章 7: Omake-Interlude: A Hero (?)

France was burning.

Kojiro saw the bodies of the undead, their faces still torn in the expression of turmoil before they succumbed to the mysterious curse and the endless influx of dragons.

Artoria walked on uncomfortably, yet resolutely. Jeanne leaned on her staff, about to be sick. Oddly, the children in our group remained unbothered. Antoinette tried not to look at the anguished bodies.

At first, it was wyverns. Wave, after wave. They didn't stop coming.

And then, it was the undead. Theyspilled out of the ground, reanimated by a dark curse.

His sword had cut through them all.

"How do you know so much about dragons?" Kojiro had asked, watching Artoria expertly dodge a claw before bisecting the beast that had been giving the group of heroic spirits so much trouble. Cu was somewhere, impaled on his own spear (again) after his luck caught up with him, while St. George was using Ascalon's special properties to turn dragons into… dragons.

Yeah. Thou art a dragon indeed.

"Well, you have to know these things when you're king, you know." She said, shrugging, before her gaze sharpened and she leveled that beautiful sword at yet another wyverns.

…

He had stood behind when the group of servants were sent to battle Fafnir.

Both him and his master knew that he was merely a wraith, and not yet a full on servant. The universe whispered to him that he was weak. That he was rated just a one out of five. He was always bronze. He only had two skills (whatever that meant). And that he was utterly useless.

Jeanne's Lumioste Eternelle shielded the group consisting of Siegfried, Artoria, and Marie Antoinette from the dragonfire, but the saint was immobilized by the drawback of their own noble phantasm.

Then, after mana gathered in the air, Siegfried and Artoria both fired off their noble phantasms, with Marie Antonette advancing as well with Guillotine Breaker (or whatever you called a glass horse).

The blue and yellow beams merged together to form a swirly mass, and the glass shards made the lights refract across the sky, temporarily outshining the sun.

Other servants attacked as well, with Cu Chulainn (The servant having survived the first waves of dragons and his bad luck with just his battle continuation skill) attacking recklessly with his Gae Bolg now that victory was ascertained. Saint George's sword lay somewhere on the battlefield, the heroic spirit having been subdued acting as a shield for the group of heroic spirits early on in the battle against the wyverns so the aces wouldn't be hampered by earlier injuries.

When the smoke cleared and the dust dissipated, what greeted the heroic spirits was the blue glow of Fafnir's armor, followed by a breath of blue dragonfire more fierce than even the noble phantasms. Contrary to Excalibur's ray of hope, it was the heat of destruction that permeated the fields, rendering the grass into ashes. The heroic spirits advancing on what they thought was a felled foe were caught point blank and blown back by the cursed heat, stunned and burned by the demonic lightshow.

The master looked on with an air of shock on their eyes. Mashu Kyrelight stood up one last time, their magic resistance and shield saving them from the devastation, but not completely mitigating the damage.

As the dragon's claw came down, Kojiro dashed forward. Even if his stats as an assassin weren't impressive at all, his Agility stat was the one thing that stood out amongst the rest of the servants.

The ivory talons of Fafnir's claw scraped against the Monoshizao, and Kojiro flipped back after deflecting the blow, resting his blade over his shoulders.

For a moment, the last standing servant seemed almost heroic, despite having a neutral evil alignment.

The dragon and the slayer of swallows seemingly stared at each other, Fafnir almost scoffing before absentmindedly putting a foot down on Kojiro.

Kojiro easily dodged the attack, and then lashed out with a tiny cut to the dragon's paw.

Fafnir looked at Kojiro, and did the dragon equivalent of raising an eyebrow.

Mash and the barely conscious servants struggling to get up watched the battle in all its glory.

…

"Tsubame Gaeshi." Kojiro exhaled, the sword once again gouging some deep blows in Fafnir that… somehow defeated the beast.

The master was downright gaping at this point.

Kojiro was burned, and his robe's sleeves were almost gone, but despite only reaching up to the dragon's …knee…. thing (He would have to ask Artoria later about dragon anatomy), he had somehow broken the Dragon's spirit origin through the armor of Fafnir, a blessing that negated attacks of B rank or lower.

Kojiro just stood near the fading corpse as, dramatically, a wind blew through the clearing that they stood on, blowing the dragon's dark dust across the background… dramatically.

Adressing nobody in particular, Kojiro sighed.

"In the end, Dragons are just bigger swallows."

…

Everything changed.

…

Kojiro went from a nobody in the team to the one who carried the team throughout singularities. Suddenly, Hector's spearmanship was overwhelmed by the power of the "grailed Kojiro". The Sun King Ozymandias was felled with three sword slashes to the chest. Tiamat was relegated to the ranks of a swallow even though she filled the void of the entire Babylonian underworld when a normal swallow only barely filled the palm of one's hand.

