A Saiyan's Journey

After exiting the task world, as expected, the world of Fate/Zero began generating new main quests.

However, unlike the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, this time there was a notable change in the task world selection interface—specifically in the naming of the task worlds.

[Dear Zuke, please select the task world you wish to enter: 1. Dragon Ball (time unchanged); 2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (time unchanged); 3. TYPE-MOON (main quest under generation)]

[Dear Zuke, you have no remaining game entries for today. Please try again tomorrow.]

What was once called Fate/Zero had now been renamed TYPE-MOON—and TYPE-MOON is not the title of a work. Literally translated as "Moon Type," it is the name of the creative company behind the world of the Holy Grail War.

This implies that the next task world and its generated main quests may no longer be limited to the Fate/Zero series but could expand to encompass the entire TYPE-MOON universe.

It makes sense, too. After all, Fate/Zero mainly revolves around the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War. Since Zuke had already completed the Fourth Holy Grail War, it wouldn't make sense to rehash the same story.

Still… Zuke had assumed that the next time he entered this task world, it would be during the Fifth Holy Grail War.

But now it seemed unlikely. There was a possibility he might be dropped into a completely unrelated timeline—like Tsukihime or Kara no Kyōkai.

Zuke vaguely recalled that the timelines of Tsukihime and Kara no Kyōkai occurred after the Fourth Holy Grail War but before the Fifth. The system might indeed pull such a move.

Surely, it wouldn't send him to a parallel world like Fate/Grand Order or Magical Girl Illya… right?

After confirming that there was nothing else to do, Zuke exited the dream realm.

At the same time, he planned tomorrow's two task world explorations.

First, he would return to the JoJo world and use his Stand to leave a marker on Koichi Hirose.

By leveraging the abilities of Black Bird: Lover, Zuke could place a fragment of his Stand into Koichi's body, making Koichi a sort of beacon. This way, even if Zuke left the JoJo world, he wouldn't lose track of Koichi.

After setting up the marker, Zuke planned to head to the Dragon Ball world for some training with King Kai, followed by an attempt to approach Moro.

After all, a flight from Japan to Italy would take over ten hours. Zuke had no intention of wasting time on the plane with Koichi.

Instead, he would wait for Koichi to arrive in Italy and then use Flight Technique to catch up.

The time Koichi spent on the flight would be better utilized resolving Zuke's own needs in the Dragon Ball world.

{Transitioning to Shin}

When he opened his eyes, the first thing Shin did was look around him.

No one was beside him. As usual, Sayu Ogiwara had woken up early to prepare breakfast for him.

However, what concerned Shin more was the reward he had brought back from the task world. Where was that huge Irisviel?

Shin got out of bed, changed clothes, and searched the house. Finally, he found Irisviel lying motionless on the guestroom bed.

It seemed that Sayu Ogiwara hadn't noticed Irisviel yet; otherwise, she would have already rushed to Shin in panic, asking what was going on.

"She didn't return in her Holy Grail form…"

Shin rubbed his chin and studied Irisviel lying on the bed. She looked like a sleeping beauty—completely motionless—but he could sense her "life energy."

In other words, Irisviel was alive. Moreover, her energy wasn't weak; she wasn't in a near-death state after absorbing multiple Heroic Spirit souls.

That made sense. There were no Holy Grail Wars in the everyday world, and no Greater Grail hidden beneath Fuyuki City's ley lines. Naturally, the Lesser Grail—like Irisviel—had no special functions.

She was merely an ordinary artificial human.

Unfortunately, unlike the androids in the Dragon Ball world, Irisviel couldn't single-handedly dominate the everyday world.

"Wake up, Irisviel."

Shin had chosen Irisviel as his reward only because she seemed more useful than Command Spells or Mystic Codes. Seeing her lazing in bed, he naturally wanted to wake her.

However, no matter how much he called, Irisviel showed no signs of waking, continuing to lie there motionless like a comatose patient.

"...Could it be I brought back a vegetable?"

Frowning slightly, Shin reached out and gave Irisviel's chest a light squeeze—not exactly polite, but since she was his task reward, it shouldn't be inappropriate.

Yet even so, Irisviel remained unresponsive. On the contrary, Shin felt something.

"It seems like she just absorbed a bit of my mana?"

Shin's mouth twitched slightly. He hadn't expected that a casual touch would allow Irisviel to absorb a small portion of his mana.

Now it became clear. Although Irisviel had been brought out as a reward, her condition was somewhat akin to that of a Servant.

In a sense, Shin was her Master, and she required mana from him to function normally.

In other words, she needed mana replenishment.

To be honest, Irisviel was indeed a beautiful artificial human. Given that she wasn't tied to Kiritsugu Emiya in this world, Shin wouldn't mind providing her with mana.

But the mana in Shin's body was limited. Plus, he wasn't a Magus and didn't know how to produce mana.

If he gave all his mana to Irisviel now, he'd suffer a huge loss.

Moreover, his mana wasn't the same as the mana in the TYPE-MOON world. His was from the Dragon Ball world. Whether it could even be processed into TYPE-MOON-style mana was uncertain.

"Until I figure out how to generate mana, I can't provide her with any."

Looking at Irisviel, Shin sighed helplessly. For now, he could only observe and refrain from unnecessary interaction.

Later tonight, he planned to check with Moro in the Dragon Ball world. If he could learn how to replenish mana from Moro, he might finally be able to assist Irisviel properly.

To be continued…

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