Quest of Fate - Apocrypha Universe Grail War

[RoydGolden]

Hmm... Not really sure on this "Reiner" fellow is supposed to be yet, and pissing off somebody I don't even know seems like a rather poor idea. Option 3 is boring, while 2 gives me a chance to get closer with a cute girl. Besides, thanking someone who helped you out is only basic courtesy. Yep, I'm definitely going with 2​. Risa route, here we come!

[Bobin]

3

Let's at least try to display a sort of decency for ourselves.

[Bird of Hermes]

Wow. Input came in a lot quicker than expected this time around, i clearly did something right.

- - - Updated - - -

Also it looks like most of the votes are tilted in a particular direction.

[zikari8]

Wow. Input came in a lot quicker than expected this time around, i clearly did something right.

You added a cute girl. That always makes things better

[Bird of Hermes]

Clocktower
Afternoon



Risa has done good by me. She has had no reason to be and she could have used my failings here and there to ruin me. But she hasn't. A debt is clearly owed here. Crappy blueblood roommate Reiner can wait.

Hastily packing away things, I break out into a quick pace as I try to catch up to her - she seems to have a head start as she only seems to be carrying a single book.

"Hey, Risa!"

Fortunately she wasn't too far ahead and I was easily able to grab her attention.

"Yeah Nomikata?"

"I just wanted to say thanks for everything you've done for me, it's appreciated."

She tilts her head curiously then gives out the most innocent giggle before gesturing me to follow her, naturally I do just that. It occurs to me that this will be the first time we've conversed outside of a classroom.

"Thank you. Nothing wrong in doing a good deed. Especially as you don't seem like the backstabbing type."

I realise that was clever of her. The Mage Association was infamous for having some Magi trying to off each other over petty squabbles. Here she managed to build up a rapport who probably wouldn’t try to use her. Though her reasoning is out of my knowledge.

"What makes you say that?"

"You have a chip on your shoulder and want to prove yourself. Resentment of the Nobles shows you don't care for the basis of legacy and you care for the talent of the individual. Betrayal isn't your shtick."

Her response is as chirp as ever. How she managed to deduce all that from a few conversations… am I really so unsubtle? But anyways walking with her, I find that we are alone in the hallway for now. I may as well get use the opportunity to know her better.

"So then. As I'm so easy to read, tell me about yourself." I ask. It probably came off a little more harsh than I wanted but Risa seems unfazed.

"Well Seigi, you have a tendency to rant about how everyone looks down on you for the lack of lineage. For what it's worth, all Magi have issues, it's how our pyramidal society seems to be structured."

"Including yourself?"

The smile slowly fades from her face as she takes her last chocolate bar and stops in her position. Shit, that question just came out. I didn't mean it. What kind of person asks another what their issues and complexes are?

Thankfully though, she seems to quickly come around.

"I don't just kiss and tell, if you wanna get to know me then you can at least make me dinner."

Seems about fair, me getting her food seems to be our thing so far.

"So, your place or mine?"

---

After making our way to her apartment, we both realise we have no cash in hand to go out to a restaurant, we make do with what we have in her accommodation. Her maintenance of the place is decidedly… messy. It's clearly usually worse than this, I know this kind of mess - it's the 'Push Everything To The Side' mess which only holds the worst back for a day or so.

After raiding her stock's we end up splitting what little she had and end up with a mug of Pea and Ham soup between us. It's not particularly flavourful but it's warm, filling and there's just something comforting about a mug of soup. I eat mine hastily while Risa write down a few more notes.

"So, you know that most Magi only have one kid, right?"

I can tell it's a rhetorical question, but I roll with it.

"Mages only teach everything to one person because only one can hold the families crest."

"And what happens when they have multiple kids who want the knowledge?"

I ponder for a moment, I have siblings myself but I was the most interested in pursuing magecraft out of all of them.

"Teach one, keep the other as a spare?"

"That's me, the spare. Took what I could and sold it to pay for my tuition. As far as my family care, I'm dead to them so we all have to make do."

I had never looked into her family name at all so it made sense that I wouldn't know, then again they probably burned out the records of her to cover their pride for all I could have known.

"Is… Risa even your real name?"

"Regardless of my past life, it's who I am now. Anyways us redhead social outcasts need to stick together, right?"

