Quest of Fate - Apocrypha Universe Grail War

[warellis]

Either way I just guess I’m even hotter now, I’m well on my way to becoming an eleven. I just need to get rid of this stupid blonde hair.

Then it hits me.

That girl in those pictures, not Rin Tohsaka or Sakura Edelfelt but rather the local gal. Her hair looked like the same dye I used.

So wait is Seigi a redhead or a blonde?

[Bird of Hermes]

So wait is Seigi a redhead or a blonde?

Blonde, he dyes his hair red.

[Bird of Hermes]

Fuyuki City – Shinto District
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Normal
Objective: [ ]



[BGM]

[BGM] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLZ4gq4yzc
Risa Mol-Undi is tired.

It is not her endless life of adventure, her boundless pursuit for knowledge and power. Rather, it is a more personal matter. Risa made it a habit not to make too many friends yet that stubborn redhead had found her way into heart. Was it their resolve, their strength? Or perhaps the surprising depth of their heart?

Also for the last four days she had only gotten a total of 8 hours of sleep.

Her escorts are away currently on their own matters, she knows the risks in this scenario but Risa was nothing if not efficient and took precautions for their raid on the now burning building as she stands upon the smoking ramparts.

“Magus killer.”



Now rising to meet her on the rooftops, Kiritsugu Emiya has grown less fond of the nickname he earned over the years, however given the knowledge of his ‘client’, he understands her insistence. Clouded in the smoke and ash while Risa has perched herself by the ledge, he doesn’t reply immediately however, one or two seconds is what scraps remain of his pride demands.

“Between myself and your servant there were a total of 76 casualties.” Speaks the man “All of whom were faculty, scientists and magi hired by Hiro Nomikata for his research. Combat homunculi have been incapacitated but not terminated, now that they’re cut off from their strings, they have a chance to live their own lives.”

Risa would have smiled at that; a homunculus was her first love after all. However both the student and former mercenary remain the perfect image of stillness. Even as the building they stand on begins to burn Risa cannot show the embers that flicker in her heart.

“Thank you for your report, are all accounted for?”

“No. We cannot find the body of Lazlow Grimmwold or Blytheseel, I believe the latter was not present. Furthermore, it appears that the younger Nomikata escaped the facility and took Ms Lancaster with them.

“Pardon, them?”

“From the information that we have recovered, the experiments to create a vessel with a connection to the Root by grafting souls together…”

“Speak up.”

Even as the smoke rises, beginning to obscure his figure on the rooftop, she can feel him frown.

“They appear to have reached the next phase, by keeping one additional soul ‘alive’ for lack of better words whilst forcibly making the two cannibalise the others into vegetative power sources, the people here were successful in awakening the eldest child. When the body left, the daughter appeared to be in control rather than the son.”

“You said appeared. Do you think this is the case or do you know this is the case?”

Kiritsugu sighed at the response “I could not tell, the eldest daughter… Aoi… she was killing anyone who got close. I saw what she was capable of even while under the influence of illusions, I’m not sure what sort of magecraft she used but she can tear people apart with a touch, where it be simply beating them to death, disintergration or-

“Using Nigredo to turn people into chunky salsa sauce…”

…

“Those are not the words I would have used myself but it is accurate.”

The steps he takes make no sound as the building begins to slowly lose its structural integrity and drows out the noise of such subtle movements. Kiritsugu stands next to her with his lower half now covered in soot, ash and dried blood.

“Madam, I have also had word from Lukas Adalbert too.”

“I thought he wasn’t going to be present here?”

Kiritsugu once again doesn’t reply immediately. Instead he gets out a cigarette. He reaches for his lighter and gives it a few flicks with only sparks as an answer. Letting out a mild grumble, he shoves the lighter back in a pocket before using a small nearby patch of fire to ignite the end of the cigarette. He offers it to the younger girl who takes a drag before returning it.

“He isn’t. Mr Lifesaver isn’t best suited to fieldwork given his encounter with the hooded individual was-”

“Disastrous?”

