Hope of Morning (Jujutsu Kaisen/Fate: Grand Order)

“Zabaniya!” Exclaimed the cloaked man before him, the bandages on his arm falling away to reveal a funky-looking red arm that shot forward like a snake. The man wore a skull mask, hiding his face, but the sound of triumph in his voice was unmistakable. That was the sound of someone who pulled out a trump card, and as far as they were concerned, it was game over.

And, if Yuji Itadori were a normal run-of-the-mill human being, it probably would be. The red hand shot forward, lunging for his chest, where a finger brushed over the rough fabric of his uniform. Then, there was the vaguely familiar sensation of his heart getting ripped out of his chest.

“That!” Yuji shouted, grabbing hold of the offending red arm that now held his heart in its palm, much to the shock of the creepy cloaked guy, “Really!” He continued, yanking hard and lifting the guy off of his feet, drawing him towards Yuji, where he then greeted the masked face with a fist that slammed him into the floor hard enough that the concrete underfoot shattered on impact. “Hurts!”

“H-How?!” The guy exclaimed, crushing the fleshy heart as if it would do something. It did, but mostly getting his blood splashed over his shoes.

Yuji didn’t respond, simply pressing his palm to the guy’s head and sending a wave of Soul Dismantles into him. The cursed technique was modified -- the slashes didn’t target the flesh. They targeted the soul, and the response was instantaneous, even if it was a little unexpected. The hooded guy underneath him in the crater began to break down, turning into golden motes of light that rose in the air before vanishing entirely and leaving Yuji alone.

“... eh? That guy wasn’t an incarnated sorcerer?” Yuji blinked, standing straight as he scratched at his chest to find smooth flesh. Reversed Cursed Technique was pretty handy when it came to putting himself back together. He, rather unfortunately, got a front-row seat in learning how it could keep his body alive without a heart. Generally, so long as his brain and soul were okay, with enough time and cursed energy, he could heal pretty much anything. “Hmmm… I figured you were with that incarnated sorcerer who sent me here. Sorry, masked guy, but in my defense, you tried to kill me first.”

He clapped his hands together, offering a small prayer for whoever that guy was before he started to look around to figure out what exactly was going on and what happened to him. His last memories made the how he got here pretty easy -- He, Megumi, and Nobara had been sent on a mission to hunt down another incarnated sorcerer. A particularly troublesome one since he managed to last around a year after the Culling Game that he was meant to fight in.

And since he was the only one who could separate the incarnated sorcerer from the host, coupled with the fact that he was one of the strongest sorcerers left in the world -- he was usually the go-to for dealing with them. The fact that the new higher-ups decided that the guy was problematic enough to send the three of them after him, Yuji had prepared himself for a real fight.

Instead, what he got was a chase that ended at an old church on a hill, a bright flash of light, and that hooded guy throwing a bunch of knives at him as a hello.

“Whatever that guy was, he wasn’t human. Or a cursed spirit,” Yuji noted, giving a quick look around the church to find only signs of the fight that had transpired -- a little bit of blood from where the knives had gotten him, some chopped-up pews from where he threw some Dismantles right back. No sign of the guy that he was chasing or, more importantly, his friends. “Megumi should be fine, but Nobara…”

She’d definitely hit him if she heard he was worried about her, especially after her promotion to a First Grade Sorcerer, but she was the only one of their trio who didn’t have RCT. So, with that thought in mind, he walked to the large double doors and pushed them open.

He was greeted by a city on fire.

A sharp hiss escaped him, his eyes narrowing into slits as he clenched his jaw. The sight was absolutely hellish -- an entire city completely awashed in flames, burnt-out husks of buildings still standing but not much more. Some had already collapsed, leaving a ruined skyline that was billowing smoke up to the dark sky overhead. With a mental shove, he pushed away any stray thought in his head as his foot sunk into the ground.

Without so much as another word, Yuji threw himself down the hill, racing towards the city as fast as his legs could carry him. He couldn’t even imagine what had happened -- the entire fight with the masked guy took all of three minutes. Sukuna, even with Fuga, couldn’t have managed something like this. Especially without him noticing.

