 7, at any rate.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 00:27:59 No.6281743 Report

Quoted By: >>6281847

The more you think about it, the more you find this letter an insult. Mockery, really. It's infuriating. Twice she's toyed with your ignorance, first playing the part of an ordinary girl at Kyoutenkan and then with this victim masquerade. That alone would be understandable, but the letter fairly crowing about it rankles. New, you're sure, that you thought she was at risk and chased after her for the girl's own protection. This letter, with its sardonic pleasantries and talk of rendezvous, is as good as a declaration that she can find you or disappear any time she likes, and there's nothing you can do about it.

"Naragasa," you roar, anger at your wounded pride taking control, "Show yourself! I know you're still here!"

It's not entirely an emotional decision. If the letter is intended to mock you, as you suspect it is, you doubt Naragasa would pass up the chance to watch your reaction. You remember the fondness for jokes she demonstrated when you showed her around Kyoutenkan. Provided that was genuine, she would certainly want to observe the effects of her letter.

"If you're so intent on meeting me, here I am," you call into the darkness, stalking back and forth across the dead end. You exaggerate your anger, making the movements a show of restless emotion, while you keep your field of view constantly shifting, scanning every shadow and dark corner for movement.

"What's keeping you? You're confident enough slaughtering ordinary people; get cold feet when it comes to facing someone who can defend himself?" Now you mix mocking scorn with the anger in your tone, deriding the mysterious girl in return for her own attitude. The silence and stillness of your surroundings remains constant, though, and you begin to feel faintly ridiculous. She's gone after all, probably disappeared before you got here.

Then you see it. A twitch of movement in the corner of your eye, an insubstantial form darting away. In a fraction of a second you turn, manifest and draw your bow, and loose an arrow. The thing, a fifteen centimeter long origami centipede skittering away from the shadows beneath an HVAC unit built into one of the walls enclosing this alley, is struck square in the center of its body and split in two. Though a construct of thick, aged-looking parchment, it twitches quite realistically as it 'dies'.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 00:28:59 No.6281745 Report

Quoted By: >>6281847

This, then, is how Naragasa had hoped to observe you, through the eye of a familiar. A black flame consumes the body of the familiar a moment after you've struck it down, ensuring that not even the remains of the magic are left behind for analysis. There's no doubt in your mind now that you're left alone. The trail of Saber and her Master will have gone cold, and in exchange you've found out Naragasa is involved in the Holy Grail War. Information, but containing no details concrete enough to act on. High above, a crow cries raucously into the night, its harsh voice seeming almost to laugh at you, and your mood turns ever darker and darker as you make your way out of the maze of alleyways.

<> <> <>

Midway between the alleys where Naragasa disappeared and the hotel occupied by Liliesviel, you pause atop a particularly high tower to look out over the city spread below you and think. Since waking up you've been rushed from one priority to another, and it seems high time you gave your situation some cool-headed contemplation.

Seen from above, Tokyo seems now strange to your eyes, a carpet of lights occasionally broken by black patches of parkland, a great mass of trackless uncertainty like the sea. Charted, mapped, its depths remain unknown. Full of life making a show of itself, yet impossible to catalog in full. No matter how many lights festoon the city, its dark pockets remain black and unknowable. Even in its lighted zones, streets you recognize seem to have taken on new aspect, crossing and re-crossing in a web suddenly unfamiliar. Where people can be seen, comprehension is choked by sheer quantity. How are you ever going to track down six foes among all the untold millions filling a metropolis that sprawls continuously to the horizon? How can you hope to understand the schemes of the magi who have spent years preparing for this battle when you own life, something which seemed ultimately solid and plain, clear and simple, turned out to be an insubstantial mirage, a mere stage in the machinations of one of these seekers after the Grail?

At this moment, looking out over the city that had been your world, the framework of a planned life, and which you must now survey as a gameboard in a wager of the highest possible stakes, you accept a fact you've been refusing to face for 24 hours. Your chances of success in this Holy Grail War are infinitely smaller than those you enjoyed in the War within the Akeldama. When your memories returned, when you realized you had become a Servant, you were filled with boundless confidence. After all, you've won a Holy Grail War once already, and now enjoy power far beyond anything you've experienced in the past. For all that, the disadvantages you've accrued are still on the heavier end of the scale.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 00:29:59 No.6281746 Report

Quoted By: >>6281847

Your entire modus operandi in the previous War was based around Caster's ability to monitor everything going on in the Eighth City and react accordingly, an ability which has been wholly cut off by an unknown power. Even the familiars she uses seem to be of limited facility. Still, were you put back in the Akeldama with your own new abilities to replace those of Caster you wouldn't have so much to worry about as here. In an empty city, any motion spotted at a distance was a sign of the enemy. Here motion and life goes on unconcerned with and blind to the Holy Grail War, a city perpetually churning with countless lives working out their own affairs. You doubt Servants will often make themselves as obvious as tonight's battle between Saber and Rider.

As if all this weren't enough, one more disadvantage hangs over you: where in the Akeldama you provided a consistent source of magical energy, here you are dependent on others. It forms an uncertain doom, a time limit of an obscured duration goading you to hurry the battle that you might find some means of sustaining yourself with the Holy Grail. After all, how certain can you be of the dependability of your new allies? This morning you'd have thought the question ridiculous, but Caster seems to have grown strangely cold when compared with her attitude toward you in the Akeldama. Whether some change in you has soured her opinion or the shift is simply prompted by her no longer being dependent on you for victory, you can't say, but her new distance doesn't fill you with trust.

As for Liliesviel, she seems pleasant, pure-hearted, and earnest, but the girl is a stranger. What can you say about someone you've known for less than a day? At that, she's a homunculus, a manufactured being with a personality ill-suited to her looks and a psychology that may be quite unknown. How much the thought processes of homunculi differ from those of humans, and how serious she is about welcoming you as a long-lost brother, you can't be sure. That you yourself seem to be a homunculus clarifies nothing; your own thought processes and priorities have been wildly volatile recently, from the puppet-like docility of your human life to the fanatical desire to rise above human limits that filled you as you battled through the Akeldama, to your present uncertainty about the narrow span of life remaining to you, an undecided mixture of desire for more life, wounded pride at the thought of your having been created to be a tool, and the overbearing melancholy you now find settling over you. Hopefully your host is more consistent than that.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 00:31:01 No.6281747 Report

Quoted By: >>6281804 >>6281847

If only you had some proof of your own efficacy, some testament that it remains possible for you to grasp a future, some tool of proven use against the enemy or path forward not shrouded in doubt, you could dispel this malaise. Of course, no such path, tool, or proof presents itself. You can only fall back on your faith in your own mind, the self-assurance that you can rise to any challenge. It is a faith that seemed ironclad after the Akeldama, but has been thoroughly shaken in the last three days.

<> <> <>

When you return to the roof of the Marco Polo Hotel, you find that a maid has apparently been tasked with waiting for you up here. There's no expression on the girl's face, in spite of the icy wind that comes with the height the two of you stand at. You wonder idly just how long she's been out here, and if this might be a case of workplace bullying by the ill-tempered maid you had a run-in with earlier.

"Lord Archer," the maid says by way of greeting, and curtsies as you approach. "Please follow me, and I will conduct you to Lady Liliesviel and Caster."

"No need for the 'Lord' with me," you mention as you follow her into the elevator, patting one of the maid's slight shoulders. "If I'm family to your mistress, I haven't quite adjusted to it yet."

The maid gives you a searching glance, and you're almost sure you can detect confusion in her unwavering features. Then she nods silently, and turns her attention to the door.

"Archer," the maid declares as you walk into the top-floor suite, announcing you like it's a formal social event. In the living room, Liliesviel and Caster sit across a table from one another, apparently playing cards, though it's a rather odd-looking game. There's no deck on the table, it's been split into two twelve-card hands and a row of cards face-down between the players. As you watch, Liliesviel stifles a yawn, while Caster glares at her hand, apparently unhappy with its contents. According to a clock on the wall, it's half past one in the morning.

"Archer, you've returned," declares Caster, evidently relieved at the excuse to set down her losing hand. Of course, she can't be surprised by your arrival. She must have known you were here as soon as you came within sight of her familiars. "Have you found our enemies' home?"

"Not as such," you explain, and with that begin recounting the story of your pursuit of Saber and encounter with the unknown Master, Naragasa.

"The girl can pose no threat," Caster declares, once you've finished unwinding the tale. "Assassin is certainly the weakest of Servants, or his presence could not be concealed effectively. Recall what nonentities were the Assassins of the Akeldama. It is that Saber we must be wary of."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 00:32:01 No.6281749 Report

Quoted By: >>6281767 >>6281781 >>6281786 >>6281804 >>6281859 >>6281866

You have your private doubts as to the uselessness of Assassins. Any Servant who can remain perfectly concealed long enough to slip through their enemy's defenses and strike at the Master is a serious threat, however weak they might be in combat between Servants. It was your good luck that neither of the Assassins in the Akeldama pursued that tactic, not a demonstration of its uselessness. Still, you do agree that Saber is the greater threat.

"I suppose we must find a means of defeating both, all the same." Answering her Servant Liliesviel sounds thoughtfully ambivalent, tapping a finger against her lips as she weighs up your words. The dangerous potential of a Servant who can evade your senses has seemingly occurred to her as well. "Caster, do you imagine you could trace Saber's movements from this subway station as we'd planned to from the overseer's chapel?"

"I did not promise that technique was certain to succeed," Caster says, "but it could be achievable. Saber did overflow with magical energy."

>[ ] Interject with your doubts about the possibility of defeating Saber as you are now. Knight classes typically have strong Magic Resistance, and that coupled with her obviously superior speed and power make you a terrible match-up. If you want to take Saber out you'll have to become stronger yourself, one way or another, and focus your attacks on her Master.

>[ ] Remind the pair of Liliesviel's earlier thoughts about the potential of using the overseer to ferret out the magus who conducted the Yumigawas' disappearance. Such a person is likely a Master, and any Master and Servant ought to be easier to handle than Saber. If you focus on others, Saber and Rider might dispose of one another.

>[ ] Contradict Caster about the danger posed by Assassin and ask if it would be possible for her to trace Naragasa from the magical traces left behind by her destroyed familiar. No matter what Caster thinks, removing the Servant best equipped to take out your source of magical energy should be your first priority.

>[ ] Go along with the plan to track Saber.

>[ ] Say something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 29 Jul 2025 01:19:56 No.6281767 Report

Quoted By: >>6281781 >>6281817

>>6281749
>[ ] Interject with your doubts about the possibility of defeating Saber as you are now. Knight classes typically have strong Magic Resistance, and that coupled with her obviously superior speed and power make you a terrible match-up. If you want to take Saber out you'll have to become stronger yourself, one way or another, and focus your attacks on her Master.
It's an unfortunate reality that Yumi may be the weakest Servant in the War as he is right now. If he chooses to pursue Assassin or the unknown Yggdmillennia Master, he may find himself outmatched.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Tue 29 Jul 2025 01:56:19 No.6281781 Report

Quoted By: >>6281787

>>6281749
>[X] Contradict Caster about the danger posed by Assassin and ask if it would be possible for her to trace Naragasa from the magical traces left behind by her destroyed familiar. No matter what Caster thinks, removing the Servant best equipped to take out your source of magical energy should be your first priority.

>>6281767
I doubt we'll have too much an issue facing assassin, if we can have an actual match, given that our specialty is inflicting damage on spirits. Masters on the other hand... yeah that may be a problem for sure.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Tue 29 Jul 2025 02:37:20 No.6281786 Report

Quoted By: >>6281790 >>6281856

>>6281749
>[ ] Remind the pair of Liliesviel's earlier thoughts about the potential of using the overseer to ferret out the magus who conducted the Yumigawas' disappearance. Such a person is likely a Master, and any Master and Servant ought to be easier to handle than Saber. If you focus on others, Saber and Rider might dispose of one another.

>Caster seems to have grown strangely cold when compared with her attitude toward you in the Akeldama.
I'm surprised no one seem to notice this, or even theorize on it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 29 Jul 2025 02:39:14 No.6281787 Report

Quoted By: >>6281808

>>6281781
>if we can have an actual match
That's a big if when it comes to Assassins. Remember how Assassin went from the weakest class to one of the best in Apocrypha timelines, just because Masters learned how to fight dirty?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 29 Jul 2025 02:46:39 No.6281790 Report

Quoted By: >>6281856

>>6281786
>I'm surprised no one seem to notice this, or even theorize on it.
At first I thought she was maintaining appearances in front of Lily, but things are getting so strange that Judas may be the only one who can explain what's really going on. Too many coincidences, too little information. I can somewhat relate to Yumi's dismay with the situation.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:23:00 No.6281804 Report

Quoted By: >>6281810 >>6281811

>>6281749
>[X] Interject with your doubts about the possibility of defeating Saber as you are now. Knight classes typically have strong Magic Resistance, and that coupled with her obviously superior speed and power make you a terrible match-up. If you want to take Saber out you'll have to become stronger yourself, one way or another, and focus your attacks on her Master.
Queue up Eye of the Tiger for a training montage!

>>6281747
>"Not as such," you explain, and with that begin recounting the story of your pursuit of Saber and encounter with the unknown Master, Naragasa.
>"The girl can pose no threat," Caster declares, once you've finished unwinding the tale. "Assassin is certainly the weakest of Servants, or his presence could not be concealed effectively. Recall what nonentities were the Assassins of the Akeldama. It is that Saber we must be wary of."

I don't really track how telling Caster about Naragasa made her immediately jump to the conclusion that an Assassin-class Servant was directly related to that. For all we know Naragasa could be an anomalous spectator with some magic tricks who knows about the Holy Grail war but isn't even a direct participant. Or if she has a Servant, they could be any unaccounted-for class on standby in spirit form at some distance away.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:25:31 No.6281808 Report

Quoted By: >>6281811

>>6281787

All the more reason to try and rush them down then, while knowledge of our specialty in damaging spirits is still low. The longer Assassin is allowed to be in the war the more information the Master/Servant pair will be able to get on us, and the greater a threat they'll be.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:31:07 No.6281810 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281804
[Archer] jumped to the conclusion that Naragasa was a Master in the scene where he read her note, and he told the story from that point of view. Running with the idea that Naragasa is a Master, Caster jumped to the conclusion that her Servant must be Assassin given the circumstances. Both she and the protagonist could be wrong, you're right, but those are the conclusions they drew.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:34:38 No.6281811 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281804
>For all we know Naragasa could be an anomalous spectator with some magic tricks who knows about the Holy Grail war but isn't even a direct participant.
Maybe she's thinking that Japan is a backwater for the Association, so anyone who knows about the Grail War is involved with it somehow.
That said, she also seems overconfident. The Servants in the Akeldama seem to be several tiers below the ones outside, if Saber and Rider are the standard. I would love to have Matsuda and Ogawara back as well, but the reunion is to be expected a few threads down the line.
>>6281808
We could also turn that argument around and say it's better to grow stronger before an enemy finds out that our specialty is in damaging spirits and decides to nip that problem in the bud.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:37:48 No.6281814 Report

Quoted By: >>6281856

And on another note, we know that Caster isn't the original Caster since she just slid into Judas' spot after Akeldama ended, if what Liliesviel told us is accurate. Since we didn't spawn with a Master, I surmise chances are good that there's another Archer at large who was summoned the normal way by a Master. Liliesviel being the Master of the original Caster Judas, and now current Caster, there ought to be six other Servant-Master pairs. We've seen the Lancer, Saber, and Rider pairs, so the Archer, Assassin, and Berserker pairs are still unknown. Yumigawa is probably some type of Demi-Servant-like anomaly, and Adelheid's status is still unknown, but she's most likely in a similar situation to Caster, so she'd either have despawned (unlikely) or latched onto a magus (old Yggdmillenia acquaintance?) to stick around.

But the loose thread of Vaisset and Judas leads me to believe that there are more layers of this onion that need to be peeled back before things start making sense.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 29 Jul 2025 03:47:56 No.6281817 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281767
>It's an unfortunate reality that Yumi may be the weakest Servant in the War as he is right now.
I won't confirm or deny that statement, but one of the things I regretted most about the original version of Awakening Mirror was that the protagonist was too strong on paper. A quest where he easily steamrolled all enemies would be boring, and I didn't want to fall into the trap of power creep, so I tried to have enemies that played on his weak points or fought in clever ways to make sure the quest still felt dangerous, but it just never really worked. Players felt like he was jobbing, and like he couldn't use his abilities properly. I want to make very sure I avoid that problem this time.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 29 Jul 2025 06:24:26 No.6281847 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281743
She might be a Japanese Dead Apostle (red eyes) with Neet-hime as her Servant if she's got origami familiars, reads mangoslop etc. Or maybe she contracted Onigawara? And the origami familiars are her own design, the murder was to feed her Servant?

If we do meet Judas some info about other Akeldama survivors is definitely worth asking to narrow down possibilities.

>>6281745
Noticing a lot of crows in these updates of late. Crows aren't nocturnal either. CIA glownigger observation drones? They don't seem specific to this scene, and it would be weird for someone to use both complex origami familiars and animals.

Also, self monologing brooding rooftism moment.

>>6281746
I did speculate earlier on Circe's coldness. I specifically remember that she actually tried poisoning us in Akeldama, but a diceroll let us tank the kykeon. I wonder how her attitude towards us would be if that event never happened, or if that memory was damaged in her transfer out of the Akeldama? We had a lot of memory issues ourselves.

The issue of her scrying being interfered with too. No Servant we've seen to date would be capable of that. Also, what class are Onigawara and Matsuda, if they're Servants at all? Are they the missing Assassin and Berserker? It would probably fit. But then no Servant present should be able to interfere with Circe's scrying as she'd be the best mage by far. Bryn can't tap into her runes to that extent as a Lancer, and daddy has banned her using the Primordial ones unless she wants to burn up her Saint Graph.

>>6281747
Circe claims Assassin is no threat, yet let herself and her Master get ambushed accidentally by only C Presence Concealment.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 29 Jul 2025 06:42:58 No.6281856 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281786
>>6281790
I did mention something here about possibilities as to why it might be, but also memory disturbance from Akeldama.
>>6278418

>>6281814
If you check the main status screen too, there are [Servants] and Servants. The [Servants] are Akeldama attendees, so there might even be a full set of 7 vanilla Servants, and as many as 7 additions from the Akeldama like Apocrypha, given the Yggdmillennia clan are also involved here, and that happened last time those retards tried starting a grail war.

There also also two cups this time, if we are indeed a lesser grail, and so is einzcunny.

That would then also result in a Ruler somewhere, logic would dictate.

A Berserker (whether it's Adelheid Matsuda, or an existing Servant from pre Akeldama) shouldn't realistically be able to shut down Circe's scrying. Neither could another Archer or Assassin to my knowledge.

A second Caster might make sense as being capable of interference with an ancient Greek deity's magecraft, but there have already been two between Circe and Judas (if he was even a Caster).

But the actual Tokyo Servants are of much higher calibre than Akeldama, so the (borrowing from FSF here) 'true' Archer might be some ridiculous entity who uses magic as 'projectiles', or someone like Tesla who has put up an anti scrying device and is instead using technology to view while everyone else is in the dark.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Tue 29 Jul 2025 06:55:27 No.6281859 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 29 Jul 2025 07:32:43 No.6281866 Report

Quoted By:

>>6281749
As for the vote, realistically we have no way to contest Saber currently. Her Master is strong enough for her to spam Mana Burst like Alter does in HF, and neither Circe or mc are able to match or even stall that for long.

We've seen her target a Master directly before too, and A Instinct to sniff one out if the einzcunny was hiding away. Again, unless its a Servant with Independent Action, the Master can't be half the map away without greatly compromising the performance of their Servant. Circe will at best be able to spam familiars to attempt to stall Saber while we try and snipe the Master. Her Instinct would warn her when he's in danger too, and she could either CS or MB back to his position.

Allying would be incredible, but I just can't see a realistic way over or through that wall.

Nagarasa's likely not looking to kill us any time soon, whatever her motivations are she seems to be enjoying watching us for the time being. She could have easily acted against us in that alley. Her or her Servant both seem to have no issue piercing our own C rank presence concealment, something a lesser grail and Circe couldn't manage. Makes me assume even more that she's a DA of some sort. Given this is a Fate setting one of substantial capabilities too.

I don't think they're a priority to try and kill for now, and involving Lilie or Circe might actually be something she is trying to bait so she can eliminate them. We should assume she knows we are working with them as she knew exactly where we were despite our own PC. It's possible Assassin has tailed us for a long while with us completely unaware if scrying itself is blocked, and its not a problem with Circe's Saint Graph after escaping Akeldama.

