Fate/EXITIUM

It was an odd, perhaps surreal, experience for the new students of Hope's Peak Academy. Anubis, the Egyptian god of death, the boy called Maat, telling the students they're to kill each other in a battle called the Holy Grail War. Likely, no one yet has understood what just happened, and are merely trying to live their lives as if a dream had passed.

That's how it would normally be for the average student, probably.

One must keep calm, find peace. Empty their minds.

The Ultimate Bodhisattva smiles as she skips through the whole floor, exploring and wandering where she can. What she finds and discovers for herself register as well as the Holy Grail War did.

She stops in her tracks, and giggles silently. Bai Liang is staring at her right hand, where a red mark resembling a lotus flower is present.

"Cute," she says to herself, describing the red lotus. "How cute! How ominous! How cute!" she laughs softly. 

Evidently, not much of what had happened earlier had registered. 

...

Well, regarding something as ominous might be a small step forward, even if she's finding it amusing. 

Sooo, this is pretty no bueno, huh?

That's really all she has to say about this situation?! Chitose looked so serious sitting in the seiza position in the common room, as if she were in deep thought, but that's the first thing she says! She crosses her arms and pouts.

Mmhm, mmhm, super no bueno. The hunk back there said this is a killing game, right? A game of mutual killing? But killing is morally wrong. And more importantly, it's illegal.

Isn't that backwards?! She smiles brightly.

So no need to worry, don't just stand there, come in, I humbly insist of thee! I don't bite, and don't kill either! No need to be shy! Let's bond! Right? If a bunch of kid geniuses put their heads together, anything is possible! Especially with magic on our side! Am I right?

It hadn't been too long since everyone got the unfortunate shock that they were in this situation for the long haul. 

For Alphonse, he took the news with as much grace as he could, immediately retiring to his new quarters to figure out what the fuck to do next. He took inventory of his new space, scribbled some notes down, nodded, and passed out. At some point he woke up, and found that he'd passed out on a pen that was lodged in his back pocket. It broke, and stained the entire god damn set of sheets and blankets that were all his new responsibility.

So he went to the laundry room, his sheets bundled in his arms, still exhausted from the fun of a talking painting and the phrase 'mutual killing'.

Once the elevator doors opened, you were automatically in for another surprise.

A young woman stood in front of the elevator, accompanied by...

Little, weird ghost beings? If you recalled the wall painting from before, they looked exactly the same. It was a peculiar sight for sure, but you focused back on the woman.

Her orange, short hair was in stark contrast to her otherwise rather turquoise getup. It could be overall described as something that arabian dancers would wear, silky and full of jingling bits here and there. Furthermore, unlike Maat, she had dark skin and her green eyes looked blankly at you.

Politely, she bowed down and the Medjeds followed her example.

“... Welcome. I am Rashida. I will attend to all domestic affairs along with the Medjeds here. Please, do call for us if you need anything.”

Her voice sounded stoic and devoid of life. As she straightened herself back into a proper posture, she gestured to the Medjed besides her, which held onto a lot of keys. Or at least, you think it’s holding onto it, as they were all laid on the white blanket it wore.

“Please line up. I will give you your keys now. Afterwards, you are free to explore the facility to your own leisure. I hope you will enjoy your time here.”

Enjoying their times here? With the threat of a mutual killing game looming over their heads? It felt so wrong, but at the same time, you got the feeling as if this Rashida woman truly meant what she said.

Either way, you all do as you are told, getting your keys and while that happened, Rashida was kind enough to let you know which class you belong to. Guess Maat’s funny “search for your own rooms” game will not play out, huh?

(Small mercies, you guessed.)

When everyone had their keys, Rashida bowed down again.

“I wish you all a good day.”

And with that, she turned around and went away, the hoards of Medjeds following her.

Truth be told, you felt overwhelmed by all the information you just got. It was a lot to take in, but for now, it seemed like as if you got some time to process everything.

Everything begins now.

“So, let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the differences between a normal Holy Grail War and our super-duper Phenomenal Holy Grail War! For once, there are 21 participants in total! That’s really a lot, but hey, the more the merrier, am I right?”

“Another major difference would be that you all were fused together with your servants.”

... Say what?