Flying through the air and down the hill, he landed on cracked concrete. His stomach twisted as he saw the bodies -- people charred black, frozen where they died. Whatever happened, it was so sudden that some of them had died standing up. Cursed energy was so thick in the air that he could choke on it. There was malice in the flames, telling him that it was no ordinary fire that did this. He got his first clue on what exactly was going on almost as soon as he landed, seeing a dark wave of energy smash through a handful of buildings far down the road. It was a dark, a purplish black that tore right through a city block like the buildings were made of tissue paper.

As he ran forward, he saw two figures clash in the air as rubble began to rain down on the ground. A man wearing a bright red jacket over black form-fitting armor, his skin deeply tanned that contrasted his stark white hair. In one arm, he carried a girl with dark hair in twin tails, blocking a blow with a white sword. The blow he received sent him plummeting to the ground with a thunderous crash.

Leaving the one that delivered the blow still in the air. A woman -- she cut an intimidating figure wearing black plate armor with glowing red marks etched on the surface. Her hair was a pale blonde, matching her pale golden eyes. The black and red longsword in her hands ignited with the same kind of cursed energy that lurked in the flames.

So, it felt like a safe bet to call her the bad guy.

Clapping his hands together, blood seeped out of his palms and condensed into a tight ball between them. Steam began to rise from his palms as he took aim at the girl, targeting center mass just like he was taught. Then, with a sonic boom, the Piercing Blood shot forth at the woman, who instantly reacted. She raised a gauntleted hand, catching the Piercing Blood with her forearm, but even as she was sent back, Yuji knew that the attack didn't breach her armor.

And, if he was being perfectly honest, that was a little scary. He wasn't as strong as Gojo-sensei or Sukuna, but in the odd nine months since the Shinjuku Showdown, as people had taken to calling it, he had majorly refined pretty much everything he learned in a blind rush to prepare for Sukuna. Of the dozens of curse users, cursed spirits, and incarnated sorcerers he had fought since then… none could just straight-up no sell an attack from him.

Not even Sukuna had been able to do that.

“You dare?” The woman exclaimed at him, switching targets as she was flung back. She swung her blade, and that same beam of light launched itself at Yuji and it completely dominated his vision. The attack wasn't just massive; it was fast. Fast enough that if it had been any closer, then that might have been it for him.

Yuji found himself enveloped in dust as he threw himself back, dodging the massive attack, but still found himself swept up in the shockwave that followed. It felt like a bomb had gone off in front of him, and he had plenty of experience with that, considering most of his enemies knew better than to get into punching range. He corrected his trajectory, using his blood as a whip to bring himself down to the ground, only the ground turned out to be the roof of a fifth-story building.

Before him… The remark that a bomb had gone off was more fitting than he realized. A massive chunk of the city block was gone, vaporized like it never existed in the first place, and replaced by a massive trench that cut deep into the earth.

“She's strong,” Yuji noted, steeling himself for the fight. He didn't have much to go off of, but he felt it in his gut. She was stronger than Sukuna, the King of Curses, who had taken the strongest sorcerers of the modern era and ran a gauntlet through them. And he felt it deep in his bones that if the two were to fight, the result wouldn't even be close.

Through the dust, he caught a flicker of movement, and he saw it was the guy and the girl. Tossing himself over the side, he dropped five stories with no issue. He didn't really know what was going on, but he didn't need to at this point -- that girl was bad news, and anyone fighting her was a friend of his. “Hey-”

The man didn't even let Yuji start before he threw the girl in his direction. He caught her, earning a pained whine from her, and it was then that Yuji felt blood on his hands. She was injured. Badly. Her skin was a bloodless pale, telling Yuji that she had lost a lot of blood and she was losing more from a deep gash on her side.

“If you want to help, then get her out of here,” the man barked in his direction. As he spoke, he peered into the dust while, in his other hand, a black blade materialized in his palm.

“Hold on a second here, I can help,” Yuji protested, cradling the girl all the same. She was the only person alive he had seen so far, and he wasn't about to let that change.

