"Is the room small? There's no bathtub, so you'll have to use the shower. Is that okay?"
Akasha gave a bright smile. "No problem at all! I'm just happy to have a shower to cool down~"
"Then you go first, Akasha-chan. I'll leave your change of clothes outside the door." Hoshino pointed towards the bathroom. "Though my clothes might be a bit big for you, they're comfortable enough to sleep in."
"Mm, thank you, Hoshino-nee!" Akasha nodded her golden head obediently, and barefoot, she dashed into the bathroom.
"Want me to come in and lend a hand?"
"If you dare come in, Hoshino-nee, Akasha will call the police, okay? =w="
"Tsk, not cute >3<"
Splash—!
The clear sound of water came from the bathroom.
"Well, just in time..."
Hoshino plopped herself down on the bed, and a wave of exhaustion washed over her.
"What a day, but also quite productive. System, open the card shop."
[Detected: You have an SSR summon ticket. Redirecting you to the SSR-specific banner.]
"Emmm, how about I use up the rest of my Saint Quartz first?" Although Hoshino always used her SSR ticket eagerly, as her summoning experience grew, she developed her superstitions.
"Using the SSR ticket first would mess with her 'luck balance,' making her normal 10-pull less likely to give her anything good. She'd learned that the hard way after her Hokusai pull had ended in disaster."
On the other hand, since an SSR is guaranteed anyway, saving it for last might provide psychological comfort even if she got unlucky at first.
"Hahaha, I'm such a superstition master." Hoshino, grinning, navigated out of the special store.
Now she faced two choices:
[Special Limited Banner: Divine-Spirit Servants UP]
[Saint Quartz Summon (Limited Pool): Featured Servants from the Mist City London]
"167 Saint Quartz isn't a small amount. I have to plan carefully." Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Hoshino squinted and thought hard.
167 Saint Quartz—if she were harvesting from the kids at Kame Game Shop, she'd have to squeeze 33.4 kids dry. With the little brats nearly all tapped out, this Quartz felt even more precious.
Strategically, pulling from the Divine-Spirit Banner would provide the highest boost to her team's combat strength, but just as she had mentioned before…
That banner was a BAIT!
Over 200 Quartz dropped, and not even one showed up. While that's typical in FGO, in this world, with limited resources, Hoshino couldn't help but suspect that Da Vinci had set this up just to scam her Quartz.
"Guess I'll have to use my tried-and-true Hoshino Superstition #2: 'Throwing Quartz to Test the Waters'!"
Research shows that luck isn't constant but fluctuates like a stock market chart. Hoshino's technique used cheap summons (like the Friendship Summon in FGO) to check if she was in a lucky period. If she could pull a 3-star or a good Craft Essence, she would know she was in a lucky phase.
Without a Friendship Summon here, though, she had to burn some valuable Quartz to test the waters.
With that, Hoshino opened the London banner. "If I get something good early on, I'll switch to the [Divine-Spirit] banner."
[10 Summon Confirmed!]
"I remember in Chapter 4, aside from Jack and Nursery Rhyme, the remaining Servants were…"
Hoshino's thoughts were interrupted by the flash of golden light.
"Aaaah! It's happening!"
From within the golden light came a familiar voice.
"Mmm...mmm..." The voice trailed off, hard to understand.
"It's Fran! Welcome!" Hoshino immediately recognized the summoned Heroic Spirit.
"Mmm!" Fran's tone carried obvious happiness.
"To pull Fran on the first try—it seems my luck is at its peak."
Just as Hoshino thought this, another golden light appeared.
"Yo~ Master!" A clear, spirited voice rang out. "I'm here to hang out!"
"Ohhh! Mo-chan!" Pulling a 5-star was even more unexpected, affirming her peak-luck theory.
"Don't call me Mo-chan! I'll punch ya..." Mordred's gem-like green eyes glared, but then she softened. "Oh, whatever, Father would nagged me if I did. Speaking of which, Father's here too, right?"
"Yeah, Artoria is around. You two better get along and not cause trouble!" Hoshino warned.
"Yeah, yeah." Mordred looked reluctant but obedient. "Even though it's awkward with Father, I'm still happy to see ya, Master!" she added with a smile.
"Mm, welcome back!"
Satisfied with her pulls so far, Hoshino returned Mordred's card to her deck. The remaining summons didn't bring any big surprises, but Hoshino was already content.
"'Testing the Waters' worked perfectly. Now, for the main event!"
Without hesitation, she switched to the Divine Spirit banner, her eyes burning with determination. "Today, I'm unstoppable! I'm going to crush this banner!"
"Four more 10-pulls!!"
...
"Failed... I failed!" Hoshino slumped on the bed, her once fiery gaze now empty and hollow.
[Remaining Saint Quartz: 17]
"This banner was a bait Da Vinci set up to scam me! Give me back my Quartz!!"
Having no one to complain to, Hoshino stared blankly at the now-dimmed 10-pull option due to lack of Quartz.
"Screw it. If I'm sinking, I might as well sink completely." With no choice left, she opted for a single summons.
"Is this banner out of Servants or what? Is Enkidu the only Divine--Spirit? I thought that purple grandma should also be..."
"What did you just say!" A sharp voice interrupted her.
"I just said, the youthful and beautiful Shishou!"
Success! At the last moment, Hoshino turned the tide by wagering her life!
"Hehe, since Master has such a sweet mouth, I'll pretend I didn't hear your previous rude comment." Scathach's furrowed brow gradually relaxed as she revealed a smile that could captivate the world.
