Fate/Strange Fake Vol 1 Epilogue

Chapter EpilogueEpilogue: Player

You—came to the city of Snowfield as a traveller, unaware of the

battle cry that nigh split the earth half a day prior.

You went into a drugstore near the entrance to the city and asked

if there were any cheap, single-story motels nearby.

The fellow manning the counter had a mohawk. His appearance

belied his friendly nature, though. He pointed out a few nearby motels

for you. He also mentioned some similarly-priced hotels nearby, but

you politely declined his suggestions.

The man with the mohawk looked at you curiously. He eventually

turned his gaze to your hands and your neck.

“Hey, those are some slick tattoos, buddy,” he murmured.

You forced yourself to chuckle at his comment as you left the store

and looked at your own two hands.

On your left hand and your right hand, identical sigils were present.

But you already knew that.

A sigil was inscribed on each of your shoulders and on your back,

as well.

A drifter who wandered into Snowfield in the midst of a war, bearing

five Command Spells: that’s who you are.

You might be a man, or perhaps a woman.

Your ethnicity and your build are known to no-one else.

You could be a criminal, or a saint, or a faker.

You are in your late teens, or maybe your early twenties.

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You have the freedom to decide what you want to do in this place.

You might meet the golden king and the red-skinned girl.

You might meet the mage who lacks malice and the murderer who

lacks a body.

You might meet a woman of deep faith and the vampire who chases

after her.

You might be imprisoned by those countless many policemen,

equipped with bizarre weaponry.

You might be abducted into the dream of the bedridden girl.

You might meet a noble beast and the Heroic Spirit who stands at

its side.

You might choose to fight alongside any of them, or choose to kill

all of them.

Betrayal, trust, ambush, abscondment. It’s all up to you.

You may destroy everything you encounter. You may save everything

you encounter.

However, you are bound by certain constraints.

Rule: You cannot enter buildings that contain elevators.

Rule: From time to time, you will have visions of a bloodstained

girl.

Rule: Once upon a time, you lived in Fuyuki, Japan.

Rule: It seems that you were fleeing something when you came to

America.

Depending on what you do, you might or might not overcome

these obstacles.

But no matter what, you cannot escape from your Command

Spells.

You know that running away will result in your death. That knowledge

is ingrained into your body.

You are connected to various Heroic Spirits by your Command

Spells.

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Unlike other Servants, your Servants cannot be summoned continuously.

If you use your power to call forth a Servant, you will lose a Command

Spell and the protection it offered.

You have access to five one-time Servants.

Depending on how you use them, you could annihilate all the

other Servants.

Indeed, you—

You came to this town to fill the gap left by the lost Saber class.

However, you are not a mage. You are a mere human.

As for why you’re in this situation in the first place—

It began three days ago—

Perhaps we should begin with the time when you met a certain

woman in Las Vegas.

After she forced you to accept the Command Spells, she whispered

to you.

“To subvert all that came about as a result of the Fifth War—”

“To make everything into nothing once again—including all the

sacrifices that were made—”

“To achieve those goals, we will seize the false Holy Grail.”

It’s not clear how much you understood the things she said.

You merely remember that she was uncommonly beautiful.

It was like a fairy tale. She, with her white hair and pale skin, led

you here, and then

Once you’ve designed your character, the rest of the story can take

place in-game!

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Afterword

Hello, everyone—I’m Narita Ryohgo, the author of this bonus volume.

I’m sure that all of you Fate fans are wondering “Who the heck

is this guy?”, and to be honest, I’m a bit discombobulated right now

myself—but anyway, let me just say hello for the time being.

When I first met Nasu, the scenario writer for Fate, I was in the

middle of reading Kara no Kyoukai and hadn’t yet gotten around to

playing Fate, but—when I played the PS2 version, I was overwhelmed

by just how interesting it was, and quickly found myself wrapped up in

the Type-Moon world.

I’m sure that many fans have thought about creating their own Servants.

As for myself, I contacted my good friend Nasu and told him

about my ideas. I really am an outrageous pain-in-the-neck fan. That’s

just who I am.

Oh, and I just remembered one more terrible thing I did as a fan.

“Hey, while I’m at it, why don’t I make an April Fools’ joke out of

it?”

That’s kind of like saying “Well, the weather is nice today, so I’m

going go for a run on the freeway”. Without really thinking too far

in advance, I wrote a story about the Servants I invented, and then I

uploaded it to my personal home page as “Prologue to Fake: a new

game”. And that became this story.

And then what? The people at Type-Moon put a link to it on their

website, and within 24 hours, I had gotten 300,000 hits. It was crazy!

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I never expected this... but I guess some things just happen. That

golden king appeared before me. Would my mere existence be disrespectful

enough to get King Goldy to kill me? That’s how flustered I

was.

Remember, this novel was written as the prologue to a game. Everything

from here forward is up to you, dear readers and players. You

have the freedom to move around the city; to negotiate with the other

Masters, or to betray them. And so, this story is filled with endless

possibilities—who knows how it’ll evolve to its conclusion?

I’ve thought about some stuff like the “All Masters Survive” route;

the “Assassin-as-a-Child” route; the “King Gil vs. Enkidu Showdown”

route, and so forth... but for the time being, let’s just stick with the

“Use Your Imagination” route. I wonder what’s going to happen now.

I also talked with Nasu about a route in which all the Masters die after

an utterly inhumane war; we decided to leave that one to Urobuchi.

I’m sure that Nasu would write secret routes in which Rin, Sakura, and

Wakame1 would show up, too. After he finishes his new game2 and

DDD, that is.

It’d be a massive undertaking, though, only made possible by the

wellspring of energy that is Fate.

I began writing this for April Fools’ towards the end of March.

Within three days, I’d written enough to fill about 140 pages of a standard

paperback-sized book3. To be honest, I wrote it significantly

faster than I would write one of my own novels.

I got the energy to do that from Fate, that great Type-Moon game.

Once I started writing this side story, I couldn’t stop. I got so much

energy from Fate that I’m still smoldering.

Anyway: To Mr. Nasu, for looking into the nitty-gritty details of

the novel’s setting when I sent it over to him on April Fools’ day without

1Matou Shinji

2The timing of Fate/strange fake’s release suggests that the game in question is

Fate/EXTRA

3i.e. bunkobon format, or A6 paper

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warning — To all the people at Type-Moon who sanctioned this novel

and linked to my personal home page on their website, especially Mr.

Takeuchi — To the folks at Type-Moon Ace who published this novel

— To Mr. Sanda Makoto, for helping me write up the fake explanation

of the game mechanics — To Ms. Morii Shizuki, for illustrating this

novel more beautifully than I could hope for and for letting the characters

bloom — And, last but certainly not least, to all you wonderful

readers, for persevering to the end of this somewhat bizarre novel

Thank you so very much...!

Narita Ryohgo

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