“You aren't a Servant,” the man replied tersely, not looking at him, and Yuji could hear the capital letters. “You'll just be in the way, and I can't fight to the best of my abilities with my Master in danger.” The more he said, the more questions Yuji had, but he swallowed them down. He could feel the tension rising, and he wasn't the only one. “You're wasting time, now go!”

“Your time,” Yuji heard a feminine voice announce as the woman stepped through the dust, “is already up.” He looked her over for any signs of damage, but he didn't so much as see a dent in her armor. He tried to tell himself that didn't mean he couldn't win. It just meant that he was outclassed.

“How unlike you, Saber. Targeting my master like that. Where is that vaunted honor you are so proud of?” The man asked, shifting his posture while Yuji clutched the girl to his chest.

“Discarded,” the woman apparently named Saber answered. “Honor. Pride. They are worthless things that get in the way of the only thing that matters -- victory.”

“I can't tell you how much I hate hearing that coming from you,” the man muttered, more to himself than to her. His grip tightened on his blades, glaring her down while Yuji was at war with himself. Every instinct that he had told him that this guy wasn't a match for her, but he could hardly join in on the fight with the girl in his arms.

“A-archer…” the girl muttered, proving that she was clinging to consciousness, but only barely. Then she raised a hand; on the back of it was a partial emblem in the shape of a crescent arc. “K-kill Saber.” With the order, the last remaining arc shone brightly before fading, and the air around the guy apparently named Archer shifted as he raised his blades.

Saber was unbothered by the development, “It matters not. Archer, you will die by my hand. It is only a question of if you pass before or after your master.”

The tension swelled… then it snapped.

The two clashed, their blades meeting in a shower of sparks with enough force that the wind blew back his hair. They exchanged a dozen blows a second, with Archer placing himself between them and Saber. It rubbed him wrong. It was as grating as sandpaper. But, in that second, Yuji accepted the cold hard truth -- he couldn’t do anything here. Not with the girl here.

So, he pivoted and whispered lowly to the girl, “Hold your breath.” Then he shot off with all the speed that he could muster, launching forth with an explosion of his own.

He had always been fast. His body supernaturally gifted because of the Heavenly Restriction, something he only learned just over a year ago. By the time he turned twelve, he was already effortlessly shattering Olympic records. However, once he ate the Special-Grade cursed object known as one of Sukuna's fingers, he was able to reinforce his body with cursed energy to great effect.

As such, he rapidly crossed the distance from the inner city he had been in seconds prior to the one place he could think of that could be called safe in this nightmare -- the church. As soon as he hit the hill, Yuji jumped with all of his strength, easily clearing the trees and sailing directly towards the church itself. He landed almost perfectly before the open doors where he then laid the girl down on a pew.

Her bright blue eyes were clouded as she gave him what looked to be a glare, “I-if… you’re another i-illegal magus in my t-territory, I’m g-gonna…” She said, her tone as a wet kitten.

“I'm a sorcerer, so probably not?” Yuji tried with a smile, placing his hands on her side near the injury.

Ieiri-sensei had been pretty annoyed with him when Yuji explained to her how he figured out how to use RCT on other people. It was another thing that being the vessel for Sukuna Ryomen had gifted him -- his ability to perceive souls, both his own and others. He wasn't Mahito, who could freely manipulate the shape of a soul, turning people into monsters. What he could do, however, was restore the body of a person by following the shape of their soul through channeling positive energy into them.

It wasn't perfect. He couldn't heal injuries that had damaged the soul, and he couldn't heal injuries that the soul had incorporated. His own scars were an example of that -- the one that had clipped an eyebrow still remained, as that injury at Mahito's hands was incorporated. The two fingers he had been missing he was able to restore, as his soul still remembered the shape of a whole hand.

