So, by revealing your hand,— [ Were this conversation in person, Yuta could see the way his eyebrows draw down in thought; at this point, he can probably picture it just fine. ] It's like taking on a debt, with yourself. Wish I could do that for my Tsumukari. The damn chant takes forever.
you have something similar in your world then? i've never heard of the term geis before. but yes, it's like taking on a debt with yourself!
[ Really, he can imagine Muramasa's expressions through the tone of the texts perfectly. No painstakingly typed kaomojis needed at this point. (But they're always appreciated anyway. Also, please don't use Tsumukari again.) ]
ah that's because i don't have any such binding vows in place for myself. i don't really need a boost in cursed energy when i have so much of it and also rika's to fall back on. so it's not worth the trade off when the advantage of surprise suits my copy technique better.
It's a binding... um, curse? [ ... The words are literally identical. Help. ] Mages can engrave them onto their circuits to ensure an agreement is carried out. Like a Command Spell, but trading power for versatility, and no one gets anything in return.
[ He doesn't know not to do it if Yuta doesn't say anything. ]
Sneaky.
In a normal scenario, Servants try not to tell anyone who they are for similar reasons. Harder to get a jump on them if you don't know their weaknesses or how they died in their legends — so you know the bunch we have here are a bunch of freaks, for that alone.
[ he doesn't count. he is a freak for other reasons. ]
wow i'm amazed it sounds so similar! then with a command spell it's more about power? or is that something different altogether?
[ He's not about to Nag or Fuss over Tsumukari just yet, but like... hold that thought. ]
given how widely known legends are and how easy they are to look up, that makes a lot of sense. so those other parts of you are meant to be a secret too?
[ Was he entrusted with a secret even bigger than he initially suspected...? ]
Oh, a Command Spell only works on Servants. Remember those red marks on Rin's hand? Those were hers from our contract. They're... ehh, I guess you can call them proof a Master has a contract? They can make miracles happen, or control a really belligerent Servant or stuff like that. There's only three of 'em, though, and when the Master runs out, the contract is as good as done.
[ Its one reality marble, Yuta, how much trouble can it even cause! ]
Not exactly? Alter Egos are weird. I don't care if people know about the blind war god, really, but...
[ He can't explain, really, what his third core means to him. The kami who slew the Orochi and found the Kusanagi... Muramasa's greatest wish and aspiration was to some day see that sword and surpass it. And then he'd been summoned into this world and had that wish brushed away and fulfilled on a technicality without him ever actually truly seeing it. The reason his Tsumukari doesn't kill him isn't just because he's part Divine Spirit. It's because he's also partially the sword's first owner. ]
The other one-- he's kind of a wish fulfillment of mine, haha. It's hard to explain. Though I guess it'd be a pain if I ever had to face off against his sister for real! I'd win, but it would definitely be cheating, which would really piss me off!
i see. kind of like granting three wishes then? i've always figured servants were most similar to incarnated sorcerers like ishigori-san and uro-san, but with the way they function, i suppose you're quite a bit like shikigami too.
[ A lot when it can burn up the user, apparently. :| ]
oh, so it's more a personal thing for you. [ He won't pry... even though he kind of wants to, but Muramasa already said it's hard to explain so hnng. ] hopefully it'll never come down to having to face her. but what makes alter egos different? do they all have multiple cores?
[ Because it makes sense to him not to have to hide as much then when weaknesses can be balanced out between cores or even just not targeted all at once and thus making them less effective. ]
At the end of the day we're just expensive familiars. You probably got the wrong impression because Tezcatlipoca and Ereshkigal gotta use vessels on account of the fact that they're Divine Spirits and they need to be simplified down into something that can exist in human form, and then Muramasa's not enough of a big shot his own so he needs this vessel to fill in all the parts that the spirit is missing. Most Servants are regular heroes and just summoned on their own, as they were in life.
I couldn't tell you without meeting them in person to get a feel for their presences, but if your boy Ishigori didn't ping you as a spirit in the same way, it probably is different.
[ He only has to start burning himself up after the third... ok no after the first one, but its fine! that first one is free! ]
It is for Muramasa, yeah. [ If Yuta asked, he'd tell him... but it really is hard to explain, when it's both him and a self that he is not involved. Last time he'd mentioned a different manifestation, Yuta had said his world was strange, and he really can't argue with that. ]
Mm. My old coworkers and I are all composite Servants with Divine Spirits added to them. It's hard to find a blanket counter that covers every aspect. Pick one weakness, and then a different spirit can just take the lead and it becomes less of a problem. And the Class is a mouthful! Just use my damn name.
