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“Master!”
Walk down the hallways, warm and bright. She passes the Servants by with a smile of warmth and excitement. Her friends. Her friends that stand by her side. Heroes, Anti-Heroes, Emperors, Kings, Princesses, Aliens, Warriors, Geniuses alike. Her heart loved them. She loved them.
The Master waves them hello and goodbye.
「私はここにいたい」
“Fujimaru!” The Chaldea staff warmly greet her. She smiles as she jogs over to them. Meuniere and her do a little fist bump upon meeting, Duston acknowledges her with a grunt, and Sylvia gives her a small hug. Whenever she needed something, even though she never asked for it, they’ve always found ways to make sure she was alright. From giving her permissions to facilities, even tinkering the system a little to let her have a cheat day for farming once in a while to even thoroughly altering her files and records so that she remained safe.
The next people who tackles her were Gerda and Asha, bringing smiles on their faces, with Patxi giving her a headpat, Macarios and Adele giving her double high-fives, and the children from Fairy Britain as well as in China.
Her heart loved them. She loved them.
Fujimaru waves them hello and goodbye.
「おいー」
「私はここにいたい」
Holmes, Rider Vinci, Sion, Director Goredolf, Captain Nemo, Mash and Fou. She glides and does a little waltz with the famous detective, even giving the back of his hand a kiss before he could make her flustered first. She giggles before leaving to take a group selfie with Vinci-chan, Sion, Goredolf and Nemo. The latter two grumbled about how they looked while the former two laughed. It was nice, It was so nice.
She moves to Mash and Fou.
“Senpai,” The girl takes her Senpai’s hand, her cheeks tinted with a light blush. The little beast mewls in approval. “I’m glad we could hold hands together like this.”
Her Senpai smiles and pulls Mash into a hug.
「マジかよー」
「心を透明にしよう」
Her Senpai smiles before petting Fou. “Senpai,” Her kouhai calls out, eyes soft, “I think 「＿＿＿＿ 」-san is calling you.”
「＿＿＿＿ 」?
“It’s okay, Senpai.” The sweet demi-servant gives her a reassuring grip, “You can go ahead. We’ll catch up later.” Yet Mash’s hand trembles.
The Senpai waves her friends hello and goodbye.
「あんたが子持ち悪い」
She stills. She heard someone speak at the same time, she didn’t hear anyone. But she could feel how it lingered. How words directed at her were spat with disgust and anger.
From the corner of her eye, a man with a black cape and transparent insect wings watches.
She reaches her final destination, seeing two familiar figures already waiting for her. Her heart trembles, her heart aches. Her heart yearns.
“Ritsuka.”
That was all it took for her to run into a blue and red clad Caster’s embrace-
And into the arms of a peach-haired man who welcomed her home.
Warmth. For the first time in what felt like forever, there was warmth. For some reason, something wet slid down her cheeks. The famous inventor laughs and wipes them off. The kind man sighs before hugging her again.
Ah... Ah...
Her body shakes from how much she felt, from how much she had been holding it in. From the distance, she could hear someone crying. She wondered who cried. She wondered why they cried.
She wants to stay. Ritsuka wants to stay. Forever, forever-
「おい」
Ritsuka’s body freezes in place. Her heart felt as if it had stopped.
Her head lifts up to see-
「いつまで寝てるの?」
Doctor 「＿＿＿＿」 and 「＿＿＿＿＿」 hug her tightly and whisper to her ear one last time before pushing her towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
-
Fujimaru Ritsuka gasps and jolts awake, before taking in air as if she had been starved of it for days.
A dream. An absurdly long dream.
But before she could think, a sharp pain lanced through her body, forcing her to cry out and clutch at her stomach where she felt the sensation come from.
“Seriously, it really is a fucking wonder you haven’t died yet.”
Ritsuka clenches her jaw and faces to the side to see the one person she only half expected to show up. “What... are you doing here, Oberon?” She forces out before realizing that they were not in her room, but in the infirmary itself.
Despite meeting a gaze of hatred and disgust, Ritsuka asks, “What happened?”
Silence blankets the room heavier than it should be. What happened? What happened? All she knew was that she was fighting alongside him in a minute singularity, a place where nothing but the occasional monster roaming the land.
“Are you fucking serious?” He growls, low enough to warn Ritsuka of the impending explosion of his anger. “Even though it was a different kind of attack, it was still the same as that god you faced! An endless loop, an endless walk in a dream-” If it wasn’t possible for him to get angrier, then it was now.
“You say you want to live, to go home, and take back your future,” The glare was more poisonous than venom and colder than ice, “Yet here you are easily waltzing to the other side to meet the end even though you’ve laid the other worlds to rest by your hand.”
“Aren’t you fucking selfish, you bastard?” That bitter smile grew as Oberon approached her and rested both of his hands around her throat, “I should have killed you back then while I had the chance. I should have taken down Chaldea if you wanted to die so badly-”
Ritsuka’s eyes soften. She understands. She understands now.
Her hand cups his cheek.
“Yet, you saved me. Right, Oberon?”
His silence was her answer.
Her gaze was down cast even with a smile, “A dream of regrets, of guilt, of all the people I wish I could see again. A dream of the people I loved. A dream wherein I’m able to reunite with them one last time.”
A dream of which she stayed dead.
Perhaps it was not an attack similar to what Aphrodite did to her, but it was her own longing that put her under deep “sleep”.
The gaping wide hole in her stomach said as much. And this infirmary was only an imitation. Made from Castoria’s magic most likely.
After all, it was only just the three of them now. Eternally on this mission to save the world, even as it had been assaulted over and over again by lostbelts, gods, entities, and singularities alike.
“Sometimes it’s hard to walk forward. It’s heavy. Sometimes, it’s just heavy. Where it feels like I’m crawling and only using my arms just to move, where countless times I only feel like the option is to give up. And when you so much as look back while you’re vulnerable...”
‘You will be crushed by the waves of these feelings. You will drown in them until you learn once more how to adjust your breathing to better adapt to it.’
「ごめなさい、オベロン」
「心を透明にしきれなくてごめんなさいって思ってる」
Oberon neither moves nor speaks.
Ritsuka caresses the loose hands that were encircled around her throat, cupping them with tenderness, “Thanks for saving me from that attack, Oberon. If you didn’t come-”
“Shut up.”
He cut her abruptly, his claws and nails drawing blood and digging into her shoulders. “Just shut up idiot.”
He says just as he lifts his pained expression to meet surprised amber, “Even now, you still aren’t allowed to leave the stage, huh?”
‘What an idiot you are for never using the option to run away instead of facing everything head on with your stubbornness and determination.’
Ritsuka glances at the hole in her stomach, now nothing but the size of her fist as it grew smaller the longer they talked. “I guess so. But until I find what I’m looking for, until the world he saved gets restored again, I won’t rest just yet.”
「仕方ないでしょ」
「私がやらなきゃいけないんだから」
Oberon sighs in defeat, slumping against her with his head resting against her shoulder. “I’ll kill you when I feel like it then.” After all, there are several more entities in the newly spawned lostbelts and singularities. She can’t afford to die just yet. Not yet.
Ritsuka smiles. This girl who loved and loved and did her best despite everything smiles. She lifts her arms up and embraces this Pretender who knew her well past that the masks of ‘Fujimaru’, ‘Senpai’, and ‘Master’.
“Thank you for staying by my side, Oberon.” Her arms tremble. She smiles.
“...You’re such a bastard.” He returns the hug, wrapping his arms gently around her torso, and frowns in annoyance.
What a liar they both were.