It helped that he still had all the fingers of his other hand and sensing the blood in his veins and others helped him feel where the injuries were. Ieiri-sensei said that all the best Sorcerers were dirty cheats, but given how much she complained about the sleepless nights studying for medical school…

So he began to restore her body to the shape of her soul -- and what a weird soul it was. She wasn't an incarnated sorcerer that much he was sure of, but Yuji had no clue what to make of the odd circuit-like intrusions that were in her soul. Especially with around forty of them seemed natural while thirty seemed to be grafted on. He also wasn’t sure why there was a steady but persistent drain on them either.

Deciding to be cautious, he stayed clear of whatever that was, focusing on the wound itself that healed over somewhat quickly, but replenishing her blood took longer. The entire process took around ten minutes, during which the girl had passed out. Only to jerk away, nearly headbutting him with a cry of, “Archer!”

The remaining mark on the back of her hand faded slightly, going inert. Yuji’s guts curled themselves into knots as he realized what that meant, even without the tears stinging at the girl's eyes. Her hand fell onto her face, hiding them as she bit her bottom lip. His own hands curled into fists, a sense of failure washing over him that he had to embrace completely.

“I know this really isn’t the time for it, but I need to know what's going on if we want to beat that person. Who is she and what did she do to this city?” Yuji questioned, keeping an eye on the open doors and the city skyline beyond the hill. He hadn’t exactly been trying to throw off the trail, so if Saber wanted to find them, she wouldn’t have to look too hard.

The girl’s lips thinned, brushing away the stay tears before she gathered herself. “You’re right, but I don’t have much in the way of an explanation. Something happened to Saber. She wasn’t like that before- whatever it was, it is connected to what happened to Fuyuki. That… tainted mana erupted from the ground, engulfing the entire city in fire. Then, before Archer and I could even think to investigate, Saber attacked us.” Her hand drifted to her side before she blinked.

Then she looked down at her side to find that she was healed, which made her sputter. “Who are you, exactly?”

“Ah, I’m Yuji Itadori. Special-Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer,” Yuji informed, taking out his ID and passing it to her. She took it, more baffled than anything, but it was all there -- an updated picture of him, his name, and his grade. He figured she’d prefer proof, but it seemed to just confuse her that much more. “I was hunting a curse user, or an incarnated sorcerer, to this church. Then, the next thing I know, my friends are gone and everything is on fire. And that weird guy with a bone mask ripped out my heart.”

“I-” The girl narrowed her eyes, peering at him like she was trying to make sense of him. Yuji was pretty used to that reaction at this point, honestly. “You aren’t a magus.”

“No, I’m a Jujutsu Sorcerer. It says it on the ID card, see?” He said, pointing it out to help.

“You aren’t participating in the Holy Grail War?” She continued, sounding like she was running down her own mental checklist.

That got a blink out of him, “Holy Grail? Like in Monty Python?” He questioned, not sure if he should be excited or not. After a month of binge-watching movies for his training to control cursed energy, the movies had started to blur together but Monty Python had been one of the standouts.

“What? Who? No, never mind,” she waved off the questions before asking another. “Your heart… what happened to the Servant that… took it?”

Yuji held up a fist, “I beat him up.”

The girl blanched, looking at him in growing disbelief, so he elaborated a little further. “Um, I punched his soul a bit and when I was done, he disappeared into golden motes of light?” The explanation didn’t help either because her jaw just dropped. Wordlessly, she handed back the ID card, looking at him like he was a puzzle she couldn’t make sense of. “So, uh, who are you, exactly?” Yuji questioned, making the girl pause. She gave him a glance before a small sigh escaped her.

“Rin. Rin Tohsaka, Second Owner of Fuyuki!” Rin introduced herself with a certain dramatic flair that convinced Yuji it wasn’t in his best interest to allow her and Nobara to meet. It was just an instinctual gut feeling. “You said that you came here with others, right?”

Yuji's lips thinned, “I did. They vanished, though… hold on, let me try to call them.” He said, taking out his phone. He wasn't exactly worried. Megumi and Nobara were strong. Megumi in particular -- a lot of things had changed after the Culling Game, but what changed the most was that they all had to step up to fill Gojo-sensei's shoes.