The Overseer is probably the most pragmatic option, and then use the day time to contact Ayaka (surely we can dox her well known estate, and Liliesviel would know how to open diplomatic channels with the Second Owner) to then purge the normie abuser from the war and hopefully give time for Saber and Rider to take one another out?

>[ ] Remind the pair of Liliesviel's earlier thoughts about the potential of using the overseer to ferret out the magus who conducted the Yumigawas' disappearance. Such a person is likely a Master, and any Master and Servant ought to be easier to handle than Saber. If you focus on others, Saber and Rider might dispose of one another.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:aogJxjz0 Tue 29 Jul 2025 16:38:45 No.6281992 Report

Quoted By: >>6282026

Anons is it bad of me to want to see Assassin Robin Hood show up or classic Archer Robin Hood?

Moon War made me wanna see him at his full potential and he carried me hard in the singularities of FGO.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Tue 29 Jul 2025 18:46:43 No.6282026 Report

Quoted By: >>6282606

>>6281992
We functionally are Robin without the Yew Bow poison at this point thanks to Cloak-chan.

Unfortunately Blackbeard killed him in Akeldama so unlikely to appear again.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:08:21 No.6282238 Report

Quoted By:

"It's a fine idea, if we want to catch up to Saber as soon as we can," you say, cutting into the exchange before Liliesviel and Caster can get too far in working out a plan, "but I wonder if that's really what we want to do. The knight classes usually have powerful Magic Resistance, and I saw enough of her fight against Rider to be certain I can't take Saber down in a straight fight. If we rush into a fight with Saber and her Master, I expect we'll be signing our own death warrants."

"Oh?" Liliesviel looks at you bemusedly. "You were so eager to follow them, earlier; what's brought on this change of heart?"

"I was relying on the notion that they would be tired enough from the battle against Rider not to notice someone following at a distance, and I planned to come back as soon as I caught sight of their home base," you explain. "Even that was dangerous. Tracking them from traces of magical energy left by Saber is another story. I expect Caster will have to be close to wherever Saber was in order to find whatever faint traces are left after a Servant's passed briefly by some spot a day ago. If we do find a trail, we'll end up retracing their steps and could stumble right into them. Especially if they're on guard at their home base, which they should be."

"In that case, what shall we do? You have a suggestion of your own, I'm sure."

"I don't love the idea of staying inactive, but I think that's what we'll have to do for the time being. Caster and I will have to be stronger to take on a monster like that. Unlike a Heroic Spirit with a past, I wasn't made a Servant at the peak of my abilities; I expect I can draw more use out of my Noble Phantasms if I train in combat. Gathering more magical energy could help as well, I don't have much to spare right now."

"You believe my magic could be warded off by the resistance of that knight?" Now it's Caster taking issue with your caution, though you remember her advocating a defensive approach to the War in the past. Touchy as always about being seen as anything less than the Goddess of Magic. "With the right preparation, I can overcome any defenses. I-"

"I've seen it happen before." You interrupt flatly and cut the legs out from under her argument. "Remember the Archer we fought in the Akeldama? Yes, I'm sure you can do better with the right preparation, what I'm suggesting is that we make sure we get that preparation done instead of running off half-cocked and potentially getting into a fight we can't win. That Archer's a good example in one more way, too; if we can't get around Saber's raw abilities, we'd better focus on her Master."

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:09:21 No.6282241 Report

Quoted By:

"Hhm." Caster makes an indeterminate noise, looking somewhat deflated, yet vaguely mollified by your recognition of her abilities. "Very well. It would be wise to form a more definite plan for disposing of Saber. You certainly have a great deal to learn in the use of your magical and martial talents, and though I have no lack of magical energy it may be wise to augment my reserves so Liliesviel-chan may allot more to you..."

"Ah!" Suddenly Liliesviel claps her hands together. You and Caster turn in unison to see an expression of startled realization on the girl's features, her mouth a tiny O, her eyes wide. "My, but I have been a perfect fool," she exclaims. "I ought to have thought of this hours ago, Onii-sama, I do apologize. I never replenished your magical energy after the afternoon you spent battling Caster's familiars!"

"I didn't expect you to." You aren't just being polite. Of course Caster told you that Liliesviel had been giving you magical energy to keep you alive while you healed last night, but remembering how Berserker went about transferring energy from a magus to a Servant without a contract, you'd guessed the girl would prefer to refill your supply only in cases of emergency.

"I cannot imagine why not," she says with a pout. "After taking you in as family and pledging to keep you alive, it would be just horrid of me to deprive you that way. You must remind me if I forget again, please."

"Then you'd like to refill my energy now?" You raise an eyebrow. Berserker was bold, but this is something else again, an altogether different attitude.

"Of course." Liliesviel cocks her head, questioning your own questioning glance. "Give me your hand, please."

This is something unexpected as well. The last time a witch asked to see your hand, you ended up with a spear through the chest. The time before that, you had your hand chopped off. Silently hoping a third time won't confirm the pattern, you hold out your right hand to Liliesviel, over the table and interrupted card game. She holds her own hand out to one side, and a maid standing behind her silently puts a silver knife in it. Intertwined symbols cast into the metal of the haft and an odd half-crescent shape that curves the point backward from its one cutting edge mark it as a ritual implement, and you reflect that after all, what happens twice will happen a third time.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:10:22 No.6282242 Report

Quoted By:

With quick, practiced motions, Liliesviel opens a vein halfway between the base of her thumb and her wrist, makes the same cut in your hand, and wraps her hand around yours. Identical cuts are pressed together, and you can feel your blood mixing with hers, the circulation of two bodies suddenly merged into a single system. As her blood flows into you, and yours into her, so Liliesviel's magical energy pours into your spirit, its element changing as it filters through your magical circuits to finally become your own magical energy, the precious fuel expended with every second of a Servant's life and every blow they strike in battle.

The blood flow isn't natural, of course, that much is obvious. The blood transfusion would never have been devised if such a simple exercise were sufficient to link two circulatory systems. It must be a piece of Liliesviel's magic, a ritual for the sharing of life's energy. Not so strange, on reflection; if all manner of old myths have their basis in the truth of the Moonlit World, why shouldn't the ancient ritual of blood-brotherhood be the same? A symbol, thought to be without substance, given tangible power through magic. The description applies to almost everything you've encountered of the world of magi, one way or another.

Finally Liliesviel pulls away, evidently having shared all the magical energy she can spare. You're left with three times the energy you had this morning, plenty to fight with, though still a mere fraction of the yawning void that seems to be your maximum capacity for stored energy. How much energy that might truly represent, or what you might need to do to fill it, are subjects you resolve to pursue when you have the opportunity.

As you watch, the skin of your hand knits itself together, and a tiny fragment of the magical energy you've received is consumed. Liliesviel has her hand bandaged by the maid, though you expect some more rapidly effective magical means of healing will be applied soon enough. Perhaps Caster will brew some of the serum she used to heal you in the Akeldama. It's an invaluable tool for anyone without a Servant's ability to reconstitute his body from magical energy, after all.

"You surprised me," you say at length. "I hadn't realized a transfusion was an option for sharing magical energy."

"Oh, yes." Liliesviel titters. "You could have bitten me and drunk up my life, as some monstrous Servants do." She turns her chin up and to the side like the victim of a vampire's hypnosis in some old horror film, exposing an alabaster throat to your hypothetical fangs. "But this way is rather more civilized. As homunculi of the same source and type, our blood is of identical substance, so there is no danger of the body rejecting it..."

The girl seems to take your meaning only after a few moments pass, as her cheeks pinken toward the end of her explanation and she trails off.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:11:24 No.6282243 Report

Quoted By: >>6285866

"Of course, there are certain other ways of sharing mystic energy," she adds, not meeting your eyes, "but I do think when considering such methods that the lady and gentleman involved ought to know each other better, and to confirm their feelings beforehand..."

"A fine attitude," you agree, stifling your amusement at the girl's embarrassment. Quite a different attitude from Berserker indeed.

"Well then, Onii-sama, Caster, I bid you a good night." Suddenly anxious to end the conversation, Liliesviel gets to her feet and retreats hurriedly in opposite direction from the bedroom you woke up in. Making for her own bed, no doubt. When you glance over to see Caster's reaction, she's gone as well. You can feel her presence, in spirit form, trailing after her Master. You're left alone in the living room with the expressionless maid, standing over the coffee table and the interrupted game of cards.

After several seconds of silence have spooled out, the maid speaks up.

"Would you like me to direct you to the bedroom prepared for you?"

"Is it the same bedroom I woke up in this morning?"

"It is." The maid nods.

"Then I know where it is. Thank you, though."

"Naturally." The maid bobs a curtsy, and as you turn to go, you see her tidying up the living room. Her movements are robotic, face and voice emotionless. If someone had asked you before today to envision what sort of person a homunculus might be, that maid would be far closer to your answer than Liliesviel or yourself. Is that level of humanity part of why they call the two of you 'masterpieces'?

End of Day 3

<> <> <>

The golden moon lies half-buried at the bottom of the great river. It calls, and you descend.

No, drawing near you see, the moon is nowhere here. Its reflection is absent. Its substance is absent.

The golden circle in the silt is no sphere of substance, no gleaming body, but an opening through which voices call.

A portal into the earth, visible to all, but open only to you, it calls for you not to spare your effort, but hasten on and pass through.

Beyond is light.
Beyond is fire.
Beyond is gold.

Endless and ecstatic, the source of all desire lies beyond that portal. Poison to those who can never possess it, to you it is life, the satisfaction of all dreams, all wishes, the infinite source, stuff of all treasures, calling, ever calling.

You drop through the abyss, darkness growing thicker as you approach the source of light.

Water surrounding you, once easily cut, turns vicious. It binds and entangles, assails and rejects. It pulls and it throttles, blinding your eyes and deafening your ears, but the triple song cannot be shut out.

Onward through all adversity you descend, until you reach the portal and 

<> <> <>

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:12:24 No.6282244 Report

Quoted By: >>6286234

February 7, 2019 -Identity-

You wake up gasping. Burning wires chase ice floes through your veins, and your throat is closed, the air in the room only a theoretical luxury. You reach for your own neck, clawing desperately at whatever is choking you, and it fades before your hand can reach your skin. No more than a few heartbeats after you woke suffocating, you breathe with no difficulty. Gradually the heat and chill in your body subside, and you can take the morning in with an even temper. From the absence of light filtering around the curtains it seems sunrise has yet to come. A glance at the clock on the wall confirms it. Half past five, almost early enough to please Yumigawa Gorou. An unreasonable hour, given your late night, but perhaps Servants don't need as much sleep as humans.

You remember your decision after waking up yesterday. Before anything else, practice in magic. Alright, your mind hasn't changed, and you have no immediate plans. The prime enemy you're training to defeat may be able to shrug off whatever magic you could conjure up, but that's no excuse for ignoring what seems to be a primary talent of this new body you've found yourself with.

Focusing your attention within yourself, you close your eyes and shut out the world. The door into Emptiness opens within your mind, letting energy through to flow into your magic circuits, activating them as it goes. You feel the circulation of energy through your body, far more than yesterday morning, feel how it flows into your cloak, an extension of your presence in the world sustained by the energy of that presence. You feel the mass of energy that sits at the ready to make material your bow, and how all of it, flesh and fabric, tangible and intangible, forms one system of identity, the composite object called a "Servant" which makes up one piece of a great system of magic, the city-spanning ritual of the Holy Grail War which you cannot sense, but know must be connected to your own existence. If you can feel that system, sense the whole of the ritual of which you are a functioning part, perhaps you could sense the other pieces, grasp their identities and abilities as Servants, and...

But it's no use. However you strain your senses, you perceive yourself only as a closed system of energy, circulating power within yourself while neither producing nor receiving any magical impact on anything external. It's probably a fruitless endeavor. After all, if Caster can't draw information out of the Holy Grail War to learn about her rivals, what chance does a novice like you have?

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:13:25 No.6282246 Report

Quoted By:

Having practiced awareness, the next step is action. The one attribute you've learned, Transference, doesn't lend itself to much practical application as far as you know, but Caster did claim it had a good deal of utility. For now, you practice the transference of energy itself, the only thing you've learned to work with in this way, drawing out a portion of energy from your Od, shaping it into the formula of the Attribute, and executing that formula to shift another portion of energy into your cloak. Then you perform the same process in reverse, a formula of Transference to bring energy from your cloak back into your body.

The task strains both your concentration and finesse; as you work to execute a formula of magic to transfer energy, the constant circulation of energy between your circuits and the extension of yourself that is your cloak continues without pause. Even when you successfully carry out the spell, it takes immense focus just to differentiate the one movement from the other and confirm that you really are correctly performing two parallel movements of energy, the one unconscious and the other by means of magic formula.

Finally you can go on no further. Sweat stands out on your skin, and your nerves feel strained. You open your eyes, slide out of bed and onto your feet, which carry you without the necessity of thought to the attached bathroom and a hot shower. For the first time you feel a sense of envy toward those magi of established bloodlines who benefit from a Magic Crest. The challenge of performing even the most basic of spells on your own, without a guide or teacher, without a lineage of examples to follow, goes some way toward explaining the obsession magi seem to have with legacy, grasping at the past while simultaneously fixating on what they can leave to the future.

After toweling off and rematerializing your cloak, you take a second look at the clock. Between your magic practice and shower an hour has gone by, and it's now half past six. Guessing that the non-Servant inhabitants of the suite are still asleep, you're left with some time to yourself.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 06:14:26 No.6282247 Report

Quoted By: >>6282263 >>6282272 >>6282407 >>6282452 >>6282466 >>6282500 >>6283062

>[ ] Time which you should spend on developing your abilities any way you can. The tools at your disposal seem flexible enough, what you need now are ideas. Go up to the rooftop and wait to watch the sunrise. You've always been told about their inspirational powers, perhaps you'll get an idea for a better way of using your Noble Phantasms while you're up there.

>[ ] Time which you can spend evaluating your standard of behavior. It's something that had always been at the back of your mind yesterday, but walking around wearing nothing but a cloak isn't exactly decent. No matter how flawless your new body may be, or how mystically warm the cloak keeps you, propriety is something worth observing. See if you can find any clothing to wear.

>[ ] Time to yourself also means a fair wait before the likelihood of anything to eat. Look around the suite and see if you can find anything to fill your stomach for the time being, you've woken up quite hungry.

>[ ] Time you can spend doing something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Wed 30 Jul 2025 07:14:54 No.6282263 Report

Quoted By:

>>6282247
>[X] Time which you should spend on developing your abilities any way you can. The tools at your disposal seem flexible enough, what you need now are ideas. Go up to the rooftop and wait to watch the sunrise. You've always been told about their inspirational powers, perhaps you'll get an idea for a better way of using your Noble Phantasms while you're up there.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 30 Jul 2025 07:48:06 No.6282272 Report

Quoted By:

>>6282247
>[ ] Time which you can spend evaluating your standard of behavior. It's something that had always been at the back of your mind yesterday, but walking around wearing nothing but a cloak isn't exactly decent. No matter how flawless your new body may be, or how mystically warm the cloak keeps you, propriety is something worth observing. See if you can find any clothing to wear.
At last. No more draft between the legs when Yumi jumps across rooftops.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Wed 30 Jul 2025 15:13:17 No.6282407 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 30 Jul 2025 17:42:39 No.6282452 Report

Quoted By: >>6282538

>>6282247
>[ ] Time which you should spend on developing your abilities any way you can. The tools at your disposal seem flexible enough, what you need now are ideas. Go up to the rooftop and wait to watch the sunrise. You've always been told about their inspirational powers, perhaps you'll get an idea for a better way of using your Noble Phantasms while you're up there.

Good old Roof contemplation.

Pantskeks bear Sin, we must remain pure and untethered.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 30 Jul 2025 18:38:02 No.6282466 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C1ZRU7GX Wed 30 Jul 2025 20:50:13 No.6282500 Report

Quoted By: >>6282522

>>6282247
>[ ] Time which you can spend evaluating your standard of behavior. It's something that had always been at the back of your mind yesterday, but walking around wearing nothing but a cloak isn't exactly decent. No matter how flawless your new body may be, or how mystically warm the cloak keeps you, propriety is something worth observing. See if you can find any clothing to wear.
This should've been done by default, why even waste time making us vote for it?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 30 Jul 2025 22:08:13 No.6282522 Report

Quoted By:

>>6282500
I believe I explained that here. >>6281617. You might prefer to create an outfit from magical energy, as many Servants do. Some players also have a pretty focused interest in how the protagonist of a quest dresses, wanting to pursue a particular look (or at least this was my experience in 2019). Given that this isn't your home, you don't even know there will be anything decent to wear; recall Saber getting stuck with Shirou's spare raincoat.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Jgicg0Zu Wed 30 Jul 2025 22:36:08 No.6282538 Report

Quoted By: >>6282643 >>6283816

>>6282452
But anon, we look silly with just a cloak.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Thu 31 Jul 2025 02:10:35 No.6282606 Report

Quoted By: >>6282643

>>6282026
>Blackbeard killed Robin Hood
Teach, you RAT

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 31 Jul 2025 04:12:08 No.6282643 Report

Quoted By: >>6282760

>>6282538
The primal man aesthetic is based though.

>>6282606
Potato tomato

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:aogJxjz0 Thu 31 Jul 2025 13:42:53 No.6282760 Report

Quoted By: >>6283084

>>6282643
This is a severe injustice. We gotta kill teach. Can't have someone going around and killing my favorite servants.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Fri 01 Aug 2025 01:47:32 No.6283062 Report

Quoted By:

>>6282247
>[ ] Time which you can spend evaluating your standard of behavior. It's something that had always been at the back of your mind yesterday, but walking around wearing nothing but a cloak isn't exactly decent. No matter how flawless your new body may be, or how mystically warm the cloak keeps you, propriety is something worth observing. See if you can find any clothing to wear.

I think this is a tiebreaker

Next vote will be character-customization on what skin we pick. Can we also wear 5 hats stacked on each other for maximum customizability?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 01 Aug 2025 02:47:41 No.6283084 Report

Quoted By: >>6283110

Just posting to let you folks know, work has been kicking my ass around the block the last couple days. It's 10:45pm here and I just finished. I might get something written after I find something to eat, but probably no update tonight. My apologies.

>>6282760
The Archer in the Akeldama already beat you to that, I'm afraid. If you haven't, I recommend checking out the archive. Their fight scene was one of the better moments of that quest, as I recall.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 03:36:19 No.6283110 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283084
No worries sweets and also thank you for the tip on reading akeldama

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 01 Aug 2025 04:47:40 No.6283153 Report

Quoted By: >>6283159 >>6283168 >>6283179

Why are we deciding to waste time on selecting a wardrobe instead of actually trying to become stronger, which was the entire point of not targeting anyone immediately and calling it a night last night? Whatever momentary inspiration we could glean will likely vanish in the time it takes to perform these actions.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 05:05:46 No.6283159 Report

Quoted By: >>6283165

>>6283153
Anon it's about having an intermission, anyone who's ever seen a nasuverse intermission in the plot absolutely knows it's the best time to see key points and info as well as glimpses of important characters

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 01 Aug 2025 05:20:29 No.6283165 Report

Quoted By: >>6283167 >>6283168

>>6283159
I've read several nasuverse works and have never felt this "intermission" you speak of. What intermission is happening here exactly? We're just picking out some clothes/outfit, and in the process we'll have missed the opportunity for gaining inspiration, whatever happens at the sunrise that would help us out being gone by the time Yumi has made up his mind.

Time is an important resource in a grail war, and we need all the advantages we can get as soon as possible. I don't think this is the best use of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 05:26:51 No.6283167 Report

Quoted By: >>6283175

>>6283165
Tell that to Emiya I'm sure he totally never had a thing interrupt any moment he tried just taking a moment to reflect on himself nope not at all

Also take your meds because you're angry on a /qst/ thread

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 01 Aug 2025 05:35:13 No.6283168 Report

Quoted By: >>6283175 >>6283179

>>6283153
>>6283165
It would be equally appropriate for Yumi to conclude that self-guided study would get him nowhere right now and wait till Circe's ready to start teaching him.
A Doylist argument can also be made that going to watch the sunrise will lead to a social interaction rather than any significant inspiration, since the other two options are set up that way.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 01 Aug 2025 05:59:32 No.6283175 Report

Quoted By: >>6283294 >>6283409

>>6283168
I don't think that's quite true when he's had very limited experience with his abilities so far, so any ideas will be better than the basic experiences we've have so far.