Kojiro had gained a passive boost in parameters in France, and somehow, bonus damage against dragons. The beasts just crumbled before him after Tsubame Gaeshi hit their feet.

It made absolutely no sense.

It was Kojiro, Saviour of France, and slayer of dragons, that stepped onto the final battleground. Mash's shield was still embedded in the dirt, as a mark to where she gave her life to protecting the master.

It was a long and grueling fight. Goetia had taken out half of the attacking servants at once with a singular, flashy attack at the beginning of the fight, but Kojiro and a couple of others persevered.

Cu looked on, bleeding from a thousand cuts after being hit point blank by one of the strange arm laser things. Merlin knelt on his knees, supported by his crooked staff, grinning at the sight of Kojiro approaching Goetia for the last time.

"Impossible… Impossible! How could a mere wraith best me? Goetia, the king of the demon pillars? Goetia, the king of humans?"

"I have slain many in this strange adventure." Kojiro said calmly, slowly settling in his stance. "I have defated Fafnir. Jeanne d' Arc Alter. A lot of versions of Artoria. Ozymandias. Tiamat. That weird servant that calls herself BB but is actually a computer virus."

Goetia shot one last desperate laser at Kojiro, but that was sidestepped as Kojiro once more phased into his Mind's Eye ability.

"The point is, even if you are a demon god, you are no different from the others."

"Noooooo!" Goetia shouted, jumping forward and throwing a punch at Kojiro, who leaned back before setting into his stance.

"Hiken."

One Kojiro took one last breath, and three Kojiros leaned forward once more. His arm felt like it was doing three things at once, pulling at the muscles strangely. His voice and breath was oddly echoey as the three spinning blades arced towards Goetia.

"Tsubame Gaeshi." The words emanated throughout the silent battlefield, and was heard even as canons fired and energy beams boomed in the distance.

To his credit, Goetia reacted in time to the supremely swift blow. Two arms reached out to grab the two blades curving in at his head while a leg was raised to block the third.

The three Kojiro's merged into one again as the cuts showed on Goetia's arms and legs. Dark blood seeped out of the wound as Goetia stumbled back, but not before retaliating with a kick that Kojiro failed to anticipate.

The heavy blow shattered his spirit origin, and for a moment, he felt like he was going to fade away. However, there was a warn glow as the charm their master gave to them activated.

The charm's name was Nightless Rose.

Bolstered by the sudden influx of energy, Kojiro stood up, spirit origin hanging on by a literal thread.

"Impossible!" Goetia screamed desperately. "I have installed the Nega-Summon trait! Heroic spirits are nothing to me! How can you, a swordsman so nameless that your existence is but a myth, defeat me?"

"That's where you're wrong." Kojiro said, stumbling forward slowly. "For I am but a lowly wraith, and not something as grand as a heroic spirit."

The master stood up and raised the back of his hand. A single red line glowed, and words of power filled his core.

"Sasaki Kojiro, by the power of my command seal, unleash your noble phantasm!"

Even if he was at the brink of collapse, despite his "noble phantasm" possessing no rank, his arms responded once more. Calling upon his A++ rank agility, he jumped straight to Goetia's side, and then-

"Hiken."

Goetia could do nothing but turn to face him.

"Tsubame Gaeshi."

This time, the three slashes of his sword sank into Goetia's chest, and the demon stumbled back.

"Aaaah…." This time, it was Goetia with a crumbling spirit origin.

"Aaah….Aargh!"

He finally faded away. And Kojiro stood, sword almost falling to the ground in exhaustion.

Their master ran up and caught Kojiro's crumpling form, their mystic code activating. The small influx of energy was enough to keep Kojiro on his feet.

"We… we did it." Kojiro said weakly. Their master nodded tearfully, and as they were about to speak, the ground began shaking.

There was no time for celebration. The final singularity was collapsing.

With his blurry vision, he could see Jason being thrown out of the singularity by Heracles, before the brute followed suit with one mighty leap. The various versions of Artoria supported their original version from the battlefield against Goetia, and began jumping from floating rock to floating rock, going to the portal back to Chaldea. St. George helped Cu Chulainn onto his horse Bernyard, and the mighty steed began bounding back to the gate.

Suddenly, a face that looked like Dr. Roman's blocked the gate. The orange-yellow hair seemed so strange on a visage that was formerly so kind.

"Goetia." Kojiro's master hissed. Kojiro raised his sword again, ready to do intense battle for the ninth time in this singularity.

"The Demon Gods have burned away. My temple is destroyed." The figure said sadly, slowly floating in the air.

"My grand plan for the Incineration of Humanity dies with me. But, I will at least deny you this final victory. Let us begin, Master of Chaldea… I shall annihilate you, and all you've achieved, with my own hands."