In the end, things only got more hectic after the Culling Game. The reveal of cursed spirits was a huge upheaval for the entire world. People were afraid that their fears and resentments could physically manifest, which made cursed spirits stronger as a whole. Powerful people began to draw curse users to their sides for their own ambitions. Then, there were some of the strongest sorcerers in history running around in the modern era.

They didn’t have any choice but to pick up the slack.

Bringing up his home screen, Yuji encountered an immediate problem. He didn't have a signal. That was weird. The phone was given to him by Jujutsu High, and it was directly connected to several satellites above Japan to make sure that he always had a direct connection in case he ever had to call for backup. Maybe whatever happened to the city disrupted the signal on his end? He wasn’t really a tech guy, so…

He noticed that Rin was looking at his phone with a weird look, but she didn’t say anything. Yuji shook his head, “I don’t have a signal. But that should be fine -- Megumi has some shinigami that can track me down, so odds are he’ll find me before I could find him.” He just had to hope that Megumi would find Nobara first.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Rin decided, taking a breath. “Under normal circumstances, the Holy Grail War would be called off, and we would come here -- that shitty priest isn’t good for much, but he does take his job seriously. So, he should be here.” She clenched her jaw, “but the fact that you found Assassin here…”

No one would ever accuse Yuji of being a genius, and he certainly wouldn’t be the first, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened with a guy named Assassin. “Where does that leave us?”

Rin’s jaw clenched, “We need to make an alliance with the other masters. Those that remain. I still have one command seal left that we can use as a bargaining chip…”

“The whole city just went straight to hell. Do they really need another reason?” Yuji asked, but even as he did, he already knew the answer. The Jujutsu society wasn’t exactly small. Small in comparison to ordinary people, but there were hundreds of sorcerers and curse users who hadn’t lifted a finger during the Culling Game. Those that did… they had to be bribed or only agreed to fight when the King of Curses was weakened enough.

Even when Japan was at risk of being wiped off the face of the Earth, people still prioritized their concerns over the greater good.

“Unfortunately, yes. Especially when the only other Masters I’ve encountered are… people that I have a… less than positive relationship with,” she admitted with a grimace. “Though, it would be best to find Shirou, Saber’s master. I can’t imagine that he would allow Saber to go wild like this, third-rate magus or not.”

“Good enough for me,” He said, holding out his hands. He expected more resistance but Rin easily jumped into his arms, hooking an arm over the back of his neck.

“Don’t get any ideas. I don’t know what you are exactly, but I do know you’re fast. I’ll call out directions,” she decided, her tone serious and Yuji offered a small nod. Yeah, that’s about what he expected.

With that, Yuji exploded into action and whatever preparations Rin made to brace herself, they weren’t enough as a gasp escaped her. In a burst of speed, they left the church behind, though this time Yuji took the long way down. Weaving around the trees slowed him down a bit, but not by too much. Before long, he was running along the outskirts of the city and…

“Most of them would have died instantly,” Rin told him, half shouting in his ear to be heard. She didn’t look reassured even as she offered the reassurance. “Most humans can't hope to handle the level of mana that was released into the city. That’s why, odds are the only people left are going to be magi… or people like you who have an unusual tolerance for high concentrations.” It almost killed any hope that there would be survivors.

The whole city reminded him entirely too much of Shibuya, where Sukuna had fought Mt. Fuji head and Mahoraga. The district had been scorched to the bedrock by the end of it, but in the areas around… chaos and death at every turn.

But there was nothing he could do here. He already arrived too late. The most he could hope for was stopping the people who did this.

So, he followed Rin’s directions that led further into the city and before long, they stood before a traditional-looking Japanese manor. A wall around it offered some privacy, a multi-building layout on the grounds. It looked like a nice place if it wasn’t for the fact that it looked like ground zero for whatever the hell was going on.

Rin dropped from his arms, landing on unsteady feet. She wobbled a bit, but she walked forward silently with a bubbling dread that she couldn’t quite keep off of her face. The main building was almost a complete loss, something having gone through it and collapsed. Whatever it was, it kept going until what looked like a guest house was taken out. The grass was dead, and the soil blackened. Nothing was on fire, but soot fell like rain on the manor.

