Nursery Rhyme

Class: Caster
True Name: Nursery Rhyme
Height/Weight: 137cm・30kg
Source: English fairy tales
Region: Europe
Alignment: Changes according to the Master
Gender: Female

Scenario Writer: Kinoko Nasu
Character Design: Wada Arco
CV: Nonaka Ai
Main Appearances in Works: Fate/EXTRA

Class Skills

Territory Creation A
A small door, a constantly changing tea party, rainbow plains of monochrome squares, a questions and answers game^[1] between blabbermouth twins.
But, but, my favorite is that one after all.
Forget everything, you're invited to the nameless forest!

Personal Skills

Self-Modification A
The aptitude to attach and fuse entirely different flesh to one's own body. The higher this rank goes, the further one gets from a pure hero- kaka, kakaka, irrelevant, irrelevant, that's completely irrelevant!
No matter what happens, it's as you've ordered!

Shapeshift A+
I will transform, I shall transform.
I am you, you are me.
I am going to transform, I have transformed.
I am you, you are me.^[2]

Meanwhile A
Boarding the ship with reliable friends, the journey ahead is full of troubles. What waits ahead is either a hopeful encounter or a malicious trap.
That is, regardless of the circumstances, very interesting.
Another person's secret is a taste of honey.
Well then, you're invited to the reverse side of the world!

Noble Phantasm

Nursery・Rhyme: A Tale for Somebody's Sake
Rank: C++
Class: Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm
Range: 0
Maximum number of Targets: one person

Nursery Rhyme.
The Servant's own ability is not the Reality Marble, but rather the Reality Marble itself is what transformed into a Servant.
It reflects the Master's mind like a mirror, and manifests itself as a Pseudo-Servant based on a shape that the Master dreamed of.
Originally, there is no specific name, but the genre of the picture book is 「nursery rhyme」.
Because the contents of the Marble reflects the Master's mind, it will be strongly influenced by the Master's favorite books 『Alice in Wonderland』 and 『Through the Looking-Glass』 that composes the thoughts of her mind. Aspects of the ability include the summoning of the monster 「Jabberwock」 and the 「The Playing Cards」 and fading a person's very existence itself starting with their ego with the 「Nameless Forest」, etc. These are all influenced by the picture books that Alice read with great delight during her lifetime.

First person pronoun: atashi
Second person pronoun: anata/〇〇 (no honorifics used)
Third person pronoun: anatatachi/〇〇 (no honorifics used)

Personality

「A nursery rhyme is a children's refrain. Tommy Thumb's charming picture book. The initial form of Mother Goose. The sorrowful me to the lonely you. Your final wish, let's make it true. A romantic flight until nightfall, for the sake of the you and me you dreamed of...」

The Servant known as Nursery Rhyme is a Reality Marble itself, reflecting the Master's mind, she possesses the special disposition of a Pseudo-Servant based on a shape that her Master dreamed of. Her form will differ based on her Master. She's an elusive Servant, but when she was summoned as a Servant in the Moon's Holy Grail War by the little girl that appeared to be no older than 8, Alice, she took on the shape of her Master's dream.
That appearance reflected Alice's own, the figure of an innocent and delicate child.
Even with that appearance, Nursery Rhyme herself is 100% a Servant, prioritizing the fulfillment of her Master's wish.
However, one mustn't forget. Since children have a cruel side to them, Nursery Rhyme does too.
「...I am you, you are me. For the sake of you who forgot even their own name, I'll reflect your form completely. My name is nursery rhyme^[3] . Tommy Thumb's charming picture book. The initial form of Mother Goose.」

Motivation and attitude towards the Master

Inside Nursery Rhyme, a Servant born from a concept instead of being a Heroic Spirit that existed at one point, the memories of her former Master whose form she once took, are firmly rooted. Her current form and existence are thanks to these memories.
By repeatedly ascending her Spirit Origin, the magical book Nursery Rhyme will regain the form of the young girl. However, without the Master known as Alice, that is nothing more than self-contradiction.
Nobody other than the present Master is capable of guiding Nursery Rhyme that lost her way and giving her an opportunity to discover her answer. Please, find a happy ending to her tale...