>>6283167
Most of the time Emiya concluded his own thoughts successfully throughout the duration of the VN, leading to many progressions of the plot through his own deepening understanding of the war and how it's going. We even just had such a monologue while on a rooftop just 2 updates ago. I don't get where you're getting this idea from.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 06:29:20 No.6283179 Report

Quoted By: >>6283184

>>6283153
Agreed, fuck pants.

But also, regardless of Saber's MR, we should give proper Cloak-chan buffed offensive Magecraft a go ASAP. Cunnyfluid just gave mc a big tank of expendable mana to experiment with.

I wonder if we can recreate the self deleting fireball from Awakening but actually fire it at a distance this time due to our class?

Some Servant tier Cloak augmented Imaginary Elements Magecraft would do nicely though given the type advantage against Spiritual beings. The Shadow had no problems voring Saber in HF.

Sweets, out of curiosity does this story follow any specific FSN route timeline roughly or is it straight OC and separated from mainline works entirely?

>>6283168
I do agree that self guided study is going to hit a wall quickly, but we still don't even know the rank of half of our statsheet listed skills and parameters.

Circe is still our best option for Magecraft development, and there might be potential in the ToT teaching us Einzbern specific magecraft too.

But actual combat experience and autistic roof contemplation would be where we learn more about ourself and hopefully by extension, how to maximise our combat potential.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO ta_logo5.png, 118KiB, 670x90

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 01 Aug 2025 06:39:22 No.6283184 Report

Quoted By: >>6283196

>>6283179
Heaven's Feel Good End is the timeline this follows from, but I promise I won't make the mistake I made before and put Shirou into the quest.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 07:16:22 No.6283196 Report

Quoted By: >>6283254 >>6283409

>>6283184

So, True End?
Hmm, I wonder how Acht took his last sacrificial cute and funny wasting the Third on an autistic teenager so a worm could be glopped inside.

That means Zeltrech has not just observed but actually entered this timeline.

I do hope that the story stays free of FSN human characters at least. Caused too much of a shitshow in Awakening. You're going well so far and I'd hate to see it fall apart again as this is clearly much more planned out than many other Fate quests over the years.

I'm also very interested to see what the future routes will look like that you mentioned back here >>6267111

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 01 Aug 2025 11:36:20 No.6283254 Report

Quoted By: >>6283393

>>6283196
We might see Rin this time. After all, the three families are favored for Master positions, and the Einzbern sent Liliesviel. Of course, she may not have been selected, since she was opposed to continuing the Grail Wars in the first place.
On another note, since she seems to have lost the battle over the fate of the Grail, so there may be Subcategory Grail Wars to come.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 15:05:09 No.6283294 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283175
Sure, most of the time, but it has happened. Also my point stands anon, take a chill pill and accept the votes were the majority

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 21:12:31 No.6283393 Report

Quoted By: >>6283395 >>6283409

>>6283254
I don't think there's much reason for Rin to show here, or if she'd even get CS distributed to her given the circumstances. I wonder if in this instance, the slot for the Tohsaka went to the Shijou which Liliesviel says are the second owners for Tokyo. The Tohsaka might have had absolutely nothing to do with this war's establishment. The Shijou are likely the family with Second Ownership this time around, as all that the Tohsaka provided to earn their entry ticket was access to their leyline territory in Fuyuki.

Ayaka mirrors Rin quite a bit as a character in terms of circumstances. Family killed ~10 years ago, last member of her line and sole inheritors of a land marked for a grail war. Trigger happy knight class Servant of a highschooler.

I do wonder if Manaka does exist in some way as that would mirror the mentally ill younger sister role Sakura played in FSN.

Ayaka herself seems a much more reserved person than Rin, who was a gigastacey at her school. Ayaka seems more a rich kuudere. I don't think she has extreme animosity towards us either, given her using a CS to try and hold off Bryn. This kind of mirrors Shirou having to do the same when Saber tries to kill Rin/Archer early in FSN.

In Redline/GUDA and Prototype timelines and loosely in apoc (I can't remember if the apoc grail was scooped out of Fuyuki specifically or elsewhere by Darnic and the Nazis) there is a grail ritual foundation established in Tokyo. It may have been long enough since the WW2 era ritual for it to naturally recharge given ~80 years would have passed. Adelheid existing might also allude to a WW2 specific Grail ritual being involved which also occurred in Redline, and mainline canon has the 3rd Fuyuki ritual occurring during that time too.

The Shijou family are the second owners of Tokyo in Prototype too iirc. Ayaka (and potentially Manaka) appearing may also hint to a Prototype inspired setting? I wonder where the CS are derived from in this ritual if this is the case? The Einzbern are still involved, the Shijou are now providing the land and potentially circumventing the need to involve the Tohsaka which have, given Rin's actions after HF True, turned their back on the ritual. Given HF True End, Zolgen is also dead, so the Makiri are out as well and Sakura wouldn't have the technical knowledge to even attempt to recreate CS either. Acht (or have we reached NEIN now?) has continued his programming and just made a new cute and funny cup to sacrifice, and given Liliesviel's story about our supposed origins, also tried a new method for a cup (us) which may have been intended for this Tokyo setting.

Maybe the CS are magical Nazi science this time around that derive from something esoteric that Himmler's projects discovered, and this influence in the ritual acted as a Catalyst and mechanism for Adelheid to even be summoned in the first place?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 21:14:48 No.6283395 Report

Quoted By: >>6283401

>>6283393
Ayaka's motivations are probably very similar to Rin's too. Restoring her family and name, proving herself as a worth family head etc. Probably also some level of revenge against the yggers.

I wonder what relationship the Overseer has with her, given who Kirei was to Rin, and if there are more parallels to be drawn there.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 21:21:58 No.6283398 Report

Quoted By: >>6283401

Also given Nazi connection to Yggdmillennia in Apoc, the Yggdmillennia entrant may be serving the Makiri role and have some influence over the CS. I doubt they can match Zolgen though, and we might find issues with the CS system here. It might also be part of whybwe have no assigned master and aren't bound? We're we supposed to be contracted by them and that's why there were people at our house to try and take us in?

Also, given Eva's last name is Romanian..

https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Yggdmillennia

>The clan came toRomaniafrom Northern Europe, and have used the Fortress of Millennia inTrifasas their base since the Middle Ages,[1]although they have relatives across the world. They even have kin within theHoly Church.[2]

Eva might very well be a ygger and a gyppo. Possible Church allies too.

We need to meet the Overseer soon and see what we're dealing with.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 21:29:49 No.6283401 Report

Quoted By: >>6283403

>>6283395
>>6283398
We definitely gotta meet with the overseer and depending on how similar/parallel to Kirei they are I would suggest avoiding them. Kirei was a rat fucker with a shit ton of skeletons in his closet so with luck we'll avoid that nonsense with whoever our overseer is.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 21:47:29 No.6283403 Report

Quoted By: >>6283408 >>6283409

>>6283401
Or just kill them early seeing as unlike Shirou, we personally don't give a shit about this war having structure or minimalised casualties.

We have an Assassin kit, the war going off the rails is great for us as we just blend into the concrete jungle and take potshots when they appear.

Depends really just how actually attached we are to this city, its inhabitants and our vestiges of human life here. We were happy to kneecap the npcs at our house but didn't actively kill them. But that was more to try and interrogate them and less about not being a murderer. We have no issues with killing as per Akeldama, but do we want to become a monster?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 22:03:29 No.6283408 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283403
There's no telling what kind of force would pop up if we just leisurely killed people whenever the whim came, and the risk of it being a legitimately dangerous factor is always on the table. At least it wont be Ziusudra since we aren't one of the Hassans

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 01 Aug 2025 22:06:04 No.6283409 Report

Quoted By: >>6283415 >>6283423

>>6283175
The protagonist can also benefit from you, the players, coming up with original ideas for how to use his abilities; I've tried to structure what he's capable of in such a way as to reward creativity as much as possible, rather than the more simplistic power-based approach that seemed optimal in the original version of Awakening Mirror.
Of course I realize you don't have complete information yet, and may need to explore what [Archer] is capable of further in order to get creative with it. Just wanted to put that out there.

>>6283196
You're right, I don't know why I was remembering it as the Good End. Thinking of UBW maybe. True is the one where Shirou lives and Rin ends up visiting him, Sakura, and Rider some time later. That's the ending I mean. FSN ending naming conventions are a bit idiosyncratic.

>>6283393
Quick note, the family of the protagonist of Prototype is the Sajyou. Shijou Ayaka is a similar character, and her family is certainly similar to the Sajyou, but she's not just the same person carried over directly.

>>6283403
>but do we want to become a monster?
If you do, you already look like one of the 27 DAAs, so you've got that going for you.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 22:14:58 No.6283415 Report

Quoted By: >>6283416

>>6283409
I haven't caught up with the archives, works been hectic and internet sporadic, but is my wife medea around or did some chucklefuck do her dirty?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 01 Aug 2025 22:18:38 No.6283416 Report

Quoted By: >>6283424

>>6283415
Zouken took her out (manipulating Saber and Shirou) in the 2004 Fuyuki War in HF, and she wasn't summoned in the Akeldama War. She's still 'around' in the sense of still being recorded in the Throne of Heroes. If that's not what you're getting at, what do you mean?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 01 Aug 2025 22:38:15 No.6283423 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283409
I was reading the surnames as the same thing, mb. Chinky names always blend together.

Guess that means it really is over for Manakabros..

Ayaka appears in that many Fate works as completely different versions of herself. I guess that's what she gets for being Proto-Rin.

Extra got Blonde Rin, FSF gets Blonde Ayaka.

As for the monster option, personally I'm content with aiming for what is most pragmatic a d beneficial for our oen growth and survival, and worrying less about collateral damage. I do think deleting city blocks isn't what is needed as a first approach at least.

If push comes to shove though, plenty more 11s in the sea.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Fri 01 Aug 2025 23:00:09 No.6283424 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283416
I was wondering if she'd been summoned in this grail war as well. Seeing Circe mentioned had my hopes up since that was Medea's teacher

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:37:04 No.6283608 Report

Quoted By: >>6283617

With no immediate necessity of doing anything in particular, no-one making calls on your time, no immediate danger, and your previous daily routine annihilated, another thought you've been putting off confronting since your revival as a Servant works its way to the forefront of your mind. It really is a bit strange to go around wearing nothing but a cloak. Admittedly, all Servants seem to have unusual costumes, ranging from Berserker's uniform to Caster's miniskirt and tunic fastened with gold, and strange outfits seem to be the norm among magi as well, so that between the two your sense of the ordinary has been somewhat dulled. It's true, also, that the cloak seems to protect you from both heat and cold in spite of its thin material, and it's long and voluminous enough to answer the needs of decency for the most part.

Even after taking all that into account, though, it doesn't feel quite right. Every other Servant you've seen appeared to have a costume representing their time, place, and social class of origin. If you're to be a Servant, then, should you have some outfit associated with the upper classes of the 21st Century, like one of Gorou's suits? Or perhaps, with your apparent identity as a homunculus from a European magus family, you ought to have materialized some male equivalent to Liliesviel's finery, something akin to what the Master of Rider was wearing last night. Then again, a homunculus could be seen as a laboratory specimen of a sort, a kind of model of the human form. Could your nudity be an acknowledgement by the Holy Grail of that identity, making you a kind of three-dimensional Vitruvian Man?

The inner workings of the Holy Grail War's magical system and the maintenance in the world of Servants are a mystery to you. Maybe there's no point in speculating on such things. In any case, the lack of clothing beyond Noble Phantasm doesn't sit right with you. Shijou's cry of embarrassment as you made your escape from Lancer sticks out in your memory, though her sensibilities weren't a priority at the time. You'd rather not replicate that episode with anyone else. Really, though, it's the lack of footwear that bothers you the most; nobody was meant to walk around a modern city barefoot.

There's no dresser in this bedroom, but fortunately there is one likely spot for clothing. Aside from the exit and the door to the adjoining bathroom, there's a third door. You expect it opens on a closet, and given the general luxury of the hotel, probably a walk-in type. Remembering the words of the ill-tempered maid that you ought to have found clothing already before she came to collect you yesterday morning, it seems likely that Liliesviel had her staff stock the closet with men's clothing. Curious what sort of outfit they might have prepared, you open the closet and take a look.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:38:05 No.6283609 Report

Quoted By:

As you'd guessed, it's a walk-in closet, with plenty of space and plenty of hangers on the racks. A number of these have spare uniforms for the maids hanging from them. Some spare towels and bedclothes are folded and stacked on an upper shelf. Otherwise, the closet appears tragically empty. Then you spot it, in a corner. It has to be someone's malicious joke. The hostile maid, probably. Alongside the spare dresses for the maids, there is just one set of clothing for men. A butler's uniform, complete with tailcoat. You heave an internal sigh. You can't wear that, and at a glance it looks too small for you. That still leaves you without a wardrobe, though.

Nothing for it. You'll have to see if anyone else is awake, and whether the staff of the Einzbern House have any other clothing on-hand. If worst comes to worst you can take just the shirt and pants from the butler costume and put up with the size problem, but you'd rather not.

As you walk down the hall and come into the suite's living room, you find the expressionless maid almost exactly where you left her a few hours ago, changed only in that now she has a feather duster in her hand. She seems to be occupied with the windowsill, her back to you.

"Good morning to you, Archer." The emotionless voice greets you without it's owner's having seen you enter. Apparently the presence concealment that startled Caster and Liliesviel on the roof last night isn't always so effective. You don't see your reflection in the window, either, so it wasn't that.

"Good morning. You noticed me come in?"

"Although your presence is hidden, the sound you make as you move is not."

"True enough," you observe, smiling with amusement at your own foolishness not to have realized the answer. You weren't making any attempt to move silently, so why wouldn't someone hear you? You make a mental note to practice better control of your movements, even at times when it seems unimportant. "And you knew it was me from the sound?"

"Lady Liliesviel is asleep, and Caster would not leave her Master's side while she sleeps. The others have their duties. The only person who could be approaching from that direction is you. You also have a distinctive tread, weighing more than any other here."

"Very attentive, I'm impressed. Were you Liliesviel's bodyguard before Caster was summoned?"

Now the maid sets her duster down and turns to look at you. Is there a hint of surprise on her features, or are you only reading it into them because of her actions? Hard to say.

"How did you know that?"

"Just a guess." You shrug, still smiling. "Homunculi are usually programmed with knowledge for a purpose, right? Given what you know, you must've been trained as a guard."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:39:06 No.6283610 Report

Quoted By:

The maid stares directly at you, silence along with her lack of expression making her all the more an enigma. For several seconds, you're forced to wonder what's going on behind the impassive mask, if she's offended at your inference, confused, or just doesn't think there's anything necessary to say. Finally she opens her mouth again, just as you're about to consider the subject closed and raise another.

"Correct. I was created to safeguard Lady Liliesviel, and to assist her in bringing about the Miracle when the time comes. If I may ask, Archer, for what purpose was your knowledge acquired? You are a Masterpiece, but do not act as Lady Liliesviel does."

"For what purpose, huh?" You consider the question for a moment, trying to see the situation from her perspective. "I don't think there was much purpose in what kind of knowledge I've gained over the years. I didn't get the kind of preparation your mistress did. Anyway, whatever plan there was behind the way my life was run, it seems to have gone off the rails now."

You keep the smile on your face, your tone light, making a joke of the intentions of those who structured your illusory family, though in truth the idea leaves you bitter. In not training you in magic and teaching you about the Holy Grail War, your keepers seem to have seen you purely as an object to be used, treating you with even less respect than the Einzbern family head seems to have shown Liliesviel.

"Strange," the maid comments. "I don't understand." You wait for a time, expecting further questions, but that seems to be the end of her thoughts on the matter.

"I wish I understood the thing better myself," you agree. "It's a strange situation. I wonder if you could help me with something else, though. I'm looking for something to wear."

"Yes." The maid looks at you, thinking. "Lady Liliesviel said you had nothing. She said she would like to shop for your clothing with you, but we did prepare something for use in the interim. Was it not in your bedroom?"

You have a sinking feeling.

"You don't mean that butler costume, I hope."

"...butler costume?" The maid cocks her head, looking at you with an emotion for once palpable: confusion. "Excuse me."

With that, she turns and briskly rushes out of the room. Not down the corridor your bedroom opened off of, you note, but in the opposite direction. A few minutes later you hear the swishing of her skirt through the hallway as she returns.

"I apologize for the delay," she says. In her hands she carries a black bundle, and holds it out to you. A stack of folded clothing, you realize. "For some reason this was not placed in your bedroom. Please use it as you see fit."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:40:16 No.6283612 Report

Quoted By:

The bundle consists of a set of articles less ridiculous than the butler suit, but striking in one feature. For shirt, there is a black v-neck with short sleeves, not well-suited to winter, but fine in light of your warming cloak. For pants, black wool slacks. A black leather belt. A pair of black boxer shorts. A pair of black socks. Lastly, of course, black leather loafers. It's a startling collection of monochromatic simplicity. At least, you think wryly, nothing will clash with your cloak.

"Thank you," you say, and return to your bedroom to dress.

<> <> <>

Some time later you're sitting in the living room and watching the cityscape through the window, blanketed with a layer of swirling fog, when Liliesviel makes her entrance. As usual, Caster trails behind her. She must have no difficulty with mornings, you note; Liliesviel is already dressed in her complete finery, another confection of silk, lace, velvet, and ribbons, as well as the various jewels adorning her. She must have woken up some time ago to get it all ready. Though the effect is undeniably beautiful, you have to wonder just what her reason is for putting so much effort into her appearance when her very life is kept secret from ordinary people, and all the magi in Tokyo are her enemies. However lovely, who could there be to appreciate her charm?

"Ah, Onii-sama, you're awake this morning! I see you've found the clothing Stachel and Stängel picked out for you as well."

"A little belatedly," you joke, "but yes. I hear you have plans in that direction as well."

"Oh, those two! Did they spoil the surprise?" Liliesviel pouts cutely, but you can see she's not really very angry with her maids. "Yes, I should like to go shopping with you, but let's discuss that later, shall we? For the moment, I believe we ought to go down to breakfast."

The cafe on the thirty-fourth floor is as deserted today as it was yesterday, and the three of you are soon settling down to a quiet breakfast. With the chance to order your food today, you're having two fried eggs, hash browns, and a pair of heavily spiced Italian-style sausages with a cup of coffee, while Caster enjoys a plate of Eggs Benedict and Liliesviel delicately slices bites off of a stack of French toast topped with honey, whipped cream, and several different types of fruit.

"Tell me, won't you," Liliesviel asks. "Last night, you told us that you should like to become more powerful before confronting an enemy Servant. Do you have any particular ideas for how you might go about that?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:41:19 No.6283615 Report

Quoted By: >>6283624 >>6283626 >>6283627 >>6283815 >>6283830 >>6284113 >>6284118 >>6285555

>[ ] Tell her that there's no special trick to it. If Caster can push you to your limits in combat training, you should gradually become a more adept fighter and potentially draw new abilities out of your Noble Phantasms.

>[ ] Tell her you think the key could be combining your own unusual elemental alignment with Caster's tutelage in magic. If you can make use of techniques from the Age of Gods while utilizing the Imaginary Elements, you should be able to create some quite unique effects.

>[ ] Tell her that you think the key could be combining the Einzbern system of magic with your own nature as a Servant. It's not certain that the techniques a demigod like Caster uses can be taught to a modern human, or homunculus, but if you are what Liliesviel says you are, you should definitely be able to learn the Einzbern magic. Since the Holy Grail War ritual as a whole, and the creation of Servants, are elements of their magical techniques, a Servant capable of performing the family's magic might be able to modify the conditions of his own manifestation in such a way as to empower himself. If nothing else, a complete understanding of the underlying construction of a Servant should allow you to more completely analyze the full extent and limits of your own abilities.

