Chapter Text
SLAP
“Pick it up, foul wench who deceived the prince!”
And just like that, Angelica has sealed her fate. If things proceed as they did in the game then Angelica’s about to get her ass kicked by whichever one of the targets the protagonist is pursuing. The problem is that the protagonist is dating all five of the ‘Bakarangers’ and what’s worse, the protagonist isn’t even Olivia! It’s some random chick named Marie!
“Pick it up, Marie. I shall be your champion,” said Julius.
And lo and behold, Prince Julius is the first to respond. Alright people, who's next? My money’s on Jilk!
“I cannot allow your highness to hog the spotlight! I volunteer as well.”
And wouldn’t you know it, folks? Jilk has thrown his hat into the ring!
“This sounds fun! I’m in too! I’ll take on all Challengers!”
There’s everyone’s favorite Musclehead, Greg Fou Seberg!
“How dare you call her a foul wench? I’m in as well!”
Shut up, you superfluous pretty boy! You’re just trying not to get upstaged by the rest of the goon squad!
“I’m confident in my swordsmanship. I shall be Marie’s blade.”
Chris, you really don’t need to be here! As a matter of fact, not one of you after Julius needs to be here! Angelica’s all by herself! What are you going to do? All gang up on her at once? How the hell is that fair? God, I hate this world!
SIGH
Calm down. There’s no point in getting bent out of shape over this. This Marie girl clearly isn’t the saint so even if she does romance the entirety of the dateable cast, Olivia can still ascend to sainthood. Honestly, the girl might be dodging a bullet by not having to deal with these idiots. The best thing to do in this situation is for me and my siblings to just sit back and…
Before I could finish the last part of my inner monologue, a taller figure with tan skin and stark white hair walked past me. Before it could get fully out of sight, I saw a glimpse of his face. It was a face that I knew well as it belonged to my adopted brother who rarely ever wore his emotions on his face. And the expression on his face was one of hard determination and single-minded, calm fury.
“Shirou, What are you doing? Get back here!” I whispered. Though apparently, I didn’t whisper low enough because as soon I said it, I caught the attention of Jenna and Nicks.
“What’s going on?” asked Nicks after he stopped drowning himself in drinks with barely any alcohol content.
“I don’t know! Shirou just walked out looking like he’s about to kill someone!”
“Shit!,” said Nicks under his breath. Without sparing a moment, Nicks tried to go out and get Shirou back, but before he could, Jenna stopped him.
“Jenna!?” we said. “What are you doing?”
“Shirou’s not an idiot. If he’s getting involved then he must have a good reason. Stop jumping to conclusions and have some faith in our brother. Honestly, sometimes you two can be such idiots. Especially you, Nicks. You’re the oldest here so act like it!”
While she could have phrased it better, Jenna had a point. Shirou’s no fool especially if he is who I think he is. All I should be doing in this situation is hanging back and watching.
So no different from what I was initially going to do.
Back with Shirou, he had reached Angelica and, in a flourish, removed his uniform jacket and placed it on Angelica’s shoulders. The gesture shocked Angelica out of her downward spiral and made all the other noble ladies in the room swoon with romantic admiration.
Figures. If I did that I would get side-eye from the entire room. He does it and there isn’t a dry pair in the room. The worst part is he either isn’t aware of it or doesn’t care altogether. Harem Protagonist Skill EX indeed…
“I will be Angelica’s champion,” Shirou said calmly yet fiercely.
Those words sent a palpable shock throughout the gathered partygoers. None more so than us, his siblings. We were so dumbstruck by what Shirou had just volunteered to do that none of us dared to move.
Jilk was the first to recover. “I’ve heard of you. Shirou Fou Bartfort, the adopted son of the Bartfort Household. You and your kin have made great strides as of late. Since you likely won’t inherit anything, is this some sad attempt to carve out a place for yourself with the Redgrave family?”
“The only sad thing I see here is the social execution of a young woman whose only crime was caring too much about the wrong man.”
Gasps were heard all throughout the party hall. Jenna’s grip was starting to slacken but Nicks and I were still too shocked to take advantage of her looser grip.
“As for why I’m doing this, well, there’s a simple belief that I live my life by; It’s never wrong to help others. And from where I’m standing, not including Lady Angelica herself, I can see five people in serious need of help and guidance because apparently, they don’t see the trouble their actions are stirring up. Then again, seeing how the country is being run, it doesn’t surprise me that our future rulers can be so easily led astray.”