“Quite.” Kiritsugu replies “I had to drag him out of the sewers, it was very unpleasant for us both. However, given that all the action has been close to the city’s perimeter, he is currently surveying the central district for further clues. If whoever’s in charge of Seigi’s body at the moment is smart, they’ll try and lay low for a little bit and then leave Fuyuki outright. Hiro will likely do the same as this was his only outpost in his ancestral home, everything else is in the south of England.”
Risa chuckled at that “Seigi’s smart but smart people can be idiots too.”

She allowed herself to smile for a moment, before urgently gesturing for the cigarette the two were sharing.

“If you want your own, I can just give it to you.”

Risa shook her head.

“Oral fixation, I need to chew on something to get my brain working. I tend to stick with chocolate.”

Risa was now stuck in a conundrum. Seigi’s last few moments of free will before capture was to make Lancer rescues her instead of himself. They were already blurring the lines of their friendship but Risa was indebted to Seigi, she was obliged to help him.

Risa took out one of her grimoires and began writing a few more notes on the ritual, the least she can do was make sure this information not be used in the same way again for now. Seigi, or perhaps Aoi may be journeying back to England on a path on vengeance possibly within 24 hours but if she left without him to continue his fight, the two may never see each other again. On the other hand if she waited too long in Fuyuki then he may leave without her.

Seigi’s failing as a magus was his compassion, Risa’s was far more limited that his but that redhead had earned it.

Closing the grimoire, the flames had grown stronger now smoke beginning to cloud their vision the heat of the flames making things uncomfortably hot now.
Lancer would be here soon to pick them up.

Kiritsugu stood first, offering a hand to help Risa up which she took hold of.

“I have to ask” the older man spoke “why are you recording the information of this abomination?”

“Knowledge must be preserved” was the answer Risa gave before hoisting herself upwards “If not the use then the lessons learned so that we cannot make the same mistakes again. Besides, Hiro a fourth generation magus seems to have found a viable path to the Root within Seigi, if we can repeat that preferably without loss of life-”

With that Kiritsugu actually laughed.

“I had almost forgotten you were a magus yourself with your concern with Seigi.”

“And you yourself are not. Besides, have you not killed enough people yourself?”

Even with the heat growing, the magus killers eyes seem dead and his voice now like frost. Kiritsugu may be alive but the ‘Magus Killer’ is certainly quite dead now.

“I’m not that person anymore. You remember I’ve become a father myself.”

“Hmm.” Risa recalled to the day before when Kiritsugu had brought her into his house. “Oh! That guy who was leaving as I came in? What was his name, Shirou? Sorry but that didn’t register to me, does he take after his mother?”

“He’s adopted, don’t worry he knows.”

“Ah that would do it. Where was he off to?”

“Finland. He’s visiting a childhood friend of his, Sakura Edelfelt and Luvia as well, the head of the family.”

“Oh? Saint Suplex herself? I heard she was dating Sakura’s sister Rin.” Risa replied intrigued.

Kiritsugu cocked an eyebrow, conversation about family life seemingly warming himself up faster than the slowly growing flames. “You’ve met the Edelfelts?”

She shook her head “I haven’t myself but you’d have to live under a rock to not know about them. Rin and Sakura were originally from the Tohsaka family.”

“They were practically neighbours to Shirou and myself and some of his closest friends. Which is saying a lot, he’s a popular guy.”

“Yes, so Sakura got adopted into the Edelfelt family and took their name too. Rin, Sakura and Luvia are pretty popular around the crowds in Norwich and London. From what I’ve heard things aren’t the best between Rin and Sakura and apparently there was an incident at a masquerade ball like two and a half years ago maybe which made it worse. You know what it is?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me?”

“No.”

“Alright.”

Risa noted his smile, fatherhood and a simple life had clearly been kind to Kiritsugu. Perhaps if she were to leave the life of a magus behind it could warm even the most famed of cold hearts.

“Funny how you mention Rin and Luvia being an item because that’s not how it was described to me.”