“Right now, you are masters, but also demi-servants. You can change into your servant form at any time, but I would advise against using it carelessly. After all, not only can you maintain your servant form for three minutes at most before you’re forced to change back, you should keep your servant’s identity a secret for as long as you can or else, others can take advantages of the known weaknesses of your hero and thus, eliminate you all too easily! That would be pretty boring, right?”

Boring wouldn’t be a word you’d use right now, but it’s not like as if you could say anything right now.

“In your rooms, we also prepared a scroll for you - there, you will get to know which servant you actually summoned! As for your classes, they will be known to everyone - because you will receive keys for your rooms shortly and they will display the icon for your class! All you need to do is to compare them to the signs we set up on your doors and then bam, you found your new forever home!”

Maat let out a sigh, deflating a bit into his throne.

“Phew, I’m beat, explaining so much is suuuuuch a bother...”

“Then allow me to explain the rest.”

“Eh, really? Oh, that’s so kind of--”

“As if! KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!”

Silence filled the room for a moment. Maat pouted and crossed his arms before his chest, looking like a child that got pranked on.

“You’re a meanie, Anubis.”

“Hmmm... I guess I should mention that by battle royale, I mean that this is a mutual killing game. Murder your enemies to get your hands on the holy grail war. It’s either kill or be killed! Eat or be eaten! There’s no inbetween!”

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t get to our rules yet, did I? Oh, but I’m really too tired for this... I’m really glad we have them in your guidebooks, so please be so kind and read them up on your own!”

At this point, the young man got up from his seat and stretched himself out, letting out a quiet yawn.

“Now, it’s time for you to descend to the next floor! I wish you all good luck! It’s time for me to go to bed, because working overtime is really exhausting, you know? Toodles~!”

And with that, he seemed to murmur something else underneath his breath, before he vanished into a sudden beam of light. As your eyes adjusted themselves again, Anubis piped up.

“It’s time for you to get on our elevator. If you don’t want to get hurt, get out of the middle of the room as fast as you can, kakaka!"

With a swift move of his cane, the ground started to tremble all of the sudden. Those of you who happened to be in the middle of the room felt how the floor underneath you began to... ascend? Thus, you hurried to the side.

And moments later, something... akin to an elevator stood in the middle of the room. It seemed to be made out of stone only, but it was still moving surprisingly smoothly. As the doors opened, you could see that there was enough space to fit everyone in at once.

Anubis cackling let your refocus your attention back on said... what did he say about himself, a familiar? Or something like that. Anubis seemed gleeful enough and then suddenly--

Wait, was he just turning upfront? And... Oh my god, he came out of the wall, didn’t he? A black-ish sort of aura accompanied Anubis, who - thankfully - only got out of the wall with his upper body.

“Now then, what are you foolish masters waiting for? Get on in, we don’t have all the time in the world! I want to see all the brutality and blood that comes with the Holy Grail War, so you better not disappoint! KAKAKAKAKA!”

As you stared at this new sign on your hand in bemusement, Maat laughed almost innocently at your surprised reactions.

“Haha, I’m so glad we decided to go for this route instead of letting you debate over your Command Spells right when you were waking up!”

“While Supervisor Maat is busy absorbing your surprise like a sponge, I will help just a little bit with explanations - those Command Spells you have are divided into three sections. If you issue a command, one of them disappears and you don’t want to use all of them. After all, once all command spells are used up, you’re automatically disqualified from the war!”

“Oh and before you get the bright idea to use them all at once to get out of here - well, I won’t stop you from doing so if you don’t mind leaving this place in a body bag.”

“Sheesh, there was no need to say it that harshly... but yup, forfeiting the war is not possible! You are required to fight against each other, but you won’t have to do it on your own for the time being!”

What did he mean by that? Weren’t battle royales supposed to be everyone for themselves?

“You were all divided into three factions - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow! Your command spells indicate with their color in which faction you belong! Oh and as for which classes you have--”

“You didn’t explain what classes even are yet, Supervisor Maat.”

“Huh, eh? I didn’t? Really?”

The purple-haired man blinked for a moment, then rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

“Oh, haha, whoops! Okay, so you can’t just summon heroic spirits all nilly-willy - you summon them into classes! Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker - these are the seven classes that you choose from to summon your servant in. Each of them have their pros and contras - and I’ll just refer to the guidebook I mentioned before! This is getting long enough as it is already.”

