Opening Ceremony

A disrespectful stray branch gashes my naked inner thigh, but because I'm moving so fast the neighboring leaves smear the blood into a dried dull red mark that almost glints orange. Muffling a pained cry, I don't stop running away from the goats.

To be honest, I have no idea why I'm naked and running away from goats in this forest – other than the fact that the goats are going to kill me if they catch up. To be even more honest, I actually don't even know who I am or what I was doing up to a few moments ago, when I woke up to find two giant goats charging at me. Scurrying to the left to dodge the charge, I managed to make it into the shrubbery with only a couple of scratches on my left arm. The moment the first goat realized that its horns didn't crush every bone in my body, it quickly turned and spotted me struggling to get back up. That was when I started running.

By the way, when I say goat, I mean giant goat. Even with a blank in my memory, I know how big a goat should be and how big a big goat is. But just one of those helical horns was the size of a normal goat, the ones you see in the simulators. Well, I guess those aren't really normal goats. Simulated goats aside, I came to about half of the goat's knee.

I think I've gotten away because I don't hear the thundering of their hooves anymore. I try to slow my ragged breathing, but my breath catches the moment I realize that I am not actually safe. All around me are trees. All around me could be other giant goats ready to charge me down. Have I done anything to deserve this? Even if there's a question, it's not like I can answer it. I want to laugh. It's comical, absolutely insane, that giant goats should even exist. But not a chuckle comes out of me; it's as if my body accepts this, as if it knows why this is, and what it has to do.

Was I actually some giant goat herder?

That was not some sort of jest.

Either way, my wounds aren't that bad and I think I can make it home…

Home.

That one syllable word. Why did tears well up in my eyes the moment I considered my home? What is home, where is home? It's something that I should never forget, something stamped onto my soul that I refused to let go of even if every other part of me flew away with the eastern wind.

Honestly, that was more pretentious than poetic when I think about it. Was I really that sort of person? But there's no time to consider such a stray thought because a shadow paints a tree far to my right. I say "paint" because I'm sure it was intentional. I have no real way of knowing, but my intuition says that if whatever it was didn't want to produce a shadow in the forest, it has the skills to not be so obvious.

I get up and brace myself, making sure not only to focus on each individual tree, but also the forest as a whole. There's no disturbance in the magical energy in the area, but then again, I didn't think there would be.

Wait, magical energy? What's that?

That moment, that lapse in concentration was when it was fired. Unable to move, unable to react, I watched a supposedly delivered death, never arrive. Even if it was fast enough that it seemed like a shooting star, I only saw the flash erupt the ground before feeling the resulting sonic boom that tore through the forest, scattering birds from the branches as well as causing a cascade of now stray branches. Needless to say, the sheer force threw me down until I could taste ground while leaving the left half of my ribcage shattered.

Lying helpless among the earthworms, in an unknown place, not even knowing who I am, my life is about to end before it even begins. Even with my ears still ringing and an intense pain racking my body, I have enough strength left to force my right hand to grab my death. Unable to move my head, I hold it up to the sky as some sort of closure.

A thin rod as black as pitch tapered towards one end. As for the other end, there's still some evidence of feathers.

An arrow.

The moment I identify what it is, it disperses into particles of light like a nightmare. Oh, how I wish this was just a nightmare. But to what and more importantly who would I be waking up to?

With the arrow gone, I can finally see the cold-hearted Death above me.

"—Wha…"

The wind blows through the forest, sending the leaves into a fine frenzy before they settle that a whirlwind is preferable.

This is the Archer who destroyed the very ground I was standing on and knocked me down with a single arrow that didn't even touch me.

"Y-You're just a child."

The woman's voice is full of surprise as she immediately dematerializes the divine longbow she holds in her right gauntlet.

A wild wealth of green and golden unkempt hair framed by– umm, cat ears? But more importantly those green eyes speak of the brutality of nature yet also of a simple, innocent kindness. In that moment, I am entranced.

Even if I am losing consciousness and I cannot be sure that I will still be the me of right now when I wake up, I vow to carry this scene to hell with me.

This meeting meant something. This meeting was important.

A thump, and something lumpy covers me. It feels soft, like some sort of pelt. For some reason, I'm instantly repulsed, but I don't have the energy to fight it. Instead, I can only let this hopefully restful sleep take a hold of me as lights start to dance around this forest clearing.

I don't want to lose anything else.

Fate/MOBA

If I try to reach out to the past, this is the first and only memory I can grasp. Needless to say, it will disappear the moment I wake up.

The first thing I felt was cold.

It was not the bone-chilling, painful cold you feel when half of your body is braving a blizzard and the other half is submerged in winter snow. That was cold that I could handle, the cold that I reveled in. This coldness was more primal, as if I was in a place that I didn't belong.

Things that I had were no longer there.

Things that I didn't have were suddenly there.

As if trying to push a round peg in a square hole, I believe the expression goes. Yes, even if it fit, it did not fit well.

Looking around as the raw yet meager ether in the air subsided, I was surrounded by hundreds of hooded figures. Some were on the ground in pain, others had already fainted from the exertion. I could only presume some kind of ritual had taken place, and I… Was I the result or the failure?

Yet in that unfamiliar place surrounded by all these unfamiliar people, I was not allowed to feel scared. That's right, I wasn't scared because ■■■ was beside me.

But even if there was no fear, there was dismay; a gnawing, heart-wrenching feeling in my gut. Something that I shouldn't forget, something that I can't forget.

This is the moment I was born.

Even if I lose everything I am and everything I've done from when I came into being, I can't forget this moment.

For amongst the cold, amongst the dreary ruins and the hooded members who were now nothing more than sacks of meat, was me, lying there, shivering and sobbing, wanting nothing more than to go back home.