Miniature Da Vinci
On the screen appeared a little girl with long black curly hair, wearing a European Renaissance-style pleated collar tied with a blue ribbon.
Her colorful outfit included a red dress and long blue gloves. She looked about 70–80% like the original Da Vinci but had a much more youthful and innocent appearance.
Additionally, within the phone, she could switch between a miniaturized child proportion and a chibi-style two-head-tall mode.
At this moment, the little girl widened her round, shiny eyes and looked this way through the screen.
"Rather than Da Vinci-senpai, I'd prefer a chibi Gudako-senpai," Mash remarked, examining the mini Da Vinci.
Yuigahama leaned over and said, "Yeah, she looks way better than in person."
Yukinoshita also nodded and added, "With cat ears, she'd look like someone I'd want to bring home and raise."
Because she looked so vividly lifelike, Yuigahama tried greeting the little one.
"Yahallo~! Little Da-chan?"
"Yahallo~!" The mini Da Vinci Lily on the screen waved at Yuigahama and greeted her.
"Waaah! She talked!" Yuigahama screamed and hugged the black-haired girl.
"I told you, it's a game assistant, a mini electronic version of a heroic spirit. Of course, she has pretty high intelligence. Little Da-nyan, can you say 'meow'?" Yukinoshita asked with a smile.
"Like this, meow? Meow~!" The chibi Da Vinci Lily switched into a cat-eared maid outfit.
"So cute!" Yuigahama clasped her hands and exclaimed in admiration.
"Yes, meow... meow~!" Yukinoshita was completely captivated by the little figure.
"Ugh... two girls have already been captured." Shirou couldn't agree with it, especially thinking, 'Considering the soul behind this cutesy act is actually that white-bearded grandpa from the famous egg-painting story, it's kind of horrifying.'
"Hmmhm, at the very least, the effect is excellent! And with this kind of adorable appearance, it lowers people's guard.
That way, recruiting new members should go much more smoothly." Da Vinci smiled meaningfully as she spoke.
"Wait! You don't mean you plan to install this for everyone who plays the game, do you?" Shirou asked.
"Exactly. But it will only activate for those who meet certain qualifications.
I intend to use it as a kind of safety mechanism.
Think about it—if someone ends up in danger, Little Da can sense it and fly over to assist and initiate a possession-based summon battle.
Of course, for those who clearly aren't the type to want to fight, she'll simply warn them to run away before they wet their pants," Da Vinci explained with a laugh.
"Well, in that case, that's actually a good idea." Shirou nodded after hearing that.
"Then let me update it for you now!" Da Vinci said as she began operating the device.
Da Vinci Lily No. 2, from inside the tablet, entered the FGO server terminal connected to the Holy Grail via the Chaldea data channel, allowing her to access the backend of every phone with FGO installed.
As the Fate series expanded, her range of access would grow broader.
The phone made a 'ding' sound.
"Eh? That's it? The update's finished?" Shirou asked.
"Hello there, Shirou!" On the boy's phone screen appeared the cat-eared maid-outfitted Little Da-nyan, raising her newly-learned cat paw from Snow-nyan and making a cutesy gesture.
"Data usage didn't change, and memory doesn't seem to have changed either! Da Vinci-senpai, could it be you're actually super powerful?" Yuigahama exclaimed in surprise.
"It is really amazing. I always thought an AI like this would take up a lot of memory. Seems like in that other world, not only do they have magic, their technology also far exceeds ours," Yukinoshita said thoughtfully.
"Well, Da Vinci is a universal genius, after all," Mash praised without reservation.
"Hmmhm, I wouldn't mind being worshipped even more," Da Vinci nodded with a smug grin.
"Why not just develop an app, then? Let every player experience the charm of my masterpiece: 'FGO·VR·Da Vinci Lily No. 2.' Then they'll all say, 'There's no way such a cute Da Vinci is a greedy merchant! I'll farm all the mana prisms daily and visit the shop on time to buy everything!' Or something like that."
"As expected of Da Vinci-senpai!" the boys and girls exclaimed in unison.