>[ ] Tell her something else. (Write in)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:45:59 No.6283617 Report

Quoted By: >>6283624

>>6283608
Nudechads its so fucking over.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 05:53:55 No.6283621 Report

Quoted By: >>6283628

Surprisingly, the comfortable slice of life scenes like conversation over breakfast have ended up being what I have the hardest time writing. I planned to include the entire breakfast scene in this update, but ended up with writer's block after the clothing scene.
So, rather than delaying the update until I could write a proper low-stakes breakfast scene, you get to make this choice now instead of later. Sorry if it seems unnatural; I should be able to finish out the rest of the scene well tomorrow.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:00:19 No.6283624 Report

Quoted By: >>6283628 >>6286012

>>6283615
>[ ] Tell her you think the key could be combining your own unusual elemental alignment with Caster's tutelage in magic. If you can make use of techniques from the Age of Gods while utilizing the Imaginary Elements, you should be able to create some quite unique effects.
It's been quest canon since Akeldama that the Underside (Reverse Side) of the World was established inside IN Space. Besides, my personal suspicion is that the golden moon that keeps appearing in Yumi's dreams could represent the Reverse Side.
>>6283617
Eat the fruit of wisdom. I am not asking twice.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:01:16 No.6283626 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283615
>>6283615
>[ ] Tell her that you think the key could be combining the Einzbern system of magic with your own nature as a Servant. It's not certain that the techniques a demigod like Caster uses can be taught to a modern human, or homunculus, but if you are what Liliesviel says you are, you should definitely be able to learn the Einzbern magic. Since the Holy Grail War ritual as a whole, and the creation of Servants, are elements of their magical techniques, a Servant capable of performing the family's magic might be able to modify the conditions of his own manifestation in such a way as to empower himself. If nothing else, a complete understanding of the underlying construction of a Servant should allow you to more completely analyze the full extent and limits of your own abilities.

We tried learning Magecraft frim Circe in Akeldama. The main problem was hers is based in her Divine Words and blood/birthright. Commanding mana is just something she was born with.

Servant level Einzbern Magecraft with some of our own Element sprinkled in is probably the best way to go. I assume assume Circe is going to offer some input too.

This also doubles in actually confirming if we are a homonculus too. That's still up in the air, and being able to let our guard down a bit more here means we can potentially plan without worrying about the credibility of what the cup is telling us.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:02:18 No.6283627 Report

Quoted By: >>6283631

>>6283615
>>6283615
>[ ] Tell her that you think the key could be combining the Einzbern system of magic with your own nature as a Servant. It's not certain that the techniques a demigod like Caster uses can be taught to a modern human, or homunculus, but if you are what Liliesviel says you are, you should definitely be able to learn the Einzbern magic. Since the Holy Grail War ritual as a whole, and the creation of Servants, are elements of their magical techniques, a Servant capable of performing the family's magic might be able to modify the conditions of his own manifestation in such a way as to empower himself. If nothing else, a complete understanding of the underlying construction of a Servant should allow you to more completely analyze the full extent and limits of your own abilities.

>Try to apply your own unique magical Element/Origin to test the compatibility with this.

We tried learning Magecraft from Circe in Akeldama. The main problem was hers is based in her Divine Words and blood/birthright. Commanding mana is just something she was born with.

Servant level Einzbern Magecraft with some of our own Element sprinkled in is probably the best way to go. I assume assume Circe is going to offer some input too.

This also doubles in actually confirming if we are a homonculus too. That's still up in the air, and being able to let our guard down a bit more here means we can potentially plan without worrying about the credibility of what the cup is telling us.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:05:26 No.6283628 Report

Quoted By: >>6283629

>>6283621
It happens. Do you get actual weekends from your oppressive wagecage to give you more opportunities to write?

>>6283624
Nice try serpent.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:10:08 No.6283629 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283628
Yeah, I don't work on Saturday/Sunday unless an emergency crops up, so I've been able to be more active here on the weekend for the most part.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:14:57 No.6283631 Report

Quoted By: >>6283635

>>6283627
>We tried learning Magecraft from Circe in Akeldama. The main problem was hers is based in her Divine Words and blood/birthright. Commanding mana is just something she was born with.
What she taught Yumi is the fundamental principle of Transference, so he could just manipulate energy directly. I think learning magic from her is going to be more about studying the attribute and making your own spells than learning hers.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 06:32:07 No.6283635 Report

Quoted By: >>6283650

>>6283631
I double posted then deleted the wrong one, nice.

https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Magecraft#Thaumaturgical_Attribute

Its also something einzbern are typically created with knowledge of, one of their primary attributes for magecraft.

Circe may have determined it was something we were specifically compatible with. We may not have had the knowledge but we had the form/ circuit arrangement?

I'm honestly of the opinion of wanting to take both magic tutelage opinions but we seem to only be allowed one.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 02 Aug 2025 07:13:26 No.6283650 Report

Quoted By: >>6283660

>>6283635
I'm expecting that we would have to learn from both. Circe will teach the fundamental mechanics and attributes, whereas Lily will teach practical application through human methods.
The attribute I want to aim at right now, if the choice is given to us, is Conversion. We could use it to store magic in our arrows, which would be a major source of versatility.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sat 02 Aug 2025 07:32:31 No.6283660 Report

Quoted By: >>6283697

>>6283650
Aren't the arrows magic in the first place?

Surely we don't need anything other than to apply the spell effects to the arrow as we create it, rather than needing to learn a whole attribute.

By making our arrows through base aptitude we should be able to shortcut manifesting our Imaginary Element as well, and through them or the cloak then launch it or weaponise it in the immediate vicinity.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 02 Aug 2025 09:22:20 No.6283697 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283660
We do manifest arrows from magical energy, but that seems more like an automatic function of the Noble Phantasm than something we do voluntarily. I'm thinking of using Conversion to make an arrow that, say, applies a binding spell on contact or catches on imaginary fire.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:RVUPt3JW Sat 02 Aug 2025 15:50:07 No.6283815 Report

Quoted By: >>6283816 >>6284118

>>6283615
>[ ] Tell her that you think the key could be combining the Einzbern system of magic with your own nature as a Servant. It's not certain that the techniques a demigod like Caster uses can be taught to a modern human, or homunculus, but if you are what Liliesviel says you are, you should definitely be able to learn the Einzbern magic. Since the Holy Grail War ritual as a whole, and the creation of Servants, are elements of their magical techniques, a Servant capable of performing the family's magic might be able to modify the conditions of his own manifestation in such a way as to empower himself. If nothing else, a complete understanding of the underlying construction of a Servant should allow you to more completely analyze the full extent and limits of your own abilities.

Voting on this because I don't believe that we are an Einzbern homunculus that was stolen by Yggdmillennia.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:RVUPt3JW Sat 02 Aug 2025 15:51:09 No.6283816 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283815
>>6282538
Also, I'm this anon.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C09+0iWR Sat 02 Aug 2025 16:17:21 No.6283830 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 02 Aug 2025 23:40:27 No.6284113 Report

Quoted By:

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sat 02 Aug 2025 23:47:31 No.6284118 Report

Quoted By:

>>6283615
>[X] Tell her that you think the key could be combining the Einzbern system of magic with your own nature as a Servant. It's not certain that the techniques a demigod like Caster uses can be taught to a modern human, or homunculus, but if you are what Liliesviel says you are, you should definitely be able to learn the Einzbern magic. Since the Holy Grail War ritual as a whole, and the creation of Servants, are elements of their magical techniques, a Servant capable of performing the family's magic might be able to modify the conditions of his own manifestation in such a way as to empower himself. If nothing else, a complete understanding of the underlying construction of a Servant should allow you to more completely analyze the full extent and limits of your own abilities.

>>6283815
What happened to our house doesn't basically confirm it for you? What else would that have been.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 05 Aug 2025 03:38:49 No.6285250 Report

Quoted By:

Sorry about 3 days without updates. Just posting to let you folks know I haven't disappeared on you. Will be writing 18 hours from now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Tue 05 Aug 2025 11:44:53 No.6285399 Report

Quoted By: >>6285650

>>6257980
City/Akeldama is just as good as I remember it being. Rushorou's slow transformation into a prideful (but largely lawful) bastard is >>>>

My all-time favorite evil /qst/ protag

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Tue 05 Aug 2025 19:48:26 No.6285555 Report

Quoted By: >>6285650 >>6285651

>>6283615
>[ ] Tell her you think the key could be combining your own unusual elemental alignment with Caster's tutelage in magic. If you can make use of techniques from the Age of Gods while utilizing the Imaginary Elements, you should be able to create some quite unique effects.
Hmm... Neutral vote, Caster vote, or Einzbern vote? I'll go with Circe, even if she isn't as pleasant as she once was. I can already hear her reeeeeing about Archer preferring to learn from modern magi.
A shame that Awakening Mirror Rushorou is essentially a different person from City Akeldama, but I can't exactly blame Sweets for wanting to start with a blank-slate character. A MUCH greater shame that we ended up as second-worst class without getting gun-fu from Eastwood!

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 05 Aug 2025 23:12:28 No.6285650 Report

Quoted By: >>6285677

>>6285399
I'm glad you enjoyed the reread, anon. I had a ton of fun running the quest, which is largely the reason I ended up coming back even though it feels like I wrote that about a million years ago.

>>6285555
>A shame that Awakening Mirror Rushorou is essentially a different person from City Akeldama
There are two reasons for this. The in-universe reason is complicated and has to do with Judas's Noble Phantasm, and you don't have all the information yet. The IRL reason is that that character evolved into Alberich, the protagonist of the original Awakening Mirror, and players ended up hating him. Starting over necessitated dialing back some of the flamboyant way the original version was characterized. Aside from that, it's been 6 years and that version of the character isn't 'alive' in my imagination the way he was in 2019. Writing him 6 years later, he ended up changing.
That said, feel free to embellish your votes, write-in or otherwise, with characterization. If you can rally the players behind you that Archer should act a certain way at a certain time, and those times stack up, that will shape the character as he develops in this quest. Since you just re-read it, you know how much player input shaped Rushorou's developing character in Fate/City Akeldama.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 05 Aug 2025 23:13:30 No.6285651 Report

Quoted By: >>6285677

>>6285555
Also, Archer is the best class.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Wed 06 Aug 2025 00:01:45 No.6285677 Report

Quoted By: >>6285850 >>6285886

>>6285650
It was a pain in the ass six years ago to convince other anons of my vision of the kaichou-cum-übermensch I wrote the original narcissism write-in... which immediately degenerated in Awakening Mirror from trve libido dominandi to Shinji-style wish fulfillment. I would like to avoid that. Yet in my tardiness anons IMMEDIATELY sided with Circe (who must be destroyed) and the albino jailbait. It's Rushurover...

On a re-read the arrogance and sneaky vehemence are just lying beneath the surface of the reborn Archershurou. Only the manipulativeness and clearly articulated will-to-power are missing. Maybe we can try and take after the real gigachad of Akeldama, The Man with No Name, and choose autonomy over power? Lonesome wandering over harem-building?

>>6285651
A stealth Archer that can't even properly snipe masters. My pride can't bear it...

By the way, the prologue had great pacing and presentation. Each character was intriguing, although I have soft spots for Ayaka and Tsubaki. Hopefully we aren't Einzbern-locked just yet. Super excited to see where the new plot goes!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Wed 06 Aug 2025 03:41:18 No.6285850 Report

Quoted By: >>6285866 >>6285886

>>6285677
>Hopefully we aren't Einzbern-locked just yet.
Random observation that could be inaccurate: Liliesviel has recharged Rushorou [Archer]'s magical energy with blood transfusions instead of the automatic transmission from Master to Servant, so I don't believe Rushorou is in an official contract or under the compulsion of her Command Spells. Unless I missed something.

Still holding out for the Judas-Vaisset situation to be cleared up. We could be in for another round of giga-gaslighting before long.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:04:42 No.6285866 Report

Quoted By: >>6285886

>>6285850
Good catch.

>>6282243
>>6266614
About these visions- this is obviously Archer looking through his portal to the realm of imaginary numbers, right?

>>6262979
And this is some goddess calling Archer to remember his "nature" (i.e., magical alignment to imaginary numbers).

In absence of a Master/Servant to share influence with in dreams, might we think that as a "lesser grail turned inward" these dreams are basically the gods calling on Archer to consume defeated servants and become a gate channeling the imaginary world?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:09:32 No.6285874 Report

Quoted By: >>6287237

"The magic of the Einzbern family," you answer abruptly. Better to cut to the chase and explain after than prevaricate. "You and your maids have said a fair amount about my being a homunculus of the same type you are, and what that means. As I understand it, magi pass their techniques down through a lineage, but rather than working with human methods, the Einzbern build the capacity for the familial magic directly into the framework of the homunculus. Stop me if I'm going wrong, here, but that means I should be able to learn your magic faster than any other, and time is of the essence in a Holy Grail War. Then there's the matter of what a Servant really is."

Liliesviel looks at you in silence, an expression of shock growing on her face as she processes your implication.

"You propose to alter the rules of your own spirit container?"

"Exactly. If this whole ritual is something the Einzbern created, the same goes for Servants. It must be something that can be altered with your methods, if it's made with them. There might be limits to what you can do with the summoning conditions for a normal Servant; they're bound by the abilities of the heroic spirit." You grin, gesturing with a hand at your own rather un-mythical appearance. "I have no heroic spirit, no legend. Whatever I've become, I think it's something that can be changed with an understanding of the Servant system and enough magical energy."

"That..." Liliesviel trails off, touching a finger to her lower lip as she sinks into thought for a moment. She's no longer looking at you, but into the middle distance, surveying her own knowledge. "That may be true. I can't say; you are something quite new."

Caster looks between the two of you, having listened impassively to the conversation thus far, then heaves a small sigh. She looks both crestfallen and knowing, like someone who's just been told that a too-good-to-be-true deal really wasn't true.

"It should offend me, that you prefer to study the methods of a modern clan, when you have had the opportunity of my tutelage," the witch remarks in a conversational tone, "but I knew that this would come. You two are equally mystic artifacts and living beings; such things should know the power they were built for before putting themselves to other use. I must have known already, in some part, when I sensed your aptitude for Transference."

"Transference?" You echo Caster's word, surprised. Though her way of referring to you as an object needles your sense of pride, your curiosity takes precedence over anger. It is the only field of magic she's really tutored you in, but what's the significance here? "What makes that so relevant to being a homunculus?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:10:33 No.6285875 Report

Quoted By:

"That," Liliesviel interjects cheerily, "would be the specialty of our family. Since time immemorial, the Einzbern house has studied the Flow and Transference of Power, with particular application in the way of Alchemy. In brief, the magical attribute of Transference. It's a fortunate happenstance that you've already been introduced to the attribute!"

"Is that so," you reply, taken aback, and look curiously at Caster. Just what, you wonder, did she really sense about you during those days you spent in the Akeldama? How much can you believe in the assessments you made of her personality in that time, and how much is there that she wasn't telling you? "Quite a coincidence. But do you mean everything your family has done with magic is grounded in that one subject? I hadn't realized these things were so flexible."

"Oh yes. A single magical attribute has countless applications; most lineages of any worth specialize in exploring the possibilities of a single attribute, and there are any number of magi who specialize in the same attributes, pursuing their parallel research to quite different ends. Naturally, it is useful to have a basic understanding of a variety of attributes, but the real research must be specialized. To give you an example, both the summoning of Servants and the great mystery of our family, the Third Sorcery, are rooted in the principle of transferring a timeless, immaterial soul into our own material reality. In a similar vein, we can accomplish far sight by transference of our own senses into some distant object, or a familiar."

"So it's as broad as all that," you murmur, and somewhere inside yourself, an unconscious, unrealized truth clicks into place. What Liliesviel is saying is true, you're certain, and more than that, you understand the point she's getting at on a deeper level. It's another way of looking at the world, in terms of power flowing through things, and the patterns that power makes up. Patterns which could be called traits, natures, or qualities. A way of looking at the world which prioritizes magical energy above all else, which doesn't truly look at all but roots perception in that other sense which is the province of magi; and, you suppose, of Caster's 'mystic artifacts'. If the world is, primarily, a system of power flowing cyclically, and objects can be perceived as patterns in the flow, then by intercession of a particular energy, any 'thing' can be shifted from existing as part of one pattern to another. All you have to do is... is...

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:11:33 No.6285878 Report

Quoted By: >>6286012

The conception slips away from you like mist. Too many layers of abstraction, trying to understand too much at once. This is something you need to devote more time to, but the realization was a true one, you're certain. It's as if you've suddenly remembered something you never knew before, understanding coming not from Liliesviel's words, but from within, only being reminded of it by her explanation. When you come back to the here and now, you realize both of the others are staring at you. Caster regards you with an expression of curiosity, leaning back in her chair, while Liliesviel has both of her palms on the table, bent over it to examine your face as closely as possible, excitement sparkling in her eyes.

"You know, don't you? Even without education from our family, the knowledge was within you?"

"Seems it was," you answer, still a bit shaken by the sudden experience. "I thought I'd be able to learn quickly, but this is something else. What you said, the meaning behind it; I feel like I knew it all along, and at the same time like I've just found out."

"So that's how it is when you're conscious!" Liliesviel claps her hands in excitement, looking as if she's the one who's made a discovery. You find yourself smiling, amused in spite of the seriousness of a moment before. Seeing your expression the girl seems to become self-aware and hurriedly regains her composure, sitting back and smoothing out her expression. "Ah, ahem. Do excuse me. I was overcome with excitement for a moment; you see, we are all taught while unconscious. We awake with the knowledge meant for us, but I knew the understanding of magic must be recorded in the body; a homunculus capable of actualizing mystery is a kind of living magic crest, different from those humans forced to rely on inanimate formulae encoded somewhere. It is as you surmised, but I was ever so curious to see what it would look like when you actually found the knowledge welling up inside you."

"And what did it look like," you ask, a wry note in your voice. You arch an eyebrow, doubting if your own face engrossed in thought can have been particularly entertaining.

"As if the scales were falling from your eyes," the girl answers vaguely. "Most remarkable."

You turn your eyes to Caster, but the enchantress answers with a slight shrug.

"You appeared deep in thought," is the only answer she gives. Whatever satisfaction Liliesviel got out of seeing your moment of comprehension seems as unclear to her as to you. There really doesn't seem to be anything special one could find in the sight, unless...

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:12:42 No.6285879 Report

Quoted By:

"Don't tell me you've never learned something while conscious before," you say, your voice making a question of it. Perhaps for the first time, you seem to be becoming aware of how truly strange the lives of Liliesviel and her maids must have been. Was there no instruction or explanation given in the Einzbern family home, of any kind? The vision of a snowbound castle of silence, populated by automatons acting according to knowledge gained through somnolent visions, conjurs itself in your mind, and seems to provide an answer to the girl's inexplicable constant cheer. Even going to battle and death would seem an escape from such a place.

"Oh no," Liliesviel answers hastily. "I do hope I haven't given you the wrong idea; we go about ordinary communication just like anyone else. It's only education and expertise that is imparted in that way. Learned skills, one might say."

"I see." In spite of the girl's dismissal, the image lingers in your mind. Often before you've wondered why Liliesviel could be so optimistic about her role as a ritual implement; now you find yourself asking other questions. What kind of 'family' are the Einzberns, really, to bind their scions to self-sacrifice in the hopes of imitating an ancestor? Just who is the real head of this manufactured lineage, anyway? The maids are seemingly Einzbern homunculi themselves, and they speak of Liliesviel as if she held sole claim to the nobility of the lineage. At the same time, she describes herself as beholden to the mysterious 'Grandfather' who apparently does not deign to make the trip to the Holy Grail War himself. Is this 'Grandfather' the only human member of the house, a puppetmaster responsible for creating the homunculi, or is he merely another homunculus, perhaps of a higher rank? What is your place in this hierarchy to be, if you survive the Holy Grail War at all? As you grow more and more to believe in the supposition that you are a product of the Einzbern magic yourself, your doubts about the family with whom you've become identified mount in equal measure.

<> <> <>

After breakfast, you, Caster, and Liliesviel make your way to the tropical splendor of the 'training hall' on the forty-fourth floor, where you can train the practical side of your growing magical knowledge. The maids have brought a folding bamboo table out of the villa and stood it up on the beach, where Liliesviel has set out a stone small enough to fit in her diminutive palm and a cup of water, side-by-side.

"Now," the girl begins, "please watch what I am about to do."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:13:43 No.6285881 Report

Quoted By:

She stretches out a hand to each of the items on the table, resting the tip of her right index finger on the stone while the tip of her left index finger just barely disturbs the surface of the water in the cup. Though she makes no movement beyond this, you can sense the magical energy within her flowing into both, seeming to suffuse and possess the two objects. Then there is a shift. Sudden and definitive, yet intangible, without sound, sight, or smell. A piece of the energy of the stone has been transfused into the water. No, not a piece, not a portion, but an aspect, you think; the amount of energy in each remains constant, but through the connection Liliesviel has established, something was moved.

"You noticed what I did?" Liliesviel looks at you expectantly.

"You transferred something from the stone to the water. What, I can't exactly say."

"Very good!" The girl nods with an expression like a pleased teacher. In this situation, you suppose that's exactly what she is. "Touch the water, won't you?"

Curiously, you reach a finger into the cup, expecting to find that the water has been charged in some way, or perhaps changed temperature, and your finger runs straight into it. It's solid. Hard, in fact, and as smooth as if it's been polished; worn by the action of salt over years in the ocean.