Perhaps one day Risa could get some information on some scandalous secrets amoung the upper class. It would be interesting and having blackmail material was always helpful. Seigi himself had been present working at that ball and had met at least one of the Edelfelt ladies but seemed incapable of sharing what happened. Risa had concluded that he couldn’t because it was either too embarrassing, involved his ex-girlfriend whom he had refused to talk about, he was under a geis or a combination of the above.

However this idle train of thought crashed when Risa and Kiritsugu were joined by a third voice.

“

Master

Empress

, mercenary. Are you ready?”



“Lancer!”

Risa rushed over to the tall redhaired woman standing nearby, wrapping her arms around her with such force of the momentum which would have knocked even the burliest of men back a few feet. Risa was held back quite soundly with Lancers B-Ranked strength. The living weapon however did reciprocate the hug, she was now growing used to these ‘public displays of affections’.

“Don’t you dare scare me like that!”

Lancer raised an arm to the back of Risa’s head and gave a gentle stroke.

“You need not worry whenever I battle. You know it pains me to see you so worried about me.”

“But Lazlow-”

“Got lucky, and rest assured he will not get a second chance.” Lancer was quick to hush Risa’s nerves. As much as the young lady tried to repress it, the abduction of Seigi had changed her a fair bit. Or rather different aspects of her were rising to the surface. To think that less than a week ago Risa’s opinion to Lancer was a useful asset with a cold indifference. “Now you promised me that you wouldn’t cry until we had Seigi back. Are you going to keep that promise to your spear?”

Tears were forbidden. A sign of weakness that was beaten out of magi as children. The first time was when she lost her Emilia. The second was when she lost Seigi. Lancer had shared the story of her wife Ototachibana-hime with Risa and she had replied in turn. Lancer knew that Risa would not allow herself that moment of weakness again. Tears made magi look down on you, tears revealed weakness that could be exploited, tears did not keep her warm or put food on the table when she stole her family’s legacy from under their noses and ran.

Risa was still a magus through and through and her foolish pride would not allow for such weakness.

“You know I wouldn’t lie to you like that.” Risa took Lancers slender calloused fingers into her own hands and squeezed as hard as her hands would allow. “We lost Seigi and I’ve almost lost you once already. That shut-in bitch distracted me and I was just stuck to the spot helpless when you and Seigi first came to find me. He was covered in so much blood… Then last time when we got close she kept me away from you again and that midget-bastard almost killed you too! You fought dragons with me but I never saw you like that, you were covered in so much blood too…” Lancer felt the shorter girl slide closer and wrap her arms around her strong frame again. “I just want to feel you for a moment.”

Risa turned up to Lancer with a flushed face, residual tears being held back by will alone slightly noticeable against her rosy cheeks. “I’m sorry for being weak right now. I just want…”

Despite everything she was still just a girl. Risa nodded her head before allowing herself to be scooped up in one of her strong arms and repressing the thought that none of this would have happened if she wasn’t a coward when she was propositioned earlier and had the guts to accept the invite to the shared bed.

“I want to feel your fire again.”

The moment was broken with coughing. Loud, fake and above all else deliberate coughing of a father used to interrupting his child when things started to become inappropriate.

Kiritsugu finished cleared his throat his throat as he approached the two girls. Risa held the embaressed look of a schoolgirl caught by a parent and buried her face in Lancer as Kiritsugu himself donned a now familiar position of being hoisted and carried over Lancers shoulder.

A pair relying on holding onto a third individual to travel quickly was certainly ridiculous but it was the most efficient way for them to travel.

Lancer did not reply to Kiritsugu’s fake coughing. She felt no shame after all. She did however understand the importance of his actions.
There would be moments to talk properly, this was not one of them.

Lancer was resolved to her task. The Mercenary needed rest, her empress needed a tender comfort and was a cocktail of bottled emotions and repressed trauma currently.
And if Lancer ever saw York Lancaster or Lazlow Grimmwold again, she would kill them where they stood.

[warellis]

Heh I guess all those guesses about Kiritsugu being behind the destruction was true.