Masters? The What-Now War? What did any of that even mean?

Your confusion was clearly apparent on your face, because Maat chuckled lightly in response to your reactions. Despite talking about some kind of war that you were dragged into without your knowledge, he seemed to be pretty easy-going about this whole thing.

“Right, right, you don’t know anything about the other side of this world, don’t you? You never had a reason to believe that magic actually exist.”

What?

“Yes, you heard me right! Magic exists! Well, probably not how you imagine it to be and today’s magic isn’t even called magic, but who cares about details right now? All you need for the moment is the general idea!”

Wasn’t he the one who said that he would explain everything?

“In fact, I think I’ll leave it up to you to read everything up in your handy guidebooks that were left in your new rooms! I’m only going to explain the basics of basics, because otherwise, we’d be stuck here for hours and I’m not really in the mood for it.”

Thanks. What a courteous caretaker he was.

“So, what exactly is a Holy Grail War? That’s easy - it’s a deathly fight for the holy grail, an all-wishing device! For that, usually seven masters and servants are gathered together, participating in a battle royale until the last pair stands! Before I go into the differences of a normal Holy Grail War and this one, it’d be good to tell you what masters and servants even are, hm?”

He clapped his hands, his smile bright as he continued with his explanations.

“To make it simple, masters usually command their servants in battle - and the latters are heroes of the past! Famous heroes like Heracles or King Arthur can respond to your calls for the hope of fulfilling their own wishes that they couldn’t achieve in their past lives!”

“While we’re at it, I guess I can lift my cloaking magic - take a good look at your right hand now, everyone!”

As he murmured something underneath his breath, you casted a look down on your hand--

The moment these ominous words left the painting’s mouth, a sudden beam of light blinded you. Reeling back, you blinked a few times, before your eyes readjusted themselves. As you gaze towards the spot from where this light had suddenly appeared, your eyes linger on a person that hadn’t been here a moment ago.

It was an average-sized male human with messy, purple hair that reached down his chin. Only parts of it were tied back into a bun, but quite frankly, that’s the only part that looks off if you account for his entire appearance. He wore an outfit that resembled those of high status back in ancient egypt and although he wasn’t wearing much altogether (what with his arms and most of his upper body being blatantly exposed), one could easily tell that all of it was high-quality; not to mention all the golden accessories that he was wearing in the midst of purple and white. Whenever he made even the slightest of movements, they jangled along.

His violet eyes were trained on the group in its entirety and he gave you all a smile - and albeit it looked innocent enough, you couldn’t help but be unnerved by it anyway.

“Hello everyone! Sorry to make you wait for so long, but you know how it is with last minute adjustments! Whenever you’re trying to make everything go even better, you suddenly stumble upon one obstacle after another, keeping you busy, busy, busy--!”

“Supervisor Maat, don’t go off on a tangent now.”

“Eeeeeh? Why not, Anubis? Will one or two more minutes make that much of a difference?”

“We’re already behind the schedule, so it would be unwise to delay the inevitable any longer. Then again, I’m just a familiar, so ultimately, I don’t really care! Kakakakaka!”

“Uwaaaahhhh, why are you being so mean? Saying that you don’t care and all... I have feelings too, you know? ... But I guess you’re right, I can always complain to Rashida later, can’t I? Okay then!”

After that banter was over, Maat returned his attention back to the students.

“Uh, where was I again? Oh right, I need to explain everything now, don’t I? Well, not everything, but you get what I mean, don’t you?”

Sounding awfully chipper, the man called Maat got seated on the sole chair in this room, crossing his legs as he put his head on the back of his hand. You know, the one that arrogant kings - or well, in this case, pharaoh -, would do.

“Let me formally welcome and congratulate you, young Masters! As of today, you are official participants of the Phenomenal Holy Grail War!”

Although you might not have any means to tell how much time has exactly passed since your awakening, you can at least make an estimated guess - it couldn’t have been more than 2 hours. After all, despite the room being so vast, there was ultimately nothing that you could be done in here. Thus, you either kept to yourself, investigated what little the room had to offer or conversed with your fellow teenagers. By now, everyone found out through one way or another that they were all students of Hope’s Peak Academy. It seemed to be the only thing that connected you all, but it did not hold any answers to your questions.

