Fate/Grand Order story · Events, Ephemeral Waxing Moon
Opening Act: Let the Scent of Blood Scatter Like Flowers
Ephemeral Waxing Moon
3 scenes, 164 lines
1. Before the battle
81 linesA moonlit battle to the death.
Even as swords clashed and the wind carried the scent of cruelly spilt blood in every direction...
...the moon simply shed its cold, pale light upon it all.
Moonlit glints of naked steel danced in the darkness. A hundred sword fell in the blink of an eye.
But this clash of blades, so fearsome as to even put the Battle of Sekigahara to shame, was the most terrifying of all, and it took place between only two figures.
A samurai, and a samurai.
Or rather...
...an oni, and an oni.
Their techniques were not of this world. As one oni rained down a torrent of fiery arrows, the other snuffed them out with a thunderclap from her sword.
The sky was torn asunder. The ground was split in two. The two onis' deadly dance only raged all the more intensely.
But as loudly as their blades clashed, brightly though the moon may have shone upon them, once this showdown began, it could only end in deathly silence.
For no matter how fearsome a duel to the death may be, it still takes but a moment for one blade to strike true and end it.
Soon, one of the oni will fall. The only question is, which?
Shoukannon Bosatsu, give me power!
Haha!
...Ahh, what a pity.
...
I can only imagine your regrets, Rogue Archer.
Khh...!
Hahahahahaha!
Your blade is far too dull to stop me.
The pale light of the rising sun could never hope to reach me!
This is the underworld! The bowels of hell! This darkness will devour any faint rays of sunlight that dare to enter!
...Forgive me...Lord...Yoshinaka...
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
...
It is over, my liege.
Well done, Rider.
You've finally slain all the Servants summoned by the Waxing Moon. Now, I can
...
...!
...
A change in the leyline current.
This feeling... New Servants have been summoned. I'm sure of it.
Dammit!
Why!? Why won't this Waxing Moon Ritual end already!?
The Waxing Moon is supposed to bestow an omnipotent wish granter upon the last surviving team.
But no matter how many Heroic Spirits we defeat, the moon remains less than full, and continues to summon even more.
How long must we keep doing this? What is it we still lack?
...
The Waxing Moon Ritual was originally meant to be a battle to the death between seven Masters and their Servants.
But every Heroic Spirit we have cut down thus far has been a Masterless Rogue Servant.
Without Masters fighting to the death, the moon will never be full, for they are the pillars upon which this Ritual rests.
Then where ARE these Masters!?
We've tried to perform the Ritual countless times now, and I've not seen so much as a hint of their presence.
No, it's not just them! Even this Edo is
My liege.
...!
...Forgive me, Rider. I let my emotions get the better of me.
Pay it no heed, my liege.
You need merely leave everythingyes, everything, to me.
My body is your blade to use as you will. You need but give me an order.
Simply tell me to righteously destroy our opposition, and it shall be done.
Yes... That's right...
I am here to correct this world's wrongs. To create a truly equitable society.
And to do that, I...
Yes, yes. You are right about everything, my liege.
Let us attempt this Ritual as many times as it takes. Let us kill as many Heroic Spirits as we must.
Over and over and over again, until the moon is finally, perfectly full.
And I, Ushi Gozen, shall righteously destroy everything in our way.
Madness dances in the glittering night as moonlight illuminates the souls captured within the Waxing Moon.
And all the while, the moon looks down from on high.
...
I found myself staring up at the moon.
My regrets from failing to complete my long-held dreams... The emptiness in my heart stabbing at me from within...
The moon just shone down on it all with its cold, silent light.
Where am I...?
I felt cobblestones pressing into my back. I was lying on the ground like a corpse, aimlessly gazing up at the sky.
This is...Sensoji.
How in the world did I end up here...?
Why was I sprawled out in the middle of this temple's grounds?
I can't remember how I got here. All my memories are as hazy as the fragments of a dream you can barely recall on waking.
...
All I know for certain is...I've lost something.
Whatever that something is, I think it was important. Integral. Something that shaped me into who I am now.
And now, it's all been scraped away, leaving me hollowed out. Empty.
I feel like a discarded husk, left to rot by the roadside.
I have no passion. No grief. No pain. I don't even feel a hint of loneliness.
All I have is the moonlight filling the hollow where my heart used to be.
...I'm not sure what to call this, but...
...it certainly is a beautiful moon tonight.
2. Before the battle
66 lines.........!
...There we go!
Can you hear me, Fujimaru? How do things look over there?
Yup, I can hear you just fine, Da Vinci.
