[Snippet] Just a Story (Fate/Dxd): Chapter 7 (Patreon)

“Hey Arthur, what’re you doing?” Siegfried approached his comrade in the training ground.

“Hmm?” Arthur looked up as sweat dripped down from his brow, sword in hand.

“I’ve been watching you for the past…hour? You’re usually more aggressive in your training. But you keep stopping, swinging your sword a few times, then almost tripping over yourself.” The Hero Faction member observed, rubbing his chin. “Practicing some new technique or something?”

Arthur let out a breath, letting his shoulders drop before loosening his grip on his sword. “I watched something with Le Fay. I can’t get the sword play I saw out of my head. Rather, the person’s technique and how they moved their body.”

“Oh? What did you watch?” Siegfried asked curiously. 

If it was enough that Arthur was up and about trying to mimic it, then it must have been something rather special.

Arthur let out a sigh. “It was an anime.”

Siegfried let out a snort, barely holding back a laugh.

“Yes, yes. I know exactly how silly it sounds.” Arthur waved it off. “Even Le Fay has been holding herself up in her workshop trying to mimick some of the magic she saw in the show.”

Siegfried blinked. “I mean… I guess she’s a bit more…free-spirited. I’m just surprised you’re…” He gestured to Arthur and the surroundings.

Arthur finally just shrugged. “Inspiration can come from anywhere.”

"Fair," Siegfried accepted. “What was so special that it got both of the Pendragon family members worked up?”

“It was called Fate/Stay Night, I believe. It had some interesting concepts, and from an entertainment viewpoint, I can’t say I disliked the time I spent. However, it had an interpretation of my ancestor that was odd.”

“How so?”

“They made him a woman.”

Siegfried snorted again. “Was she at least pretty?”

Arthur sighed again. “That’s the question you want to ask?” The Pendragon family member shook his head. “She was petite in stature, yet she wielded her sword expertly. I have been trying to mimic her method of swordsmanship because I found some parts of it beneficial to me. The way she used her entire body to swing her weapon in openings, the movement of her feet, and her method of applying force in each swing. It is different than how I was taught.”

Arthur picked up his sword and gave a brief demonstration, turning his body and pivoting on his feet in the same way that was in his memories.

“The issue I have run into is the center of gravity is off. Her stature made this method of swordsmanship viable—effective even. Rather than trying to overcompensate for her weakness of reach and stature, she instead emphasized power strikes that forced her opponent into the back foot.”

“If it’s not viable for you, then why are you trying it?” Siegfried asked.

“I have realized that I have wasted movements after attempting to mimic it. Weaknesses I had not discovered by myself before. Her method of swordplay doesn’t allow for such things, which has led me to discovery.”

“You got all this from an anime?" Siegfried asked incredulously. “Does that mean that the creator is a sword master?”

Arthur paused. “I had not considered that in all truth. I had simply been focused on the movements and techniques. But what you say holds truth. I would very much like to meet the person who devised this swordplay.”

“Do you think they’re human?” Siegfried raised another point.

“...it is highly possible.” Arthur put a hand on his chin. “The show material, while showing various figures from the past, emphasized the human element throughout.”

ARthur continued to swing his sword, even if the awkwardness was clear to Siegfried. The latter of whom could see how he almost tripped over himself several times while going through the forms.

“The flawless recovery after each swing and how it flows into the next—that is only something an experienced swordsman would understand. Not a person who sits behind a computer all day creating animated scenes.” Arthur stated firmly. 

Siegfried was very curious now. “I think I’ll have to watch it then. It was at least a good anime, right?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “It was entertaining beyond the inspiration I received.”

His companion chuckled. “Alright, alright. I’ll leave you to it, and I’ll go look it up for myself. Who knows, if it turns out to be something interesting, we could always go ask Cao Cao to grab the creator. If nothing else, he would be a good sparring partner.”

Arthur hummed noncommittally.

He was neither against it nor for it.