You wondered how long you were supposed to abide your time in this dusty room, before a screeching cackling echoed through the room. This certainly gave you a good scare and you frantically look around to find the source of this unpleasant laughter - but aside from you students, no one else seemed to be in the room.

However, as you stared at the vague direction of where the source should be coming from, you’re staring at a certain part of the wall painting that adorned this otherwise bland room - it was the one with the humanoid jackal leading several Medjeds into the sun.

Some of you noticed that something changed about it, but you couldn’t exactly tell what was off to begin with--

Before you registered some movements coming from the jackal-human drawing itself. It shook slightly, before it threw its head back (or well, to the side, as ancient egyptian depicitions tended to be sideways) and roared with laughter.

“KAKAKAKAKAKAKA, you fools aren’t the sharpest tools in the box, huh?!”

Dumbfounded, you simply stared at the wall painting, asking yourself whether you were starting to hallucinate or not. However, you weren’t granted any moment to compose yourself, as the drawing continued to talk.

“Really now, it was such a bother to stay still for so long, but it was worth it just for your stupid mugs! Kakaka!”

It snickered into its hand, giving you all a mischievous grin - one that doesn’t bode well for anyone who gazes upon it.

“Oh I’m sure you’re all confused - and unfortunately for you, you’re going to get even more bamboozled! So strap in, mortals, because you’re about to learn in which mess you’ve gotten yourself into, kakakakakaka!”

Koma is tired.

Sure, they've just woken up and all-- though not from any nap they remember having sat down to take, not that all their naps were planned necessarily (they'd sure fallen asleep where they weren't meant to and gotten chewed out for it before). Must have been a long night, huh? It pretty much always was, though. Nothing out of the ordinary here... except the location, of course. 

They were too tired to dwell on it, though. Summoning circle? Weird torches? Who gave a shit. Everyone around them seemed to be freaking out enough for the whole group, and that was just sort of coming off as a huge pain in Koma's ass. 

Almost as soon as they're standing they give the rest of the room a narrow-eyed glance, deem it wholly boring as hell, and then retrieve their bag and start wandering off to one of the walls. A hand waves dismissively over their shoulder, the only indication that they even noticed the other people at all. 

"Eh, eh, don't freak out too much, innit? 'cause I ain't comin' over to help out if anyone passes out 'cause a big ol' circle on the ground's too much for y'all's delicate dispositions, ahehehe." 

This is muttered more to themself than anyone else-- probably for the best, given the vaguely rude words. 

"Just jokin'! But seriously, don't come cryin' over here, ahehe."

...This didn't make any sense.

For a moment, the world felt non existent. Everything was too little, filling her mind with anxiety and a morbid sense of comfort. And as the cold surrounded her--

Everything was too much all at once.

Even as Meihua stood up and looked around, her senses were overwhelmed, her mind overloading with every new face. Despite the bit of familiarity she found in seeing Yuuichirou, it was soon taken over by worry. What was he doing here?

...Who were all of these people, and why was she here with them? 

After a few more moments, she made an effort to compose herself, patting down the front of her qipao before giving the room one final scan.

To start with, everything kind of hurt. Arms, legs, and back all tingling with the sensations of pins and needles pricking every cell. With some effort, the tall girl rolled over, slowly getting up with the grace of a newborn doe on ice despite her appearance suggesting otherwise (who’s idea even was it for her to wear platform shoes!). Dusting herself off with a little hop and step, shaking off the grogginess and reestablishing the elegant aura she seems to embody albeit accompanied with a hesitant tremble, Sagiri Hoshimoto takes inventory.

one.. two … twenty people. Dusty room and one chair, Egyptian paintings on the wall– was this another one of those game shows where they had celebrities compete? Was the floor about the open under them? No … she remembered something about Hopes Peak Academy, and how she was meant to enroll. She wasn’t meant to have another show deal for a few more months … No way … was she kidnapped !?

Breath getting faster, but still trying to perform breathing exercises, Sagiri notices the circle on the ground, too detailed to be some randos work and somewhat solomonic (if she remembered correctly). Was someone trying to summon something? Quietly, with a voice as fragile as glass, she whispers “… then … i- if that’s the case…” She looks to the east.