Fine so far. The Rayshift went off without a hitch.
？！
Master's vitals are all green. So far, so good.
Great. That takes care of the Rayshift part.
Now we need you to start looking into what's going on there, Fujimaru.
See anything that looks like a clue?
It looks like I'm in Shimousa-era Japan again.
It looks like an old Japanese castle town we saw in Shimousa.
？！
Right. The Pseudo-Singularityor rather, Pseudo-Parallel World of Shimousa, where you fought the Heroic Spirit Swordmasters.
...Hmm. Maybe we should call it a Pseudo-Lostbelt instead?
Anyway, even though that Japan's history was different from ours, that Shimousa Pseudo...whatever took place in the sixteenth year of the Kan'ei period.
Given how similar the architecture is here, I'd guess this Singularity is in that same era.
Coordinate reassessment complete. As I thought, the results are the same as they were the first time.
This Singularity is located in almost the same area as Tokyo. More specifically, it encompasses Yokohama and Yokosuka.
It is the fourth year of Keian, or A.D. 1651.
The events of Shimousa took place in A.D. 1639, so it is certainly temporally located in a very similar time.
This time was the precursor to Japan's Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate governed the entire country.
All of which is to say that this Singularity has been identified as Edo, the city we call Tokyo nowadays.
Or so one would think.
But even though Trismegistus II precisely identified this Singularity's time and place, it's still unsure of its results.
This Singularity's Foundation of Humanity value keeps fluctuating, too. All we can say is that our observations are both accurate and indefinite.
Hmm, I see. It looks as though we have yet another challenge on our hands.
Stay sharp over there, Fujimaru. This isn't like your typical minute Singularity.
What's more, you don't even have a Servant accompanying you this time. So proceed with utmost caution!
... ...
Are we sure this is a good idea? We're not making a terrible mistake by sending you there alone, are we?
Don't worry. I trust you guys to watch out for me.
You should still be able to use your simple summons no problem, so just watch your step out there.
And of course we'll back you up! You've got nothing to worry about there.
Relax, I'll be fine. I'll figure something out.
Are you suuure? Does that mean you're finally going to stop charging headlong into everything like a Berserker!?
Now, now. Easy there, Gordy.
Of course we'll back him up, so you can rest easy about that.
？！
I'm sorry, Master. I wish I could have gone along with you.
I know, Mash. I wish you could too, but we need you here in the Command Room focusing on data processing.
I know you know this, but with the Bleached Earth Phenomenon still ongoing, any Singularities we see should only be minute.
Any exceptions to that rule should be considered a sign of some greater potential danger. For all we know, the Foreign God could be mixed up in this somehow.
We can't ignore even the slightest anomaly, which is why we need all the help in the Command Room we can get.
And that does not even begin to address the more fundamental problem.
As Goredolf alluded to earlier, there are no Servants who can accompany Fujimaru to this Singularity.
You are no exception.
...I know.
We still don't know if there's something about the Singularity itself causing that...
...or if it is a matter of someone or something interfering. Either way, it'd be too dangerous for you to go.
Still, it's not all bad news.
Correct. We are seeing signs that multiple Servants were summoned to this Edo Singularity a few hours ago.
And according to Trismegistus II's predictions...
...one of them is extremely strong, and will side with Chaldea in this conflict.
Do you think it's a Servant aligned with humanity, summoned to repair this Singularity?
If so, that would be very reassuring.
All right, Fujimaru, we have your first objective!
Find this Servant as soon as possible, and work with them to resolve this Singularity!
Yes, sir!
？！
...Uh-oh! Multiple hostiles detected!
Be careful, Senpai!
Well, that didn't take long! Let's do this, Fujimaru!
Preparing to engage the enemy!
You're up, guys!
？！
3. After the battle
17 linesThe battle is over! Are you all right, Senpai?
(Huff... Gasp...) Why were there so many of them!?
Is it just me, or was that WAY too many!?
？！
You're right, that WAS an unusually high number of enemies. Monsters like that typically spawn from environmental imbalances.
But the fact that there were so many in a town like this, and nobody seemed to bat an eye...
...shows that we were right, and this isn't the Edo from our timeline.
Did you hear that!?
Someone's fighting over there!
？！
Indeed! Could more of those monsters you just fought be attacking someone else!?
Maybe it's that Servant Trismegistus II said would become our ally?
I'll go check it out!
？！
Yeah. I can't tell from here if they're friend or foe, but we can't just ignore them.
Just make sure you take every precaution!
We're all counting on you, Senpai!