She avoided my question and I'm not sure if she meant it as a backhanded compliment but I accept it nevertheless. Even if she was the power and talent to be a magus, she doesn't seem to have the mentality for it. As I help clean, up I feel the hairs on my arms prick up. With the heat of dinner leaving me, we both look around to conserve warmth as we begin to feel the cold briskness of the room.

Risa manages to find a blanket and pulls me under alongside her with surprising strength, snuggling up to me tight. It doesn't seem to take her long to drift off and I find the cosiness so enticing. She seems to need someone here, why else would she tell me all this? Telling anyone else all this would be considered a costly mistake by others.

I need to weigh my options.

1). Didn't I have a meeting to go to?
2). Go back to my place alone.
3). Stay with Risa
4). Write in!

[4score7years]

1. We don't really know what the meeting was about, but it was probably important.

Maybe we should write a note or something, though. Seems a bit rude to just leave.

[RoydGolden]

...This seems to be escalating rather fast. When I said to go for the Risa route, I wasn't expecting her to bring us home and snuggle up in bed beside us right away. Either they're a lot closer acquaintances then I'd assumed (which seems unlikely since they've apparently never spoken outside of classes) or Seigi is just ridiculously charming to the point where girls can't help but spill their entire life-stories to him and invite him to sleep in their bed.

Either way, I'll be picking 3. Solely because Risa needs somebody to comfort her, of course. Not at all because I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to snuggle up next to a cute girl...

Let's ride the Risa train as far as it goes! ...Not in the dirty sense sense, though. Our relationship hasn't progressed that far yet.

[Rafflesiac]

1 is wiser, and 3 will screw us up down the line.

3

[zikari8]

Dammit... a tough choice this time around.

However, I think we need to start thinking long game here. As much as I want us to go down the Risa route, we need to stay focused on our long-term goals. Considering that the meeting was obligatory, I fear missing out on it. The best thing to do would be to go to the meeting in a way that doesn't seem rude to Risa. Think of the consequences of not going!

So... 1.

Actually, you know what? Screw logic. Screw consequences. Screw morals.

4. Push Risa down and do what a rational person inside a bad doujin would when next to a sleeping defenseless cute girl.

--Updated--


I'm sorry. I feel no shame but I do feel regret.

[SleepMode]

... I may regret this, but I'll choose 3.

[Rafflesiac]

I'll switch to 1 then.

[4score7years]

so that makes the current score...

option 1: 2 votes (me and Raff)
option 2: no votes
option 3: 2 votes (Royd and zh)
option 4: 1 vote (Zikari's...proposal)

[Bobin]

1

Risa should understand.

[Zurvan]

1, but leave a note

[Ail Don]

Get to that damn meeting already

[Bird of Hermes]

Clocktower
Evening



I have a job to do.

Although it is breezy in here and I understand why Risa wants my company as a snuggle buddy as a result, I've no idea why Risa has decided to unload all this on me. Perhaps we just need some space from each other perhaps? Truth is, I don't know. As she said, we all have our issues. It's a job requirement as a mage. But anyways, obligations are obligations.

As I carefully manure myself out of her warm and tight embrace, I pull the blanket up to make sure no draft gets in there. I also leave a note saying that I had to leave. She'll understand.

As I make my way to the doorway, I feel a spark in the distance. Back on the dinner table, Risa left a book. The book she carried around all day. Out of curiosity, I walk to if and reach out a hand only for it to give out a jolt of electricity to keep me away. Personal property should best be left alone I guess.

Taking the opportunity to straighten myself out and iron out the creases in the suit, I make my way out the door, through the familiar empty hallways and eventually out of the Clocktower premises entirely.

I make my way to the registered location me and my family agreed upon. Walking through the Bounded Fields, I find myself in an old, unkempt room. Only other person is here, my Father.



“Why are you late?” he asks me, cold and stone faced.

That’s it. No ‘Hello son, great to see you.’ Not even acknowledgement that it’s been years since we last saw each other? It’s not like I could tell him I nearly fell asleep at the house of an acquaintance. The cold air from the fireplace blew through the room, spreading soot all over the wooden floorboards. Far unbecoming the aristocracy we both desired.

“Sit.” He commands.

Looking around I see no chair to sit on “But there’s no-“

“I said sit.”

I swallow my dignity and kneel down on the filthy, splintered floor as my father starts to walk in circles around me.