The master just grinned savagely. "I was looking for another opportunity to beat your face in."

Reaching into his pocket, he brought out one singular, rainbow colored crystal, the topic of many of the master's obsessions.

Normally, for them to use the crystal to aid them in battle was tantamount to speaking heresy.

But now? The quartz was crushed beneath his feet, and the energy flowed into all of us servants. Cu Chulainn's battlesuit mended itself. St. George stood taller, no longer burdened by wounds. Artoria shoved her alternate versions through the portal before jumping back onto the crumbling platform that was to be their final battleground against Goetia.

And Kojiro finally felt a smile creep onto his face once again.

It was on.

…

In the end, it was just the four of them. Kojiro, Goetia, the master, and … St. George.

Cu Chulainn had been critical hit into oblivion a couple of minutes into the battle, while Artoria had been blown back after unleashing all her mana in one brilliant shot of Excalibur. Now, the two servants and one god on the field were near their end.

St. George took the initiative, breaking the stalemate that had occurred after Kojiro had scored a particularly nasty blow on Goetia's remaining arm.

"Thy dragon, originating from sin, see the truth of Ascalon!"

Bernyard took the hit for Georgios as a magical blast threatened to blow Georgios off the edge of the platform, and Georgios tumbled off his horse, before stabbing his sword straight at Goetia's torso. A single, powerful backhand was enough to send the saint flying, but the sword still scored a hit on Goetia's already injured arm.

"Heh. A foolish attempt."

Georgios stood up with the battle continuation skill, only for one more magical blast to render the spirit origin unstable. Georgios faded out of existence, but not before sending the last bit of his energy to Kojiro.

On his face was a confident smile.

Kojiro didn't understand why. All the times that he's been defeated across various lives, he's either stretched out a hand in despair or disbelief, or felt admiration for the person that finally killed him.

Never before was he… confident.

The master roared in fury, and tears dripped off of their eyes.

Kojiro needed no order to attack. Stepping off of a protruding slab of rock, Kojiro landed in front of Goetia and slashed horizontally, before recovering from the wild slash and going for a vertical one almost immediately.

The rapid hits scored surprisingly deep, and even Goetia was slightly discontorted by the pain that the mundane sword caused him.

"I have been defeated by you once, but I shall not be felled a second time. You and your master shall die here."

Kojiro hadn't been listening to the dialogue. He was merely reacting to the fact that his blade had sank into Dragon flesh. The innate powers of the Nega Summon trait, which were already weak on Kojiro due to his wraith status, had effectively been amortized.

He grinned.

"How can you be smiling now?" Goetia said. "Perhaps your mind is cracking from the pressure from fighting me, King of Humans?"

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of a dragon growling meaninglessly."

"What?" Goetia said, floating into the air and looking around cautiously. "What dragon?"

Kojiro had already leapt up into the air and held his sword over his head, preparing to strike downwards.

"Not again!" Goetia yelled, converting some of his health into mana and then using it to fire his facsimile of a Noble Phantasm. Unfortuately for Goetia, Georgios' protection was still with Kojiro, and the energy beams were blocked by ephermial shields.

One sword came down, and three strikes struck Goetia. As Kojiro exhaled and sheathed his sword one last time, Goetia fell down to the rock the battle had been taking place on.

"Defeated by a technicality again?" Goetia said vacantly.

The master looked on victoriously, but then looked at Georgios's dust and the rest of the servant's fallen bodies, before trying to drag them through the portal and back to Chaldea.

Kojiro grabbed Cu Chulainn and Artoria and leapt through the portal, the Master following after one last, sad look at Mash's shield, still standing on the island where she had perished.

"Despite everything… It was …. Truly… a splendid life…." Goetia murmured.

And then, everything went white.

…

They had won.

Kojiro sat down as Cu Chulainn and Artoria recovered, before both were rushed by their alternate versions and taken away elsewhere to converse.

Many heroic spirits had fallen, but it was the end of their journey. The surviving heroic spirits had been saying their goodbyes, paying respect to their fallen comrades, and then fading away slowly into golden particles.

The master was currently looking around for Fou, the Chaldean mascot, as a way to find something to do.

The heroic spirits knew of their loss, and merely offered claps on the back and pats on the shoulder. The servants that had been with him the longest went up for a couple of lines of tearful dialogue

Kojiro had slung his sword back onto his back and grabbed a bottle of chilled sake, and brought it to a remote break room. It was rather dusty and cluttered everywhere with boxes full of quantum pieces and burger wrappers, but it had a window.

"I much prefer my wine warmed." He mused, looking at the moon.

The door burst open, and the master looked around for the white, fuzzy creature that was Fou.

"Oh, master. Have you found the mascot yet?"

