How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

"A black magic-specific equipment spell?"

He infused it with magic to materialize it, and Yudo weighed the book that appeared in his hand. It had a leather cover, a keyhole pattern in the center of the cover, and a round emerald green gem.

"I managed to perfectly avoid the [Grimoire] and [DD] fields, which contain the most 'book' elements... Am I lucky or unlucky?"

Despite the complaints, Yuuto still tested the card's use outside of duels.

The result was somewhat unexpected.

When used outside of duels, the Magic Spellbook can release magic bullets to attack by consuming magic power. Moreover, a single magic bullet does not consume much magic power. With his magic power and Rin Tohsaka as his master, they can easily achieve the effect of clearing the screen like a barrage of bullets.

"Although the effect is good, and it gives me a regular attack method with low energy consumption, why do I feel like an Archer is becoming more and more like a Caster?"

After turning the magic spellbook back into a card, Yuuto felt that something was not quite right.

An Archer who has never used a bow, can summon familiars, can fire magic bullets, has A+ rank magic power, and whose Noble Phantasm is to find someone to play cards with...

This doesn't sound like a proper Archer at all...

That's weird... But it seems like no one has encountered Caster yet. Maybe he should just pretend to be Caster for now?

In a sense, could this be considered misleading the opponent?

However, his fighting style... seems to suggest that his class is more of a misleading concept...

Forget it, if I keep thinking about it, it'll never end. I should just go to sleep!

He didn't sleep last night, and now he feels like something's missing...

Putting the card away, You Du decided to put the matter aside for now and think about it later. He then went upstairs, found an empty guest room, and lay down, preparing to begin his first sleep since his transmigration.

At the same moment he fell asleep, Rin Tohsaka on the other side had a dream...

Chapter Ten: Different Dreams

Rin Tohsaka had a dream.

It was a very real dream, so real that she could clearly recognize that she was dreaming.

Yes, it's a bit strange, but that's how she really feels right now.

"Is this what they mean by Masters dreaming about their Contracted Servants' past...?"

Rin Tohsaka continued walking through the desert until she came across a castle built on a pointed mountain peak, at which point she stopped.

She saw a person wearing a dark, menacing armor emerge from the castle. On the left arm armor, a device similar to the one on Yuuto's left arm unfolded, but even more grotesque and terrifying.

"Is that person...Archer...?"

Looking at the figure that walked out, Rin Tohsaka murmured hesitantly.

Although the other person had something similar on their arm, just like Yuto, she always felt that this person was not like Yuto, whether in terms of physique, temperament, or the oppressive feeling emanating from them.

The powerful pressure made her feel cold all over, as if the blood in her body was terrified of the other party and was constantly fleeing from her body.

She heard the monsters inside the castle, who looked like demons from various Western fantasy novels, cheering and happily calling this person 'Overlord'.

This guy isn't Archer, absolutely not!

Rin Tohsaka gritted her teeth and continued to stand in place, thinking firmly at that moment.

But what she dreamed of was You Du's past. If this "tyrant" wasn't You Du, then where was You Du?

she does not know.

Finding someone in a dream world of uncertain size is no less difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.

However, the area outside the castle is almost entirely desert, so she believes that Youdu must be inside the castle, and she just needs to wait for him to appear.

After that, people kept coming to the castle to challenge that 'tyrant'.

Because of the oppressive aura emanating from the opponent, Rin Tohsaka dared not approach, so she always stood at a distance, but still watched every single battle of the 'Overlord'.

She saw a colossal dragon clad in armor, commanding thunder and lightning; she saw angels made entirely of machinery; she saw a rainbow dragon as beautiful as a shimmering jewel; she saw dinosaurs resurrected from ancient times and electronic dragons from the future…

Without exception, they all fell to the clutches of the tyrant's 'demons'.

In the final battle, Rin Tohsaka saw the Overlord raise a card high in his hand and heard him speak the second sentence she had heard in this dream in that cold voice that felt very familiar to her but she dared not confirm it.