"…" Mash somehow felt the senpai were admiring the wrong aspects, and if this was VR, shouldn't she be the protagonist!?
"But doesn't this feel like getting your phone monitored by a hacker?" Shirou frowned and turned to the black-haired girl still meowing at the screen. "Hey, don't play with your phone while bathing."
"What? None of your business!" Yukinoshita was stunned for a second, then blushed and glared at the boy.
Little Da-nyan angrily responded to the boy, "So mean, Shirou! I'm completely different from my original! I'm a full-on girl, okay! I just have memories from before the prototype! I'll protect the Master's privacy, okay!"
"I don't doubt that, but the data you collect will still be known by Da Vinci, right?" Shirou countered.
"Although I love all things beautiful, I myself am the most perfect beauty!" Da Vinci confidently puffed up her chest to display her flawless figure. She didn't say anything more, but her meaning was clear.
Shirou looked at Da Vinci, then at Yukinoshita, and realized he had said something inappropriate.
"I'm sorry…"
"Don't apologize!" Yukinoshita Yukino, at that moment, felt the world's cruelty.
The women around her lately seemed to be... overdeveloped one after another.
Da Vinci was a hentai adult—ignore. Yuigahama, fine. But why did even this mere Kouhai have such good development!?
Yukinoshita held her phone and gazed at the little Da-nyan inside, finding a bit of comfort only from her.
"Meow meow meow??" Little Da-nyan sensed the girl's gaze and tilted her head in confusion.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, on the school rooftop, a beautiful girl with long, flowing flaxen hair sat elegantly. Her gentle eyes and graceful demeanor exuded the refined air of someone brought up in an elite household.
After finishing her meal alone and pressing her hands together in thanks, she packed her lunchbox and skillfully took out her phone.
Opening her chat app, she noticed a new private message.
"Group leader, thank you for the materials you gave me earlier. I'll definitely return the favor."
The girl saw it was from "Snow Meow," a friend in the gaming group known as Snow Meow Who Loves Mr. Pan.
Though they'd never met in person, she always imagined her to be a cute girl who loved cats.
But her tone was always courteous and mature—not like someone their age. Yet, she had an adorably childish name.
The girl smiled softly and quickly typed a reply with nimble fingers.
"No need to be so polite. I'm happy that someone's willing to discuss game content with me."
"By the way, group leader, have you noticed anything different about FGO lately?"
"Different?" The flaxen-haired girl looked at her phone and tapped open FGO. Everything looked normal.
Was she talking about improvements to some character's battle modeling?
She entered the game. Her character name was "Asuna," and her level was 140.
The current level cap was 140, so although she was maxed out, as a veteran player, her capability was far beyond that.
She opened her Servant list—rows of sparkling gold, with the first two rows being fully maxed-out 5-star Servants.
It was dazzling.
If Mash saw it, she'd probably fall to her knees and beg for help.
Although she always maintained a smart and gentle image in class, in truth, she was quite a gaming fanatic.
She preferred games with large-scale combat and thrilling life-or-death intensity—those single-player punishment games where one wrong move gets you killed.
As for mobile games, only FGO had managed to keep her hooked.
It had an almost addictive charm. She'd sunk enough money into it to buy several other games.
Fortunately, her luck was good.
She'd collected all characters, completed all noble phantasms and story quests, and now only logged in casually to collect fragments and green cubes through daily tasks—before heading home to play other games.
Sometimes she wished for more intense games—like a 100-floor tower where you climb from the bottom with no ranged attacks, fighting 7–8 meter tall boss guardians.
But reality was harsh.
VR games were expensive and incomplete, while real-life games lacked fantasy. Games that allowed diving into virtual reality while asleep only existed in anime and light novels.
She tapped through and finished her daily missions. Seeing it was almost time for class, she got up and returned to the classroom.
Unbeknownst to her, inside the connected Chaldean sub-dimensional channel, a glowing little black-haired figure slipped quietly through the FGO system and stealthily entered the background of her phone.