"The texture?"

"Exactly!" Suddenly Liliesviel breaks the circuit of magic, pulling her hands back to clap them together, and your finger slips into water that's returned to its normal consistency. "Now try it for yourself. It may help you at first to close your eyes."

"Alright."

You close your eyes as instructed, mimicking the girl's posture from the other side of the table. One finger on the stone, the other on the surface of the water. Inside yourself, the door opens on the empty infinite, and your magic circuits come alive. With careful control, you visualize the space occupied by each substance, stone and water, and extend the energy out of your fingers, into that space. At first, it doesn't work. The energy slips, as if searching for an anchor, and you realize that 'space' is too intangible. When you focus on the concepts of the stone and the water as entities, things fall into place. Your magical energy fills them easily, and the strange feeling that you already knew how to do this, but have only just remembered, comes over you again.

"Having infused them," Liliesviel's voice is saying, "You must try to see the stone and water as their component qualities. Can you understand the patterns that make them up?"

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:14:43 No.6285882 Report

Quoted By: >>6285896 >>6285916 >>6285950 >>6286014 >>6286023 >>6286076

Uncannily, you find that you can. With only that little prompting, you find yourself conscious of the complex system that is the stone, a constellation of traits. Its size, its composition, its hardness, its color, the fashion in which it was formed, and on and on they go, like a fractal expanding as you stare deeper into it. You pull back before you fall into the mental trap of that infinitude, focusing on the basic qualities of the object.

"I have it," you declare, sounding more certain than you feel.

"Well then, you have only the last step," says a pleased voice. "Try to take the pattern of hardness from the stone and transfer it to the water. The formula should come naturally to you now."

You can do it, you're sure, but suddenly another understanding comes to you. The elements play a role in this, the elements of magic you learned about from Caster. It would be magical energy of Earth that best suits this task, and you're confident that's what Liliesviel used, but magic you perform can be of only three possible elements. Emptiness, Nothingness, or Ether. From there, your mind races to another possibility. Isn't there another phase of existence, one made up of Emptiness and Nothingness, to which you're connected by the cloak you wear? You might try to reach for that, though it would surely take more energy than the exercise Liliesviel is walking you through.

>[ ] Try using the one Real Element you have, Ether, to transfer the hardness from the stone to the water.

>[ ] Try using the one Real Element you have, Ether, to transfer the liquidity from the water to the stone.

>[ ] Try using the material one of the Imaginary Elements, Nothingness, to perform one of the above. (Which?)

>[ ] Try to use the element of Emptiness to transfer a property from the world of Imaginary Numbers to the water.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:21:49 No.6285886 Report

Quoted By: >>6286216 >>6286609

>>6285677
Thanks for your thoughts on the prologue! As for the plot going forward, there isn't a strict lock on what you can do, of course, but there are certain courses of events set in motion by what you've done so far. I won't say too much and spoil, but I've divided the various ways the plot can develop into five overall categories, which are as close as a quest can come to having 'routes' in the way a VN does. These are
Identity
Purpose Replica
Walhala
Freeshooter
Revelatio
As you've no doubt guessed, Contemplation was the prologue. As I said earlier in the thread, you can start over after reaching an ending, and I'd like to give you folks the opportunity to play through all five!

>>6285850
[Archer] is a Servant without a Master, you're correct.

>>6285866
That's definitely one valid interpretation of the dreams. I can't confirm or deny anything before you know more in-universe, but what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Lx+n/Ysy Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:33:34 No.6285896 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285882
>[ ] Try to use the element of Emptiness to transfer a property from the world of Imaginary Numbers to the water.
Imbue it with ether as well to help stabilize it

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Wed 06 Aug 2025 04:49:37 No.6285916 Report

Quoted By: >>6286015

>>6285882
Decisions decisions... if I recall, ether is the foundation of servant materialization, so that should be able to transfer hardness. Yet it would be a lot more fun to do something truly esoteric. Something tells me that transferring anything from the world of Imaginary Numbers would be too difficult (see: Circe's difficulty creating Archer's original cloak)
>[ ] Try using the material one of the Imaginary Elements, Nothingness, to perform one of the above. (Liquid -> Stone)

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Wed 06 Aug 2025 05:49:49 No.6285950 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285882
>[ ] Try using the one Real Element you have, Ether, to transfer the liquidity from the water to the stone.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 06 Aug 2025 09:13:42 No.6286012 Report

Quoted By: >>6286023 >>6286141

>>6285878
>>6283624

See look what you've done. We wear clothing and are burdened with Knowledge.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 06 Aug 2025 09:19:49 No.6286014 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285882
>[ ] Try to use the element of Emptiness to transfer a property from the world of Imaginary Numbers to the water.

Weird Mystery AoG gacha property time

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 06 Aug 2025 09:21:20 No.6286015 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285916
Cloak-chan facilitates spell casting. Have faith.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 06 Aug 2025 09:49:01 No.6286023 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285882
>[ ] Try to use the element of Emptiness to transfer a property from the world of Imaginary Numbers to the water.
>>6286012
It's the first step toward gnosis.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:IkzDsxeF Wed 06 Aug 2025 14:03:10 No.6286076 Report

Quoted By:

>>6285882
>[ ] Try to use the element of Emptiness to transfer a property from the world of Imaginary Numbers to the water.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Wed 06 Aug 2025 16:41:06 No.6286141 Report

Quoted By: >>6286146 >>6286152 >>6286216

>>6286012
>Wears clothes
>Burdened with knowledge
We're officially on the Paradise Lost bad end, aren't we boys? Tree of life never ever. Liliesviel as Eve?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:C5/d4g0C Wed 06 Aug 2025 16:55:19 No.6286146 Report

Quoted By: >>6286216

>>6286141
>It'll be Saber, Sakura, Rin or Jeanne and you know it

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Wed 06 Aug 2025 17:02:46 No.6286152 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286141
This isn't Paradise Lost, this is the ending where Yumigawa masters the Third and frees himself from the degenerate world of the Demiurge, Liliesviel Einzbern Yggdmillennia.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 06 Aug 2025 19:33:04 No.6286216 Report

Quoted By: >>6286234

>>6286141
Given what Sweets mentions here about routes >>6285886
If we are indeed an Einzbern homonculus, and we're learning about that original aspect of the self due to interactions with the other Einzbern, we're probably on Identity? Or at least close to that pathway. Circe is also here to groom us into the hero she was setting the foundations for in Akeldama. Seems like an OK baseline 'Fate' route to get started on.

Walhala could be Adelheid or Ayaka/Bryn? The rest its too early to guess really.

>>6286146
I hope it's Adelheid. Hyperboreanmaxxing a fresh start for humanity

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 04-HF06-01-01.jpg, 26KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Wed 06 Aug 2025 20:22:08 No.6286234 Report

Quoted By: >>6286239

>>6286216
>we're probably on Identity?
Note >>6282244. I'm using the same method as F/SN, where the beginning of a day has the name of the route printed on it. For example, pic related.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Wed 06 Aug 2025 20:27:01 No.6286239 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286234
Turns out what I lack in reading comprehension I make up for in pattern recognition.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Wed 06 Aug 2025 21:41:28 No.6286271 Report

Quoted By: >>6286341 >>6286495 >>6286995

>Naragasa Tsubaki is not!Ogarawa is the Indulgent Oni
How did I miss this? Was not!Matsuda also in the prologue? Maybe we missed that option by not getting painkillers?

>Ayaka (she did nothing wrong and deserves the world) is the Master of Lancer
>Eva is our Yggdmillenia handler?
>Yumigawa's parents (maybe just Mother?) are willing or unwilling Yggdmillenia agents??
>Tatsuhara is... Sakura 2.0??? (unpleasant home life, long-term classmate of actual Yumigawa)
>School Nurse Ayukawa is... ????
My brain is too small to track these things

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Alfys7Jg Thu 07 Aug 2025 00:42:02 No.6286341 Report

Quoted By: >>6286495 >>6286995

>>6286271
>School Nurse Ayukawa is... ????
Secretly a church agent. She's the overseer. Calling it now.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 07 Aug 2025 05:36:54 No.6286495 Report

Quoted By: >>6286505 >>6286609 >>6286995

>>6286271
>>6286271
The first fits with the ability for Nagarasa to just slip away from us in the alley after deleting the guys who followed her.

Neet becomes an Oni and larps as a honey trap for sport. Oni often have Morph/Shapeshift too.

I don't think we've directly seen Matsuda by virtue of the choices so far. He's less subtle anyway.

Ayaka a nice but plain. Need to see more of her to form an opinion. Bryn is a standard well adjusted Valkyrie, and we seem to be triggering her Beloved trait to ramp this up a few notches, as she pursued even after a CS. Tells us she's probably got A Magic Resistance given how well she shrugged off the do not kill command.

Eva has a Romani surname and the Yggers are a Romanian clan, so that's pretty likely.

Yumigawa's dad is based, and his mother still seems to be actively trying to engage with him regardless of him ignoring her. I'd say both are likely in a similar situation to Waver's fake family and they're under some level of hypnosis which allows them to still act as they are. I wonder how long its been that way, maybe it was wearing off and that's why she was malfunctioning a bit vs Yumigawa's earlier memories of her.

The whole homonculus deal is tricky, as who knows if the 18 years of life was an implanted 'learned' piece of knowledge as we've just experienced, or if we're actually that old and are very close to the natural expiration date of a lesser grail model of homonculus. How does that expiry even work with our pseudo/demiservantification too? We have some rank of Independent Action. Will we be empowered or decline as we absorb fallen servants? Will our powers grow but lifespan shorten?

Tatsuhara is literally a Satsuki expy given her name. She may or may not get bad ended on or offscreen for character development. Yumigawa shut her down pretty hard though with his autism. Unless she's magically inclined I don't see her having much attention this route. Are her and all the other school npcs memories of us real and long term? Photos seem to say they are. We didn't search back any earlier than secondary school and I don't see how we're going to find out anymore.

>>6286341
Overseer visit soon (tm) should hopefully have us confirming if nurse is indeed from the church.

Do Truvi, Adelheid and our mindbroken JK gyaru still exist? Will JK, with her new programming appear while we're being attacked later on and sacrifice herself to live out her implanted geas?

Is Odysseus still Archer (true) in this?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Thu 07 Aug 2025 05:51:30 No.6286505 Report

Quoted By: >>6286509 >>6286995

>>6286495
I imagine the Outer Servants have all been switched along with the Masters. Akeldama characters likely still exist, but will have been different from the original Awakening Mirror. Circe and not!Rushorou's companions are obviously around in some fashion, Odin has been replaced with Bryn, and assuming >>6262989 is Vaisset dying all over again Seibah/Harris may have been substituted considering the nature of the damage.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Thu 07 Aug 2025 06:02:51 No.6286509 Report

Quoted By: >>6286525 >>6286649 >>6286995

>>6286505
>>6286505
Saber's new master is described like Harris. He also seemed to know we were tailed him. That could have also been Artoria's Instinct though. He's clearly a very capable mage as Seibah was spamming Mana Burst like she was HF Alter too. If she keeps her summoning memories yet again she's going to have some fun memories from HF where she was Alter, so it might be why she just went straight for a Master given the chance despite being in the middle of an 'honourable' duel. She's declined mentally from Zero and has likely become even more desperate for the grail.

Mechanically though, is this not a different Greater grail, so is it instead a blank slate Seibah recorded on the Throne, or is it the same Alaya slave from the original VN who must get the cup to fulfil her contract?

If Adelheid took over Berserker's slot who was Berserker 1 from pre Judas NP?

What class designation even is Matsuda then, as we met Lancer Bryn already, and him and Adelheid are competing for the same class slot otherwise.

Two sets?

1 OG outer set and some extra strays from Judas' ritual?

How does Adelheid not just fizzle put immediately upon being ejected from Akeldama? Bit of a raw deal given we were holding her reigns, they were then forcefully cut by Judas at the end and us, Matsuda and Ogawara made into something close to Servants. How are the other two sustainable either? Matsuda almost died due to mana loss immediately after being ejected last time, but he seemed OK in his interludes so far. Ogawara too neither are obvious Archer's so where is the Independent Action battery life coming from?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Thu 07 Aug 2025 06:29:28 No.6286525 Report

Quoted By: >>6286995

>>6286509
>I completely forgot that Saber was already featured
Lmao

In the last continuity it was a full outer set (less Judas) + the surviving Akeldama servants and potential heroes. With the current evidence it stands to reason we're in same situation.

Circe replaced Judas, who apparently was summoned by Liliesviel (although the "pig's blood" in >>6257880 makes me think she metamorphosed and killed people as soon as she arrived, which contradicts this story). not!Rushorou is a masterless extra Archer. not!Ogawara/Tsubaki could be doing what (s)he did last time and eating people for energy. I'd bet that Adelheid was immediately poached in this timeline by well-equipped mages (Yggdmillenia?). not!Matsuda... idk, but considering that he is some kind of demon/spirit he might also be consuming energy from kills.

Alternatively, Sweets *could* be throwing out that whole arrangement and making the list

Saber- Seibah
Archer- us
Lancer- Bryn
Rider- Lightning-chariot guy
Caster- Circe
Assassin- Tsubaki
Berserker- not!Matsuda

With Adelheid left out and multiple servants masterless, but that smacks of wasted opportunity to me.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Thu 07 Aug 2025 12:55:10 No.6286609 Report

Quoted By: >>6286995

>>6286495
If Ogawara really decided the first thing he should do as an oni is turn gay for kaichou, I'll be very disappointed in him.

>>6285886
My best guesses for the meaning of the names is:
>Identity
Return to Yumigawa.
>Purpose Replica
Help the Einzberns fulfill their dream.
>Walhala
Become a heroic spirit as Judas intended in Awakening Mirror his motive may have changed in this quest.
>Freeshooter
Reject everyone else's expectations and pursue your own dream.
>Revelatio
Free the gods and restore them to power.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:64WaB17W Thu 07 Aug 2025 16:11:34 No.6286649 Report

Quoted By: >>6286682 >>6286995

>>6286509
Are we going to corrupt Saber again in this run? Can we even do that sweets?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Thu 07 Aug 2025 17:55:46 No.6286682 Report

Quoted By: >>6286718

>>6286649
Dear God no

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:64WaB17W Thu 07 Aug 2025 19:53:35 No.6286718 Report

Quoted By: >>6286723

>>6286682
Why not?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Thu 07 Aug 2025 20:20:17 No.6286723 Report

Quoted By: >>6286731 >>6286949 >>6286995

>>6286718
I'm not sure how I want to characterize this new Archer. To this end, I've been reviewing the original Awakening Mirror to see what went wrong with Alberich as a character. His (our) tendency towards Servant Pokémon notably went off the deep end in Thread 9 and resulted in Gilgamesh-esque possessiveness. It's an ugly trait that helped derail the story. I dearly hope that Sweets hits us with the Femme Fatale dead end if we so much as hesitate in finishing off a pretty female Servant.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:64WaB17W Thu 07 Aug 2025 20:44:32 No.6286731 Report

Quoted By: >>6286739

>>6286723
It's been a while since a read the original awakening mirror, there were a lot of things that i didn't like about Alberich, him being lawful stupid, the sword that just kept missing, harris and matsuda being a even bigger pain in the ass that akeldama archer. But corrupting Saber and making her our maid(I like maid alter) was one of few things that I liked.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Thu 07 Aug 2025 20:56:19 No.6286739 Report

Quoted By: >>6286855 >>6286949

>>6286731
Wanting Saber Alter is fine, the problem is wanting Saber Alter and Circe and Adelheid and Rider and Korakuhime and multiple non-Servant waifus on top of that (with their attendant plotlines). It bogged down the Grail War and indulged Alberich's id to a ludicrous degree. Saber Alter especially bothered me for personal reasons.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:7O7furfs Fri 08 Aug 2025 00:38:15 No.6286855 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286739
Given Rider is Lightning Charioteer and potentially no Meduseless at all this time.

Mithras..?

Reminds me a little of his SMT design.

Similar background lore as an old god of the region like Medusa was, folded in a bit under Greek mythology.

Otherwise it could be one of Zeus' many bastards, or even Iskander!Zeus or similar (or a child thereof) if that other anon was right about A Divinity indicating he's allowed the Divine blood to take over.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 04:23:19 No.6286949 Report

Quoted By: >>6286974

>>6286723
>>6286739
I got attached to Circe because of Akeldama, so it hurt to watch her decline in relevance, and then get strapped to the cuck chair, and then have to see Hecate get summoned.
But in hindsight, it's funny to see Alberich jump on the nearest loli in sight when he's not watched for five minutes. He let the cunny mind control win without even putting up a fight.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 08 Aug 2025 05:08:48 No.6286974 Report

Quoted By: >>6287020

>>6286949
I came in mid-way through Awakening Mirror, so I played catch-up on the archives; But the impression I took from them were that Circe was just being manipulative, and took a great disliking to her after reading Akeldama.

I wonder if I read it again I'll notice the same things I did then.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 05:39:33 No.6286985 Report

Quoted By: >>6287013

The real, you reflect, will not do. In Ether there is an intangible quality you can sense, a key incompatibility with things material. It is the element of spirit, and whatever its uses, you find yourself certain they do not include the manipulation of prosaic physical properties of ordinary objects. Nothingness, on the other hand, feels unpredictable. Though your rationality knows of no reason the element should not stand in admirably for Liliesviel's use of Earth, the same mysterious inner voice of memory that is not memory which warns against the use of Ether hints that should you use that element, the results will in some strange way be different from those you expect. It must be Emptiness, and it must be a property of the Realm of Imaginary Numbers.

Turning your focus from the stone to your own inner microcosm, the system of self through which magical energy circulates, you feel your magic circuits, feel how they extend into the threads of your cloak. You feel also how the garment is connected to that other place, so utterly alien and yet perfectly familiar. Feeling your way along a path woven from your inner nature, you reach your attention through. You grasp amidst serene chaos for a property, some trait or rule governing matter which might, through application of a Transference spell of Emptiness, be applied to the water.

Then you find it. A strange pattern in the sea of chaotic energy, the physical property of something that never was nor ever could be. A violation of basic physical principles, a substance which saps the inertia of anything coming into contact with it regardless of its mass or the other object's, an anchor of zero motion. Certainly an acceptable substitute for 'hardness'.

Feeling the heavy drain on your magical energy as you work, far more than Liliesviel used in transferring a terrestrial property from stone to water, you draw the energetic pattern from space defined by the impossible into the real world and layer it onto the system that is the water. It merges easily, becoming an essential trait of this mass of water, and you know it will remain so as long as you maintain the hold your magical energy has on the object.

Status Updated

You open your eyes. Liliesviel is regarding you with a curious expression, obviously able to tell that you haven't simply followed her example. She seems content to wait for you to speak on your own terms, though, not rushing you for an explanation.

"I've tried something a bit different," you say by way of introduction. "My elemental alignment isn't suitable for using Earth, Water, Fire, or Wind, but I doubt the Imaginary Elements play nicely with real things. Since I have a certain connection to Imaginary Number Space through this cloak of mine, I've drawn a property out of that world to apply to the water in this cup. Try touching it."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 05:40:34 No.6286986 Report

Quoted By:

Obedient either to your words or her own curiosity, Liliesviel reaches out a finger and prods the water. As expected, it stays motionless.

"Hardness?" Liliesviel tilts her head to one side, looking more confused than ever. "But there isn't anything so strange about that, how is it that it should derive from imaginary numbers?"

"Not hardness." You chuckle, satisfaction with your successful spell getting the better of you a bit now that it's proven to be working correctly. "It's a scientific violation; that water takes in all inertia without moving. Just try to pick it up, and you'll see what I mean." You take your finger away from the water, finding that it isn't difficult to keep your energy within it after contact is broken, though you needed to be handling it to pour your energy into it in the first place.

"Is that so...?" Liliesviel wraps slender fingers around the cup, moving to take it from the table, and stops right there. First bemusement crosses her features, then real excitement as she feels for herself the bizarre effect of your unorthodox magic. One arm proving useless to lift the immobile cup, the girl grabs it with both hands and visibly puts all her limited strength into moving it, to no effect.

"What do you think, teacher," you joke, already thinking of the combat applications of the spell. Defense is the most obvious, of course. "Have I passed my first lesson in Transference?"

"Oh, quite!" The girl smiles at your joke, but it's obvious the lion's share of her attention is still on analysis of the property you've applied to the water. "It's fascinating. I've always imagined Imaginary Number Space to be a sort of void, for that's how it was described to me, but I suppose it mustn't be so at all. If it contains all that isn't possible, you must be able to draw all sorts of useful things from it! This immobility would be lovely for a most unusual kind of barrier, don't you think?"

