Ow… My head…
Why'd it feel like someone stabbed my brain with a steel rod and just left it there? Fucking hell, it's a bitch of a migraine. I needed a glass of water.
Keeping my eyes closed, I reached out to the side to grab my glasses. But instead of the familiar metallic frame in my hands, I touched what felt like cold stone.
Curious. Very curious.
I opened my eyes, only to be greeted by a blue sky and the glaring sun. It took my still aching brain a while to comprehend why I was seeing what I was seeing, and when it clicked, I only had one question.
What the hell happened to the ceiling?
Something was definitely afoot.
I slowly pushed myself upright. I was on the top floor of a building, though most of the roof was blown off or missing. As I was taking it in, a holographic screen popped up in front of me like something out of a VR game.
I rubbed my eyes.
Still there.
Either I was concussed, in a coma, or finally living my dreams. If this was a dream, I wasn't about to waste the tutorial.
[Greetings, Kayden Drake! Thank you for filling out our form and choosing to participate in the Interdimensional Transfer Program! Your requested powers and abilities were reviewed and, after careful consideration, it has been decided that your following requests will be granted:]
Oh no.
The name hit like a wet slap. Kayden Drake. That was me. And I knew exactly what this was referring to.
———
- Celestial Inventory: A power that grants an infinite extradimensional vault containing every "item" across the omniverse—mundane, magical, conceptual, metaphysical, anything. I can summon items via precise designations (name), descriptive intent, or vague need, and instantly use each and every one with absolute mastery. All usage limits, restrictions, and side effects are bypassed. Items auto-adapt to local physics and can be fired like a Gate of Babylon on the most potent form of supernatural steroids.
I instinctively know each item's functions, risks, and best uses. Dangerous or sentient artifacts are subdued or fully bonded. Biological, technological, magical, and aesthetic implementations and integrations are seamless and reversible. A mental interface lets me tag favorites, auto-replenish lost gear, and I can store anything—objects, creatures, buildings, even gases—in timeless stasis. No cooldowns, no cost, no nonsense.
- Complete instinctual, intuitive, and conscious control over all of my powers/abilities.
- The automatic, innate power that would make all of my powers, abilities, and "items" harmonize and synergize in the most optimal ways.
- All of my powers/abilities cannot be nullified, reverse engineered, copied, suppressed, mimicked, stolen, drained, negated, weakened, controlled, reproduced, sealed, etc. by all external parties without my (Kayden Drake's) non-coerced willingness.
- Powers, technology, and such designed to gather info about me will provide no results without my non-coerced willingness. This includes on a grand scale that would take me into account, and specifically targeted on me to discern my identity, motives, abilities, status, weaknesses, location, and actions, whether that be in the past, present, or future.
- Immunity to any form of mind control, mental attack, memory removal, soul manipulation, forced sleep, hypnotism, possession, madness inducement, emotion alteration, etc. Attempts to control my senses, such as directly mind affecting illusions and anything that would unnaturally override or influence my behavior, likewise fail. A mind unshakeable by pain, trauma, torture, suffering and most other psychological conditions. I can still feel emotions, but the weighted stress of living for a thousand years cannot destroy my will, nor will experiencing extreme or long periods of discomfort, like torture or isolation.
- Immunity to any effect that directly targets my internals/stability, or works inside out, such as a telefrag, a portal cut, telekinetic spine severing, time warping, gravity alteration, creating items inside my body, physics distortion, biology control, forced teleportation, matter erasure, instant death, etc. I also resist any hostile transformation, transmutation, polymorph, and the like. I no longer need to breathe, drink, eat, or pass waste. I can still perform these actions if I choose, but do not require them to sustain himself. I am also immune to any form of foreign poison, toxin, corruption, virus, etc.
- All previous safeguards listed may be controlled and suppressed by my own conscious, non-coerced will.
———
Right. The 3AM form. I remembered now.
I had filled it out half serious, half shitposting, figuring it was just another CYOA-style site, the kind that fanfic nerds like me filled out for fun. Next thing I knew, I'd hit submit, made a dumb joke about being the multiverse's next cosplay god, and passed out after eating my last bulking meal for the day.
And now I was… here.
Come to think of it, isn't this how wish-fulfillment fanfics usually started? How... generic.
[Please remain still while your requests are implemented.]
Just great. Let's hope it wasn't going to feel like a colonoscopy from God.
Bracing myself for pain, I clenched every muscle I had.
Instead, warmth flooded my chest. Gentle. Inviting. A golden shimmer enveloped me, pulsing with my heartbeat. It vanished seconds later, leaving me weirdly refreshed.
[Implementation complete. Enjoy the experience!]
Huh. Okay. That was… kinda nice.
I flexed my fingers. No pain. No grogginess. Just... clarity. Like someone swapped out my tired body for a hyper-efficient one. My vision was sharper, my breathing steady, and my balance unnaturally perfect.
The fact that I didn't need glasses with prescription anymore was already a big plus in my book.
Time to test the goods.
"Inventory."