“Between myself and your servant there were a total of 76 casualties.” Speaks the man “All of whom were faculty, scientists and magi hired by Hiro Nomikata for his research. Combat homunculi have been incapacitated but not terminated, now that they’re cut off from their strings, they have a chance to live their own lives.”

Risa would have smiled at that; a homunculus was her first love after all. However both the student and former mercenary remain the perfect image of stillness. Even as the building they stand on begins to burn Risa cannot show the embers that flicker in her heart.

“Thank you for your report, are all accounted for?”

“No. We cannot find the body of Lazlow Grimmwold or Blytheseel, I believe the latter was not present. Furthermore, it appears that the younger Nomikata escaped the facility and took Ms Lancaster with them.

“Pardon, them?”

So how affected are Seigi's dad's operations in the Far East with the destruction of his Fuyuki branch of operations? Is it a minor setback or quite the blow or what?

“I’m not that person anymore. You remember I’ve become a father myself.”

“Hmm.” Risa recalled to the day before when Kiritsugu had brought her into his house. “Oh! That guy who was leaving as I came in? What was his name, Shirou? Sorry but that didn’t register to me, does he take after his mother?”

“He’s adopted, don’t worry he knows.”

“Ah that would do it. Where was he off to?”

Wait, when did this happen? How long has Risa been in contact with Kiritsugu?

And does the "don't worry he knows" refers to Shirou knowing magecraft and magi? Or has he somehow been kept in the dark here?

“Finland. He’s visiting a childhood friend of his, Sakura Edelfelt and Luvia as well, the head of the family.”

“Oh? Saint Suplex herself? I heard she was dating Sakura’s sister Rin.” Risa replied intrigued.

Kiritsugu cocked an eyebrow, conversation about family life seemingly warming himself up faster than the slowly growing flames. “You’ve met the Edelfelts?”

She shook her head “I haven’t myself but you’d have to live under a rock to not know about them. Rin and Sakura were originally from the Tohsaka family.”

“They were practically neighbours to Shirou and myself and some of his closest friends. Which is saying a lot, he’s a popular guy.”

“Yes, so Sakura got adopted into the Edelfelt family and took their name too. Rin, Sakura and Luvia are pretty popular around the crowds in Norwich and London. From what I’ve heard things aren’t the best between Rin and Sakura and apparently there was an incident at a masquerade ball like two and a half years ago maybe which made it worse. You know what it is?”

Looking at this, and the images mentioned here, was Sakura adopted relatively late here or something? Or was she staying back in Japan for awhile considering what Kiritsugu is saying here? Because childhood friends is pretty young.

So apparently Rin, Sakura, & Luvia are all close friends of his?

I guess this sort of happened?:
https://www.tmdict.com/en/ko.the-three-families

The Tohsaka gave up on the Greater Grail, and now seek a new path in becoming one with the universe with Chinese Kenpou while learning magecraft. The twin-tail daughter of the family might also end up becoming the founder of a “completely new martial arts that combines magecraft and Chinse Kenpou” by the time she becomes a high school student. However, she never imagined that her younger sister who was adopted by distant relatives would come visit her in Japan after becoming a pro-wrestler with unimaginably nice proportions and forming a tag team with a drill-roll-haired girl…!

https://www.tmdict.com/en/fu.fuyuki

A certain provincial city. In these novels, the Holy Grail War doesn’t occur there, of course, and as a result, the mayor of Fuyuki, Himuro-san, doesn’t get a pained stomach from that Great Fire Disaster.

And of course, that red-haired boy is living there with his original surname unchanged, but still having a honest and upright personality (as shown in his appearance in Capsule Servant), and likely going through days with a love comedy-like tone, along with a twin-tail magic-fist user and her cheerful little sister who laughs like a high-class young lady.

Just with the fact that Shirou's parents still died in some tragedy somewhere?

