24 Tsukihime and Fate (A/N: Tsukihime > Fate)

God-Emperor of Man: "This Chat Group is biased against me!"

Retired Loli Sovereign: "Don't blame the chat for you being an unmoving rotting corpse."

Sacchin: "I got selected? Why do I feel like this isn't a good thing?"

Teriri: "Why am I being called a Mascot? I'm kind of okay with this and at the same time I'm also not okay with it."

Retired Loli Sovereign: "Maybe because you don't do your job as a Principal well. I don't know any other principal who reads manga in their office during working hours."

Despite knowing she should dispute Huang Luan's claim, Theresa can't bring herself to do it since she does indeed read manga in her office. And anyone who's gone through the Chat Group's material on her world knows it. Looking at it from a third party perspective, even Theresa herself can't claim she's a competent Principal, if not for the Chat Group she wouldn't even know that the Anit-Entropy Sovereign was undercover as a teacher at her school.

Teriri: "So who can explain the Quest?"

Sacchin: "I recognise the name Fuyuki, it's a city in Oita Prefecture. But I never heard about something called a Holy Grail War."

Sacchin: "Sion and Ries don't know anything either."

Witch of the Void: "I tried looking the city up, but it doesn't exist here."

Teriri: "It's not here either."

Likewise, Huang Luan also looked it up, and like the two before her, she didn't find anything.

Retired Loli Sovereign: "Not here either."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "It's in a parallel world to Satsuki's world. It's why the city exists but not the events. If I remember this right, Satsuki's world is known as the Type-Moon World or the Nasuverse, and it contains a bunch of various parallel worlds. In most cases, these can be divided into two branches, what are called Tsukihime Worlds where Gaia, the consciousness of the planet, is the dominant force and human history is suppressed, and Fate Worlds where Alaya, the collective unconscious of humanity and its will to survive, is the dominant force and human history is affirmed. Satsuki should be in a Tsukihime World, as Dead Apostles have higher activity in them and the Holy Grail War doesn't exist. In Fate Worlds, the things that stand out the most are the summoning of Heroic Spirits and the Holy Grail Wars and Dead Apostles are generally weaker."

Teriri: "So what is this Holy Grail War that's been mentioned a few times now?"

Konakona: "Usually it should be seven masters paired with seven servants to fight a battle royal with the Holy Grail as a prize, a supposedly omnipotent wish-granting magic item. A Master would usually use a catalyst to summon a servant related to the catalyst. A servant is a facet of a Heroic Spirit. Heroic Spirits are basically just a bunch of famous dead people who had an impact on human history. The difference between the two can be thought of as a book, the Heroic Spirit is the book itself, a servant is a page of the book, while a catalyst is used to find a certain page in the book. Servants are divided into seven classes. There are the three knight classes consisting of Saber, Lancer, and Archer. And the four cavalry classes consisting of Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. The names should be pretty self-explanatory for their specialisations."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Don't forget about the extra classes like Ruler, Avenger, Foreigner, and Shielder."

Konakona: "Minus Avenger, I don't recall the others being in the games I played."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "You haven't played FGO?"

Konakona: "I played Fate/stay Night and Fate/hollow ataraxia. I don't have enough money to support playing a gacha game."

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Right, I forgot eroge was your thing. But f2p exists."

Konakona: "You think I can bear the temptation of spending money?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "... sorry."

Witch of the Void: "Can we get back to the point? So for this quest, Satsuki is taking the role of the Master and is supposed to command Huang Luan to fight the other participants. And Theresa is going to be providing extra support where available. Is this right?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Probably. But given the participants, it will probably be Huang Luan doing as she pleases while the other two watches and rakes in the free points… damn I'm so jealous! Well… maybe not considering this is the fourth Grail War."

Sacchin: "What's wrong with it being the fourth?"

As the one chosen as the Master, Satsuki is rather nervous. She knows full well how unfortunate and unlucky she is, so being selected at random can't possibly mean anything good.

Advocate of Gender Equality: "The masters include a couple of killers, a guy on the verge of a mental breakdown, and another guy who enjoys the suffering of others."

Konakona: "The easiest way to win is to deal with the Masters rather than the Servants, but as a Dead Apostle, I think you'll be fine."

As Konata brings up Satsuki's status as a Dead Apostle, Natsuki notices a potential problem.