"The idea had crossed my mind." You nod. Both of you must have jumped to the conclusion at about the same time, an amusing thought. "How do you normally use Transference for defense?"

"It's not so different from the way we hide from the mundanes. You remember I told you that the boundary fields here keep them from noticing any strange goings-on in the Hotel, don't you?"

You nod, waiting for her to continue.

"Good! You see, the mechanism for doing so is really to transfer their attention away from anything magical. If one wants to stay unseen when going about in public, one only has to apply a similar effect to oneself, a boundary that shifts attention away whenever it should happen to draw near. A defensive barrier does the same with the direction of an attack, shifting it away."

"A little more advanced than what you've shown me so far," you observe, looking forward with unusual good humor to learning how such automatic transfers are done. "You'd never keep up, trying to do all those transfers one-by-one."

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 05:41:34 No.6286987 Report

Quoted By: >>6287002 >>6287013 >>6287020 >>6287120 >>6287225 >>6287344

"No," Liliesviel agrees, "that would be quite a challenge. If one would like a magical formula to be executed anytime something enters a certain space, a boundary field is the thing. The most basic sort of boundary field creation is to build one on some particular location using the land, but learning to keep an active field around oneself is also an essential skill for a magus. We shall have to make sure you can do so."

"Of course," she adds with a soft laugh, "I'm sure it won't take you long to learn."

"I take it that's today's next course of study, then?"

"I suppose it could be..." Liliesviel sounds uncertain, and a little surprised by your question. "It may be wiser for you to practice transferring qualities for a few hours, to make certain of your aptitude before moving on. I should think you'd like to keep up your combat training with Caster, as well. But then," cheeks going slightly pink, the girl turns hesitant. "This last is a bit selfish, but I've grown quite curious about the power of these Imaginary Elements you use. It is quite rare for a magus to be aligned to one. Would you manifest an element directly, that I might examine it?"

>[ ] Practice transferring qualities until lunchtime. A new ability is worthless if you can't consistently replicate it in the heat of the moment, after all.

>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using inertia barriers against Caster's familiars.

>[ ] Explain to Liliesviel that you haven't learned how to manifest an element directly. If she'll explain how to go about it, though, you don't mind showing her. (You can manifest a mass of Nothingness which resembles one of the following: Wind, Fire, Earth, or Water. Which would you like to imitate?)

>[ ] Insist on learning about boundary fields. There's no need for you to practice what you've proved you can do, and an "essential skill for a magus" should take precedence over other subjects, shouldn't it?

>[ ] Do/Say something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 05:50:13 No.6286995 Report

Quoted By: >>6287002 >>6287014

Shorter update tonight, apologies for that as well as for the delay.

>>6286271
>>6286341
>>6286495
>>6286505
>>6286509
>>6286525
>>6286609
Very interesting to read. Some of your theories are spot-on, others are way off, so it's a great variety. Seeing speculation prompted by the quest is one of my favorite things; I hope you'll keep at it! It's always fascinating to see when some hints intended to be pretty clear get ignored, while some readers will jump onto a red herring that wasn't even intentional. This is why QMing is so much fun!

>>6286649
I don't think it's really going to spoil the story or ruin the quest for anyone to say that no, there won't be any brainwashing Servants this time around. It was a pretty nonsensical plot point in the original, reflecting on it all after the fact, and I'm of a mind with >>6286723. What started as a temporary expedient to get rid of a dangerous enemy you couldn't beat through direct attack became something that really ended up spiraling out of control and dragging down the whole quest. Maybe it's possible to write a fun and interesting story about a protagonist who succeeds by collecting dangerous people he's brainwashed to become his followers, but I don't seem to be the best person to write it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Fri 08 Aug 2025 06:20:03 No.6287002 Report

Quoted By: >>6287023

>>6286987
>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using inertia barriers against Caster's familiars.
You can't offer me combat magic and expect me *not* to practice it.

>>6286995
Speaking of QMing being fun, thanks again for bringing it all back. I forgot just how good the good times were back in the day.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 06:51:58 No.6287013 Report

Quoted By: >>6287020

>>6286985
>Instinctive Prowess: C
>An "artificial genius" derived from [Archer]'s nature as a homunculus and the aptitude embedded in him by his creators. Imparts the capacity for enormous improvement in proficiency with magical skills at a speed impossible for humans. To a lesser extent, this applies also to martial abilities. This capacity for insight at a subconscious level enables [Archer] to display the effects of Instinct equivalent to rank D.

https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Instinct

D rank means it'll probably just be a slight feeling, and not a perfect anticipatory 6th sense like Artoria.

Probably only subtle hints in text if anything. We can't just lean on Instinct alone to nobrain through situations it seems.

>>6286987
First option feels like a waste to a degree we don't learn conventionally so we would have to be doing something unique for inspiration, or applying it in new areas like the 2nd option.

As for the 4th option, I don't know if a bounded field matters much yet, given we're a mobile stealth Archer build. Also, given the anon sporadic nature of quests, we kind of want abilities that can be fired one and done without a multiple vote or update prep/plan as it cma be derailed by people wanting to change directions halfway through.

We really need fire-power. Being able to Transfer properties into our arrows from a realm of infinite possibilities could be just what we need.

I want to go with something closer to the 3rd option, but also sparring related.

>[ ] Explain to Liliesviel that you haven't learned how to manifest an element directly. If she'll explain how to go about it, though, you don't mind showing her, however, you'dalso like to do this in a way that can be utilisedimmediatelyin combat.
>Manifest a mass of Nothingness which resembles the most appropriate common element for your Noble Phantasm to fire at Caster's familiars in combat practice (with assistance from Cloak-chan).
>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using these against Caster's familiars.

We have an offensive kit, better to focus on it and improve on what we lack most. At this point, its better we aren't seen in the first place rather than trying to reduce damage.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 06:56:19 No.6287014 Report

Quoted By: >>6287021

>>6286995
We haven't jobbed yet, but are an Archer.

Is it because we're still too weak to have any expectations and the jobbing needs to come later? We've also somehow been too lucky and careful to die yet.

Are we able to cast self immolation (job) fireball again like the good old times? We haven't had a dojo yet and we're nearing the end of thread 1's lifespan.

In all seriousness though, thank you for writing breh. It's an often thankless does it for free tier position which takes a lot of input. I'll be here until the end.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:11:16 No.6287020 Report

Quoted By: >>6287024 >>6287237

>>6286987
>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using inertia barriers against Caster's familiars.
Instinctive Prowess? Neat.
Manifesting elements is an interesting proposition, but one that I'd like to learn about from Circe.
>>6286974
True enough, Circe is the kind that likes to be relied on. She's probably upset partly because Yumi is becoming more independent and less reliant on her help. Not to mention the trauma of being betrayed twice.
>>6287013
Bounded field could be used to set up killzones, but that's more of a niche method than a bread-and-butter spell like inertia-absorbing barriers.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:12:07 No.6287021 Report

Quoted By: >>6287025 >>6287033

>>6287014
>Archer
>Jobbing
More like we're going to inexplicably surpass our inferior station to become one of the most important servants of the War. Yes, I'm still mad EMIYA could fight Heracles and TMWNN could defeat Blackbeard. Archer, a class fit for uppity bastards in any age.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:15:09 No.6287023 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287002
That's very kind of you. You're welcome, and thanks for being here, anon! I couldn't bring anything back without folks here to read and engage with the quest. Although we're not quite at the energy level things were at during Fate/City Akeldama (and it'd be a miracle if I got back to writing that fast) it's been really fantastic to see that there are still old players from back then hanging around and glad to see the story continue.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:18:35 No.6287024 Report

Quoted By: >>6287035

>>6287020
I haven't even noted the offensive applications of Transference. Add inertia absorption to an arrow and watch Lancer break her twiggy arms trying to swat it down. Or not, since she'll just MR her way through a spell that simple.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:26:43 No.6287025 Report

Quoted By: >>6287033 >>6287040

>>6287021
>UBW Gil
>Prideful Archer
>Ultimate Fate Job

We just have a better, anti jobbing attitude this time around. EMIYA underdog mode engaged.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Archer and Archer Casual Clothes.png, 280KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:33:01 No.6287033 Report

Quoted By: >>6287036

>>6287021
>>6287025
>Gil
>Emiya
That reminds me. Recognize the clothing you got from the maids?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:48:31 No.6287035 Report

Quoted By: >>6287056

>>6287024
You just made an arrow that can't be fired kek

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 07:50:51 No.6287036 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287033
Is the current getup our fuccboi attire?

Clotheskeks just keep being shown their folly. First we start by, god forbid learning, and we look like that.

Voting to run straight into an INS fireball to fix this asap.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Fri 08 Aug 2025 08:10:02 No.6287040 Report

Quoted By: >>6287044 >>6287237

>>6287025
This reminds me. Alberich's artificial origins fatally undermined Akeldama Rushorou's heroism by rendering his rejection of humanity a farce and by eliminating the moral constraints on his egoism. In the long run this poisoned his character due to lack of self-reflection.

Our current Archer has suddenly lost the grounds for both his humanity and his existentially-motivated heroism. Perhaps (by sitting on a park bench and brooding) he could embrace his essence over his existence- i.e., try to find meaning in his essential purpose as a servant/lesser grail/Einzbern homunculus. Humility could directly replace Pride. All that would be required is an appropriate wave of despair and self-alienation.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 08:40:37 No.6287044 Report

Quoted By: >>6287056

>>6287040
With mc now being almost confirmed to have been an Einzbern homonculus, but given some level of human upbringing and existence, he's now kind of in a position where his Akeldama rejection of humanity may have just been a rejection of his Truman show style false and incomplete life.

He attempted to live as a human, we're also still clinging to some humanity in our choices too. He's now ina position where he can try and repursue a human existence, magical or not. Or, he ends up becoming a sacrificial cup. Or he listens to the voices in his dreams that directed him towards his 'true' nature.

His Origin(s) imply he's at least bumped up against the root to an extent, and his physical nature a sa cup would give him the affinity of being a living wish granter.

From here, a living wish granter with the ability to bring forth infinite possibilities from beyond means he really is that true neutral able to do or become anything blank slate.

We also seem to have replaced park bench introspection with autistic roofgazing across the city and brooding for now.

Not a bad aesthetic. We should include some moon watching given our dreams and see if inspiration rears its head.

I'm just curious why Judas hasn't paid him a visit yet, given the other two got a little chat each.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 09:08:12 No.6287056 Report

Quoted By: >>6287084

>>6287035
nudefag hylics really activate their spells before firing? this is why you're NGMI
>>6287044
>His Origin(s) imply he's at least bumped up against the root to an extent
Not exactly, it's Void, as in the element we just used. But being a cup does mean a connection to the Third, which is indeed connected to the Root.
In retrospect, it's a neat coincidence that the Third materializes the soul, while Yumi's new Origin defines that which is impossible yet manifest.
>I'm just curious why Judas hasn't paid him a visit yet, given the other two got a little chat each.
Because he would ruin the mystery of Yumi's real identity.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Fri 08 Aug 2025 10:41:41 No.6287084 Report

Quoted By: >>6287098

>>6287056
Did Judas originally even know his real identity though? Or did he only find out wmonce he triggered his NP and realise what his net had caught?

He was one of a thousand that were pulled into the Akeldama space from across the globe. Maybe it was intentionally as he was a cup not under the pre-existing Servant/Master contract Judas' own master had over him, and it helped him construct/emulate a grail ritual.

Also, speaking of gnostic memory. If that's the mythology basis this is working with, Judas dindu nuffin and his motivations are that of facilitating gnosis by spreading the Truth. You could conceptualise the Akeldama NP as a unique for of Hero Maker type skills given gnostic interpretation of him enabling Christ to return to the pleroma, right?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 11:11:07 No.6287098 Report

Quoted By: >>6287118

>>6287084
Judas could definitely tell if Yumi was a homunculus or an altered human, since he can do all kinds of things inside the Akeldama. This new fact turns Yumi's world (and the reader's) upside-down. If Judas were to confirm or deny any of this, the revelation would lose its impact.
From a Watsonian standpoint, enough of Yumi's awakening has been unusual compared to Matsuda's and Ogawara's that it may have destroyed the Judas tulpa, or it may force him to do a deep dive to communicate with it.
As for Gnosticism, the interpretation of the Gospel of Judas as redeeming him is taken from the NatGeo translation that got debunked by April DeConick.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Fri 08 Aug 2025 12:15:50 No.6287118 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287098
Based on that, I suspect his natural class is Avenger, but the Einzbern forcibly summoned him as a Caster, filtering out the aspect of the sinner from his legend and retaining nothing except his role as the tool enabling Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection. In modern terms, the Judas we saw would be an Alter Ego embodying the possibility that Judas was cooperating with Jesus all along.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:+yv/R2zo Fri 08 Aug 2025 12:23:34 No.6287120 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286987
Transfer a different quality from the cloak into one of our conjured arrows

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Fri 08 Aug 2025 17:20:12 No.6287212 Report

Quoted By: >>6288130 >>6288361

A note for you folks, since the function of transferring properties from IN Space has been established in character knowledge, but maybe wasn't made all that clear by the explanation.
Since the chaotic sea of Imaginary Numbers contains all sorts of impossibilities and potentialities outside real mathematics, how this works as a practical ability is drawing out traits of things which violate established rules of physics. For example, something which undergoes a state change to become a gas any time it's in contact with a gas, irrespective of pressure or temperature; the mythical frictionless plane, a solid which only exists in abstract simplifications; or something which experiences gravity at a ninety degree angle to the force acting on it.
The primary limiting factors on this ability are energy cost and actually having to find the 'thing' in IN Space that you're taking the property from. The greater the volume of the thing you're trying to apply the trait to, the more energy it costs, and cost gets higher as well when trying to apply your magic to something that possesses mystery or is within another magus' influence.
It's an ability I'd like the players to understand and have a fair amount of creative control over, since it's meant to allow for a high degree of creativity with utilization and coming up with combat plans. I welcome any write-ins and ideas you have for implementation, and if you have any questions about how it works, please ask.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:IkzDsxeF Fri 08 Aug 2025 18:09:06 No.6287225 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286987
>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using inertia barriers against Caster's familiars.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Fri 08 Aug 2025 18:37:07 No.6287237 Report

Quoted By: >>6287256 >>6287503

>>6287020
Now that I think about it, maybe my sort of reasoning in >>6287040 is why Circe has distanced herself from Archer.

She knows that the Rushorou that she loved was a construct of Judas, puppeted through a false life by the Yggdmillenia. She also thinks of the current Archer as a product of Einzbern artifice (albeit with reservations in >>6268705 ), as indicated by "I knew that this would come. You two are equally mystic artifacts and living beings; such things should know the power they were built for before putting themselves to other use." in >>6285874 . Maybe it's a simple as her being disenchanted with the nesting doll of magical fabrications we call Archer.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FWw7aBbO Fri 08 Aug 2025 19:49:30 No.6287256 Report

Quoted By: >>6287503

>>6287237
Can a witch love a talking cup? Maybe it's not that we're too much like Odysseus, like >>6278418 thought. Really we're not enough like him. Also did she ever really love Rushorou even? She could've been manipulating him.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Fri 08 Aug 2025 23:24:03 No.6287344 Report

Quoted By:

>>6286987
>[ ] Combine combat training with practice in transferring qualities by using inertia barriers against Caster's familiars.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 09 Aug 2025 06:33:14 No.6287503 Report

Quoted By: >>6287505 >>6287674

>>6287237
>>6287256
Remember this from Thread III of Akeldama?
>>What choice did get us put on this path, by the way? I've already guessed, but I'd like to know for sure.
>It was eating the kykeon and surviving. Basically the situation was set up by Caster as a test for her Master. If you refused to eat it, it would show that you were a prudent and suspicious person, and she could be confident in working with you. If you ate it and transformed into a pig, it would show you were an inconsequential moron.
>You ate it and survived, demonstrating your fundamental heroism and stealing her maiden's heart.
Now she's bound to wonder if it was Yumi's fundamental heroism or his homunculus physiology.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:2hRA3Q/R Sat 09 Aug 2025 07:00:01 No.6287505 Report

Quoted By: >>6287523 >>6287674

>>6287503
>maiden
lol. What Circe is this? The one from myths had as many lovers as Aphrodite. I hope that was just a joke.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sat 09 Aug 2025 08:24:01 No.6287523 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287505
Ascending to the Throne regenerated my birdwife's hymen so you can knock it off.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 17:02:42 No.6287674 Report

Quoted By: >>6287709

>>6287503
In retrospect, I guess being so frank about heroines' inner feelings in meta posts was really not such a good idea on my part. Especially with the whole affection point thing, it just takes away the ambiguity, and the potential for depth that comes with it. Why speculate about a character's true feelings or reasons for doing what she's doing when the author is sitting there outside the updates telling you "don't worry man, she totally loves you" like a damn Beatle? Even though F/SN did have affection points, it's worth remembering that they only ever got talked about in the game when you were in the Tiger Dojo, and you didn't get any way of monitoring them in real time. You had to guess.
I think it's a bad habit of mine as a writer to explain too much in the margins, so to speak. Hopefully I can preserve a more realistic outlook for you folks this time, in terms of making sure that whatever you know comes from the actual text.
All that aside, if you're going to reflect on that scene I hope you do take into consideration that she really was trying to test her Master's worthiness by poisoning you. Caster may have gotten pretty sugary by the time Fate/City Akeldama ended, but Circe isn't Medea.

>>6287505
Tamamo and Sakura have their fans too; some people are into the 'educated' type.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:rWhULu0X Sat 09 Aug 2025 18:18:37 No.6287709 Report

Quoted By: >>6287879

>>6287674
>I think it's a bad habit of mine as a writer to explain too much in the margins, so to speak.
Eh, I've always liked your openness in explaining the quest. What might help the players is a threadly update of Archer's affections, as reflected by his actions and the intentionality written into them. I also liked the old emotional categorization of actions, clunky as it may have been. Internal metrics have a way of coordinating the playerbase over time.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 23:35:48 No.6287873 Report

Quoted By:

"Yes," you answer. "I wouldn't mind bringing out a mass of my element to show you, but I don't know how just yet. Once I've made that progress, I'll be sure to tell you. For now, it seems the most efficient use of my morning would be fighting Caster's familiars while practicing Transference to create barriers."

"Is that... so?" Liliesviel blinks at you, looking surprised and slightly hurt. You can guess she was expecting you to just ask her how to materialize an element if you were unable to, and is taking your reply as a polite way of turning her down to prioritize combat training. It isn't hard to see how much the girl enjoys spending time with you, though the question of 'why' is tougher. You feel a little bad for not indulging her, but after all, there is a war to be fought. Training to apply practical combat abilities in a high-pressure situation is the main reason you've come to this training hall, even if it does look like a private resort island somewhere in the South Pacific.

"That's right," you nod. "Sorry to shoot you down, but you have a point about practicing what I've just learned. Another time, huh?" You pat her shoulder and notice, not for the first time, how slender and fragile she seems when measured against your own oversized, stony hand. The layers of structure in the dress she normally wears hide it somewhat, but now, in only a swimsuit, she seems as delicate as paper-thin china. You have to wonder just how it is that two homunculi made from the same source could have become as different as marble and porcelain, but you suppose that so long as you delve deep enough into the Einzbern knowledge of magic it's something you'll understand eventually.

"Very well." Liliesviel seems comforted by your reassurance, offering you a smile. "Caster, trade places with me, won't you? I'll watch your battle from the bungalow's porch swing." With that, Liliesviel trots off toward the white edifice of the villa as Caster materializes out of spirit form in her place. The witch is wearing a smile that seems somehow dangerous.

"So, today you are to train your defenses," the witch observes in a good-humored voice that does nothing the ominous impression radiating from her. "You shall need an extremely solid shield to defend you from Saber or Rider. That being so, you will have no complaints about any attacks I direct at you, however dangerous?"

"You aren't offended after all that I chose to learn the Einzbern magic, are you?" You're already fairly sure you know the answer, but find yourself asking the question anyway. You match her tone of false cheer, making the very idea sound laughable.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 23:36:49 No.6287874 Report

Quoted By: >>6287933

"Of course, such a thing could never offend me." Caster's smile is getting more and more ominous as she speaks. "Why would I, the goddess who taught magic to mankind, take offense when a homunculus prefers to learn from another homunculus? You are not human beings. Even were you human, you would be unable to learn the Divine Words in this degraded age, but you can activate the dormant functions of your body quite swiftly. Following such a course is only natural. Brace yourself now, we must test the resilience of your modern magic."