Judging from the fact that redheaded girl is living at the Fuyuki Church apparently, I guess any danger of Kotomine suddenly realizing he's evil and sorta sociopathic are not around?:
https://www.tmdict.com/en/ko.kotomine-kirei

Kotomine Kirei is living as an extremely respectable priest in Fuyuki even now. The Fourth Holy Grail War didn’t occur here, so he didn’t shift his focus to his own nature. It might be a different story if he participated in one of the subspecies Holy Grail Wars, but he’ll never have such a chance as long as he is in Fuyuki.
In other words, he is still in anguish over the meaning and karma of his existence even now.

[Bird of Hermes]

Good questions! I’ll make sure these are addressed, don’t you worry.

[warellis]

Good questions! I’ll make sure these are addressed, don’t you worry.

Thanks. Was the bit about Risa meeting up with Kiritsugu shown earlier in the quest? Because I've been looking and can't really find it.

[Bird of Hermes]

Thanks. Was the bit about Risa meeting up with Kiritsugu shown earlier in the quest? Because I've been looking and can't really find it.

It wasn't, there's about 4 days of activity unaccounted for currently.

[Bird of Hermes]

Seigi Nomikata(?)
Outside conventional Space-Time
Now


Seigi dreamed of shards.

It has been that way since he was but a boy. Until this Subcatagory Holy Grail War, it was all he ever dreamed about.

Seigi thought that it was a sign that he was growing as a magus and a person. That these ‘Shards’, fragments and reflections were some sort of core concept of his magecraft and this Holy Grail War would be a great awakening and the most important event in his young life thus far. Seigi was in fact correct about everything in some way shape or form aside from the Holy Grail War, outside of his experiences with my Lancer it has brought him nothing but pain. A continual, meaningless chronic pain of both body and souls…

A pain he does not seem to feel here in this void.



All those fragments were reflections of himself, residue of the scraps of the souls that Hiro Nomikata stitched together into that flesh suit that has the name of Seigi. Here, Outside of the World, he is safe from all those who would do him harm. Safe from those so-called friends and family who have only ever desired to use him to further their own ends.

A desire to fulfil the dream of all magi?

A desire to fulfil companionship in an otherwise lonely world?

A desire to further their own abilities?

Here at least, he is safe from the serpents in the grass who call him ally but have a dagger prepared to stab him in the back. Here at least Outside of the World he is home.

But then again can you call a place a home if you had never been there before? No. Here Seigi Nomikata likely feels like an intruder.

From that day forth, my soul changed.

So it is my duty to welcome him to the truth.

Power

Power.

Give me more power.

In some ways my brother has always been alone. To live his to take and he has had everything taken from him, as have I. Even my own ‘life’

To protect the people I love… If I become a monster –

But Seigi has never been alone. I have been beside him his whole life, watching… waiting decades…

I will endure the exile.


xxx

Seigi & Aoi Nomikata
???



[BGM]

“This is…curious.”

I find myself again, grounding myself firmly in this ‘reality’ for lack of better words. Here there are no shards, no voices, just an ever-present light equidistant in the distance. Just me, floating in the breeze and thankfully back in a suit and red hair.

Until-

“Little brother?”

A-Aoi?

That voice is alien to me but the identity of whom it belongs to is unmistakable.

There is no one else here. Nothing but endless nothingness. No one to call me ‘brother’. No voices, no shards, no dreams of Lancer, no illusions of Yorkie, no warmth that Risa gave no-

“Oi! Pay attention ya lil’ shithead!”



I see her.

Manifesting before me is a girl with similar coloured hair and fancy attire.

“So… you’re my little sister?”

The look she gives me is that of exaggerated juvenile disgust as if we were 5 year olds arguing over who the cooler power ranger was.

“Oh! EXCUSE ME!” Aoi loudly declares, setting her hands on her hips and giving a big old huff. “I’m the big sister here. I’ve been around longer than you have!”

There is truth in her words. I could defer to her and accept my position; however I’ve done that a lot recently and I will not kowtow to a stranger so easily.

“I concur you have ‘been around longer’ but I’m the bigger one here, you’re a little vertically challenged.”

I can help but laugh that that. I’m correct, the form being presented to me is that of a young girl in the flower of youth while I however am a man. Despite being of average height at best and still a technically a teenager that is not important.

