Fate/Hollow Fake
is an Alternate Universe Fanfic/Quest hosted on Sufficient Velocity, written by Zerban Da Great.
The Grail War has come once again to Fuyuki City, but in a way that nobody was expecting. The story follows Tamiko Kurosawa, a stressed out barista whose life is changed forever when she and her friend unwittingly are plunged head first into the secret world of mages and servants. As events unfold, Tamiko and her servant, Lancer, must navigate their way through the war, and try to figure out how to keep themselves alive until the end.
The story is dictated by the choices of the readers, and balances its time between character interaction during the day and grail war activity in the evening.
'Fate/Hollow Fake provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Rider of Red, Saber of Red and Saber of Black, though the latter however is more of a Dark Action Girl
- And Show It to You: Assassin of Black has Delusional Heartbeat as a Noble Phantasm. He attempts this on Tamiko.
- Yuko returns the favour on Night 5.
- Artificial Human: Alfonsviel von Einzbern, Miyu Edelfelt, and Saber of Red, technically.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Assassin of Red can manage to recreate Fake Eye of the Mind by simply reading people that well.
- Batman Gambit: A favorite of Assassin of Red. Such as using Medea in order to awaken Yuko's reality marble
- Big Damn Heroes: Lancer and Rider show up just in time to defend their masters from Assassin of Black.
- Archer of Red turns out to have survived and shows up at the final battle in time to save Jacob.
- Big Fancy House: The Matou estate, where the Red Team sets up their base of operations, as well as Einzbern Manor
- Body Horror: Shinji's physical state after willingly committing himself to the crest worms. Yuko's Origin fueled transmutation leaves half her body covered in spiked iron, and Tamiko's metamorphosis into Ruler/Zahak causes serpents to sprout from her shoulders, as well as the more familiar aspects of being the Black Grail
- The Cavalry: Rin, Medusa!Rider and Waver show up in time to save the heroes from an endless horde of wraiths and bail them out of the dimension once it starts falling apart.
- Cosmic Plaything: Discussed by Caster of Red, in regards to his work in life to find The Root. Invoked when he himself is shot dead by Shirou Emiya as the Hound of Alaya
- Continuity Nod: Hollow Fake incorporates elements from across the Fate franchise, with various call backs and references scattered throughout the story.
- Conveniently Orphaned: Out of the assembled Red Masters, Tamiko, Shinji, Sakura, and Alfons are all without parents. Yuko joins them partway through the story
- Darkest Hour: Following the temple assault, Tamiko is revealed to be Ruler and the vessel of the Black Grail, and her allies are told that the only way to stop the Shadows is to kill her. Enkidu's contract is stolen and he is reverted to a divine beast by Avenger. Yuko is half-mutated into iron after failing to activate her reality marble fully. Archer of Red dies fighting Blackened Berserker, Saber of Red is critically wounded fighting Saber-Alter, and Assassin of Red is dead.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Sakura treats Tamiko's Projection as this. Later on, Tamiko's Monstrous Strength serves a similar role.
- Disney Death: Archer of Red turns out to have survived his fight against Berserker of Black.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Archer of Red whittling down Blackened Berserker's lives using cunning, traps, ambushes, and the very specific Faceless King noble phantasm to strip away his lives, and his regeneration.
- Dysfunction Junction: As per any Grail War, the participants of the red team all have their own issues to deal with.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Tamiko manifests as the Ruler of the Third Holy Grail War, allowing her to change the timeline for the better, notably destroying the Holy Grail and preventing the Fuyuki fire. Everyone else who made it out of the ordeal was initially disoriented due to having Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, but their lives are for the better. Luvia has family with the Tohsakas. Robin Hood continues doing what he does best alongside Jacob. Alfons is working on researching the Emiya Crest alongside Shinji, at the very least there might be hope that he can live to be old. Shinji himself has come out of the experience as a better person, and it seems that he'll join the crew of the Golden Hind after death. Gilgamesh and Enkidu survived by sacrificing most of Gilgamesh's treasury, like in Gil's ending in Fate/EXTRA CCC, Shirou gets to live a normal life with the others, and while Tamiko doesn't want to step back into their lives until they've settled down, Yuko immediately runs out on her job go after Tamiko once she remembers.
- Epiphany Therapy: Saber of Red's experiences in the Grail War allowed her to finally understand why she was denied the throne. This allows her to defeat Saber of Black using Clarent's true form and ascend to Avalon.
- Fake Memories: Everything involving Tamiko from before the story began
- Fly Or Die: Tamiko's magecraft usually comes more naturally when faced with immense mortal peril.
- Forced into Evil: Lancer and Rider of Black are bound as servants to Caster of Black. Saber and Berserker of Black, and later Rider of Black, Lancer of Red and Berserker of Red are all taken under the control of Angra Mainyu
- Horror Hunger: Tamiko/Ruler/Zahak feels a terrible hunger that can only be sated by taking in more mana. Either from Servants or people.
- Human Resources: Assassin of Red's method of dealing with Yuko's poor mana output.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Tamiko tries this with Lancer of Red. It works
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The fate of Caster of Red
- Interrupted Suicide: Tamiko manages to stop Shinji from stepping off a skyscraper after his worm implantation. Later, Yuko does this for Tamiko
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Yuko Yamada starts getting more and more active in battles after the events of Night 5. Several people wish she wouldn't.
- Meaningful Name: Tamiko Kurosawa "The Radiant Child of the Black Swamp"
- Non-Action Guy: Assassin of Red is really more of a planner than a fighter. On the Master side of things, Shinji rather prefers staying inside when Grail War shenanigans are happening.
- Parental Abandonment: Alfon lost his mother and saw his father cast out of their house after he failed to bring the Einzberns the Holy Grail.
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Player Punch: The end of night 5 - Power Incontinence: Tamiko's wounds after transmuting into Ruler leak more of the deadly shadow unless the bleeding is staunched with holy cloth
- Yuko's origin of Shield also plays like this regenerating her wounds into metal and compelling her to throw herself into the fray again and again.
- Power Level: Zerban keeps an Information Matrix available for all servants, with the latest version in the index at all times.
- Shapeshifter Weapon: Lancer of Red can alter his clay weapons, depending on the situation.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Tamiko combines this with "Not So Different" Remark and several other tropes in her final confrontation with Avenger.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Tamiko Kurosawa was created by Angra Mainyu, and didn't exist until literally the moment the story began
- The Many Deaths of You: Zerban wrote out 40 different Bad Ends for the quest, complete with Taiga Dojos.
- The Voiceless: The Man in Red, who only can speak the incantations to activate his weapons. Outside of Unlimited Blade Works, that is
- Wham Episode: Night 6. Caster of Black and Assassin of Red are dead, Archer of Red is left behind in a hopeless battle to stall Berserker of Black, Yuko kills Assassin of Black at the cost of her arm turning permanently to metal, and the biggest reveals of all, Avenger is the Big Bad, Tamiko is not only a fragment of Avenger, but also the Black Grail and the Grail War's Ruler, and Lancer of Red is taken by Avenger and forced to revert to his original form as a divine beast.
- Wham Line: Two in quick succession.Lancer of Red: Who are you talking to?Avenger: Now I want you to tell me what happened before that.
- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Avenger seems benevolent at best, neutral at worst, before Night 5