"Let me show you! This is the symbol of the strongest power created from the darkness within!"

"Absolutely invincible! Unleash the ultimate power! Hyper Fusion!"

And so, the dream came to an end.

It doesn't mean the dream is over, but rather, literally, the entire dream world has come to its final end.

The earth cracked into pieces, the sky was torn apart, the ocean was drained, and the whole world disappeared into the dark vortex as if it were being devoured.

Finally, Rin Tohsaka saw the Overlord turn to look at her, and she finally saw his face clearly. Beneath that black helmet was—

"Archer!"

Rin Tohsaka woke up with a start, sitting up abruptly in bed, panting heavily as if she had just crawled out of the water, her body covered in cold sweat that soaked her pajamas.

It wasn't until she came to her senses and realized she had been dreaming that she gradually calmed down. Looking at the sunlight streaming in through the window, Rin Tohsaka lay down, feeling utterly exhausted, with one hand limply resting on her forehead.

"This dream is truly... truly too—"

……

"It's so cool!"

Yu Du stretched lazily and then sat up in bed.

As the first sleep he took after transmigrating, if he could rate it, he would give it a five-star rating.

Not only did he feel refreshed after waking up, but he also had a dream while sleeping: he became the Jaden of the Overlord, using an evil hero deck to duel others and constantly drawing divine cards to crush the original GX characters, and all of these people's decks were enhanced versions.

For example, Tenjouin Asuka using the Machine Angel Ritual Deck, with Armed Dragon LV10 Manjoume in hand, can stack Cyber ​​Dragon, Infinite Hell Caesar, and so on...

Even now, he still vividly remembers the duels in that dream, including the last duel where he performed a cool move by reciting the lines spoken by Jaden Hojo when he activated the Super Fusion in the original series.

That scene made him rank it as the best dream he had ever had.

"Just before I woke up, I felt like I saw Rin? Was it a hallucination? Did I have a hallucination in my dream? Or is it just that I was thinking about it during the day and dreaming about it at night? But that doesn't seem right, I've only been in the world for a day, right?"

"Forget it, dreams are inherently illogical anyway. Let alone seeing Rin, it would be perfectly normal for me to see some chaotic evil tearing apart a Demon God Pillar in my dream..."

With a good mood that would last all day, Yuuto changed his clothes and went downstairs, greeting Rin Tohsaka, who was sitting in the living room drinking red tea and watching TV, dressed neatly for some reason.

"Yo! Good morning, Master! You're up early today!"

"!!!"

Unexpectedly, the moment he spoke, Rin Tohsaka jumped up from the sofa like a cat seeing a cucumber, throwing her teacup away.

What the hell!

Unexpectedly, Yu Du reacted so strongly that he quickly caught the empty teacup.

As for the tea... of course, it was all spilled out!

"Master, what's wrong?"

Yuuto placed the teacup he had caught back on the table, looking at Rin Tohsaka's shocked and fearful expression, feeling utterly bewildered.

"Was I that scary just now? Why did I frighten you like that?"

He naturally connected the other person's unusual posture to his own dream.

But the problem is, even if the Rin Tohsaka he finally saw was the real person, and she herself entered his dream and watched it from beginning to end, she shouldn't have been so frightened, right?

In his dream, he just played a few rounds of cards and casually showed off with his super fusion, right?

What's so scary about this?

Even when playing cards, he accidentally played poorly a few times because he wasn't familiar with the Evil Heroes deck, which scared Rin Tohsaka like this?

Yuuto frowned and sat down opposite Rin Tohsaka, staring intently at her somewhat unfocused eyes, a possibility forming in his mind.

Is there a difference between the dream seen from Rin Tohsaka's perspective and the dream seen from his perspective?

He felt it was necessary to have a proper conversation with the other person about the dream.

"cold--"

Jingle Bell--

"Ah! The phone's ringing! I wonder who's calling me so early!" Rin Tohsaka said in a flustered tone, as if she were about to run away, and ran towards the entrance, leaving Yuuto speechless.