Chris spoke up next. “What do you…”
“We can discuss that further during the duel.” Shirou interrupted Chris’ question. “For now…” Shirou walked over to the discarded glove that Angelica used to challenge Marie and picked it up and threw it at Julius, which made sense. Julius and the other five idiots were acting as Marie’s Champions so as Angelica’s Champion, Shirou would direct all challenges and grievances toward him. “Does your mistress accept the duel?”
Julius quirked his brow at Shirou's mention of Marie being called a mere mistress. He honestly had the right to, a mistress was the best she could hope to be in this country’s social structure. The noble ladies of higher social standing, like Zola, loved to drill that into the heads of noble ladies of lower standing, like my mom.
Julius turned to Marie and asked her the same question. Her response wasn’t what I was expecting. “I-I, um, uh…” she was stuttering something fierce. And more shockingly, I could see recognition on her face and something else akin to…
What is that? Fear? Does she recognize Shirou? That shouldn’t be possible! Unless…
“It’s alright, Marie. You have nothing to worry about. We’ll definitely win,” said the prince.
“The prince is correct, Marie. We’ll trounce this upstart with nary a worry.” seriously Jilk, you sound cartoonishly chivalrous talking like that.
“He’ll be no match for my fabulous magic!” said Brad.
“The same could be said for my swordsmanship. I highly doubt he’ll be up to scratch to face someone of my caliber,” Chris gloated, uncharacteristically.
“Yeah! The only thing I hear he’s good for is his cooking! And I bet he’s not even that good of a chef!” no one laughed and that fact visibly caught Greg by surprise. Normally, all of the nobles here would have laughed right along with Greg. The problem was that Shirou’s food was a known quantity around the academy. Anyone who had even just a single taste of it will vouch for how delicious it is. It was because of this very fact that even though Nicks and I were still having a hard time finding fiancees, we never had to worry about getting guests to come to our tea parties since Shirou would always be the one to provide the catering.
Looking visibly reassured, Marie agreed to the duel.
“There, you have your duel, Bartfort,” said Julius, “but we seem still to have a bit of a problem on your side. There are five of us and only one of you. Do you plan to fight all by your lonesome?” Julius asked smugly.
Most of the nobility present, the dateable cast included, were unaccustomed to the ways of battle. They’d never experienced what it was like to face a life-or-death situation. As such, they couldn’t feel the waves of killing intent coming off of Shirou right now. My siblings and I, on the other hand, very much could. It’s what caused us to make a mad dash toward our adopted brother.
“I’m more than enough to-” before Shirou could finish his sentence, Jenna reached out and covered his mouth followed by Nicks and I taking over the conversation simultaneously.
“The Children of the Bartfort family currently present will act as champions for Lady Angelica Rapha Redgrave,” said Nicks, panting.
“Seeing as how the five of you come from families that are affluent enough to purchase personal Armor for each of you, what do you say we settle this dispute through martial combat?” I knew Luxion probably had a couple of other mechs waiting in the wings for my siblings to use if asked, but I didn’t want to break out that trump card just yet.
The prince and the rest of the Bakaranger 5 looked like they were mulling things over and were about to agree until…
“Um,” said Marie.
Nothing good can come of her speaking, gotta cut her off…
Sadly, before I could, she noticed I was about to speak and then machine-gunned her response.
“I-think-it-would-be-best-if-you-all-fought-with-armors-instead!-That-way-the-potential-for-anyone-getting-hurt-is-lowered!” she took a deep breath after that long-winded response, but I could still see the barest hint of a smirk while she gasping for air.
Dammit, the five idiots are definitely not going to agree now! Although this adds evidence to the possibility this Marie chick knows who Shirou really is. There’d be no other reason for her to avoid a flesh-and-blood duel if she didn’t know the kind of bullshit Shirou could pull with weapons.
“Marie has a point! It wouldn't do if any of us were to die or be grievously injured just to settle a dispute. Though as it stands, there likely won’t be a dispute to settle unless you can find another person to stand with you.”
He’s right, but as things are now no one’s going to stand with us! Dammit, Shirou! Why did you have to get us into this!?
“I, Dan Fia Elgar, will act as Lady Angelica’s Champion alongside the Bartfort children on behalf of Lady Clarice Fia Atlee.”