Dialogue Examples

「“Did you forget? About these.
"Pitiful and lovely Tommy Thumb, thank you for the hard work so far, but this is the end of the adventure."
"I mean, we're already inside a dream. A veil of darkness has fallen. Your head too, will fall with a plop."
"Come, kill me like a lie, close the page, goodbye!"」
「Fufu, seems like the bad dream has ended now. Goodbye, lonely Alice (me).
Thank you for playing with Alice (me) till now.」^[4]

Historical Image and Character

This Servant is not an existence that imitated an existing Heroic Spirit, but the general term for existing picture books.
The genre deeply loved in England, was established as a concept that collected the dreams of many children and became a Servant as the "Hero of Children".
The book that later served as her foundation, 『Alice in Wonderland』, was created by the well-known writer, Lewis Carroll. Originally, it was a nursery rhyme that Carroll came up with for the young girls that he was on good terms with.

Character in 『Fate/Grand Order』

Introduced in Chapter 4: 「The Death-Barrier of the City of Demonic Fog, London」.
During the limited-time Event, and as we raise the ascension level of her Spirit Origin, she takes on the form of her Master from 『Fate/EXTRA』, the young girl known as Alice, but this is something the Servant, Nursery Rhyme wished for herself.
Summoned in the demonic fog-covered London, she roamed the streets in the shape of a magic book. Materializing as a Servant after having her name guessed right by Andersen, a writer of children's stories, she was defeated by the Protagonist and returned to nothing. In the Valentine Event, 「Chocolate Lady's Much Ado about Nothing」, the players fell in love with the figure of her doing her best to give chocolate to the Master.

Role in past works

Introduced in the 『Fate/EXTRA』 series. In the Moon's Holy Grail War, she imitated the form of her Master, Alice and was given the name Alice.^[5] This name is the name of her Master and the Protagonist of 『Alice in Wonderland』.
Recognized as the friend of the Protagonist, she gave words of gratitude to him/her for mourning over the death of Alice in 『Fate/EXTRA CCC』.

Connection to other Characters

Andersen
To write such nasty books, you're really a bad person! Sorry for disturbing you today too, but I'll have you listen to my story!

Passionlip
I feel like I've done something bad to her... If we meet again, I wonder if we can be friends this time...

Jack the Ripper
She's my precious friend. But...I know that it's not a good thing for us to be together...

Comment from the Illustrator

Nursery Rhyme's physical appearance is a mirror of Alice, but since I thought that wouldn't be good, her first stage became a book. In the case of the second stage's outfit too, I made sure it would be different from EXTRA by changing the feel of the clothing to that of something metallic. The third stage was based on my tastes. I'm pleased with the Final Art.

Translation notes:

[1] NR uses "Zen questions and answers" here which is a cryptic dialogue between a Zen priest and his disciple. No clue why.
[2] NR uses "watashi" and "anata" for "me" and "you" respectively in the beginning before switching to "ore" and "omae" at the end. "Watashi", in formal or polite contexts, is a gender neutral pronoun; in casual speech, it is typically only used by women. On the other hand "ore" is a pronoun frequently used by men. "Anata" is a more polite way to refer to somebody while "omae" is a more familiar/rougher way to do so.
[3] NR uses the proper Japanese name here instead of the english one that is written in katakana.
[4] In the mats, when Nursery Rhyme's old Master, Alice, is mentioned, her name is written with hiragana as "ありす" (Arisu), however, in Nursery Rhyme-Alice's case, it's written with katakana as "アリス" (Arisu). Fun fact, foreign names and terms are usually written in katakana so the name of the titular character from Alice in Wonderland would be written as "アリス" too.
[5] "ありす" for the Master and "アリス" for Nursery Rhyme.

I'm fairly sure I translated a lot of Fate/EXTRA references incorrectly since I never played the game. Go ahead and correct me if you see something wrong.