Whenever I use Fateless to mirror another person's Grim Cypher from the Fate Index, I don't just copy their abilities. I can also temporarily assume their identity on my Cypher Card, including their name, age, and other recorded details. This change exists only on my Cypher card, not physically. But it still allows me to falsify my identity, which is why it was not only the sub-ability of Fateless but was called False Fate.
I settled on True Name Sutra as my first Gion tattoo, thinking that by using False Fate to alter the details on my Cypher Card, I could bypass its drawback. But the True Name Sutra's definition of a true name went far beyond what its description suggested. From my experience, a true name seemed to be something deeper, the name that belonged to you since birth and would still belong to you after death.
By now it was pretty clear to me that my plan to use False Fate to bypass the Gion tattoo's drawback wouldn't work, at least not in theory. I had to try and I did. No surprise there. It didn't work. It didn't matter as I had already taken care of that drawback. But I'll have to settle for a convincing lie to explain myself to others.
Things would have been easier, and far less complicated, if the lie, no matter how convincing, had been the truth. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I would have to work on my poker face. I carried far too many secrets, and the last thing I needed was someone catching me in a lie.
Now that I had tested and confirmed all my concerns about the True Name Sutra Gion tattoo, I used Fateless to mirror the Dream Engine from the Fate Index. Then I went back to sleep, intending to continue practicing inside my Dream Domain.
Despite the help of the Dream Domain, mastering the Gion tattoo well enough to deploy it instinctively in high-tension situations like accidental happenings or combat proved extremely difficult.
Because of the Dream Domain's time dilation, I spent what felt like an eternity repeating the same exercises, running through every configuration of the True Name Sutra I could manage and then pushing beyond them. It wasn't easy, but I forced myself past the limits of my understanding and practice, breaking through my own limitations at every turn.
Yet no matter how clearly I understood the pattern, or how many times I practiced it, I couldn't take that final step. I still had to arrange the pattern consciously, far from the level of mastery that my body needed to react before my thoughts did.
Finally, morning arrived. It was time to wake up and head to the Institute's gym for the morning Advanced Combat and Survival class. However, I had been so obsessed with perfecting my mastery of the Gion tattoo that I hadn't even begun to familiarize myself with basic combat and survival, let alone be prepared to attend advanced classes on it.
Still, I got up from bed and prepared to head to the Institute's gym. I had promised Mary I would meet her there. After freshening up, I left my room and hurried toward the gym, not wanting to keep her waiting.
The institute's gym was huge, like an army training base. It was a gym for grimlocks, after all. Its outdoor training grounds appeared to be packed. There were multiple groups of researchers training for their expeditions into Grimmyth. Most of these guys were undergoing twenty-four-seven survival training, preparing for scenarios where they might have to fight or stay on the run for weeks without proper rest or nutrition.
There were illusionary formation arrays designed for this kind of training, but there weren't enough for everyone. On top of that, running such large formations was extremely expensive. Because of that, researchers had to continue their training by sharing the training grounds until it was their group's turn to use the formation array.
As I entered the indoor gym, I looked around for a moment before spotting Mary walking in. She wore a baggy sweatshirt and sweatpants that hung loose around her hips and thighs. Her outfit stood in stark contrast to the other girls in the gym, many of whom were running around in sports bras and shorts.
Sipping on her 100 g-coin coffee, she looked around when our gaze met, she walked over with an indifferent expression, but her cheeks turned crimson in shame when she heard me ask, "Where's mine?"
"I'm drinking it," Mary replied, shame creeping into her voice as she avoided my gaze.
The institute gym wasn't that far from the cafeteria. To finish two extra-large drinks in that short span of time… she clearly had an addiction. I thought about pointing it out, but we weren't close enough for that yet.
Quickly masking her embarrassment, Mary changed the topic. She asked, "So, have you decided on your first Gion tattoo yet?"
"Yep," I said with a confident nod. In the next second, the Gion tattoo formed across my skin. Soon after, the tattoo emitted a faint reddish glow as I began to float about thirty centimeters above the ground, just enough to show off without drawing too much attention.
Mary looked surprised. Not only had I chosen my first Gion tattoo, I had already mastered it to the point where I could deploy it in under a second, just a step away from using it instinctively. Quickly recovering from it, she asked, "Which Gion tattoo is it? I thought you were going with a reinforcement type."
"True Name Sutra," I replied, already bracing myself for her reaction. But instead of the shock and scolding I expected, she simply nodded. She appeared even a little impressed, saying, "Good choice for a first gion tattoo. It has a very low learning curve and is very handy for day-to-day work. I even use it as an extra set of hands during experiments."
"But make sure no one calls out your True Name while you're using it, especially people who know you," she warned. "If that happens, the True Force will cut off mid-use, sabotaging whatever you're doing like this, Wyatt!"