Wait? Dan? Clarice senpai’s top follower?
“I-I see then the dispute will be settled with a duel between Armors. How about we settle things a week from now?”
“That is fair,” Nicks spoke before I could. He probably sensed I was getting thrown for a loop by both Dan and essentially Clarice throwing their lot in with us.
With the terms settled and a date set, Marie and her entourage of idiots left the end-of-term party while my siblings and I dragged Shirou out through the opposite entrance. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly considering the situation, we were followed by Clarice and Dan.
Without delay, Nicks, Jenna, and I pinned Shirou against the wall and began grilling him for information about why he challenged the Prince and his entourage.
The bastard had the nerve to look pensive like he was recalling what he’d just done.
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Stop! Get a hold of yourself! I shouted internally as I watched Artoria–no–Angelica be publically humiliated by the machinations of Morgan– stop that! They’re not the same!
Get your head out of the past! She’s not your Artoria, she’s not even A Artoria, and this isn’t some second chance to be with her after you couldn’t save her heart the first time!
I kept telling myself this over and over ad infinitum until suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore. Angelica was standing there all by her lonesome as she pleaded for help but no one came.
No, I’m not going to let this happen! I’m not going to let this happen to Artor–I mean Angelica!
And without a second thought, I stepped out to defend Angelica.
____________________________________________________________________________
Shirou looked like he came back to reality after a couple of seconds of silence and what he said would have made me deck him if I wasn’t sure it would probably break my hand.
“I didn’t think, I just acted.”
I’m pretty sure if any of those noble ladies were here to hear him say that then they’d be swooning all over again. Damn you, Shirou! You’re lucky we’re family or I would have left you out to dry!
While I was having another one of my internal tirades, Nicks took control of the conversation. While Nicks was the oldest here, he and Shirou were of a similar height to one another. That coupled with the fact Shirou was particularly mature affected how Nicks interacted with him. “Shirou, do you have any idea how royally fucked we are now because of you?”
“To be fair, Nicks,” said Jenna, “Shirou was easily going to win that duel. We’re only in a bad position because of that Marie girl.”
“That doesn’t matter, Jenna!” Nicks not quite yelled, “it doesn’t matter if the entire Kingdom thinks the prince is being stupid. He’s still the prince and it’s not wise to challenge the next heir to the crown.”
“...he’s right,” came the voice of Angelica, “it was my impulsiveness that started this whole mess…”
Actually, it was your fiance essentially cheating on you that started this, I thought.
“...therefore I ask that you back out of this duel now so that…”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna fly your duchessness!” I interrupted her and wouldn’t you know it, all eyes were on me. Perfect!
“What do you mean, Bar–I mean–L–Leon?”
“You’ve already publicly harassed Marie. If you were to back out now, a loss of social standing would be the least of your worries.”
“He’s right, Angie,” said Clarice-senpai, finally speaking up, “if you were to back out it would be the same as bowing your head to a noble of lesser standing after so brazenly challenging them, not only would your standing take a hit but the Redgrave family’s as well.”
“Besides,” Shirou said, “I said I would be your Champion, Angelica and I have every intention of following through on that declaration. I’m not going to back out now.”
Like Artoria, Sakura, and Rin before her, Angelica blushed up a storm. Thankfully, our brother Nicks put the attention back on him. “That’s all well and good Shirou, but without enough Armors, we can’t even begin to fight.”
Jenna turned to Clarice senpai, I really hope she isn’t about to say something that could make us lose an ally. “Atlee, your family is among the more affluent of the nobility. Do you think your father would be willing to loan us some Armors?”
Oh, that’s actually a smart idea. Great thinking Jenna !
“Sadly, no,” said Clarice senpai.
Dammit! I thought.
“Even though we are of the Nobility, this duel still technically counts as something that needs to be settled within the confines of the school. If my father provided us with Armors, it would escalate the situation to something that would require the royal court to get involved. Since the prince and his entourage likely already have Armors on standby, it precludes that action from taking place.”
I could see Luxion staring at me behind his camouflaged mode. He had no face and couldn’t make expressions but I could tell he was giving me a dirty look.
I’m pretty sure that if this whole thing didn’t concern Shirou then Luxion wouldn’t even be considering doing this. God, why does my robot servant have to be such an Otaku?
I clear my throat to get everyone’s attention once again. With all eyes on me, I do something that I hope I won't regret later down the line. “I have a solution to our Armor problem.”