“What have you achieved, pray tell? Nothing. I have watched you and all you have done is squabble and make excuses.”

I presume he is referring to this morning. But he is correct, fath... I mean Master Nomikata was a most excellent student and a benefactor to the schools of Spiritual Evocation & Surgery, ever since the head of the Archibald family perished abruptly leaving a power vacuum which allowed father to take as much power as possible before that noble family propped the ‘Velvet’ individual at the end to stabilise the situation. But his face remains the same as it had been all his life, likely the same as it had been since our family moved from the east.

“Now if I had any more heirs, we could have simply recycled your circuits to them but as you know they’re weaker than first generation apprentices and hold no interest for the craft – it would be a waste. The angry brat before me is all we can rely upon.”

Slowly, I piece it all together, the urgency of the situation. And in my mind’s eye, I see the shards again and reflected back are faces with familial my own but... older. And the way he talked about recycling as if it were common...

“The family... is falling already?”

“Yes, I would say that it is the fault of your mother’s family being poisoned earth for us to bury our seed but I can tell I have some blame for raising impatient fools. Now normally I would remove you for private study before implanting the crest fully but new opportunities have arisen. Now tell me boy, what do you know about the Holy Grail War?”

“The Holy Grail War is the worst kept secret among magi. A ritual that involves summoning heroic spirits in order to reach The Root, but it has never been accomplished as all the participants end up dead.”

Although it may have been unknown to the community at large a century ago, it was safe to say a large enough portion of Clocktower knew about the annual bloodbath.

“Heh, you’re smarter than you look boy. Now, you are going to lead us in the ritual.”

I cannot hide my alarm.

“But you say I’m not worthy. How can I win something even the greatest of magi are slaughtered in? Won’t I die?”

“Fool. A Magus walks with death. In order to achieve greatest, we must be willing to risk equal or greater loss and The Root is everything. The ritual begins in two months. I will grant you one month to find a suitable catalyst for the summoning to prove yourself followed by a month of intensive training with myself before we set off.”

I nod to him. The apprentice must always obey the master no matter what. I fail to understand why he is betting the families hopes on this when there are alternative means to protect the lineage but I dare not ask, I cannot question him as he is. Procuring a catalyst from other Clocktower members would be difficult but what is worse will likely be his ‘training.’

“I am loathe to admit it but this ritual is the best way to attain our goals as we currently stand. Now, I bid you leave.”

I arise and bow before him. Although I stand with my father, I find myself more alone than anything else.

1). Go find Reiner, I need to “vent” (open to interpretation, feel free to write in specifics if needs be).
2). Return to Risa, she confided in me so perhaps I should do the same.
3). Go back to my accommodation. I need to sleep so I can make a plan tomorrow.
4). Follow Father. He knows better than me and I need his guidance.
5). Write in!

[Ail Don]

Ｔｈｒｅｅ

Today's been nuts. Has it even been a whole day and already we have our long lost father bitching us out. Time for some us time.

[RoydGolden]

I swallow my dignity and kneel down on the filthy, splintered floor as my father starts to walk in circles around me.

Dad's following the Fate/Zero school of monologuing, I see.

Seriously though, things have certainly wasted no time in getting started. I can only presume there'll be a time-skip of some sort between choosing a catalyst and the Grail War itself, since spending months of preparation doesn't exactly sound like the most exciting task in the universe.

As for my choice... since you gave a "write in" option, I'll pick 5- ​Tell daddy dearest to go screw himself. I'll win the Grail War and forge my own path independent of his legacy!

After that completely outrageous display of defiance, go back to Risa and tell her what a royal mess I've just gotten into. I'm aware this choice is pretty much the riskiest thing possible but heck, who cares about petty things like "sanity" and "self-preservation"? Kick reason to the curb and do the impossible; that's my motto! And if a blue-haired anime man said it on TV, then it can't possibly be wrong!

...I think I just may've accidentally painted Seigi as some kind of maniacal Gurren Lagann otaku but hey, characterization amiright?

If my write-in turns out to be unpopular, then just take my vote for option 2 instead. Still not giving up on that Risa-chan route, after all.

- - - Updated - - -

I really need to pick write-in options more often. They're fun, and let me exercise my creative muscles a little...

[Rafflesiac]

3

[Zurvan]

3 or 2