She just giggles at that though, an innocent and utterly girlish giggle that simply feels alien and unnatural for her. “It does mean your kneecaps are a more viable target though~.”

I stop laughing, I believe her.

“Are you really going to kill me in my own dream though?”

“Nope, this isn’t really a dream.” Explains my (regretfully) older sister, seemingly delighted to jump into this role that she has created for herself. “Dreams are merely a succession of images, sensations and emotions that involuntarily occur in the mind while unconscious. Your physical body is currently asleep but this isn’t a realm created by your subconscious, you know what that is after all.”

She is correct. No shards here, not my subconscious reflecting my inner world.

“So,” I ask of her “Is this a world of your creation?”

Aoi shakes her head.

“You’re starting to ask the right questions but your just missing the target. Illusions and warping one’s cognition is our ex’s line of expertise. It’s likely the reason dad hired her, y’know, outside the obvious.”

I know what she’s referring to but I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole.

“We’re something of a reflection of each other little brother. Outside of our tastes in clothes and ladies, what’s most important is our magecraft. Nigredo which is your forte is the first stage in alchemy, purification and decomposition. Mine however, I call it ‘Metsu’ which can be explained as conceptual destruction. Different foundations but the end goal of breaking stuff for lack of better words meet. Now, are you any good at illusion, warping someones mind or any of that stuff?”

I shake my head.

“Well neither am I!” Aoi declares “Therefore the logical conclusion is that you are actually here.”

I look around at 「　」. There is naught but the space of nothingness.

“There’s nothing here Aoi.”

“And another world for ‘Nothing’ is?”

“Empty or perhaps… void-”

This isn’t a place like a fairies garden outside of a volcano. That place may have mystery but that would be routed in physicality in a preserved space instead of the Reverse Side of the World.

If I am truly in a realm of nothingness then this could only be.

“This is Outside The World.”

And I drift towards the light.

“And that must be…”

“The last horse has crossed the finishing line!” Aoi declares with utter authority as she claps her hands together, glad I’ve pieced the truth together for myself and she has someone to talk about it with. “Congratulations Seigi, welcome to The Root.”

This isn’t possible

This can’t be at all possible.

She cannot possible be serious right now!

“Aoi, please tell me you’re pulling my leg here.”

“Nope.” She’s unfazed by all this. “I’ve been here by about 42 years on your end. Time flows differently here but with your existence being a fixed point rather than a Ephemeral Dream like our siblings, I’ve been both here and by your side for the past 19 years.”

So Aoi’s age is somewhere between 20 and 40 something.

But that’s not important.

What’s important is we’re at the bloody Root.

I immediately start running towards it as fast as my legs can carry me and reach out for it.

To come here is the goal of all Magi. To take it’s power and knowledge, it’s everything.

Everything.

It stores all the information of the past, present, future, houses all the souls of humanity and all possibilities. It’s infinity conceptualised! To understand and take it would allow one to being the True Magic back, that which is creating the absolute impossible. Concepts like time manipulation, teleportation, spatial warping and quarantine, and the resurrection of the dead are miracles thought to be possible only through the application of Magic. The Denial of Nothingness, Operation of Parallel Worlds…

It all hinges it I can touch it!

If you erase the meaning of "impossible", you have what some would describe as "the capabilities of God".

It would make everything worthwhile.

All the pain, all the suffering, all the death. It’s all brought me to this point.

The point where an average fourth generation magus achieves the impossible!

I can get there.

I’m so close.

So close!

I’m-!

I’m…

I’m no closer.

“What the fuck?”


“Did you think it would be that easy?” Aoi chirps at me, apparently at my side the whole time. “This place is outside of physical space, running makes no difference.”

This… This is a joke. A hilarious, twisting and utterly awful joke.

“You mean to say I’m literally at the cusp of the dream of all magi. Knocking on the bell of heaven and the door won’t open!”

“Pretty much. Like I said, you thought it was going to be easy?”

I allow by body to slip back and fall flat on my arse, undignified but frankly right not I don’t give a toss.

