Chapter 55 – Stop Saying Fou

My mind completely goes blank.

I stand there behind Artoria, unable to move, unable to speak, just staring at the girl in the doorway.

Drown the world in mud? Tear their cores out through their throats?

Did those words really just come out of Manaka's mouth?

For three years, all I've known is the sweet, gentle girl who brought me pastries, who pouted when I missed our playdates, and who clung to my arm like a lost puppy.

She was the first person outside the orphanage who ever treated me like a normal friend. To me, Manaka was just kind, beautiful, and a little overly affectionate.

Hearing her say something so horrific with a completely flat voice feels like reality is splitting in two.

I look at Artoria. Her feet are digging into the cracked floor, her knuckles turning white on her sword as she visibly struggles just to stay standing.

I look at Gilgamesh. The golden portals behind her are flickering, and the chains are shaking under the strain.

Two of the strongest Servants in the war are being pinned down by pure pressure. And yet, the air around me is completely calm. Not a single breeze touches my skin.

Then, a memory from a few days ago hits me.

It was a dream, something I pushed aside because so much stuff has been happening lately.

In that dream, Fuyuki was completely in ruins. The entire city was burning, swallowed by smoke, fire, and a sea of black mud.

And sitting right on top of a massive, terrifying beast-looking down at the burning city like it was nothing more than a sandbox-was a girl with a completely blank expression.

Back then, I thought it was just a stupid nightmare brought on by stress.

But now that I think about it... Manaka Sajyou, Ayaka Sajyou, Misaya Reiroukan, Lady Ava. These are people who never once appeared in the Fate Zero anime I watched before coming here.

Even Void and Denial, this body I took over, the burning fire, and that Alter concept...

"Ughh!" I groan, grabbing my forehead. My head is throbbing so much it actually hurts. Just trying to process all this is making me dizzy.

I never once thought about checking up on them through the Root. Why would I? To me, Manaka and Ayaka were just my friends-the very first people who become my friends outside of the orphanage.

But right now, staring at Manaka standing casually in those chains, my mind finally asks the question.

Who is Manaka Sajyou?

The second I actually focus on that question, the answer hits me like a flood.

A violent rush of memories and records from another timeline pours straight into my skull, making my vision spin.

It's a completely different world-a timeline called Fate Prototype.

Names, faces, and horrific events flash through my mind in an instant. In that timeline, Manaka Sajyou was born connected directly to the Root, viewing all of humanity as nothing more than flat, disposable puppets.

She fell in love with a male version of Saber, lost her mind completely, and sacrificed dozens of young girls to feed a terrifying Beast just to grant his wish with the Holy Grail.

She wasn't a normal girl who just learned some weird spells.

She was a walking disaster who destroyed her own family and casually slaughtered anyone who got in the way of her twisted romance.

The information stops pouring in, leaving me gasping for air. I have to grip Artoria tightly just to stay on my feet.

My heart drops straight into my stomach as I look at the girl from the doorway.

This world isn't just the Fate Zero anime I watched. It's a fused timeline.

And in this world... I'm the one she fell in love with.

Even with all that horrifying information flooding my brain, I couldn't just suddenly hate her.

Three years. For three whole years, she was just my friend outside the orphanage. She brought me sweet pastries, pouted whenever I missed our playdates, and clung to my arm. You don't just hit a switch and erase three years of warmth overnight-not even when the person standing in front of you turns out to be a monster.

I let go of the fabric of Artoria's skirt and took a slow step forward, stepping out from behind her protective guard.

"Master, no-stay back!" Artoria gritted her teeth, her voice tight and strained as she fought against the suffocating pressure filling the room, reaching out to stop me.

I gently pushed her gauntlet away. My chest was pounding, but I had to hear it straight from her.

I walked right up to the doorway, stopping just a few feet away from the golden chains binding her.

The moment Manaka looked down at me, her eyes completely changed. The cold, lifeless stare she'd given Gilgamesh vanished the exact second she saw me, replaced in a heartbeat by that soft, radiant warmth I knew so well. Her sweet smile returned in full force.

"Manaka..." My voice trembled, but I swallowed hard and forced the words out. "Yesterday, in the forest... when I found Artoria and Lancer knocked out cold, and neither of them could remember a thing. That was you, wasn't it?"

Manaka didn't look guilty. She didn't even hesitate. She just tilted her head, her smile as bright and innocent as always.

"Of course it was, Rikka," she answered cheerfully. "I was going to use them as fuel for my project. But then you showed up! And I didn't want you to see something ugly, so I just wiped their memories and left."

My stomach dropped. She said it so casually-completely detached, like she was talking about picking wildflowers instead of hunting two people down to use like batteries.

"And... this project you mentioned?" I asked, my small hands balling into fists at my sides. "The one that needs Servant souls. What are you actually trying to do?"

Manaka leaned forward slightly against the divine chains, completely ignoring how the metal dug into her dress. Her bright blue eyes shone with genuine excitement.

"I'm going to force open a direct path to the Root, Rikka," she whispered sweetly, her voice filled with pure affection. "You are so special, you see. You don't belong in this world's records. You are an anomaly. But I am still tied down to the Root."

Her smile widened, completely disconnected from the sheer madness of what she was saying.

"So I am going to hatch a Beast, use it to reach the Root, and erase every single piece of information about myself from its records. Once I do that, I'll become an anomaly too! We will be completely equal. And then we can be together forever, entirely outside the rules of this world."

A cold chill ran straight down my spine.