The only building left standing was a shed. Rin approached it silently with Yuji close behind. The door was already open, and he smelled a familiar scent even before stepping inside it.

Blood.

A red-headed teenager around their age was at the center of a magic-looking circle. His amber-colored eyes stared upwards, unseeing. There were injuries on him, showing that he had been in a fight, but what had undoubtedly killed him was a sword plunged into his chest. Cursed energy lingered in the room; it was everywhere, but in the shed, it was heavy and dense. The source for it was a man who was propped up against the wall across from the dead teenager.

Somewhere in his thirties, dark hair with a priestly garb on. The collar gave it away even if the cross hadn’t. There was a small smile tugging at his lips, even as a small line of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth. He seemed satisfied in death, blood pooling underneath him from a hole where his heart was supposed to be.

“Oh… Shirou…” Rin whispered under her breath before she cursed. Then she cursed again, louder this time. “How am I going to tell Sakura…?” She whispered harshly, clearly upset, but she swallowed it back.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, to be honest, but this is Saber’s master, right? So, what does it mean that he’s… ya’ know?” He didn’t want to finish, mostly for her sake. He was putting the pieces together, but he still had no clue what kind of bigger picture he was looking at here.

Rin didn’t answer for a moment, tearing her gaze away from Shirou to settle it heavily and accusingly on the corpse of the guy. The shitty priest, if Yuji had to guess. “A Servant’s existence is dependent on a Master. Some can last for a time without one, but only for a short while. Days at most, and only if they reserve their mana. Not like what Saber is doing.” Rin answered, grabbing hold of the arm of the priest.

He was tatted up, Yuji saw. Reddish marks flowed up his forearm, disappearing beneath his sleeve. They… looked kinda similar to the mark on the back of Rin’s hand, he noted.

“Meaning that in the aftermath of Shirou’s death, she found another. Possibly to avenge him?” Her jaw clenched, “But none of this explains what Kirei was doing here. He was the Holy Grail War moderator. He’s supposed to be at the church waiting for defeated Masters that managed to survive. Instead, he’s here and he…” Rin bit her lip, glancing over her shoulder at Shirou. Or, rather, the blade embedded into his chest.

“This Grail War thing… how many of these Servants and Masters do you think we can reach?” Yuji questioned, walking over the Shirou’s corpse. He offered a small prayer before he took out the blade and tossed it to the side. Grabbing a sheet, he covered his body. It wasn’t much. It was too little, honestly. But it was what he could do.

Rin didn’t thank him, but a tension bled out of her, and her tone was softer. “There are seven Servants and Masters total. Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker, and Assassin. Saber killed Archer, and you allegedly killed Assassin. Which leaves Lancer, Rider, Caster, and Berserker. I’ve met the masters of Lancer and Berserker, and I’ve encountered Caster but I never met his master.”

To that, Yuji hummed. He couldn’t say he understood, but he had enough to work with. They just had to find the other masters and servants, then jump Saber. Easy enough and familiar. If only Todo was here, he’d say their victory was a sure thing. “Four of them, plus Megumi and Nobara if we can find them… I like our chances,” Yuji said, trying to be optimistic. It’d be really nice if one of these Servants were as strong as Gojo-sensei.

There was a deep-seated ache at the loss of his mentor. The man that went to bat for him, against all reason and logic, after he had eaten Sukuna’s finger. Nine months wasn’t enough time to get over his loss, so Yuji would grieve the only way he could.

As he spoke, the red mark on Kirei’s body flashed before they began to flow like water. They moved down his arm, shifting to Rin’s hand before they began to vanish up her sleeve. When she was done, she dropped his hand like it was some disgusting thing before standing up. “That’s one of us, I suppose. My bet is on King Arthur, personally.” Her voice was self self-deprecating with a bitter sarcastic humor injected into her tone.

“Wait, so it is like Monty Python?” Yuji asked, earning a bewildered look. “King Arthur! Him and his Knights of the Round Table went around Camelot looking for the Holy Grail.”