“Honestly after all the shit me and you had been through, I was hoping for something easy.”

I feel her hand pat me on the back.

“There there Seigi, y’know if it makes you feel any better when I found out what the Root truly was which was the same time you did… I tried the exact same thing and it worked out just as well.”

“Then why didn’t you stop me wasting our time?”

“It was funny.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

I turn around and look at my sister. I smile. And then I start to laugh. It’s a chuckle at first but it grows and grows until I’m holding onto her shoulders for support as I cackle like a raving lunatic.

“God! it’s all a big fucking joke isn’t it!” I yell “Despite all this bullshit we’re still not there! It’s all one demented gag!”

She pulls me in for a hug but all I can do it laugh. Some people say ‘If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’. So, I laugh. This was all a joke and I was the god damn punchline.

After about five minutes, or ten or however long time works here I pull myself upward.

“So then,” I wipe the beads of water by my eyes before tears can form, “Why am I here then?”

“I don’t know, I’m no Zelretch. However I am closer to the root to my access in superior.” My sister muses, staring off into the distance “Believe me, I want the same thing. If I were to get my own body then I could live independently, that would be nice, not like I’ve waited literal decades… I think we’re supposed to help each other but I think the reason you’re able to make it here is either because you’ve progressed enough, whatever our dad and Yorkie did to our heads worked better than expected or…”

She pauses.

“You’ve come close to death enough times to trigger our connection.”

“I don’t like that idea.”

“Me neither.”

“So how do we help each other then?”

“I dunno.”

“You’re about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.”

“And being stuck as a passenger inside your head for years has grown dull to be honest. I mean the only thing that I’ve enjoyed recently was with Lancer.”

If we truly do share experiences and she has been inside my head the whole time then of course she would know about that.

She… experienced that.

“Aoi, you do know how gross that sounds when you look that young.”

“Well sorry for getting murdered at the wrong age! I can make myself look older but it’s trickier because my physical body didn’t make it that far, I’d have to use you as a basis.”

“Stylish suits, cool red hair, classy glasses and a muscular build? I can think of worse things Aoi.”

“Oh please” She scoffs at me “If anything you get those off me.”

With that her form becomes translucent as she begins to shift her appearance.

In the meantime, I guess I have some ‘Quality time’ to spend with my sister.

Choice!

Welcome to The Root! Well, almost. Here beside Aoi you can ask her about 3 things and they can be about anything you want to write in.

Furthermore, this is your chance to submit an FC for the older Aoi! You can use her existing FC and use an older version, use a similar image as reference or if you're more artistically inclined then make your own! Just be sure to keep in mind Aoi's own preferences.

[King Prussia]

So, hm. My first proposal would be something like :

1. What do you want ? It's probably the first time in literal decades that Aoi can speak to someone else, and be asked about her needs (as opposed to just being her father's tool). It would probably do a lot of good for her mental health, and her relationship with Seigi.
2. What can you tell me about Hiro ?Not sure if she knows much more than we do, but it's worth a shot. Also good way for them to bond over something, maybe ?
3. What should I do ? It's 'big sister', let's ask her for guidance. And talking about what he wants with someone who's outside (sort of) the whole Holy Grail War shitstorm could also help Seigi gets some perspective.

[Spartacus]

+1, no objection here

[warellis]

I pick the same as King Prussia & Spartacus.

As for Seigi, it's kind of hilarious how he's so close, yet so far away from the Root at the same time.

Man that has got to be one of the worst tortures available for a magus, taunting them like this.

[zikari8]

I agree with everyone

[SleepMode]

Here are the choices for Aoi's FC:

1

2

3

4

5

[Bird of Hermes]

Alright everyone you have until this friday to select an FC for Aoi or I shall make an executive decision.

[Spartacus]

2.
Dem' car is an extra onee-sama power

[zikari8]

2

[Faux]

4

[warellis]

I pick 2.

[SleepMode]

​4

[Half-Blood Master]

It's clearly 2, all the others have too unkempt clothes (tho 1 comes to a close second). Aoi would rather die than be spotted wearing 4.