Hey, everybody. First time posting, I started reading Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero fanfics a few weeks ago and discovered Beast's Lair. I've had this idea dancing around my head of the Shin Megami Tensei and various Type-Moon stories crossing over a bunch, I'd like to post one of them here and get some feedback along the way. All feedback is appreciated, and I may ask for help regarding Nasuverse logic and stuff so help is appreciated too. Thanks for reading!
"Conception/Zero"
A Fate/Zero and Shin Megami Tensei crossover (with an extra cameo or two sprinkled in) by Shinogu
Prologue Chapters
Act I: LAW
Chapter 5: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Chapter 6: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Chapter 7: Part 1
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fate/Zero or Shin Megami Tensei nor do I own El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, obviously
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Zouken Matou dragged the little girl along as he shuffled towards the basement. His left hand grip held tight in her hair like a vice, never budging despite her whimpering as she tried to keep up. The sound of his walking stick impacting on the ground seemed to go right in tandem with the grandfather clock in some other room of Matou Manor. If anyone who knew Zouken bore witness to this sight, the most unusual thing they would note was his heaving and panting as he stalked closer to his destination. Rarely did the man exert himself, especially in his fragile state. Perhaps the only compliment one could give the man was that he wasn't tripping over his own robes in his haste.
Someone was knocking on the door. Three rapid strikes on the front door, and then silence. Zouken stopped for a moment, the notion of anybody looking for him at his time being absurd to him. After a short moment, Zouken started to pull the girl along again when the knocking on the door came back. This time he heard a muffled shout for him, and interesting enough, for the girl as well. The voice sounded familiar, a little bit different but close enough that one name instantly came to mind: Kariya.
'So the prodigal son returns to seek salvation for the little one,' the old man mused to himself as he continued on. The last living descendent with the magic potential to reinvigorate the Matou bloodline and its withering legacy, Kariya Matou had expressed disgust at the family methods and chosen a life of exile and solitude. The last that Zouken had gleamed of Kariya's actions through a familiar was a short meeting with the Tohsaka's wife and child, and then a mad dash to the manor. 'Too late to play hero now, boy,' Zouken thought as his brittle hand reached for the cellar doorknob-
"I thought that people were supposed to answer the door when someone comes knocking."
It must have been the shock, the sudden rush of adrenaline that hadn't been activated in decades, or the fact that it was HIS voice, Zouken had never spun around so fast to meet this mysterious stranger in his entire life. The girl yelped as she was flung to the floor by the old man's unexpected movement, tripping over his walking stick in the process. She didn't have the energy to get up, but she glanced upward at the person who got such a reaction and set her new grandfather on edge unlike she had ever seen before. It wasn't really hard to spot him. In all the darkness that the Matou manor seemed to perpetuate, the stranger was in what looked like a quite comfortable chair with a rack of candles providing the only warm, yet unnatural, light in the house.
Mr. Stranger was clad in a dark blue suit ensemble with a white shirt and yellow tie around his neck. He rested his face on his left hand with his arm on the armrest, leaning towards the candles that seemed to make his blond hair and yellow eyes sparkle like gold, and his skin white like marble. His finger tapped his temple while he stared at the two people in front of him.
"... Cypher." The name escaped Zouken’s dry lips with a hint of fear, and the stranger smiled.
"You remember, after all. Age hasn't slowed you down completely then, Zouken," the one known as Cypher said with a sigh of relief. He finally got up from the chair, and walked forward a few steps before kneeling down to look at the little girl. "She's yours? I thought the Matou bloodline couldn't produce capable heirs anymore."
"A generous donation from the Tohsaka family... They had a spare, and I happened to remember our old ties," Zouken spoke slowly as if he was reminding himself how he came to possess the girl in the first place. A light laugh came from the younger man as he held his hand out to the girl, She looked at it quizzically before finding herself pulled up to her feet anyway. "Listen to us, Zouken. We talk about her like she was some brood mare, does she not have a name?" Cypher asked the old man, then he turned back to her. "Well, child? What's your name?"
She didn't answer right away. She couldn't help but be unsettled by this stranger who, despite the show of courtesy and decency she hadn't experienced since her arrival here, seemed more alien than the walking mummy that said he was her grandfather. She looked away from the new man's doll-like face a few times before... "Sakura."
"Sakura... what a pretty name. For a pretty girl, too," Cypher said as he turned back to Zouken in glee. The old man merely returned a stare that would have evaporated water before curtly nodding. "Yes yes, enough about the girl. What is your business here? We have not met in 59 years yet you suddenly see fit to grace me with your presence?" Zouken seemed to strike the ground with his cane harder as he walked around the others, clearly unafraid of the familiar intruder now.
"Ah yes, how quickly I forget that I have business in the first place. Distracted by the little lady, I suppose," Cypher said as he laughed, and then he shocked Zouken by walking towards the front door with Sakura. "Now, little Sakura. Your grandfather and I have some grown-up things to talk about. Could you wait outside for a little while? We'll be done soon." He left Sakura at the front door with the only pair of shoes at the door, her own, and left for Zouken without waiting for an answer.
Sakura didn't really know what else to do, so she put on a jacket and her shoes and opened the door. What she didn't expect was for somebody to run into the door the same time she opened it, and then fall on her.
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Originally Posted by Lycodrake