Said master sat down on a chair and promptly began crying.

Kojiro sat there, next to him, incredibly awkwardly. He had never been in touch with the emotional side of things.

"…I'm sorry." The master croaked out.

"For what?" Kojiro said, scratching his head and pouring himself another small cup of sake.

"I was such a… jerk to you at the start. Back when… Back when it was just me, Mash, Cu, Artoria, and you."

Kojiro sipped on his wine. It wasn't as appealing as he had thought it would be, after that sour sentence.

"It's fine." He sighed, putting down the cup and watching a couple droplets slosh out of the white, ceramic cup. "I'm used to being relegated as useless."

"But it's not!" the master said, suddenly looking up. "You defeated fafnir. You took down Tiamat. You even killed Goetia twice!"

"And any other heroic spirit in the right time and place could have done so." Kojiro shrugged. "I am nothing special. In fact, I still admit I am weaker than most of the others here. Being a mere-"

"It doesn't matter if you're a wraith or a heroic spirit!" the master yelled. The sudden outburst almost made Kojiro drop his sake. "You're a hero… to all of us."

"No. That would be you, my master." Kojiro said, smiling now. "My alignment is Neutral Evil. I was always the villain and side character in the story. First an enigmatic swordsmaster in history, and then a gatekeeper."

"After this, you won't be." the master said determinedly. "History will remember you as-"

"Except it won't." Kojiro said. "Proper human history is on its way now. Everybody summoned as a result of it is fading away."

He held up a hand, and a signature golden glow was growing ever so slightly more obvious at his fingertips. Tiny, golden flakes were floating off gently.

"You won't!" The master said, almost as if in denial. "You all won't disappear! As long as Chaldea has mana and the resources, you'll be able to stay here."

"Achilles has already faded away, from what I've heard." Kojiro said, sighing. "Most of the mana intensive servants with powerful passives are already gone."

"What?"

"I'm still so whole right now because I'm so… weak." Kojiro said, looking at the moon again.

"You're not." A feeble protest met the statement.

The two just sat in silence for a while, one in mute shock and sadness, and the other with apathy and acceptance

"You'll see Mash again." Kojiro said.

"What?" the Master said, face still blank.

"I usually just get written into stories." Kojiro stated, grabbing his sword again. "The Sasaki Kojiro that has been summoned here is a literary version of the actual Kojiro. And if this is also a story, then you'll be able to get the happy ending that you deserve after saving the world."

"You all will be gone!"

"Sure, we'll be gone." Kojiro said. "But you're alive, and that's what matters. The world is alive. We're already dead. I don't even exist."

Kojiro felt his time limit ticking closer and closer. He dropped the bottle of Sake that he had just put on the table into his master's lap.

"Drink some of this when you're of age. I always wanted to have a drink with you but…. As of now? That's very unlikely."

The master began sobbing, the tears mixing with the alcoholic drink. Kojiro patted them on the shoulder, before standing up and facing the window.

"You should probably say goodbye to the others that are still around." Kojiro said.

The master sniffled, and got up.

"Y-you'll always be my favorite servant."

Kojiro froze.

"Always. You've really carried all of us through this adventure. And w-whenever I need to summon servants again, I'll make sure to get you first!"

He was… the favorite?

That never happened. Ever. Sasaki Kojiro was always the side character. The villain to be defeated. The obstacle to be crossed. Never before had he been… the favorite… of anything.

"This truly is the best story that I've been in."

"You say that about every single one that you've been in, right?" the master said, tears trailing down their face but lips quirked up in a smile.

"No, I really mean it."

The two stood there for a couple more seconds, before the door closed behind Kojiro, and the sound of the master blowing their nose grew further and further.

"Yeah… what a tale this was."

An hour later, only the porcelain cup and the crates of goods were left in the room. There was no swordsman in sight. The moon shone in from the windows, but was outshined by the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

There was nothing left of the Grand Order but memories now.

Still, what a collection of memories it was. From dragon slaying to messing around in the Hawaiian islands, from revisiting the Tokugawa Shogunate to messing around with GudaGuda…

And for a certain heroic spirit, from a nameless swordsman to a certain master's favorite.

…

The stories piled into Kojiro's existence as a wraith. Being a fictional and literary element, these interpretations mattered a lot for his spirit origin.

Through the dysphoria of absorbing alternate universe versions of him, Kojiro felt himself grow stronger. All of the different masters that cherished him, the ones that used him in singularities and grailed him to increase his stats contributed to his new legend.

Even if the history of Grand Order had faded away from their respective worlds, they still irreversibly changed the wraith.

Through the haze of memories, both good and bad, the entity known as Sasaki Kojiro smiled.

Whether he liked it or now, he was now… a hero. For some people, at least.