She wasn't just talking about winning a Holy Grail War or bending a few rules of magecraft. If she actually hatched a Beast and tore open a path to the Root just to delete herself from reality, the World wouldn't just sit back and let it slide.

The Counter Force would step in to obliterate the threat. Or worse-the universe would judge this entire history as a failure and prune this timeline completely out of existence.

She wasn't just planning a reunion. She was ready to drag this entire world into the trash bin of reality, killing everyone in it-all just to hold my hand as an equal.

Another wave of dizziness hit me hard. I groaned, my vision spinning so fast that my knees just gave out.

I stumbled and grabbed my head. Trying to process all that crazy stuff at once was completely frying my brain.

The second I tripped, Manaka stopped talking.

Her big smile vanished, replaced by genuine worry. She looked at me like she was actually heartbroken.

"Oh no, you aren't feeling well," she whispered, sounding really guilty. "I'm so sorry, Rikka. I talked too much and gave you a headache, didn't I? I'll leave so you can rest."

Before Artoria or Gilgamesh could do anything, thick black mud started bubbling up from the ground right under Manaka's feet.

The stuff spread fast, rotting the floorboards the second it touched them.

The golden chains wrapped around her started shaking violently. The black mud crawled right up the metal, and right in front of us, the bright gold turned completely pitch-black.

Gilgamesh looked furious.

The golden ripples hovered directly above Manaka as Gilgamesh tried to yank the chains back up, but the black stuff was climbing toward them way too fast. If that mud got inside the portals, it would ruin her entire vault.

Gilgamesh slammed the ripples shut with a snarl. She had to cut the connection and let that section of chain drop, watching with pure rage as the mud swallowed up a piece of the chains.

Manaka didn't even care. She didn't even look at her.

She just started sinking into the puddle of black mud, smiling at my two Servants like they were old friends.

"Take good care of her until my project is done, Artoria, Gilgamesh," Manaka said cheerfully.

She gave me one last wave, and then she sank straight through the floor and vanished.

Just like that, she was gone, leaving behind dead silence, a nasty burnt smell, and a sick knot in my stomach.

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The next day... actually, I didn't even know if it was the next day or not.

After Manaka vanished, everything was a blur. My body went completely on autopilot, and by the time my head cleared, I was already back sitting on the bed in my room, blankly staring at the wall.

"Just what is going on..." I muttered to myself.

And Fate Prototype... Back in my old life, I'd seen mentions of other Fate series while looking up Fate Zero, but I never expected there was an entire timeline revolving around Manaka and someone named Ayaka. I also knew about Fate Stay Night being the sequel to Fate Zero, but I'd just decided to watch *Fate Zero* first before ending up here.

"I wonder how many more timelines there even are..."

From whatever information had just flooded into my head, the Manaka from that world tried to raise a Beast just to grant her male Saber's wish to save Britain. But that version failed. Her Saber-Arthur-stabbed her, she fell into the Grail, and merged with the Beast. And even now, Arthur was still hunting her through different worlds.

Then something clicked, and a chill ran through me.

Lady Ava once mentioned having another student before me. She never gave me a name, but putting the pieces together now... that student had to be Arthur Pendragon. The exact same guy who stabbed Manaka and spent the rest of his life chasing her.

"Are you serious?" Is getting dragged into Manaka's crazy mess just a job requirement for Lady Ava's students? Why was I basically taking over Arthur's shift?

"Ughh..." My head was still pounding. I really needed to sleep. I didn't even know how long I'd been sitting there staring at nothing, but it had probably been hours.

Instead of lying down, though, I dragged myself out of bed and walked over to the window. I just needed some cold air to clear the fog out of my brain.

I pushed the window open. The freezing night air rushed in, and I leaned out, taking a deep breath to calm down my racing heart and dull the headache.

"Haaaaah, that's better..." I let out a long breath. The spinning in my head was finally easing up, and my pulse was slowly getting back to normal after that crazy confession.

"Fou!"

"Gyaaaahh?!"

I jumped out of my skin. My foot caught on the rug, and I fell straight backward, slamming flat onto the floorboards.

I look up, trying to see who suddenly made that noise, but it turns out it's just Cath Palug sitting on the windowsill, looking down at me.

"Cath Palug? Where did you come from?" I ask, patting my back as I finally stand up and walk toward him. "It's been a few days since you disappeared."

"Fou."

I narrow my eyes, trying to translate his weird little animal noises. "You went to the city? Why?"

"Fou fou!"

"You just wanted to watch the people there? And put your paws everywhere?" I sigh. "Why are you so random?"

Cath Palug tilts his head, letting out a questioning sound. "Fou fou?"

"Ahhh, me...?" I lean against the window frame, looking out into the dark. "It's just that I have so many things happening to me in the last few days. I just wanted to take a break and enjoy the night scenery before you suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surprised me!"

"Fou?"

My face flushes slightly. "No, it's not about that! I'm saving that for when I'm an adult. It's about Manaka and this Holy Grail War."

Cath Palug just stares at me blankly. "Fou?"

"Who is Manaka? Oh right, you never met her." I trail off, a tight knot forming in my stomach. "Manaka is like my... friend?"

I actually don't know what to call her anymore. Yes, she is my friend, but after everything that just happened... ahh, whatever. I really don't want to think about this right now.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. "Can we switch the topic?"

"Fou?"

"Like I said, stop talking about that! I'm keeping that for later!"

"Fou fou fou!" he yaps back, sounding suspiciously like he is teasing me.

"Shut up!!"

In the end, instead of getting any actual rest, I just spend a long time bickering with Cath Palug.