Fate/hollow ataraxia

Fate/hollow ataraxia (フェイト/ホロウアタラクシア) is a Japanese visual novel game created by TYPE-MOON in 2005 which is the sequel to its earlier visual novel Fate/stay night. The word ataraxia in the title is a Greek term for tranquility, giving the title the combined meaning of "empty (or false) tranquility".

Plot
The plot of Fate/hollow ataraxia is based half a year after the events of Fate/stay night. Like its preceding counterpart, the story is set in Fuyuki City. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a member of the Mages' Association and a master in the 5th Holy Grail War, wakes on the fourth day of the 5th Holy Grail war with a new servant, Avenger, and no memory of what happened to her beforehand. She and Avenger set off to fight and win the Holy Grail War.

Meanwhile, Shirō Emiya lives a peaceful life with all his friends from the 5th Holy Grail War. After one of her experiments changes time and space, Rin Tōsaka leaves for the Mages' Association in England to fix things. The Servants sense a new danger while dark creatures appear soon afterward. Shirō, as a precaution, sets off to ensure nobody is in danger and instead finds himself frequently meeting a mysterious girl, Caren Ortensia.

Both Bazett and Shirō find themselves in time loop that lasts four days, beginning of the fourth day of the 5th Holy Grail War. Each time they die or survive four days, they always awake on the first day of the loop aware of what has happened to them since the first time loop began. Determined to end the loop, Bazett, Avenger, and Shirō fight to discover the truth behind what's causing the endless four days.

Characters

 * Bazett Fraga McRemitz (バゼット・フラガ・マクレミッツ)
 * A mage sent from the Mage's Association to fight the 5th War of the Holy Grail, born in Ireland as a descendant of old mage family of an unusual bloodline. She is mentioned very briefly in Fate/stay night.  The original Master of Lancer, she was betrayed by Kirei Kotomine and became the master of the Servant Avenger.


 * Caren Ortensia (カレン・オルテンシア)
 * Caren is a member of the Church and Burial Agency, and she works as a priestess. She is kind and forgiving to the point that she believes her only purpose in life is to help others, even if she is hurt in the process. She never blames the person who has hurt her and blames the act on demons who caused the person to commit the sin. Whenever she is at fault, she apologizes to God rather than the person. Despite her kindness, she has a love for teasing and exploiting others’ emotional vulnerability. Upon discovery of an individual’s weak spot, she enjoys bringing it out to light in front of all to witness. While this antagonizes many characters and causes much outrage and humiliation, she remains calm. Also, in spite of being a priestess, she has deliberately chosen to wear a revealing costume with no skirt to both increase her mobility and to seduce men. She is voiced by Ami Koshimizu in Fate/tiger colosseum and the All Around TYPE-MOON Drama CD.She is loved in Lancer/zero.


 * As a member of the Church, Caren assists in exorcisms. Her body itself possesses an unusual property; if there is a person nearby who has been possessed by a demon, she will experience the same pain as the person possessed.  As a result, exorcists employ her to act as a radar of sorts to find demons. This ability is most evident whenever she comes in proximity to the Servant Avenger as her body sprouts grotesque spikes. As a result of this power, she is covered in bandages.  She also experiences physical pain whenever people in proximity do evil things. In battle, she uses a red cloth of Magdala, which has the power to forcefully bind men. However, while the man is bound, no harmful physical attacks can be made against him or Magdala will be rendered useless.


 * Avenger (アヴェンジャー)
 * The 8th Servant, who was accidentally summoned in the 3rd war, who appears suddenly as Bazett's new Servant. His true name is believed to be Angra Mainyu, an evil spirit of Zoroastrianism. In truth, Avenger is simply a villager from centuries before whom was sacrificed out of a misguided fear that he was an incarnation of evil. Though he loves the world, his suffering makes him hate humanity.


 * Shirō Emiya (衛宮 士郎)
 * Within this installment, Shirō experiences unexpected changes in personality and momentary lapses in memory, particularly related to his own skills. In reality, it was Avenger, the eight Servant, who took possession of Shirō's form during daytime. Whether the Shirō present in the story is the original being possessed by Avenger, or a copy created as a mere disguise, is not known. In the limited edition version of Fate/hollow ataraxia, it is revealed that Shirō was actually in Tokyo for three months. when Shirō returns to Fuyuki City he is attacked by the shadow beasts. He is saved by a mysterious young man with greyish skin, yellow irised green eyes and reddish, blond-brown hair, and wearing a black sleeveless coat. The man later tells Shirō that they will be seeing a lot of each other from now on. Shiro and the man later fight the shadow beasts together, and later join the rest.


 * Rin Tōsaka (遠坂 凛)
 * In the first half of the game, Rin is in London. She returns in the second half with an apparently dramatic change in personality (specifically, a penchant for cosplaying as a miko or magical girls).  However, she has also become an experienced mage, demonstrating this when she was the first to logically compose an explanation as to why time has been looping for four days and when she gives Shirō advice. In Fate/hollow ataraxia, she wields the Kaleidostick, another of Zeltretch's inventions, which when activated, the Kaleidostick transfers knowledge from an alternate version of its user into its current wielder, in addition to providing an ample source of Mana. However, the Kaleidostick dislikes its creator, and frequently manipulates its user into humiliating situations. In Fate/hollow ataraxia, the Kaleidostick is responsible for transforming Rin into the magical girl Kaleido-Ruby.


 * Other characters
 * While playing less prominent roles, all Masters and Servants in Fate/stay night of the 5th Holy Grail War appear again, with the exception of Kirei Kotomine.

Manga
There have also been many sets of manga anthologies bases on the series produced by different companies and drawn by a multitude of different artists. The first volume of the earliest anthology series was released by Ichijinsha with the title Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Anthology Comic, on January 7, 2006 under their DNA Media Comics imprint; the Fithteenth volume in the series was released on August 25, 2008. Two anthology series were then released by Kadokawa, the first was the entitle Fate/hollow Ataraxia ~ Comic la carte and was released on January 10, 2006. The second Fate/hollow ataraxia Comic a la carte ~Happy Life hen~ was released on May 24, 2006. Another two anthology series were then released by Enterbrain, Fate/hollow ataraxia Anthology Comic was released between on January 30, 2006 and May 25, 2007 in nine volumes under their Magi-Cu Comics imprint. A 4-koma series was later published by Enterbrain between on December 25, 2007 and December 25, 2008 in six volumes.

CD's
A soundtrack to the game, entitled Fate/hollow ataraxia Original Sound Track was published by Geneon Entertainment on November 23, 2005. The single Hollow was release by Type-Moon on October 28, 2005.

Reception
Fate/hollow ataraxia became one of the top selling visual novels of 2005.