From the looks on their faces, it was clear that no one believed me. Except for Olivia, bless her heart. “This isn’t the time for your games, Leon,” said Jenna. “In case you didn’t notice, this is a serious situation!”
“And I assure you madame Jenna, Master Leon is most definitely telling the truth, hard as that is to believe.” everyone went dead silent when the voice of Luxion rang in their ears.
“Everyone,” as I spoke, Luxion dropped his optical camouflage to make himself known, “this is Luxion and as I said, he can help us with our Armor problem.”
For a while, nobody said anything but their faces conveyed their utter shock, except for Shirou. I was reasonably sure he was already vaguely aware of Luxion to some extent. The first to recover, however, was Olivia and her response was not what I was expecting.
“Leon, you have a Familiar!?” asked Olivia with scholarly glee.
“I am no ‘Familiar’ Lady Olivia. My construction is purely mechanical and a product of science, not magic.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. What the hell is science?” asked Dan.
“Since I don’t wish to waste your time with a lengthy lecture, I will give you the cliff notes version. Science is, in comparison to magic, a far more versatile and reliable practice for achieving phenomena and advancing humanity’s place in and understanding of the world around it.”
“Let’s not get sidetracked,” said Shirou, taking an active role in the discussions for the first time. “Leon called you Luxion? I take it you have a few Armors we can borrow?”
“You wound me, Mr. Emiya.” the quirk of Shirou’s eyebrow did not go unnoticed by me. Neither did Shirou’s brief look in my direction. “I have more than just a few Armors…”
What followed was Luxion displaying one of his holo screens. The subject of observation was the hangar bay of his main body which housed several…! Are those freaking Knightmare Frames? And he had me piloting that hulking hunk of metal? Wait…are those…Gundam Blueprints? How much has Luxion been holding out on me?
“As you can see, Mr. Emiya, I have far more than enough suits to equip you and your allies for your upcoming endeavor. Does my selection meet your satisfaction?”
“What do you get out of offering us this? I know you’ve been hanging around Leon since he came back from his dungeon exploration, why reveal yourself now?”
“Because I simply wish to see the great Archer Emiya in action. That, and give my precious mechs their first real field test.” it was brief, but for a moment I could see Shirou’s signature teal interface lines run across his hand while he flexed his hand as if he was going to grip a sword. Nothing had formed in his hand, so I was safe to assume that he squashed any retaliatory instincts before they went too far. The only real concern for me is the glance he threw my way that spoke a thousand questions like ‘how does this thing know that?’ or ‘do you know about this too?’
I was dreading having to explain myself to Shirou but apparently, he didn’t think the same. “Seeing as how Leon has the answers to our Armor problems, I suggest we reconvene in an hour to talk strategy and get acquainted with our new equipment. Meanwhile, Leon and I need to have a serious chat about keeping secrets.” Nicks and Jenna tried to follow us but Shirou dissuaded them, leaving our siblings to be invited by Clarice and her follower Dan to talk along with Angelica. I was also surprised to see Jenna grab Olivia as Shirou dragged me off.
____________________________________________________________________________
After Shirou had dragged me off to a secluded corner of the school, he pinned me against a wall and proceeded with his line of questioning. “How does your friend know about me and for that matter do you also know about me? Can this Luxion be trusted? What does it really have to gain by giving us these Armors?”
Shirou delivered his questions with little of the finesse that I had expected of someone like him. My guess was that he was blindsided by someone knowing who he is. “I’m willing to answer those questions, but are you absolutely certain you want to know them?” I said as I futilely tried to remove his grip from my shoulder.
“Yes, If that thing is here under orders of Alaya or a third party to bring me back then it’ll be in for a rude awakening.” while his cold tone surprised me, especially after the years we spent together as siblings, what he said made me realize something.
So that’s why he seems out of sorts, he thinks Luxion is an agent of Alaya. Wait. what does he mean by a third party? Who else in the Nasuverse would want him or would have him this worried? I combed through my Nasuverse lore to develop an idea, though admittedly, my knowledge had faded during my time here.
Who would Luxion have him worried about? I then thought back to my Gacha days, specifically FGO. One of the Lost Belts dealt with Atlantis and the Greek Gods who were really Machines worshipped as Gods. then I remembered that Shirou was there when I triumphantly returned home.