An ethereal chime rang out as a portal opened beside me, rippling like blue diamonds melted in zero-G. A rip off of a certain King of Heroes' own vault of goodies.
Inside? Power. Potential. Madness. I could sense them. Not see, not hear, but sense. Countless presences waited for my call. Weapons humming with untapped power, artifacts pulsing with magic, tech more advanced than any sci-fi novel I'd read. All catalogued, all accessible, all mine.
I focused on something basic. A change of clothes.
Stylish casual outfit.
In a blink, my comfy pajamas and hoodie were gone. In their place was a perfectly fitted set of clothes. Black crew-neck. Grey suede bomber. Slim black jeans. Clean white sneakers. Leather watch. Silver pendant. All that combined with my naturally good looks and I looked like a K-pop star.
"Okay… definitely real."
Grinning, I took a moment to just bask in the absurdity of it all.
Ever since I was a kid, I daydreamed of going on an adventure. Not a backpack-through-Europe type deal, but a real one. The kind with dragons, giant robots, anime logic, and absurd power scaling. I wanted to be there and experience key events of a story in person, just to know what it felt like.
Always that those daydreams of mine would remain daydreams and nothing more.
But now? The universe finally gave me the green light. A green light as big as the sun.
I walked toward the edge. The city below stretched out beneath me. It was familiar, yet distinctly foreign.
Buildings packed together. Clean, narrow roads. And far off in the distance was a towering red structure, almost like a twisted antenna made of bone and steel. I squinted.
Wait… no.
I recognized this skyline. I shouldn't have, but I did. The last time I watched the anime or played the visual novel was years ago. How could I recognize a skyline I only saw on a screen? The only reason I could think of was whatever brought me here was a bit more generous and let me know. But regardless of why, I recognized it, and I knew what city I was in.
Fuyuki City.
As in, Fate/Stay Night Fuyuki City.
The place where teenage romance, heroes from myths, and morally questionable magi collided in a Holy Grail War, all for the chance to have their wish granted. A city where getting groceries was a high-risk activity if your surname was "Tohsaka."
I blinked, then double-checked the distant architecture, my jaw tightening as a cold breeze brushed against my skin.
"God damn it, Kayden. You put 'Random' for your destination because you thought it'd be hilarious."
It was hilarious. Until I remembered that half the cast in the entire Fate franchise could annihilate skyscrapers or nuke entire cities with a chant and a glare.
But hey, silver lining—I didn't show up empty-handed. I had the cosmic cheat of a superpower known as Celestial Inventory.
I sighed, calming myself down and cracking my neck.
"Right. Let's get my bearings first."
I needed information.
What point in time did I arrive? Before, during, or after the 5th Holy Grail War? I needed to know what events were yet to happen before deciding on what to do. There were a few people I already planned on having a "conversation" with—mostly bad apples, aka horrible people that would probably get the death sentence and worldwide media coverage if everything they've done was revealed to the public.
Opening my inventory, I summoned a scrying orb from some random, high-fantasy setting. It hovered beside me and blinked to life, scanning the city for beings with magical signatures.
Dozens of magical signatures popped up, from barely noticeable to significant. Though it didn't really tell me much, so I focused on one of the larger signatures to get a better view. The face I saw was unfamiliar to me, but their physical traits gave their identity away. It was a teenage guy around my age with short auburn hair and golden-brown colored eyes walking in a school hallway, wearing a brown academy uniform.
"So that's what Shirou Emiya looks like in 3D? Interesting," I said, my eyes narrowing. "What about the others?"
One by one, I checked out each significant magical signature in the area. Nearly every one of the characters I knew about was present. But referring to them as characters didn't feel right anymore since they—to my new understanding of reality—were as real as I was.
Putting that aside, there were a few important pieces of information I gleaned from this scouting session.
The only Servants summoned so far were Lancer, Berserker, and Caster. Lancer's original Master, Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a magus sent by the Clock Tower, seemed to be out of commission already. His new Master was Kirei Kotomine, the priest overseeing the Holy Grail. Kirei was one of the people I planned on having a nice chat with soon.
The remaining Servants—Rider, Archer, Assassin, and Saber—were yet to be summoned by their respective Masters, but I didn't know for how long that would continue to be the case.
I leaned against the metal railing, letting the info settle.
"So I'm in early."
That was good. Early meant options. Early meant I could choose who to ally with, or at least, who to mess with for fun and/or tactical superiority.
A vague plan formed in my head.
Step 1: Hijack and derail the Holy Grail War.
Step 2: Make sure none of the original trio fucks up and dies. 95% of the original visual novel's endings were bad endings, so there probably was a good chance of them finding themselves in one of those endings if left to their own devices.
Step 3: Maybe save some people. Maybe.
"If I'm joining this war, I'm doing it my way. No bad endings. No sisters dying. Just pure, unfiltered bullshit power fantasy with a side of flair."
Now I just had to pick my approach.
---
A/N: Wrote this for the hell of it since I haven't really seen a story go all in on the wish-fulfillment in this way. But I don't really know where to go with the story just yet. Might even change the title, synopsis, and cover a few times in the process.