[ It's a good thing this is over text so Muramasa can't see how his attention catches and hangs on the words "your boy Ishigori", making him stare blankly at the holoscreen. Muramasa's seen the fight, he knows exactly what went down and what kind of connection they briefly shared during and after the battle, so he... probably doesn't mean anything by it. Still—
.... No, moving on.
Although nothing can be seen of his reaction, there is a distinct pause. One that can hopefully be shrugged off as him just processing the information or getting distracted in person by something. ]
no, those reincarnated sorcerers felt fully human. but that's because they took over the bodies of already existing people. the original souls got overridden by them and were lost. functionally they were just like regular sorcerers after that.
[ Tell that to Rika who had to carry a hot potato peepaw from the Underworld!! ]
my friend panda is very much like that too. or well... was. he lost most of his cores. but for him it was actually better to keep those hidden because no one expects a cursed corpse to have more than one core and he could conceal the presence of the others. they functioned similar to that though so that's another strange resemblance between our worlds.
do servants normally use this "class" as their name to hide their real ones then?
[ Muramasa is FULLY OBLIVIOUS to the timing, thanks. ]
Wait, really? They were living humans after? Isn't that actually really difficult to do? Transmuting souls into actual living bodies that aren't their own, I mean.
[ He might not be a real mage, but half the reason Servants got so much bullshit going on is because it's HARD to fuck around with souls after a person no longer has the body they were born with. Things automatically begin to degrade...
Anyway, he deserves to tsumukari something as a treat! The Rika uber was just because his arm was chopped! He could have probably walked out on his own otherwise... ]
More than one core sounds like a headache to manage, damn. I may have three different spirits in me, but I still only have one heart. What's a cursed corpse? You kids don't strike me as the type to tolerate shit like necromancy...
Depends on the context, but since the usual rituals need them to kill each other, it's the case more often than not. Like I said, this group is a bunch of freaks.
it is. the sorcerer responsible for making the culling games happen likely had hundreds of years to plan for it. he amassed just the right knowledge and power and made all those deals in preparation. it's not something anyone else could have just pulled off.
[ Credit where (batshit crazy) credit is due to Kenjaku, he supposes.
And uh-huh, sure.... ]
i'm not sure what the experience was like for panda exactly, but he never seemed to struggle and it wasn't like he had different personalities or anything. oh, and a cursed corpse is actually just an inanimate object possessed by a curse. panda is a doll, so thankfully not a real corpse! he's a lot smaller now, but you can see him here.
isn't he cute? (˶◜ᵕ◝˶) he'd either tell you he isn't a panda or that he is. both are more or less true.
and that's right, that's maki-san and inumaki-kun! although they all look pretty different now too. a lot has changed after only a year.... but they're still my precious friends and the reason i got so strong. i think you'd get along really well with them!
well, you're not wrong haha... panda-kun and inumaki-kun like to pull pranks a lot. （´∇｀''） and maki-san can have a bit of a temper, she's really strong-willed. but that's what i've always admired about her.
[ And oh, hitting him with the warm fuzzies like that without any prior warning at all isn't fair. ]
thank you, shishou. i've grown a lot since then and i'm really glad i had the chance to. it's all thanks to them and gojo-sensei. i really hope you get to meet them someday. yuji's told me that maki-san was here before so maybe she'll be back again.
[ It's good to see Yuta smile like the kid he is, even with those shadows under his eyes. He can hear the fondness in the words, even though they are only in writing. ]
I see... What's her curse trick? Or--should I just wait for that binding hand and see for myself?
[ learning and applying his new knowledge... even though he's still not getting the words right. ]
[ The words might not be entirely correct, but it's endearing how Muramasa tries to understand and apply what Yuta imparts to him about his world. The effort alone is deeply appreciated. ]
that wouldn't work because maki-san's special. she has no cursed technique or cursed energy at all. it's something we call heavenly restriction and it's exceedingly rare since everyone normally has a little bit of cursed energy. it's a kind of binding vow that those rare few people are born with and instead of a technique, they have extraordinary physical abilities instead.
that's why she fights using cursed tools and became a master weapons specialist. she taught me everything i know about using weapons. she's really incredible. (˶◜ᵕ◝˶)
[ Why does that sound almost familiar... If he can't remember, it can't be that important. He'll just have to learn why, later. ]
Ah, then I can't have her using any of that shit our employers got. What's her weapon of choice? A sword would be best, but I can...