"Shishou, you're finally here! Do you have any idea how much it cost me to summon you?!" With a face full of grievances, Hoshino finally found someone she could complain to.
"Master, if losing a few quartz is too much for you to bear, it seems you're still far from ready. I must train you even more. First, you need to start running every morning, and then..." Before she could finish, Scathach was already planning out a training regimen for Hoshino.
"As expected from my Shishou!" Hoshino's earlier complaints disappeared in an instant as her expression turned serious. "With just one sentence, you've made me realize that Saint Quartz is merely material and something I don't need to worry about!"
"Hmph!" Scathach smiled, satisfied, and said no more.
Putting away her teacher's card, Hoshino, with mixed feelings, exited the Divine-Spirit banner.
"All in all, I guess this is a decent outcome," Hoshino consoled herself. Even though using up all the Saint Quartz was painful, her deck had greatly improved. With Scathach now on her team, she had enough confidence to face even god cards.
"Now for the real finale. Let's have a perfect ending so I can sleep soundly."
[SSR Summon Ticket Exclusive Pool Activated]
"Select: Use Summon Ticket to draw SSR!"
The golden light filling Hoshino's pale hand was brighter than ever, shining with 100% guaranteed summon probability.
"Is this...?!" Feeling the radiant glow up close, Hoshino could tell that this card was unlike any other.
It felt as though the card was somehow connected to the very gears that drove this world.
"!!!"
Normally, when Hoshino summoned an SSR, she would pause for a moment and then celebrate internally. But this time, something was different—she was only left with that brief pause, without any joy.
"A... blank card?" A card with no markings, as blank as a sheet of paper, appeared in her hand.
Completely bewildered, Hoshino had never encountered such a situation before.
"System, you're not trying to scam me, are you? You know I saved this summon for last, hoping to end the day on a high note, and now you're sinking my ticket with this?"
Though Hoshino didn't understand the significance of the blank card, she at least knew it was unusable in duels. This meant she had to consider it a failed summon.
"They sold me a defective SSR ticket! Yako... You bastard!"
Somewhere, in his hospital bed, still unconscious, Yako had just been blamed for something he had no idea about.
(***)
At a certain location in Domino City—
"What is it, Marik?" Walking along a dimly lit street, Rishid noticed Malik suddenly stop in his tracks.
Marik, feeling his pocket, wore a look of confusion. "The God card suddenly became agitated."
He pulled the God card from his deck, and sure enough, the radiant light emanating from it, as bright as the sun, illuminated the entire dark street in an instant.
"Is it the Winged Dragon of Ra? What's going on?" Rishid, also witnessing this for the first time, asked in confusion.
Holding the God card tightly between his hands, Malik replied, "I can barely sense it... such intense emotion from Ra..."
"Ra's emotions? I didn't know cards had feelings," Rishid remarked.
"They do, especially God cards," Marik said with a slight smile.
Marik, who trusted no one except Rishid, held nothing back from him.
"Just a now, it felt as though the gears of history that drive this world were turned by someone."
(***)
"I'm done, Hoshino-nee!" came Akasha's light voice from behind the wooden door of the bathroom.
"Ah!" For reasons unknown, Hoshino panicked, and she quickly stuffed the blank card into her deck.
"Need help drying off?" she asked.
"No need, I've already dried off!" Akasha responded, pushing the door open. Swallowed up in Hoshino's oversized shirt, Akasha looked like a doll, her delicate shoulders peeking out as her damp golden hair tumbled down her back.
"Not bad, not bad at all," Hoshino complimented, looking at the porcelain-doll-like Akasha.
"Hoshino-nee, you look awfully suspicious~" Akasha squinted at her with a mischievous smile. "Were you up to something naughty while I was in the shower? You sounded pretty flustered."
This little rascal, she's so sharp!
"Ahaha~" Hoshino scratched her head, laughing awkwardly.
Then she quickly changed the subject. "Let me dry your hair for you. You might catch a cold with it still wet~"
"Okay!" Akasha obediently tilted her head forward, letting Hoshino dry her damp hair.
As Hoshino stroked Akasha's soft hair, the pleasant scent of the shampoo mixed with Akasha's natural fragrance.
"Smell good~"
"You can't eat me, Hoshino-nee! I'm still little, so there isn't much meat."
"I won't, don't worry. I'm not some kind of human evil~"
If I had a little sister, she'd probably be like this, Hoshino thought, feeling a small sense of happiness.
"Hoshino-nee, are your cards all rare?" Akasha asked suddenly.
"Hmm? Why the sudden question?"
"No reason, I was just curious! You've used so many cards, but I haven't seen a single one like them before."
Hoshino smiled smugly. "Heh, if we're talking rarity, my deck is probably the rarest in the world~"
"Oh? Is that so..." Without turning her head, Akasha slightly shifted her eyes, glancing at the two decks placed beside Hoshino's bed.
.
..
...
"I'm turning off the light now~"
After the lights went out, the exhaustion from the day's events quickly overtook Hoshino, and she soon fell asleep while hugging Akasha.
The night was deep and quiet. The streets, no longer filled with the noise of daytime duels, seemed to suggest that everyone had spent all their energy. Even the toughest duelists needed this moment of peace to soothe their weary souls.
But in the stillness of the night, when all living creatures were at rest, a small figure quietly moved into Hoshino's room...
(*****)
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