No painted triangle.  “A- Ah ... ah ..!" Take deep breaths! Perhaps they were trying to summon something else that wasn’t a demon or angel! …. But what would be something other than a demon or angel?

What if that something was even stronger than an angel or a demon? What if it couldn't be contained?

... Looking at the circle again, Sagiri realizes something. The circle was used.

Tears forming and giving a whimpered gasp of terror, the famous Occultic Darling attempts to scurry over to the circle. BUT! The ends of her dress are caught by her foot, and the tall girl ends up face planting. There's a muffled sob of pain and also, crying.

There was only so much weeping and aimless pacing a girl could do before she decided to take matters into her own hands (sort of). While a typical heroine might fight, or rally the troops, Emiko wasn't really that kind of girl. She was no action hero, no battle-princess, no meek wallflower turned badass.

What was she, do you ask?

Well, she was a damsel. She also happened to be in distress.

(Though apparently weeping and sulking didn't do her any good.)

It was then that she surveyed the room, looking for people that could help her... And, of course, everyone else. Obviously. That was never in question.

(Tall people, though the tallest looked rather... Nervous. That girl with the sailor get-up, she seemed viable, though Emiko had noticed her punch the wall.. And that was a little scary.)

It seemed there were no knights in shining armor, really. That was fine, because brains were more important than brawn... But how does one discern intelligence before talking to someone? There was no point in wasting time on someone just as helpless as she was-

(Glasses!)

With almost startling speed (and a rather theatrical flourish of skirts and blonde curls), Emiko whirls on her heel, gaze fixating on him. People who wore glasses were smart, everyone knew that. Smart people might know what these paintings meant, or would find a puzzle to solve to get them out of here... Yes, he was a good choice.

So, wiping her tears from her eyes, Emiko flounces over to the boy, clasping her hands in front of her chest as though she were some sort of holy woman. With a bat of her lashes and a blinding smile, she dips her head in some kind of bow before she finally opens her mouth to speak.

To be waking up in an unfamiliar place with twenty other people was most likely the most startling image that has flashed before his eyes. Maybe if he had turned out to be nodding off on the train and was woken up by his friend, that would be another thing, but this was nothing ordinary.

Despite how startled he was, his movements and expressions barely convey that. His eyes were obscured behind his glasses and hat, widening but somewhat out of sight and, to be fair, who would be paying attention to such an insignificant detail in this situation?

He has already hoisted himself up and trying to straighten himself out. When he's decided he's had enough of staring upwards and glancing around at eye-level at all of the people around him, his gaze flits down to the ground only to be welcomed by the magic circle.

So many things. So many sights. So many questions.

Yet not enough of a voice to mention any of these things.

Voices buzz in his ears, and he realizes there's someone speaking with an aura of poise and calm that feels out of place for their bizarre circumstances-- at the very least, definitely for the youthful faces he had taken note of earlier.

He had little intentions of speaking up, but he was given this impression that it would be more of a pain to not do so. Readjusting the hat upon his head again, he tests his voice with a barely audible note before projecting himself:

"Yuuichirou Nagai. Super High-School Level Electric Guitarist. Please take care of me."

Nobuo stirred in discomfort before opening his eyes. This wasn’t his futon. This wasn’t even his tatami floor. Where was he? While he was still in a daze, he forced himself upright, but once he got a good look at his surroundings, the panic began to set in. A giant magic circle!? Egyptian paintings on the walls!? Surely he must have been kidnapped to use in a cult’s demon-summoning ritual. That was the only possible explanation, right?

Nobuo quickly shuffles backwards in fear until he hits the wall. He had to get out of here. That was the only thing he could think about. However, there wasn’t a door in sight. No windows either. As far as he could tell, there was no way out.

“If only Mika-nee was here,” he muttered to himself. “She would know what to do…”

Wait. Who was here? He had been so busy freaking out, he didn’t even pay attention to the others in the room. From the looks of it, they all seemed to be teenagers, probably around his age but maybe even older. He didn’t really recognize any of them, but a couple of them seemed vaguely familiar. Could these people be the other Hope’s Peak students? They certainly seemed quirky enough, but this wasn’t what he expected for his first day at school.