Does he think Luxion might be an agent of the Machine Gods? Better just correct the misunderstanding.
“You don’t have to worry about any of that, Shirou. Luxion is a creation of this world’s old humanity. It has nothing to do with your home universe.”
“Then how does it know about me and how do you for that matter?” Shirou began to ease back into his self-assured persona that I was more familiar with. “Did it tell you?”
“Before I answer, are you still sure you want to know? There’s no going back afterward and I’d rather not go into this duel with you questioning your existence. As a matter of fact, I’m not telling you! You’d definitely freak out!” I tried to make a break for it.
GRIP, SLAM
My escape attempt failed as he grabbed me by the shoulder again and pinned me against the wall once more. Well, there goes my only idea to spare his sanity! Looks like we’re going to into this duel down one person…
“Talk.”
SIGH
“The reason Luxion and I know who you are is that I reincarnated from another world where your story as well as your entire multiverse is a multimedia franchise that has told the story of everyone you know to some capacity. As for why Luxion knows, ask him.”
Luxion’s drone floated over to us to give his explanation. “The various personnel responsible for my construction and maintenance had several interests, most of which consisted of anime and video games. Not wanting their various fandoms to die out, several exabytes of content have been uploaded to my databanks–
“Wait, what?” I yelled.
–By my inventors. It is through this content that I have come to know about you and your exploits and as my programming eventually granted me self-awareness, I have developed a fondness for it and other forms of entertainment that were left behind.”
Archer looked like he was taking this all in stride. He then looked at both Luxion and me. “Is that everything? Just multiversal transmigration of knowledge?”
“You don’t sound all that bothered by it,” I said with a bit of surprise. “Doesn’t this bother you?” I asked.
“It really doesn’t. If you really do know who I am, then you know I spent an eternity doing work for Alaya across different timelines and worlds. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen events and concepts from my world find their way into another by way of fiction though it is the first time it concerned me of all people.”
“To be fair, the story mostly focused on Shirou’s–your younger self’s time in the fifth grail war across three timelines. I don’t know the specifics of your grail war or what you did while working for Alaya.”
“Speaking of grail wars, what is the last thing you remember, master Emiya?”
“I’m guessing you’re trying to figure out what timeline I come from?”
“Correct.”
“Then I will politely choose to withhold that information. Hopefully, you can understand. I don’t like people knowing too much about me.”
“Understandable, but disappointing.”
I watched Shirou ignore the second half of Luxion’s response. “Mind if I ask you a question now?”
“Go ahead.”
“I’ve been asking myself this for a while now, but what do you really get out of giving us these Armors that are clearly more advanced than what’s currently available?”
“The simplest answer I can give you, Master Emiya, is that I made these ‘Armors’ in loving tribute to the entertainment that I love and the creators who spawned them. All I wish is for them to be used for their intended purpose.”
I was taken aback. “Wow, Luxion. That was really–”
“And it also doesn’t hurt that I will be able to show these New Humanity dogs the technological superiority of Old Humanity!”
“There it is!” I said.
“That’s it? You just want your inventions to be used as well as settle a grudge that I hope isn’t genocidal?”
“Yes.”
“I guess that's good enough for now.” Shirou shrugged as he began to walk away. “Why don’t the two of you finally show me where you’ve been keeping these Armors? I assume it’s on a bigger ship than what you rode in on at home.”
“Before that, can I ask you a question now, Shirou?” I asked as he continued to walk away.
“You can. There’s no guarantee that I’ll answer, though.” I walked into that one.
“Is the real reason you went to Angelica’s defense so quickly because she looks so much like Saber?” Shirou stopped in his tracks and tightened his fists. “You know they’re not the same person, right?”
With a low and gravelly voice, Shirou said “I know” before he stormed off.
Luxion and I looked at each other. “That wasn’t the wisest course of action. You should know well enough that would be a sore subject to bring up. What will you do if this affects his performance during the duel?”
“Do you honestly think that is going to happen and that if it did that it would lower his chances of winning, at all”
“No, but I felt it pertinent to bring up in regards to the subject of reprimanding you.”
“Fine, fine. This conversation seems to be done so why don’t you go grab the others?”
“What dock should I direct them to?”
“Auxiliary Dock 13. How long will it take you to bring Partner around to pick us up?”
“A trivial amount of time.”
“Alright then. Hop to it!”
“Of course.”
To Be Continued