[ Explaining the extent of his skill to his own apprentice? He's too distracted, clearly. The ocular text to speech doesn't catch the embarrassed laugh that slips out, or the cheerful recovery. ]
Oh, you know the rest by now. We ought to make her something in advance, and save it just in case. I've got some good tamahagane left over from Aventurine's project that I've been saving for something special, and this fits the bill, I think.
[ The ocular doesn't catch it yet it's easy enough to imagine all the same from the tone of the text that comes after and it makes Yuta smile to himself, fond. It only grows fonder still at the suggestion. ]
she's been using blades more often recently, but her personal preference is for pole-arms. naginata specifically. but would that really be okay? she might not ever be brought back here by LILITH.
[ She very much deserves that something special in his very biased opinion, but it would be a shame if it never gets used and that tamahagane could be used for something else that does. ]
I can't think of a better reason than for someone important to you. And you can use it too, if she taught you, right? I had another student in life who made a bit of a name for himself with his polearms, so you'll be following in his footsteps in a sense.
[ he means, masazane, the maker of tonbokiri. (one of the three great spears of japan is more than just any old polearm, but go off, peepaw...) ]
Now, a spearhead is a lot like a sword in many regards, but in order to mount it to the shaft we'll have to extend the nakago until it's nearly the same length as the blade itself. Takes three times the amount of ore as one of our usual blades. What's more, our usual lumber won't cut it either, since it'll have to provide the rest of the length instead of just reinforcing the nakago. I'd prefer teak, but don't know how easy it will be to find these days either, and we'll have to look around. Then, there's the lead in the shaft to add heft and the matter of the tachiuchi.
[ Oh, that warms his heart. The protest of "what if it breaks or something happens to it" occurs to him, but well... this is Muramasa who will have it fixed or replaced if need be which renders the whole argument moot before he can think to send it. ]
thank you, shishou. i'm not as good with polearms as she is, but i suppose that's all the more reason to practice. i know she would really love it, especially when you taught the maker of the tonbokiri too.
[ Ha, Yuta did his homework there. ]
i see. a lot goes into making a spear huh.... i can start by looking into how difficult it is to obtain teak online. if it's not too expensive i could order it and have it brought over if there isn't any we can pick up nearby.
I already got paid, though, back when he ordered the sword. Eleven ryō for a genuine Muramasa.
[ ding! there's a link to his original deal on the network, public and out there for everyone to see. one day before all the disappearances in may started. ]
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So, by revealing your hand,— [ Were this conversation in person, Yuta could see the way his eyebrows draw down in thought; at this point, he can probably picture it just fine. ] It's like taking on a debt, with yourself. Wish I could do that for my Tsumukari. The damn chant takes forever.
I notice you didn't tell anyone what you can do.
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i've never heard of the term geis before.
but yes, it's like taking on a debt with yourself!
[ Really, he can imagine Muramasa's expressions through the tone of the texts perfectly. No painstakingly typed kaomojis needed at this point. (But they're always appreciated anyway. Also, please don't use Tsumukari again.) ]
ah that's because i don't have any such binding vows in place for myself.
i don't really need a boost in cursed energy when i have so much of it and also rika's to fall back on.
so it's not worth the trade off when the advantage of surprise suits my copy technique better.
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[ He doesn't know not to do it if Yuta doesn't say anything. ]
Sneaky.
In a normal scenario, Servants try not to tell anyone who they are for similar reasons. Harder to get a jump on them if you don't know their weaknesses or how they died in their legends — so you know the bunch we have here are a bunch of freaks, for that alone.
[ he doesn't count. he is a freak for other reasons. ]
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then with a command spell it's more about power?
or is that something different altogether?
[ He's not about to Nag or Fuss over Tsumukari just yet, but like... hold that thought. ]
given how widely known legends are and how easy they are to look up, that makes a lot of sense.
so those other parts of you are meant to be a secret too?
[ Was he entrusted with a secret even bigger than he initially suspected...? ]
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[ Its one reality marble, Yuta, how much trouble can it even cause! ]
Not exactly? Alter Egos are weird. I don't care if people know about the blind war god, really, but...