But the prospect of meeting the one who designed the swordplay was rather interesting to him nonetheless.

@***@

Alexander woke up the same he did every morning. The only difference between now and the past few days is that he was waking up in his ‘real’ bed. 

After finishing up the work he had set out to do these past few days, he had closed up shop at the studio and gone back home to collapse into his bed. Partly because he didn’t want anyone looking for him to see that he was gone, and partly because the bed at his studio was more like a cot, and his real bed was significantly more comfortable.

He went through the same routine as he did every morning: waking up, taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and eating breakfast.

The only difference now was that his eyes were glued to his phone.

As of this morning, the downloads for Flappy Bird were at 237.

Subtracting the percentage that the company takes from profits, he had somewhere around 34000 Yen. That wasn’t an insubstantial amount of money for a normal kid his age, as that would be around 200 dollars back home.

It had helped that he put Flappy Bird as an advertisement on his official website.

He didn’t particularly like the idea, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The sooner he could get more money, the more he could advertise the anime and start raking in more views.

When that happened, he could get a proper advertisement, minimal as it was. He already promised himself that he wouldn’t turn the website into an annoying ad-riddled mess that someone had to navigate.

He wasn’t ignoring the newest reward he got either.

Ten thousand dollars, or the equivalent in yen, wasn’t a small amount, especially for his current state.

However, there was the slight hesitation in how to use it. He made a joke to Rias about how he doesn’t pay taxes, but in all truth, he wasn’t sure how things would turn out if he suddenly had that big chunk of money suddenly appear in his bank account.

Yeah, his parents are devils; they won’t care about dubious tax avoidances on principle. But the more important questions asked would be, where did he even get it? And that opens a whole other can of worms he didn’t want to deal with.

As much as he just wanted to grab his shit and leave back to the US, where he grew up, he was still almost entirely reliant on his parents for everything.

He wasn’t at a stage where he could throw caution to the wind.

Alexander was just happy that his parents all but moved to the Underworld and let him stay here by himself.

Not to say that they didn’t come back every now and then to check up on him. But for the most part, he basically had the house to himself so he was able to move around easier.

“System.” He called out as his thoughts drifted.

Name: Alexander Edwards

Age: 18

Race: Human

Alignment: Neutral Good

Gacha Rolls: 1

Talents;

Drawing: D+

Programing: E+

Videography: D-

Writing: C

Animation: E-

Skills;

Language Comprehension: EX

Memory Recollection: D+

No Strings on Me: EX

Media Available.

Fate/Stay Night (Anime Adaptation)

Fate/Stay Night (Visual Novel)

Redeemable Rewards;

$10,000 (or equivalent currency of your choice)

He wasn’t one for saving rolls. 

In fact, he was particularly bad at it. Whenever he got a roll in any game he played in the past, he immediately spent it.

Why change that here when there was no benefit?

“I swear to God, if it’s Mapo Tofu again…” He said under his breath.

He rolled the Gacha again.

He saw the lights flash before him before they finally settled down and the bright lights didn’t go away as a big smile grew on his face.

It was definitely not a dud this time!

[Ding!]

[Congratulation!]

[You Received: Skill: Web Design C+]

Immediately knowledge and information flooded his mind. As if he had been working as a web designer for twenty-plus years. All the skills, nuances, and experience that came with someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

Just as his brain caught back up, it was almost like he couldn’t help but focus entirely on his own website.

He scrunched his nose as he understood all the flaws in its designs. 

Redundant searching mechanisms. Having to click several buttons to find simple answers or search for what you want. The navigation hierarchy was inconsistent. Some pages were two clicks away; others were buried behind two or three extra menus.

Downloads for the visual novel weren’t obvious, and most people wouldn’t even see them unless they spent several minutes on the website, which was a devastating loss for retention.

Clashing color palates. Not at first glance, but from a subconscious reader’s perspective. His new knowledge let him understand all the delicate details that came with simple colors used on a website.