That confirms it. She's definitely offended that you didn't ask to learn exclusively from her. That you had rational reasons doesn't matter, Caster can explain the reasons and still hang on to her anger perfectly. You remember her ranting about Hecate stealing her cult. After all these years (millennia?) she still can't stand to see anyone choose to learn from another teacher. Well, fine; let her throw her best attacks at you. You need to learn to defend yourself under conditions where failure means death, so you may as well train in those conditions as well.

"Alright," you reply, keeping the note of a laugh just under the surface of your voice. "Don't expect me to just stand here and wait for you, though."

Music: Tropical Spar (https://odysee.com/AMQST-BGM15:0)

Before the last word is really all the way out of your mouth you leap backwards, putting considerable distance between yourself and the woman getting ready to rain attacks on you. As you jump you see her mutter something in her magical language and realize that once again your intuition for moving at just the right moment has saved you. Then your feet touch the sand, and you feel the cold, hard, solid mass wrap around them.

She wasn't saying an incantation for a spell to hold you in place where you were, just a little too late. That was your guess, and it was wrong. Caster's spell was to grab hold of you and keep you still once you'd already jumped and made it impossible to redirect. It was to catch you when you landed, and she was perfectly on-time. You glance down to see just what you expected: the same mass of amber superimposed on the environment that she had once used to paralyze Berserker and Assassin in the Akeldama. The technique is strikingly similar to your own idea for barriers made up of air imbued with inertia absorption, you realize, though the method must be completely different. Somehow you doubt that claiming you drew inspiration from one of her spells will mollify Caster.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 23:37:49 No.6287875 Report

Quoted By:

Realizing also that it would be idiotic to focus on the means she used to trap you and ignore your opponent, you look back up to see four large boulders, seemingly pulled from the jungle by magic to judge by the soil and plant life still clinging to them, levitating above Caster's head. They remain still for only a moment before going hurtling towards you like an extremely compact meteor shower. You don't have time to try to leverage your Magic Resistance to break Caster's energy holding your feet in place, and your bow will be almost useless against mundane lumps of rock. That leaves one method. This is the moment.

Rushing through the process faster than ever before, you draw energy out of your magic circuits and focus on the attribute of Transference, the magic formula not in a crest but somewhere in the deep pockets of your mind. You reach out an empty hand, touch the air in front of you, and spread your magical energy through a thin layer, a disk exactly like a shield. With the other part of your mind you reach desperately through your cloak, grabbing for the impossible substance you took so long to find before in the sea of chaos. Mercifully, now that you know what you want, it seems almost to come to you. You shift the property of inertia absorption to the air under your power, and a moment later, the boulder smashes into its target.

They can't all come at you directly, when they're flying from the same direction. Each rock is larger than you are, and no matter how tightly Caster might have tried to squeeze them together to aim at you, one goes past you on your left, another on your right, and a third over your head. The last one, the boulder with truly straight aim, slams into the disk of air as heavily as if it had been launched straight into a cliff-face. Since the shield absorbs inertia, rather than just being hard, it isn't even pushed back into you. The only problem is the size; the huge boulder cracks around the shield, much smaller than it is, and the inertia of their hurtling flight stays with the chunks of gravel that don't hit the shield itself. The facefull of gravel you get feels like buckshot from some comically huge shotgun, but it's a relief to know you blocked Caster's first volley.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 23:38:50 No.6287876 Report

Quoted By: >>6287933 >>6288001 >>6288066 >>6288130 >>6288277 >>6288490 >>6288628

Except, of course, that isn't the end. Those boulders weren't fired from a cannon, and they were still under Caster's power when they went past you. You whip around and create a fresh barrier just in time for the boulder rocketing toward you from behind to smack into it. This time, moving with even more haste, the shield is smaller and the gravel shower larger, but you have bigger problems to worry about. The boulder that went over your head now appears to be dropping straight down on you from an enormous height. You have just enough time to see it and get a barrier above your head before the boulder smacks into your transparent roof and actually rolls off. The last boulder has begun circling you in a wide orbit, Caster evidently waiting for its chance to strike, and that means-

You turn back to Caster, see the magic circles glowing in her wings, and scramble to raise another barrier. Then, just as it's set up, a beam of light passes through it and punches right into your left shoulder, burning into your flesh like a lance of fire. Probably only your magic resistance and cloak kept that attack from burning an arm off, or even killing you. A harsh penalty for a simple mistake, but then, Caster knows about Magic Resistance and probably about the cloak's protective qualities. She certainly knows about your foolish reaction. A beam of light doesn't move with inertia the way solid things do. Naturally, it can pass right through the air no matter how immobile that air is. Worse, she's readying about six more. You'll have to break out of the restraint on your feet and fast, unless you want to try going through what a rare steak feels when it's in the pan.

Status Updated

>[ ] Try to leverage your Magic Resistance by extending your own magical energy into the space Caster has frozen and breaking down her spell. You have no idea whether this will work, but if Magic Resistance functions on the principle of one Servant's magical energy rejecting another's, it might.

>[ ] Try to improvise with Transference and move the solidity of the area Caster's frozen somewhere else. You have no idea whether this will work, but since your elemental alignment is especially well-suited to damaging magic constructed by others, you should at least have a chance.

>[ ] Try breaking the bonds on your feet with direct force; bombard the block of frozen space with your arrows, which break down spiritual entities.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sat 09 Aug 2025 23:52:07 No.6287879 Report

Quoted By: >>6288130

>>6287709
>What might help the players is a threadly update of Archer's affections, as reflected by his actions and the intentionality written into them.
This seems like a good idea. For the next thread I was already thinking about writing up a list of all the characters the protagonist knows who have appeared so far with a short summary of who they are from his point of view and adding it to the pastebin, to help people keep track and get inside his head more (this could have info that hasn't showed up in the quest yet, as regards characters he's known for longer than the last few days). I could work in some affection ratings as well.
>I also liked the old emotional categorization of actions, clunky as it may have been.
It was a popular mechanic, but I feel like it worked out poorly in the end and wound up contributing to Alberich becoming such an extreme character, because it was too simplistic. I've been thinking about doing something like that again, because people did like it, but I have to figure out a way for it to work better. It would be easy to say something like "I'll just apply it more subtly," but that defeats the point of it being a numerical mechanic to a certain degree. It has to be communicated to the you folks in a way that makes sense.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 02:09:13 No.6287933 Report

Quoted By: >>6288209

>>6287874
yandere bitch... needs immediate correction...
>>6287876
>[ ] Try to improvise with Transference and move the solidity of the area Caster's frozen somewhere else. You have no idea whether this will work, but since your elemental alignment is especially well-suited to damaging magic constructed by others, you should at least have a chance.
Breaking the spell with MR is a safe option, but it doesn't take the initiative back from her; Strength C- is not going to be enough to break it at all, or it'll take too long to break.
If we can take the spell and move it onto her feet, it frees us and distracts her at the same time.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:kvmTtmsu Sun 10 Aug 2025 03:58:22 No.6288001 Report

Quoted By: >>6288090 >>6288106 >>6288361

>>6287876
Transfer an absolute lack of molecular attraction from our cloak to the restraints

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sun 10 Aug 2025 06:07:21 No.6288066 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287876
>[ ] Try to improvise with Transference and move the solidity of the area Caster's frozen somewhere else. You have no idea whether this will work, but since your elemental alignment is especially well-suited to damaging magic constructed by others, you should at least have a chance.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 10 Aug 2025 07:40:51 No.6288090 Report

Quoted By: >>6288106 >>6288130 >>6288209 >>6288210

While I think option 2 is probably the closest to what should work but also be more interesting than leaning on D++/C Magic Resistance.

>>6288001

I think this anon is on the right path.

We have an A rank spell amplifier that is an extension of ourself. If there is anything that can manage to brute forced through Circe's magic it's Cloak-chan.

Given we can control it like an extra limb, having it whip and slice through/sever/ vore her magic like Sakura does using IN magecraft to Medea's fireball in HF is the right play?

Otherwise, using Transference to bring forth a property of being unrestrained/unbound from INS?

Given it contains not only all possibilities, but also is the realm where Mystery and associated beings fled as Mystery waned on Earth, surely something as basic in function as the Disengage skill could be emulated for a brief moment. Other possibilities include aspects of legends such as Herakles' ability to break free of even unbreakable restraits/freeing Prometheus, or Fenrir snapping through Gleipnir exist in that realm.

Otherwise there are plenty type of possibilities that damage/interrupt or cancel Magecraft, which I guess has the same effect as the MR option but allows us to train this branch of Magecraft more ourselves.

I feel this ability is too broad to just mash premade continue options and should be experiment led with before we're in a proper, no escape Servant conflict situation. Circe was able to bypass the anti inertia effect almost immediately by utilising something that lacks it. We know we're up against someone with A rank Instinct in Seibah. We need a variety of unique options and we also need to experiment with he mechanics itself.

Thoughts?
>

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 09:36:52 No.6288106 Report

Quoted By: >>6288209 >>6288628

>>6288001
>>6288090
It's a good idea, but it's the wrong path. Circe's just used a spell similar to ours and made the air into an inertia-nulling barrier, rather than hardening it to an extreme degree. The only ways out are to tamper with the spell itself, brute-force it with MR, or do something clever.
How about this?
>[ ] Try to create a barrier with a different impossible property. Instead of creating one which absorbs inertia without limit, create an impossible, perfect mirror which reflects exactly as much light as it receives, and turn Caster's beams back upon her.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Sun 10 Aug 2025 10:42:29 No.6288130 Report

Quoted By: >>6288142 >>6288209 >>6288210 >>6288361

>>6287876
>>6288090
I agree that the cloak is the key rather than raw transference itself. It's an extension of Archer's body and presumably can bear the effects of transference as well. I would love to figure out how to transfer specific (impossible) anti-magical properties. Hunting down the perfect impossible physical property to deal with each amd every magical assault doesn't seem like a viable path forward.

>Transfer a property of perfect reflectivity to Archer's cloak, use this to block the light attack.
For the moment, this ought to work.

>>6287879
The extremism of the traits was due to their arithmetic growth over time. Maybe instead of emotional alignments that intensify quantitatively over time, the emotional alignment could represent a mere category that requires a concentration of narrative momentum to change. For instance, my earlier suggestion of transforming [Pride] into [Humility] could be voted on as a response to the various revelations of this thread. I'm thinking specifically of the treatment of conversation traits in Sworn to Valour for this purpose.

Also, a question. You said IN space allows us to access properties that violate established rules of physics in >>6287212 . Would looking for impossible magical properties be possible? I'm thinking specifically of transferring properties of phatasmal beasts like dragons that don't metaphysically jive with the Age of Man. This would simplify our problems by making it a challenge of finding a metaphysical opposition to our opponent's type, rather than to each attack.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 10:58:51 No.6288142 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288130
>Hunting down the perfect impossible physical property to deal with each and every magical assault doesn't seem like a viable path forward.
I don't see it being that much of a problem, since most Servants should have a limited repertoire relative to Caster. Rider has lightning, his spear, and his storm; Saber has her sword and Invisible Air and excaliblasts but Yumi doesn't know about those yet. We only have to settle on a standard toolkit as a baseline and reach for more unique properties as the opportunities present themselves.
Accessing impossible magical properties would be great, but that may require us to tap directly into the Reverse Side.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 10 Aug 2025 14:04:07 No.6288209 Report

Quoted By: >>6288226 >>6288260 >>6288416

Lots of things to respond to here, lovely, let's see...

>>6287933
Although you might be able to develop the ability to work at greater distances eventually, right now you have to be touching the endpoint of transference either with your body or with your cloak. Caster is about 20 meters away from you.

>>6288090
Bringing out established magical properties like that would require significantly more magical energy and time than just pulling violations of physics from the sea of chaos. For example, if you wanted to draw off Herakles' God Hand invulnerability temporarily, it would consume as much magical energy as an excalibeam. You're talking about being able to whip out any Servant's Noble Phantasm or skills, basically, something even more OP than Gil's treasury or UBW. All that stuff is in IN Space, so it's not impossible, but you'll have to 'level up' some more before you can get there. This is your first day. Think of it as needing to reach further into IN Space and trying to haul out something bigger.

>>6288106
>>6288130
Either of these is doable, but just so you know, drawing out a property you haven't transferred before takes longer than using one you have; you were able to set up the inertia barriers instantly this time because you spent a few minutes finding that property the first time. Depending on whether Caster is planning to execute her light beams sequentially or all at once, you might have to tank an amount of burning while you fish for it.
...now that I think about it, the fishing element of this could make it a perfect place to bring back dice rolls. Thoughts on that?
She won't kill you though, don't worry. This isn't so different from Saber beating Shirou to a pulp during training after he does something to make her mad.
>Circe's just used a spell similar to ours and made the air into an inertia-nulling barrier
A little clarification, while your magic messes with physics and the actual mass of gaseous substance, a chunk of air, Caster's magic is purely mystical. It's a 'barrier which makes a certain area impassable', with no reference to physics. Difference in thought process of magic between a period of maximal mystery and one ruled by materialistic thought.

>I'm thinking specifically of the treatment of conversation traits in Sworn to Valour for this purpose.
I didn't read Sworn to Valour, I'm afraid. The most I remember about that quest is that people liked it, some folks enjoyed messing with the name in QTG (Swarm of Velour? Swurn tu Vuluur? Jokes like that.), and it involved a knight.
It could be good to approach the emotional category votes in a way that diversifies the impact the choice can have compared to last time, though. Previously every vote for a trait increased it, so if you voted on something that bore on pride you were definitely increasing the amount of pride in the protagonist's character. Instead, I could do something like (Pride+), (Pride=), (Pride-).

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 10 Aug 2025 14:06:33 No.6288210 Report

Quoted By: >>6288260

>>6288130
I ran out of characters. The system in my last post would make any choice representing an emotional stat one that could increase it, reflect it without changing it, or actually diminish it.
I think what you're talking about, making the emotional alignments into mere categories, would be the = option of these three, right?
Your other question, I think I answered in my reply to >>6288090. Doable, but more expensive.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 14:36:50 No.6288226 Report

Quoted By: >>6288242 >>6288628

>>6288209
>For example, if you wanted to draw off Herakles' God Hand invulnerability temporarily, it would consume as much magical energy as an excalibeam.
It's a sad day when Medea of all people has bested us with Aρδοξ. Then again, that shield couldn't even take Gil's swordspam, so maybe we'll best her in the end.
Come to think of it, wouldn't god-Herk have something to say about borrowing his invulnerable body?
>...now that I think about it, the fishing element of this could make it a perfect place to bring back dice rolls. Thoughts on that?
Why not, as long as it's not a gacha like sword summoning was in Awakening Mirror. That gacha was rigged, it didn't summon a single fucking useful thing.
>It's a 'barrier which makes a certain area impassable'
There's nothing we can do at our current level to bypass or subvert a conceptual attack like that. We could attack the spell directly, but that takes Ether or Emptiness, and we've only learned how to use Transference (not the best attribute for the job). On top of that, Circe would be well-equipped to counter the counter if it were based on Ether.
Maybe we could subvert the spell if we advanced to the point of affecting space itself, but that's still far off.

Just to make it clear, my vote is still for moving the solidity somewhere else. Staying mobile is important and we don't have time to fish for a new property.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 10 Aug 2025 15:05:37 No.6288242 Report

Quoted By: >>6288252

>>6288226
Medea had an absolute shit-ton of magical energy from draining the town, I doubt her shields were at all affordable.
Dice would be for how long something takes. Gacha always feels rigged, it's the nature of the medium.
Emptiness is the element you used for your Transference spell, in case that isn't clear. You have worked with it, just not in a wide range of applications.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 15:16:17 No.6288252 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288242
Yeah, I could've organized that part better. I know the difference between elements and attributes, I swear.
What I meant is that Transference doesn't seem to naturally lend itself to breaking a spell. You could transfer the focus elsewhere or something, which works well on curses, but it's not so easy to finagle counterspelling with Transference as it would be with a different attribute like Halting. If we do try to break it, Stillness would be the better element because Ether is just an inferior substitute for the True Ether that Circe's used to working with.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Sun 10 Aug 2025 15:34:06 No.6288260 Report

Quoted By: >>6288266 >>6288361

>>6288209
>Training our transference becomes Transferable Properties Gacha
>Which includes established magical properties which are in IN space, such as anything in the Reverse Side of The World proper
... there's a way this could work and be fun. For example, we could spend a training session fishing for an "anti-magical" property with rolls pulling different grades of anti-magic property from IN-space. We then pick one (with tolerable energy requirements) to train to an effective level for combat purposes.

In combat, pulling for a new (untrained) property becomes life-or-death with appropriately high DCs. It would need to be written so that we don't get rerolls after a dead end, can't fish for unique/broken properties, and can't be soft-locked by having transference gacha be the only method out of an encounter.

This obviously wouldn't include summoning weapons or creatures as we're magically transferring properties (not objects) from an infinite elemental plane.

>>6288210
That's certainly a solution to the runaway exaggeration of traits. Applied to Akeldama or the old Awakening Mirror, Rushorou's/Alberich's [Pride] would have dropped significantly doing things like catering to the egos of his allies according to [Duty] or [Compassion]. The problems I see are that without a firm guiding objective, his personality might tend towards the /qst/ mean or be excessively dictated by immediate circumstance. Sworn to Valor is ongoing actually! In that quest, certain personality traits motivated most options outside of combat. The main character, Emile, didn't mechanically become more or less [Haughty] when he chose classist/xenophobic/prideful options based on the trait. Instead, the trait was static (unlike his overall personality) until the completion of the primary mission of the quest. That narrative accomplishment motivated a personality vote, and [Haughty] became [Divine] because we liked the messianic fervor inspired his schizophrenic delusions/angelic visions.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Sun 10 Aug 2025 15:46:16 No.6288266 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288260
>... there's a way this could work and be fun. For example, we could spend a training session fishing for an "anti-magical" property with rolls pulling different grades of anti-magic property from IN-space. We then pick one (with tolerable energy requirements) to train to an effective level for combat purposes.
Adding onto that, we could develop on properties we've already fished out to discover more 'advanced' or conceptually complex properties that serve as upgrades and sidegrades. For example, 'researching' inertia absorption eventually gives us access to the aforementioned God Hand property as the logical conclusion of the 'negating kinetic impacts' tree.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:hqsyU7Ff Sun 10 Aug 2025 16:01:53 No.6288277 Report

Quoted By:

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 10 Aug 2025 18:42:52 No.6288361 Report

Quoted By: >>6288394

By the way, I'm curious whether anyone had any thoughts on the music, or if you listened to it at all; something I've been wanting to do since I started planning this quest was have integrated music tracks for scenes, similar to the source material, and I've been working on finding a decent number of tracks I'd like to use for BGM. I still have a pretty limited number, not every scene is going to fit one of the tracks, and this is the first time I've had the ideal track for a particular scene. If you folks enjoy it, I'll be using them a bit more from now on.

>>6288260
I was thinking more in terms of die-rolls for how long it takes to find a particular trait that you're looking for, if you've never used it before. Randomized property draws sounds like it could be interesting, but like I said in >>6287212, this is an ability that I'd like to test the players' creativity. If I dish out traits you can apply to things randomly, that cuts away the potential for you folks to come up with something independently and try to find it, like >>6288001 and >>6288130 did. Thoughts?
> The problems I see are that without a firm guiding objective, his personality might tend towards the /qst/ mean or be excessively dictated by immediate circumstance.
This is always a potential issue with characters whose personalities are dictated by the players. I suppose it would come down to implementation.
>Sworn to Valour method
I see what you mean. That sounds like it's something that would be great for most protagonists, but runs up against one issue with this particular quest. [Archer]'s origin is Emptiness, it's a core element of his character that he's an empty vessel. For a while he seemed to be partially filled with purpose by the role that the people he thought were his parents gave him, that of a successful mundane person, but that life turned out to be an illusion and that goal was never really his. Then it seemed like he found something to fill the hollow at the center of his character in Fate/City Akeldama, a goal of his own to rise above humanity, but that turned out to be based on misunderstanding as well. Now he's almost back where he started, changed by his experiences but still empty. He picked up a certain amount of pride, desire, depression, and cruelty through his experiences, and the elements of compassion, duty, and self-preservation he already possessed were reinforced a bit, but he doesn't really have the kind of firmly established character traits you're describing, aside from that same emptiness. Growing and changing over the course of this war, finding something to fill the hollow within his spirit, is something that has to happen in order for him to reach any kind of good end.
So, I hope you can see why I don't want to give the impression of static traits that transform into different static traits at certain intervals.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Sun 10 Aug 2025 19:43:13 No.6288394 Report

Quoted By: >>6288409

>>6288361
It's a good track, but I can't enjoy an upbeat training bgm until I succeed in the training! The OP, on the other hand, is a banger that fits the opening scene of this route perfectly.