[ He can't explain, really, what his third core means to him. The kami who slew the Orochi and found the Kusanagi... Muramasa's greatest wish and aspiration was to some day see that sword and surpass it. And then he'd been summoned into this world and had that wish brushed away and fulfilled on a technicality without him ever actually truly seeing it. The reason his Tsumukari doesn't kill him isn't just because he's part Divine Spirit. It's because he's also partially the sword's first owner. ]
The other one-- he's kind of a wish fulfillment of mine, haha. It's hard to explain. Though I guess it'd be a pain if I ever had to face off against his sister for real! I'd win, but it would definitely be cheating, which would really piss me off!
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kind of like granting three wishes then?
i've always figured servants were most similar to incarnated sorcerers like ishigori-san and uro-san, but with the way they function, i suppose you're quite a bit like shikigami too.
[ A lot when it can burn up the user, apparently. :| ]
oh, so it's more a personal thing for you. [ He won't pry... even though he kind of wants to, but Muramasa already said it's hard to explain so hnng. ]
hopefully it'll never come down to having to face her.
but what makes alter egos different? do they all have multiple cores?
[ Because it makes sense to him not to have to hide as much then when weaknesses can be balanced out between cores or even just not targeted all at once and thus making them less effective. ]
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At the end of the day we're just expensive familiars. You probably got the wrong impression because Tezcatlipoca and Ereshkigal gotta use vessels on account of the fact that they're Divine Spirits and they need to be simplified down into something that can exist in human form, and then Muramasa's not enough of a big shot his own so he needs this vessel to fill in all the parts that the spirit is missing. Most Servants are regular heroes and just summoned on their own, as they were in life.
I couldn't tell you without meeting them in person to get a feel for their presences, but if your boy Ishigori didn't ping you as a spirit in the same way, it probably is different.
[ He only has to start burning himself up after the third... ok no after the first one, but its fine! that first one is free! ]
It is for Muramasa, yeah. [ If Yuta asked, he'd tell him... but it really is hard to explain, when it's both him and a self that he is not involved. Last time he'd mentioned a different manifestation, Yuta had said his world was strange, and he really can't argue with that. ]
Mm. My old coworkers and I are all composite Servants with Divine Spirits added to them. It's hard to find a blanket counter that covers every aspect. Pick one weakness, and then a different spirit can just take the lead and it becomes less of a problem. And the Class is a mouthful! Just use my damn name.
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.... No, moving on.
Although nothing can be seen of his reaction, there is a distinct pause. One that can hopefully be shrugged off as him just processing the information or getting distracted in person by something. ]
no, those reincarnated sorcerers felt fully human.
but that's because they took over the bodies of already existing people.
the original souls got overridden by them and were lost.
functionally they were just like regular sorcerers after that.
[ Tell that to Rika who had to carry a hot potato peepaw from the Underworld!! ]
my friend panda is very much like that too.
or well... was. he lost most of his cores.
but for him it was actually better to keep those hidden because no one expects a cursed corpse to have more than one core and he could conceal the presence of the others.
they functioned similar to that though so that's another strange resemblance between our worlds.
do servants normally use this "class" as their name to hide their real ones then?
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Wait, really? They were living humans after? Isn't that actually really difficult to do? Transmuting souls into actual living bodies that aren't their own, I mean.
[ He might not be a real mage, but half the reason Servants got so much bullshit going on is because it's HARD to fuck around with souls after a person no longer has the body they were born with. Things automatically begin to degrade...
Anyway, he deserves to tsumukari something as a treat! The Rika uber was just because his arm was chopped! He could have probably walked out on his own otherwise... ]
More than one core sounds like a headache to manage, damn. I may have three different spirits in me, but I still only have one heart. What's a cursed corpse? You kids don't strike me as the type to tolerate shit like necromancy...
Depends on the context, but since the usual rituals need them to kill each other, it's the case more often than not. Like I said, this group is a bunch of freaks.
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it is.
the sorcerer responsible for making the culling games happen likely had hundreds of years to plan for it.
he amassed just the right knowledge and power and made all those deals in preparation.
it's not something anyone else could have just pulled off.
[ Credit where (batshit crazy) credit is due to Kenjaku, he supposes.
And uh-huh, sure.... ]
i'm not sure what the experience was like for panda exactly, but he never seemed to struggle and it wasn't like he had different personalities or anything.
oh, and a cursed corpse is actually just an inanimate object possessed by a curse.
panda is a doll, so thankfully not a real corpse! he's a lot smaller now, but you can see him here.