Witch of the Void: "Kazuma, earlier you said that Dead Apostles are weaker in the Fate Worlds, why is that?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "There is this thing called the Counter Force. It's a kind of ever-present force that acts to protect either the planet or humanity. In Fate Worlds, Alaya is the dominant force, so the Counter Force acts with the protection of humanity as its top priority. In Tsukihime Worlds, it's the opposite with the Counter Force prioritising the planet. Gaia sees humans as independent from the planet and something akin to a virus, True Ancestors are conceptually anti-human and are like Gaia's antibodies so their off-shoots, the Dead Apostles, are also anti-human on a conceptual level, thus the Counter Force won't protect humans from Dead Apostles."

Witch of the Void: "Doesn't that mean Satsuki is in danger of being attacked by this Counter Force?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "Why? It's not like Dead Apostles don't exist in Fate Worlds, they just aren't as strong."

Konakona: "I feel I should mention this, but Satsuki has the potential to become a Dead Apostle Ancestor. As someone with the potential to become DAA she might actually be a target of the Counter Force."

Sacchin: "Huh? Since when was I an Ancestor? Wait, so I really am in danger!?"

Lightning Archpreistess: "She didn't say you are one. She said you have the potential to become one. Speaking of what is a Dead Apostle Ancestor?"

Advocate of Gender Equality: "For simplicity's sake, you can think of them as the 27 strongest Dead Apostles. The people who are the 27 Dead Apostle Ancestors exist in Fate Worlds but led different lives, it's only the organisation known as the 27 Dead Apostles Ancestors that doesn't exist. In the fate worlds, most of the would-be DAA are either dead or haven't become Dead Apostles at all. Zelretch, for example, is ranked 4th amongst the DAA in Tsukihime worlds but in Fate worlds, he's still around but he isn't a Dead Apostle Ancestor. And the few would-be Dead Apostle Ancestors that are around are considered as just stronger vampires."

Konakona: "It could be the activities of the Counter Force that killed or prevented them from becoming Dead Apostles, so there is still a risk that Satsuki might be a target of the world."

Retired Loli Sovereign: "I think it will be fine. I'll be there and so will Theresa, so there shouldn't be too much danger to Satsuki. And it's not like Satsuki's defenceless, I mean have you guys looked at the rankings and seen what that Reality Marble thing actually does? It completely eliminates all mana around her. Even if it doesn't personally affect me, it should have a decent effect on the people we are going up against."

Sacchin: "I'd still rather not go. And I feel I should mention that despite knowing I have it, I've never actually used my Reality Marble."

Retired Loli Sovereign: "I don't think there's a choice. Get your affairs in order before the time is up. I'm going to leave now, I've got a dinner appointment."

Not long after Huang Luan puts her phone away, she and Wu Song arrive at the restaurant.

"It's only 3:30, we got here faster sooner than I had expected. We probably could have stayed at Senriyama for another game," Wu Song says.

"Nah, it's fine. We shouldn't keep interrupting their studies, even if there was permission from the Vice-Principal, oh, I mean Principal," Huang Luan says, causing a rare change in Wu Song's facial expression.

"What's that look for?" Huang Luan asks.

"Nothing. I just didn't expect you to say something like that. Considering your personal attitude towards class participation," Wu Song says.

"Just because I'm apathetic towards attending class doesn't mean others should be. I've lost count on how many times I've attended junior high school, high school, and college."

"Not primary school?" Wu Song asks.

"I feel like I'd lose something important if I went to primary school. Anyways, we're an hour and a half early, so lets walk around and do some shopping."

As the two walk around Osaka, Wu Song buys some souvenirs for her comrades in Liangshan Yi while Huang Luan gets the various things the others in the group chat asked for, although she intends to make sure everyone receives the wrong item.

As they finish their shopping and return to the street where the restaurant is, they find Yamato and a few others waiting outside the restaurant.

"Oh, you're here. Now we're only waiting on Wanko, Chris, and Margit," Yamato says.

"No, you're only waiting on Inu," Chris says, as she soon approaches with Margit holding several shopping bags.

"So what's the restaurant like?" Huang Luan asks.

"Kuma said it was a family-run restaurant that's been passed down from father to son for a few generations now. It's nothing fancy, but it's a nice place with a good atmosphere," Yamato says. "Oh, I can see Wanko running over now."

Running over in her PE uniform and wearing ankle and wrist weights, Wanko finally arrives as Yamato hands her a towel to wipe her sweat.

"Was I the last one?" Kazuko asks.

Yamato nods, "That's right. Now that you're finally here we can go and eat."