>If I dish out traits you can apply to things randomly, that cuts away the potential for you folks to come up with something independently and try to find it
Dice rolling for trying to find the specific idea we have sounds good. I suggested randomized draw because in the process of coming up with an anti-magic property to counteract Circe's stasis spell, I realized that we neither have enough knowledge of how her magic works nor enough knowledge of what magical properties would be accessible in IN-space to do it. But maybe that's the point. Archer needs to git good at magecraft for effective counterspelling/counter-NP work.

>Character trait system
I take your point on Archer's central emptiness undercutting a stepwise system of trait development. All I can say in reply is that since the prologue we've been making practical decisions rather than character-based ones, such as sticking with Liliesviel and Circe for guaranteed mana supply. Both the (real world) time gap from Akeldama and the deconstructive unveiling of Archer's past impress on me the need for brooding and explicit characterization posthaste. I fear grounding more critical decisions on the basis of mere subsistence. Unless you intentionally want his character to emerge from such reasoning, in which case fair enough.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Sun 10 Aug 2025 20:07:09 No.6288409 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288394
>It's a good track, but I can't enjoy an upbeat training bgm until I succeed in the training!
Makes sense. It doesn't quite have the feel of struggle that, say, Gonna Fly Now from Rocky has, but I wanted something that really got the tropical 'energetic, bright, hot, beautiful seaside' vibe, and I was pretty happy with this. Hopefully you'll succeed in the next update!
>The OP, on the other hand, is a banger that fits the opening scene of this route perfectly.
Well hey, thanks! Nobody said anything about the OP, so I figured that didn't go over very well. I only wish I could've found a higher quality version of the song, but I think it was just a pretty fuzzy recording and never got any kind of remaster after the original 45 single.
>need for brooding and explicit characterization
Point taken. I'll make sure you guys get a chance to vote to brood tonight. The park bench in Akeldama was a vote too, so I want that to be a choice. Choosing pragmatism is an option as well, after all.
As for traits developing from decisions made on the basis of getting by, that is something that can happen; it mostly has to do with the people around you. Even if you don't make decisions that focus on a strong character-motive, [Archer] will end up being influenced by the people he spends the most time with. Similar to Yumigawa taking on his pseudo-parents' ideas, although obviously to a lesser extent. So, each route has the character developing in some different ways for that reason as well as the choices that drive him in different directions.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Sun 10 Aug 2025 20:24:19 No.6288416 Report

Quoted By: >>6288417

>>6288209
Not just to the NP tier, just a niche skill, property or action which isn't necessarily crystallised as a NP.

Disengage as a lower Mystery example but on the level of a skill, which forms the basis of a Servant's legend but less so than a NP, and other uncategorised aspects such as when Herakles breaks Enkidu even when he's functionally dead, God Hand has been pierced more than enough for him to die. Maybe that moment is because his Divinity was burnt up with all his lives expended, sp its the non Divine man and the anti Divine nature of the chains had worn off for a brief moment, but its just a single otherwise impossible action, not even a skill or NP.

Good to know its possible, its just going to be proportionately expensive and likely needs to be identified a little bit beforehand to give time to locate and familiarise with the action.

Bringing back dice for just INS magecraft gambling is based. Doesn't derail the plot like every action being dicerolled or characters being spawned either.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:5KlOn4tx Sun 10 Aug 2025 20:31:45 No.6288417 Report

Quoted By: >>6288446

Rolled 887 (1d1000)

>>6288416
Rolling to find the only NP that suits an Archer that larps as another class while depending on mortal magecraft to be effective, UBW

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:xUgh/vxp Sun 10 Aug 2025 21:39:12 No.6288446 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288417
>White hair
>Notably tall
>Weird psychological issues
>Intermittent snark
We were EMIYA all along...

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Sun 10 Aug 2025 23:06:56 No.6288490 Report

Quoted By:

>>6287876
>[X] Do something else. (Write in)
>Create a barrier using the quality of "when energy comes into contact, it reinforces the structure rather than erodes it."

I think this is a fitting property, but what does anyone else think?

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 01:29:43 No.6288572 Report

Quoted By: >>6288702

Interlude
February 4, 2019 -Rampage-

Music: Rampage (https://odysee.com/AMQST-CM2:b)

I walked out of that gambling hall with a smile on my face, pockets weighed down with yen. Cold, fresh air was a relief after the stinking haze of the building; stepping out into the winter night was like slipping into a fresh suit of clothes after a cold shower. I had every reason to grin; for the first time in a long while I'd be able to do something nice for Ma. We were going to get out of the shithole we'd been stuck in for the last five years and into a decent apartment. I'd get her someplace with a proper kitchen, at the very least. Course, the guys following me had other ideas.

It's not that I let them follow me because I didn't notice them, or anything like that. In the midnight silence I could hear them tromping down the street as clear as a troop of elephants. Even if I couldn't, anybody could see they'd want their money back. Thing is, I just didn't want the consequences of dealing with them in public or their place of business. After the fighters I was tired of pulling my punches; cutting loose with these thugs would be just the ticket, and cameras or bystanders would cause me trouble down the line. There were eight of the bastards following close, and more further back. Enough to teach their bosses not to fuck around again.

We'd got to a pretty isolated spot, a parking garage across from an old factory with a "for lease" sign tacked in the window, before they felt ready to pick up the pace and surround me. They stank, and the part of me that was waking up tonight for the first time said it was the smell of anger. No fear, they were just pissed off at me for fucking up their business. They must've felt like ranchers turned hunters, tracking a dangerous animal to put it down. Maybe fish feel like hunters before they bite the hook. Moonlight was glinting of the steel in their hands: sushi knives, old favorite of the cagier yakuza. For guys like these, guns were the last resort.

The head of the hunting party was squaring off with me and getting ready to talk when something caught us all off-guard. A skinny salaryman in a cheap black suit burst out of the alley next to the garage, running full-tilt with a messenger bag over his shoulder. He shoulder-checked one of the thugs and stumbled. The guy grabbed for him, probably wanted to shut a potential witness up, but the skinny guy wobbled out of the way and went right on running into the night, not even looking at us. The hell of it was, I didn't even know he was there until he was in front of me, and then he was gone. No smell on him, and he didn't make a sound until he popped out of the dark. If the yaks here to shank me were amateurs who thought they knew how to hide then this guy was a real pro, and there he was looking like an accountant who hadn't slept in a few days. Lot of strange people in the world.

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Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 01:30:44 No.6288573 Report

Quoted By: >>6288702

Everybody was a little thrown off by the runner, but the head yak got his focus back when the backup squad of thugs started crowding around behind the first group, bringing the total attendance for our little party to eighteen. He was a big guy with a wave in his hair that looked he'd had it put in at a salon, and dressed for a nightclub, not a fight. Maybe he figured blood wouldn't show on a red silk shirt. He had confidence to spare anyway, rolling his neck like he was trying to show off the cords in it before he tossed me his ultimatum.

"Alright, tabby cat, you had your fun. Felt pretty smart getting the boys to take dives so you could collect long odds on your wins, right? Now playtime's over. Hand over the money, and we'll let ya go with just a beating."

He gave me the kind of grin a dog gives a cornered rat. The crack about my hair put a clench in my fist, but beyond the rage I almost pitied the guy. According to him I was dead meat waiting to be tenderized, and everybody there knew it except me. Well, if he watched the fights and came to that conclusion, I'd be doing him a favor by putting the sorry idiot out of his misery. I paid him back in kind with my best sneer.

"Ah?" I cocked a hand to my ear like I hadn't heard him right. "You want me ta just give it over? Whassamatter, you guys a buncha pussies like your fighters? You want the money back so bad, take it off me."

"You prissy little dye-job faggot," he snarled. "You asked for it, now you're gonna get it!"

The disco enforcer pulled his knife and lunged in one smooth, practiced motion, and I guessed he wasn't all show after all. The attack would've been hard to react to for the old me, a sucker punch from hell with a steel tip. Too bad he was only human. I took the knife out of his hands and poked him in the eye with it. The thing burst like a grape, gore pouring down his the thug's cheek while his roar turned into a scream of pain. He went on charging, half blind and empty-handed, only from inertia. When I stepped out of the way and let him slam his shoulder into the concrete wall behind me, he leaned on it like a drunk in need of support. The knife felt good in my hand, I realized. More natural than a weapon had ever felt before. That priest had had a point after all. This wasn't any lance, but anything that could stab was going to suit me fine.

I looked around at the rest of the goons, all suddenly hesitant about following their leader. The clockwork in their heads was practically grinding out loud. They thought they could overwhelm me with numbers, but nobody wanted to be the next guy to get stabbed. They all had their knives out, a circle of blades around me like they thought they could hem me in. Now I could finally smell the fear, coming off them in waves. Fear of me kept the fuckers back, fear of losing face kept them from running. Well, if they wouldn't come to me I didn't mind going to them.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 01:31:49 No.6288574 Report

Quoted By: >>6288628 >>6288695 >>6288702

A guy on my right caught my eye and muttered a frightened curse. I went for him. Closed the distance in one quick jump and punched my blade through his guts like a wad of wet newspaper. Felt a cord snap before it came out the other side. It must've been his spine. I shook him off the blade and he went sprawling, tangling up the legs of another thug to my left. With him I tried picking up the pace, and put half a dozen punctures in his chest before I slashed his throat. After that it was a blur of tearing up bodies that moved too slow to get out of the way or throw any danger back at me. When a thug got his courage back enough to try a stab, I just changed my knife for his and moved on. In 90 seconds the street was quiet again and the bodies were piled around me, blood running into the gutter like spring rain. At least I hadn't ground them up like the bikers. A good sharp point really did make a difference.

It was while I was looking over my handiwork that the last guy came out of the shadow of the factory and started across the street toward me. I hadn't missed him before, but he was hanging back from the group so I figured I'd leave him to report to his bosses. Now I recognized it was the bouncer from earlier, wrapped in a parka and with all his swaggering confidence gone. There was something off about his eyes, dazed and unfocused like he was half asleep, but maybe that was normal after what he'd just seen.

"You... aren't human, are you," the bouncer said in a weird, flat voice. He was standing dead center in the street, halfway between me and the factory, but if he was keeping his distance out of fear it sure didn't show on his face. It was totally slack, and I couldn't smell any emotion on him either.

"The hell d'ya think I am, if I ain't," I shot back. I wasn't about to give him the whole sermon I'd got from the priest.

"A dead apostle," he murmured, sounding only half certain. The words meant nothing to me. "Or perhaps something unknown... Not a magus, but certainly at home under moonlight. Are you someone's experiment?"

Magus. That one rang a bell. Cid, the crazy rich girl, that murderous old man; the kind of bastards who'd run that fucked up 'war', wizards who hid from the world and did who knows what in secret. I'd sooner cut off a pinky than get involved with any more of those fucks. That this one had been fucking around pretending to be a bouncer didn't make him any safer. I threw the knife without a second thought, without warning, and sure enough nailed him in the throat. He went down, but he didn't stop talking.

"Kill this body if you want," the dying bouncer rasped, words coming out twisted and gurgling around the knife. "There are always more to be had. I'll have you for study, soon enough." Then something went out of him, something I could feel with a sense I'd never used before, and he was just a man bleeding out. Soon enough, I was alone.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO interlude 4 out.png, 9KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 01:35:16 No.6288578 Report

Quoted By:

I'm a bit busy tonight, and thought you folks might like some extra time to think about this vote anyway, so here's an interlude.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:0nKCg4iJ Mon 11 Aug 2025 04:03:22 No.6288628 Report

Quoted By: >>6288658 >>6288660 >>6288695

>>6287876
>>6288106
This, I'd be willing to give RNG a chance to get a reflective barrier up. Since Caster's directed energy attack appears to be operating on the principle of light, reflection ought to work as a countering principle.
We're boned if she actually is using particle beams or plasma lances, but that's too sci-fi for an AoG caster

>>6288226
>Why not, as long as it's not a gacha like sword summoning was in Awakening Mirror. That gacha was rigged, it didn't summon a single fucking useful thing.
Lies, Nekomata boi Futodoki was a bro and Hecate had the potential to perpetrate Usada Pekora-tier war crimes while looking exactly like Pekora.

>>6288574
Huh, seems Ryuuta has a magus-stalker now. Just let the man get his mom a nicer apartment!

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:LNfl7qBq Mon 11 Aug 2025 05:29:34 No.6288658 Report

Quoted By: >>6288695

>>6288628
>Usada Pekora-tier war crimes while looking exactly like Pekora.
Not in the chest department.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 11 Aug 2025 05:33:33 No.6288660 Report

Quoted By: >>6288695

>>6288628
Talking about Hecate reminds me of how Awakening Mirror became a drawn-out humiliation ritual for Circe.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Mon 11 Aug 2025 07:30:35 No.6288695 Report

Quoted By: >>6288729

>>6288574
ominous
>>6288628
>but that's too sci-fi for an AoG caster
aog ?
>>6288658
so pekomama then ?
>>6288660
explain

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Ez3tz4Ev Mon 11 Aug 2025 08:19:51 No.6288702 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288572
Given the last few Matsuda interludes (and this one included) his senses are pretty clearly superhuman, almost animalistic in their description. Yet there's a full paragraph at the end here about an office worker who somehow eluded them until he was in sight and bumbling through the mooks.

Is this someone else under that undetectable mind control ability that had people at the Yumigawa's household? Interesting if they can be granted some level of Presence Concealment. Possibly an Assassin gimmick? A Zabaniya of mind control and skill/memory implantation and extraction that doesn't use heretical magics would make sense. Could just be straight drugs and good old gaslighting.

>>6288573
>This wasn't any lance.

Very interesting choice of words for a delinquent. Guess he's Lancer again it seems.

>>6288574
Where as this guy is clearly under some modernslop tier of hypnotic magecraft. Matsuda can actually detect it with his heightened senses, and typical moderm magi attitude of wanting to experiment on something fantastical.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 11 Aug 2025 12:34:15 No.6288729 Report

Quoted By: >>6288771 >>6288779 >>6288890

>>6288695
>>aog
Age of Gods. The era when gods ruled the world and everything ran on magic instead of physics.
>>explain
Oh man, let's start from the beginning.
>new master ate the kykeon and didn't turn into a pig
>immediately fall in love with him because you haven't learned a thing from all the times this happened (you have a maiden's heart)
>he picks up nazicunny
>this is ok because you can cope that you're still number 1
>use your godly magic skills to work out that the whole grail war was happening inside the real caster's noble phantasm
>get booted out into the real war
>odysseus is the archer
>so you indulge in some mild torture and familiar cloning
>meanwhile your lover has ditched you for grailcunny
>odin simply smiles
>you retaliate by grooming his real world counterpart (nothing wrong with that)
>then your old lover excaliblasts your temple
>so you have an understandable breakdown and unwisely challenge him to a game of tag
>your punishment is to be smashed against a window and demoted to cuckquean
>then he summons hecate
>odin simply smiles
I'm mostly over it and hopeful that Sweets has dropped his grudge against Circe.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Mon 11 Aug 2025 15:03:56 No.6288771 Report

Quoted By: >>6288772

>>6288729
You know most of these things happened to Circe because of us, right? And you recognize that our choices so far are priming us to sideline Circe again, right?

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 11 Aug 2025 15:15:25 No.6288772 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288771
I voted against half of that and stopped participating around the time Circe's temple was blown up. I voted against loli Hitler when she showed up in Gulag's run. But I didn't throw the tantrum that killed the first quest.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 15:30:19 No.6288779 Report

Quoted By: >>6288782

>>6288729
I never had a grudge against Circe. I just didn't have the same set of ideas and assumptions about the story and characters that some players seem to have been working with.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Mon 11 Aug 2025 15:45:07 No.6288782 Report

Quoted By: >>6288783

>>6288779
Fair enough. I just have to word my votes very, very carefully.
Having five routes gives me hope that Circe is on one of them.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Mon 11 Aug 2025 15:52:49 No.6288783 Report

Quoted By:

>>6288782
I'm not going to say all frustration with the story that you and other players had was your own fault for misunderstanding, I'm not that overly defensive. The whole double-Yumigawa thing was a pretty poorly-handled narrative development on my part, including how Circe acted.
However, I really would like players to understand two things that didn't seem to get across at the end of Akeldama. The protagonist here isn't Shirou, someone so pure-hearted that he forms undying attachments over the course of two weeks, and Circe isn't Medea, an earnest and pure princess just searching for a man she could devote herself to without being betrayed. If anything, Circe's personality is more similar to Tamamo-no-Mae. If you've played Extra and CCC, and you read Circe's myths, I hope you'll understand.
As for routes, you're on the one with Circe and Liliesviel. The others focus on other characters.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Mon 11 Aug 2025 21:04:00 No.6288890 Report

Quoted By: >>6288904 >>6288968

>>6288729
>he picks up nazicunny
I assume this is an oc servant and I wanna know more about her

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Mon 11 Aug 2025 21:56:29 No.6288904 Report

Quoted By: >>6289149 >>6290477

>>6288890
Berserker, true name Adelheid. Setting aside our protagonist, she was easily my favorite character in City Akeldama.

As Berserker, Hitler's noble phantasm Volksgemeinschaft combined with the madness enhancement to create a whole new servant (just like our current protagonist). Hitler-chan took the form of an idealized vision of early 20th century Germany- a young queen not quite mature enough to rule the world. She carried his memories, regrets, and struggled to find her own sense of self. She and Rushorou got along *very* well due to the latter's [Pride] and striving. We killed her master and enlisted her as a servant for the purpose of killing Archer. Ended up tying Circe in affection points despite entering the midway through the quest.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:ftDVzy34 Tue 12 Aug 2025 00:18:49 No.6288968 Report

Quoted By: >>6290477

>>6288890
The best part of Akeldama. Worth reading the quest just for her.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Tue 12 Aug 2025 05:09:36 No.6289127 Report

Quoted By: >>6289358

FYI, still dealing with work troubles. Haven't had enough time to myself in the last 24 hours to sit down and write an update. Next update will probably be a new thread, since this one is getting toward the bottom of the board.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Tue 12 Aug 2025 06:07:34 No.6289149 Report

Quoted By: >>6289287

>>6288904
wait, so it was the guy himself as a servant ? so this other servant created them ? got a little lost in the explanation.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:QOwsIPbx Tue 12 Aug 2025 13:08:45 No.6289287 Report

Quoted By:

>>6289149
It was a brand-new person derived from the guy himself because he got forced into the Berserker class and his NP was the justification for it. Madness Enhancement EX results in changes to your personality rather than just being mad with rage. I wonder where Adelheid is now. What I wouldn't give to have her back.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:3XVe/cyG Tue 12 Aug 2025 16:38:38 No.6289358 Report

Quoted By:

>>6289127
You should update the tripcode on the title screen in the new thread and link the OP methinks

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 14 Aug 2025 16:35:14 No.6290333 Report

Quoted By: >>6291114

And so, this thread comes to an end.
Quest ED: https://odysee.com/AMQST-ED1:9 

NEW THREAD:
>>6290324

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Preview - Adelheid.png, 573KiB, 800x600

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 14 Aug 2025 21:43:55 No.6290477 Report

Quoted By: >>6290487 >>6290781 >>6291114

>>6288904
>>6288968
For the devotees of [Berserker], have a sneak preview if you've left your eyes back here.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Thu 14 Aug 2025 22:01:51 No.6290487 Report

Quoted By: >>6290492

>>6290477
Great to know she's still around. She was always the best.

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ

Sweets-Loving QM !!m9IjZ66S7uQ ID:ZHb4YujP Thu 14 Aug 2025 22:13:25 No.6290492 Report

Quoted By: >>6290712

>>6290487
In a way, she's the very reason this quest exists at all. I'd never write her out of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:pknlhIxO Fri 15 Aug 2025 06:40:37 No.6290712 Report

Quoted By:

>>6290492
Very interesting. I suppose I'll ask you waaaay later on about how that all came to be, my curiosity has been peaked. However, I'm sure those reasons are probably spoilers, and thus shall be content to wait until such a reveal can be made.

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:Teim48O6 Fri 15 Aug 2025 12:44:05 No.6290781 Report

Quoted By:

>>6290477
>Adelheid has a proper sprite now
At long last, a justification for the existence of AI

Anonymous

Anonymous ID:FxRkP1vI Sat 16 Aug 2025 05:33:43 No.6291114 Report

Quoted By:

>>6290333
thanks, I missed it
>>6290477
nice

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