[ ATTACHMENT: FIRST-YEAR. ]
[ He sure did take a picture of the photo he arrived with so he has a digital version for easy viewing (and now sharing) too. ]
they need to kill each other when they're summoned?
it really is just like the culling games...
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Then the girl and the short one would be... Maki and Inumaki, right?
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he'd either tell you he isn't a panda or that he is.
both are more or less true.
and that's right, that's maki-san and inumaki-kun!
although they all look pretty different now too.
a lot has changed after only a year....
but they're still my precious friends and the reason i got so strong.
i think you'd get along really well with them!
[ He wishes he could introduce them SO BAD... ]
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I'll have to thank your friends for taking such good care of you if divine ordinance ever has our paths cross .
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panda-kun and inumaki-kun like to pull pranks a lot. （´∇｀''）
and maki-san can have a bit of a temper, she's really strong-willed.
but that's what i've always admired about her.
[ And oh, hitting him with the warm fuzzies like that without any prior warning at all isn't fair. ]
thank you, shishou.
i've grown a lot since then and i'm really glad i had the chance to.
it's all thanks to them and gojo-sensei.
i really hope you get to meet them someday.
yuji's told me that maki-san was here before so maybe she'll be back again.
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I see... What's her curse trick? Or--should I just wait for that binding hand and see for myself?
[ learning and applying his new knowledge... even though he's still not getting the words right. ]
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that wouldn't work because maki-san's special.
she has no cursed technique or cursed energy at all.
it's something we call heavenly restriction and it's exceedingly rare since everyone normally has a little bit of cursed energy.
it's a kind of binding vow that those rare few people are born with and instead of a technique, they have extraordinary physical abilities instead.
that's why she fights using cursed tools and became a master weapons specialist.
she taught me everything i know about using weapons.
she's really incredible. (˶◜ᵕ◝˶)
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Ah, then I can't have her using any of that shit our employers got. What's her weapon of choice? A sword would be best, but I can...
[ Explaining the extent of his skill to his own apprentice? He's too distracted, clearly. The ocular text to speech doesn't catch the embarrassed laugh that slips out, or the cheerful recovery. ]
Oh, you know the rest by now. We ought to make her something in advance, and save it just in case. I've got some good tamahagane left over from Aventurine's project that I've been saving for something special, and this fits the bill, I think.
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she's been using blades more often recently, but her personal preference is for pole-arms.
naginata specifically.
but would that really be okay?
she might not ever be brought back here by LILITH.
[ She very much deserves that something special in his very biased opinion, but it would be a shame if it never gets used and that tamahagane could be used for something else that does. ]
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[ he means, masazane, the maker of tonbokiri. (one of the three great spears of japan is more than just any old polearm, but go off, peepaw...) ]
Now, a spearhead is a lot like a sword in many regards, but in order to mount it to the shaft we'll have to extend the nakago until it's nearly the same length as the blade itself. Takes three times the amount of ore as one of our usual blades. What's more, our usual lumber won't cut it either, since it'll have to provide the rest of the length instead of just reinforcing the nakago. I'd prefer teak, but don't know how easy it will be to find these days either, and we'll have to look around. Then, there's the lead in the shaft to add heft and the matter of the tachiuchi.
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thank you, shishou.
i'm not as good with polearms as she is, but i suppose that's all the more reason to practice.
i know she would really love it, especially when you taught the maker of the tonbokiri too.
[ Ha, Yuta did his homework there. ]
i see.
a lot goes into making a spear huh....
i can start by looking into how difficult it is to obtain teak online.
if it's not too expensive i could order it and have it brought over if there isn't any we can pick up nearby.
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[ there's his emoji ]
and money might not be an issue in a week or so, if all goes well. we'll ask aventurine to cover it!
[ because.... he is assuming he will not be getting paid for the auction. he was paid in advance... ]
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ദ്ദി( •̀ ᴗ - ˵ )
[ .... Also, hold up. ]
wait
won't you get paid for that yourself too?
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[ ding! there's a link to his original deal on the network, public and out there for everyone to see. one day before all the disappearances in may started. ]
See?
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but you said it'll be sold, right?
won't you be getting a cut of that as its maker?
because you should be.
[ Does the accountant need to go have Words??? ]
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1/2.
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🎀