The mobile layout caused some stretching that he didn’t feel like was a big deal before but now left him cringing internally.

And lastly, at least from his immediate faults he could think up without physically going over it again with it in front of him; the Wiki and forums felt like a separate website rather than one coherent ecosystem.

This meant that it would create an artificial barrier between content and discussion, which decreased user retention.

That was more so the design flaws; there were other flaws as well.

Visual design: the wrong typography is used. Line spacing should be tweaked. Headers needed to be fixed. Some margins were inconsistent, and some icons didn’t match the site’s visual language.

So many tiny things that added up that really showed how amateurish his website actually was.

It all culminated in one gigantic flaw that overshadowed everything else, though.

There was no obvious next step for a first-time visitor. Did he want them to watch the anime? Download the Visual Novel? Join the forums? Read the Wiki? He was asking too much of someone visiting for the first time. 

Based on his new knowledge, he could guess that he probably lost a good twenty to thirty percent of viewers based on this issue alone.

Viewer retention was significantly more nuanced and scientific than he originally understood. How certain things play into someone’s subconscious, how certain things could cause someone to get frustrated and just leave the website right away.

“God dammit, I’m going to need to redo the entire thing.” He sighed, dropping his head into his hands.

He couldn’t get to it now; he was about to head out the door and head to school.

He grumbled under his breath because he knew this was going to be eating away at him all day until he could get back home and fix it.

@***@

Alexander walked headfirst through the main gates of the school, on time for the rare occasion. It was almost strange for him to enter when there were so many other people coming in as well.

No one paid him any mind.

It was pretty common for foreigners to get ignored unless you were a bombshell beauty like the devils at school, or you just had the sheer lovable charisma that Rias had. For Alexander, he had neither of those things; he was probably average when it came to looks, and he frankly kept to himself most of the time.

There was actually a small window where a few kids tried to bully him, being a foreigner who had trouble with the native language, when he first arrived.

For him who had lived through a life previous to this one, the attempts were just…adorable, more than anything.

When your supposed 'bully' gets laughed at so genuinely by the person he’s trying to bully, it hurts their self-esteem quite a bit.

That, and Alexander wasn’t one to shy away from kneeing someone in the groin to prove a point.

“Mr. Edwards.” Sona’s distinct voice carried over the crowd of incoming students. It was enough that they all saw her and immediately tried to make their presence scarce.

Sona barely batted an eye as they picked up the pace, all but running away as she came stomping over.

“Miss President.” Alexander did an exaggerated salute to her, one that she did not find humorous. “What can I do for you today?”

“Why exactly have you missed the past three days of school, without so much as a phone call?” She jumped right to the point without holding back. “Three Days, Mr. Edwards. You have missed class entirely for three days."

“I was sick.”

“You were sick.” She said dryly. “Then you would be fine providing me a doctor’s note?”

“Why would I go see the doctor for food poisoning?” He hummed.

“If it wasn’t serious, then why didn’t you call?”

“It wasn’t life-threatening, but have you ever thrown up dozens of times in a few hours? It’s not really something that lets you focus on making sure to inform your school that you’re not going to be coming in.” He continued to lie through his teeth.

“Why didn’t you call your parents?”

Alexander blinked. “Why would I?”

“They could have healed you.” Sona pointed out.

Alexander stared for a moment before he understood what she meant. “Oh, I didn’t think about that.”

“You…didn’t think about that?” Sona asked in disbelief. “You are sick enough to miss three days of school, and you didn’t think to ask someone to come over and heal it up in what would have taken minutes?”

“Why do you think I would treat that as common sense? I’m a normal human who doesn’t know anything about that sort of thing. Getting sick as a squishy human isn’t strange. Besides, it’s not like my parents are ever at home.” He shrugged.

Sona opened her mouth, but her expression changed slightly before she let out a sigh. “I remember you said you weren’t feeling well before the weekend started. I hope you’re feeling better now, Mr. Edwards. If you…need healing in the future, if you don’t want to contact your parents, you may call me. I can take a few minutes out of my day to take care of something like that.”