“What? No, that’s not remotely correct,” Rin blurted, looking at him like he was a particularly dimwitted rock. “Where did you even hear that version of King Arthur’s myth? It’s utterly absurd!”

“It’s not a myth, it’s a movie,” Yuji said. “An American one, I think? No, it’s British! Probably,” he said, pinching his chin. He didn’t pay too much attention to the directors. Then he blinked, “Wait, you’re saying that girl is King Arthur? Isn’t she supposed to be dead? And be a guy? Is this another incarnated sorcerer situation?”

Rin’s expression pinched, “A movie? I suppose you’re completely ignorant of the Grail War, then. I should have explained in more detail -- each of the Servants is a heroic figure from history whose deed had them enshrined in the Throne of Heroes. Saber is King Arthur. Berserker is Hercules. With the power of the Holy Grail, they’re summoned to fight to the death so the victor can make a wish. The more famous the legend, the more powerful the servant, and there are few Servants as powerful as King Arthur.”

She said all of that with a straight face, too. It was pretty wild. And absurd. But, it was about as absurd as cursed spirits and getting possessed by Sukuna Ryomen. “Okay. Right. So, who are the other famous heroes? Anyone I would know?” Hopefully, Sukuna wasn’t one of them. He really didn’t want to see that guy again.

Yuji felt a presence arrive behind him, and he reacted immediately, whipping around and placing himself between Rin and the door. As he did so, he saw a man materializing from the same golden light that Assassin had dissipated with. Bright blue hair, blood-red eyes with a sharp roguish grin tugging at his lips as he leaned on a wooden staff.

“Nice instincts,” the man praised, eyeing Yuji sharply.

“Caster!” Rin exclaimed, aiming an arm at Caster, a strange black blob of energy forming at her fingertips. It was… weird. Like, really weird. It almost felt like she had channeled cursed energy, just without the cursed energy. It was distracting but also not important.

“That’s me. See that you beat me here -- suppose that’s my fault. I got distracted by the show Saber and Berserker are putting on,” Caster said, his gaze flickering to Rin. “Waiting around to see who was going to win, but the answer is obvious enough. Saber is manhandling Berserker in ways I haven’t seen since my teacher handed me my own ass.” He continued with a laugh.

That made Rin blanch, “That’s… my whole strategy revolved around Berserker…” she admitted weakly. Then her lips thinned, “Caster, I want to offer terms to your master -- we need to enter into an alliance. The Holy Grail War has to go on hold as we deal with this disaster!”

“I agree,” Caster nodded, “Issue is… well, that piece of shit was my master.” He said, jabbing a thumb at Kirei, making Rin stiffen. “I was summoned by another enforcer of the Church, but that prick killed her and stole her command seals. And me. Since then, the bastard had me playing cat and mouse with the other Servants… wouldn’t even let me get a decent fight. I know I’m a Caster and not a Lancer, so I’m a lot squishier than I should be, but it’s damn frustrating getting teased like this.”

Slowly, Yuji lowered his fists. Call it instinct, but he didn’t think he was an enemy. Caster glanced at him, his smile growing a fraction before he stood up straight. “Sounds like you’re getting what you wished for.”

“Heh. More than I bargained for, maybe. I couldn’t care less about some wish -- I’m just here for a good scrap. The whole city going kaput puts a big damper on things,” Caster admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

Rin, by that time, had stopped cursing under her breath. He wasn’t sure what Rin’s relationship was with Kirei, but what was clear was that she disliked the man. And she outright hated him now. “Then did you have part of this?” Rin asked, her gaze narrowing into a glare.

“I didn’t,” Caster replied, the casualness of his tone bleeding away. “I was scouting out Rider when I felt my connection to that prick cut out. A second later, the city was on fire so… as far as I can tell, the two are connected. Beats the hell out of me how, though.”

Yuji held his gaze for a long moment before he nodded, “I believe him.” He always had a pretty good instinct with people, and he always trusted his gut. That got a grin to break out again on Caster’s face.

Rin blew out a massive heaving sigh, “I do too. Unfortunately,” she muttered the last bit under her breath. “In any case, from the sounds of it, you don’t have a Master.”