No, I'm not going to eat her alive, so why am I avoiding her like this?

Besides, even if we manage to avoid it by taking advantage of this sudden phone call, what then?

Does she think she can hide forever?

They are Master and Servant, so they see each other almost every minute of every day. She simply can't avoid them!

Chapter Eleven: Omens

"Is that so? Okay, I understand. Thank you for calling to let me know, teacher..."

After hanging up the phone, Rin Tohsaka stood there, thinking about how pathetic she had looked when facing Yuuto earlier, and couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

"What a loss of composure..."

She knew she was influenced by that dream, and she could rationally understand the difference between You Du and the overlord she saw in her dream.

Even so, when she saw him, she couldn't help but think of the Overlord and the scene of the world's destruction.

The image of an entire planet being devoured, utterly silent, and even the planet itself being consumed, is life's purest fear of death...

So rather than saying she was afraid of the Overlord, it would be more accurate to say she was afraid of the Overlord using the card called "Super Fusion".

But Yudo probably doesn't have that terrifying card, right?

"Archer is not a tyrant, he is my Servant, that's right, he is my Servant, how can a Master be afraid of his own Servant?!"

Rin Tohsaka paced back and forth in the entryway several times, giving herself mental suggestions until she felt mentally prepared before returning to the living room, ready to show Yuuto her authority as a Master.

Yuuto, who was in the living room, looked up at Rin Tohsaka, who walked in with a determined expression as if she had made a major decision, and calmly put down his teacup, saying:

"Calm down now? Then tell me what you saw in your dream?"

Faced with Yutaka's nonchalant demeanor, Rin Tohsaka felt a strange sense of guilt, as if she had secretly read someone else's diary, and her steps faltered involuntarily...

No, she didn't peek at anyone's diary at all, okay?

……

"Shi-lang-!"

At the Emiya residence, Fujimura Taiga, who had just finished a phone call in the entryway, rushed into the living room, shouting excitedly.

"The school called to say that last night's lightning struck the school's natural gas pipeline. Although it doesn't appear to be damaged, for the safety of the students, they decided to close the school for a week to carry out the replacement work!"

She rattled off a whole string of words in one breath, as if she were undertaking some strange challenge. Shirou Emiya, who was in the kitchen, was stunned for a moment, but his rapidly working brain quickly extracted the key points from her words.

Lightning strike, natural gas pipeline, school closed for a week!

"Wait, Sister Teng, did our school have natural gas pipelines before?"

"Huh? I don't know either, but since the school has said so, it must exist, right?"

Fujimura Taiga waved his hand dismissively, took a senbei (rice cracker) and put it in his mouth, then turned on the TV with the remote control.

Click click click...

"Sister Teng... sigh, breakfast is almost here, remember not to eat too many senbei..."

"Hmm~"

Seeing Fujimura Taiga lounging lazily on the table, eating senbei in a strange way, Shirou Emiya felt his energy dissipate, shook his head, and said nothing more.

After all, they had known each other for more than ten years, and he had long since gotten used to the other person's unreliable nature. He even worried that if he saw the other person's serious expression one day, he might suddenly burst out laughing because of the strong contrast.

[Please listen to the next news item.]

Recently, several people have been found unconscious in Fuyuki City's new city area for unknown reasons. After a thorough investigation, the police have confirmed that the cause of the unconsciousness is a natural gas leak...

"Another natural gas leak, huh? I feel like I've been seeing news like this all the time lately... Oh, speaking of which, Sakura hasn't come today yet, has she? Shirou, do you know what's going on?"

Emiya Shirou placed two plates of fish cooked in teriyaki sauce on the table, and could only shake his head to indicate that he did not know the answer to Fujimura Taiga's question.

"She probably just overslept, right? Don't worry too much, Teng-jie."

"That's true. That kid is just too serious. It wouldn't matter if he skipped morning practice once or twice..."