Alexander internally cringed slightly.

Mostly, he started to feel bad for lying right to her face like this. Despite their…mildly antagonistic relationship where they argued most days, she seemed to genuinely show sympathy here.

She knew about his parental situation as well, and she even offered him ‘help’ the next time he was sick rather than him calling his parents.

“...you look exhausted, Mr. Edwards. I suppose you aren’t making an excuse.” She let out a sigh. “If you feel the need, visit the nurses' office. However, the schoolwork you missed is still something you will need to make up.”

“Thank you.” Alexander said quietly.

Sona smiled faintly. “Go on, if I find out you’re skipping classes again today, I will be most upset.”

Alexander quickly hurried onwards.

He got into the halls, his mind elsewhere, until he heard someone say, 'Saber.' It was a random word that shouldn't mean much, but it also wasn’t something to randomly hear in a school.

It caused him to snap his head to the side as he passed by and saw a kid with his website brought up on his phone, showing his friends.

He recognized that he did get at least a hundred people in his school to watch the anime, but to actually see it unfold in front of his eyes was…. It was enough that the fatigue he had at the moment sort of disappeared.

There was a weird sense of pride. Even if he didn’t make it, he still had been working hard to make it popular and expand the reach of it as much as he could.

“Alex!” Once more, a familiar voice broke through the surroundings as he turned his head towards the source.

Rias came barreling over, all but running over some unfortunate kids who didn’t get out of the way in time.

She threw herself at him, not in any sort of romantic way, but still, it was a big happy hug that he felt coming from her.

“I just met Sona at the gate; she said you were sick. That's why you weren’t here for several days! Are you doing okay now? I was waiting for you; I couldn’t stop watching the anime you recommended me! Oh, and I also read the visual novel, and I couldn’t stop being excited!” She blurted all of that out at once.

He just sat there as she shook him aggressively amidst her enthusiasm.

He realized that there may have been another reason for the spreading popularity even if it wasn’t exactly ‘cool’ to be into anime even in Japanese school. The fact that one of the most popular and beautiful girls in the school was a big nerd most certainly helped.

“There’s so much we have to talk about! There’s a new member of the club; I can’t wait for you to meet him! Though, you already know him." She gave a wink. “And I can’t wait to talk to you about the anime you showed me! I’ve been holding it in for so many days now! Do you think they’re going to release a sequel anytime soon? The visual novel had different routes. How are they going to handle all of that!?”

It was a lot of information for him to take in, and he couldn’t get a real word in as she just excitedly rambled on, all but dragging him through the halls.

“I even donated some of my allowance!”

Alexander blinked because he completely forgot about the donation option he set up on the website. 

He would need to check that account to see how much it has.

“I –” Just as he was about to answer a question or speak, his system pinged him.

[Ding!]

[New Quest Created!]

[New Quest: Reach 50,000 unique views for Fate/Stay Night.]

[Reward: Fate/Zero Anime full release]

Alexander’s eyes dilated as he read over the quest and the rewards.

The quest wasn’t by any means unreachable, but he hadn’t even gotten half of those views yet. He had barely even surpassed twenty percent, but there was still hope.

He had some resources at this point, money to spend on advertisement if he were careful.

But more important….

His eyes drifted to Rias.

“You know, they might just release more if they receive enough support. We should do everything we can to popularize it, don’t you think?” Alexander asked.

Rias’s eyes lit up. “You’re right! I already posted online to all my followers that I was watching a new anime, but I didn’t praise it enough! I’m going to do that now! I’ll make sure everyone knows how amazing it is!”

Alexander would never have thought that weaponizing her weebiness was possible, but here it was.

He would need to make preparations.

@***@

A/N

Things are starting to take off. And no, not everything will just be handed out by the system, but it’s nearly impossible for him to make a start with him trying to make everything by hand. Eventually, he will do some heavy lifting by himself as well.