Japan, Tokyo-
The streets bustled with people, and a new film trailer played on a giant screen overhead.
In a quiet alley, a flicker of light shimmered.
Without warning, a girl with bright orange hair appeared out of thin air.
"Did the Rayshift succeed? Where... am I?"
Stepping out of the alley, she glanced around. Despite the crowd, she remained completely unnoticed.
It was none other than Fujimaru Ritsuka, freshly Rayshifted.
"Hey? Da Vinci? Are you there?"
She ducked into a bookstore and hid in a corner, attempting to connect with Chaldea. After a loud feedback noise, Da Vinci's voice came through her earpiece.
"Ah ah ah! Connection established! Master, are you okay? Where are you now?"
That excited, genius voice-though they weren't face-to-face-Ritsuka could practically see Da Vinci's grin.
"I'm not sure... It looks like... Japan?"
Ritsuka scanned the surroundings, then looked at the language in the books before replying uncertainly.
"Japan? So you're still on Earth? That's great-at least we won't need to learn the world from scratch again."
Da Vinci's voice was accompanied by furious keyboard clacking.
"Hold on... Let me check something... Yeah, looks like you're really on Earth. Your current location is Tokyo, Japan!"
Tokyo?
Ritsuka thought to herself. She'd never been to Tokyo before.
Guess this trip to another world was filling in that missing experience?
After chatting a bit more, Ritsuka pieced together the current intel:
First, Chaldea hadn't landed on Earth itself but had transferred into a time-space rift adjacent to this world.
So they hadn't been detected by the world's governments.
Second, it was Japan. That was good-at least there wouldn't be any language barriers.
Though, to be fair, after spending so much time at Chaldea with Heroic Spirits, Ritsuka now knew so many languages she could put any linguist or historian to shame.
Third, this world seemed to lack supernatural phenomena.
No demons, no high magic-it was likely a Low-Magic or No-Magic world.
For someone like Ritsuka, who loved stirring up chaos and joining every possible commotion, that wasn't exactly good news.
"That's all the info we've got, huh..."
Ritsuka absentmindedly picked up a manga from a nearby shelf.
On the cover was a red-haired, sword-wielding beauty.
Looks kind of familiar...
She frowned.
Despite her foggy memories from waiting in the Type-Moon universe for over a decade, she was sure-she'd never seen this manga before.
So where was this odd sense of familiarity coming from?
She pondered but couldn't find an answer.
"Maybe it's just the vague Musashi vibes?"
Ritsuka shook her head. She wasn't the type to overthink things outside of battle.
She'd leave the deep thoughts to someone else.
(Musashi: Meow meow meow?! Master, how the hell do I resemble that girl?)
Ritsuka tossed the manga aside and exited the bookstore.
Its title on the cover read:
"Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier"
---
Now wandering aimlessly down the street-
She had no money.
No ID.
And she definitely wasn't one of those Heroic Spirits who didn't need to eat.
(Artoria clan: "Hunger is our greatest enemy!")
Well-technically, the Heroic Spirits weren't really "alive" to begin with.
Her identity could be forged easily enough-
Thanks to the hypnosis magic she learned at Chaldea.
But the money situation? That was trickier.
As humanity's last hope, Ritsuka still had enough dignity not to just go hypnotize someone for cash.
And as for mugging random thugs...?
Honestly, Tokyo had really good public safety.
As she wandered, Ritsuka suddenly remembered the manga from earlier.
"Maybe... drawing manga isn't such a bad idea?"
After all, she'd studied art under Da Vinci.
Thank god she hadn't summoned any of those abstract-style painter servants.
At least Da Vinci's style kept up with the times.
Her current drawing technique wasn't that far off from modern manga.
In fact... she learned manga art by reading manga.
She recalled Da Vinci's infamous piece:
"Mona Lisa"-drawn in JoJo's art style mixed with Hokuto no Ken.
Just the memory gave her chills.
"Why do I feel like that Mona Lisa has a Stand behind her...?"
Thankfully, when Ritsuka first started learning, Da Vinci taught her a much more normal style.
But-
A new problem arose.
"Crap... I can't remember any actual manga plotlines..."
Ritsuka was speechless.
How could someone this committed to plagiarism end up like this?
Then-
Her eyes lit up with a wicked gleam.
"Wait a second... Doesn't Emiya's story totally count as manga? I could make two series out of that!"
Ritsuka cackled.
"Sorry, Emiya-mom. Kiritsugu-papa. Forgive me. I'm doing this for survival!"
(Back at Chaldea, the entire Emiya family sneezed in sync.)
And so-
Now she just had to decide:
Should she start with Fate/Zero... or go straight to Fate/Stay Night?
With that thought, Ritsuka began preparing her hypnosis magic to fix her lack-of-ID problem.