“Cutting to the heart of it, yeah. I came here to take those extra command seals to power myself long enough that I could go down swinging, but you beat me to it.” Caster revealed easily enough. “A contract would be the next best thing. And from what I’ve seen of you, you’re way more my speed than that jackass, little lady.”

That got a sharp grin out of Rin, “Is that so? Then how about you introduce yourself and I’ll decide if you’re my speed, then?”

“The name is Cu Chulainn, Caster class. Unfortunately. I do my best work as Lancer, but I know a bit of runic magic and the druid arts.” Cu introduced himself with a grin. Yuji found himself returning it.

“Welcome to the team!” He said, offering a hand that Cu readily accepted, making Rin sputter.

“That’s my line!”

That got both Yuji and Cu to laugh, but it felt a little hollow. A brief respite that Yuji was all too familiar with. The circumstances were wildly different, but the core of it remained the same.

This was just the calm before the storm.

…

Fate is one of those settings that have always called to me, especially Fate Grand Order. The whole summoning heroes from the past to correct a timeline gone awry just clicks with me. But, it’s a setting that I’ve hesitated to even start mostly because of the length the story would need to be to adequately cover all of Grand Order.

There is a reason why several Grand Order stories are a million words or more, and they still haven’t reached the final singularity. The only way I could realistically see covering the events of Grand Order sub a million words is to just mainline the Singularities -- no events, no Lostbelts, skimping out on character interactions, and focusing solely on getting the Grail back in the Singularities. And that’d still probably be 300k words or something.

I couldn’t ever see myself committing to writing a FGO story in full. At least not all in one go. So, I’ve been kicking around a few ideas on how I would actually go about it.

First and foremost, I probably wouldn’t cover all of the Singularities. I'm planning to have Fujimaru be twins, so we would have a team A of Yuji and Rin and a Team B with Ritsuka and Gudako Fujimaru. Sometimes, they'll all go to a Singularity, but primarily, I would be using them to skip the Singularities/Events/Lostbelts that don't interest me.

Some Singularities/Lostbelts are just more interesting than others. Others, like London, work best when you don't already know the whole mystery. Depending on how it could be received, I could try my hand at an original singularity since I have plenty of experience writing in a historical setting.

Could also be fun to do a light crossover with Legends Never Die -- Siegfried would fit right in as a heroic spirit.

Secondly, I think this story would need to be one I could pick up and set down. It's going to be a long one if I write it how I want to write it, longer than Legends Never Die, and that story is going to eclipse a million words by the time it's over. So, putting it down at natural stopping points would help keep the story fresh, and it wouldn't hold a story slot for like five years straight.

Now, onto the actual story -- I picked Yuji as the MC because he's in an interesting spot. My personal feelings about the ending of JJK aside, Yuji is a fun protagonist with a lot of interesting abilities under his belt that interact with the Fate setting in fun ways. Especially considering this is Yuji post ending with some time to refine everything he learned.

The 47 Masters? Perhaps they could be healed with RCT. A Dismantle that targets the Soul? That's basically a Servant’s Saint Graph.

It helps that Yuji is strong enough to hold his own but not so strong that he wouldn't need Servants. This brings me to a topic that could sink the story before it begins -- power scaling.

Post-ending Yuji, I'd say is roughly around 15-finger Sukuna minus the open Domain. Between Blood Manipulation, Shrine, RCT, and being the Black Flash King, he has enough going for him. I'd say that'd be around the level he could fight at.

Meanwhile, 20 finger Sukuna is someone who I would put in the same general tier as Medusa as Rider. It's not that he's not strong, it's just that Fate has a much higher power ceiling. You put Sukuna up against someone like Herc or Gilgamesh? Not a chance in hell he's going to win that fight. But, like Medusa in Heaven's Feel, in his element with the right preparations, he could put up a decent fight against someone like Artoria but he'd still probably lose in the long run.

I think this AN has run on long enough and I covered everything of importance. So, let me know what you think and if you would like to see more of it.