Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

From time to time, Ritsuka liked heading into the summoning room and trying his luck. Sometimes he managed to summon a new Servant but more often than not, he got nothing good. This time was actually the former but who appeared was far from what he expected… which was saying something since he had no expectations whatsoever. When the three bands of lights appeared, Ritsuka felt giddy inside as that meant it was a Servant. He shielded his eyes from the flash before slowly bringing his arm down to see…

…Himself.

While Ritsuka was stunned into silence, his doppelganger did not notice him as his eyes were closed. “ Ahem , I don't really know why I am one, but I'm a Servant of the Shielder Class. My name is Rit…su…ka. Huh?!” At last, the Servant opened his eyes to see who his Master was, only to be greeted by his own face, equally as dumbfounded as he was. 

Only a single word was uttered between them. “What?’

It didn't even take half an hour before the news spread to all of Chaldea— the newest Servant was their own Master.

At least… that was a very very very oversimplification of the situation. As they quickly found out after finding a safe place to talk away from prying eyes, they (Ritsuka, Mash, Da Vinci, Sion, and Goredolf) learned that the Servant Ritsuka led a completely different but still similar life.

“An organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of humanity… and you're one of the soldiers chosen to fight those who wish to threaten humanity's future? Am I getting this right?”

“Yup,” nodded the Servant at Da Vinci’s question. “Fire Moth. It's been all I've known for the last couple of years and I wouldn't trade them for anything, even if there's a couple… unscrupulous suspects there.” He sighed but had a smile on his face.

“Huh… That's… huh…” was all Da Vinci could say, giving Ritsuka (the Master) a not-so-subtle glance. Well, everyone was actually…

“How are you a Servant then? From what you said, you weren't exactly special among your peers,” Sion bluntly stated but Ritsuka (the Servant) didn't take offence to it.

“No, if anyone in Fire Moth’s ranks deserves to be a Servant, it'd be Kevin,” he smiled, likely thinking of that person. “He didn't get the title of Humanity's Greatest Hero for nothing.”

“Humanity’s Greatest Hero… and his name is Kevin?” Well, there were worse names but it sounded so… normal to Ritsuka. Either way, how the other Ritsuka became a Servant was a complete mystery. However, right he had another pressing question. “So… why do you have a tail?”

“Huh? Oh, this thing?” The other Ritsuka glanced behind him at his swaying tail— it was jet-black and pointed at the end like an arrow. “Human experimentation. I consent to it of course… sort of… It wasn’t like I could refuse.”

“That does not sound consensual to me…” muttered Goredolf. He had been trying to wrap his head around the idea of Ritsuka being a Servant and now he had to process it was not their Ritsuka but an alternate version.

The other Ritsuka only shrugged. “Well, it didn’t kill me so… oh wait… it technically did…” he suddenly trailed off at a realization. “We—well, I like it and so did my best friend.” His cheeks puffed as he huffed while trying to defend his unnatural appendage.

Either way, one question was answered so that led to the next. “You said you were a Shielder? Like Mash?” As it turned out, Ritsuka had neglected to mention it to the others— only telling them he had summoned himself as a Servant.

“Huh?” Mash’s eyes widened at the revelation, staring at the new Servant with shock. “You’re… a Shielder?”

“Yup!” He nodded before summoning his weapons: a large duelling shield coloured red and white. One of the bladed ends, however, looked different from the other. “A Key of Domination… well, this end is anyway. I like to keep it as part of the shield but I can just use the sword if I need to; I’d rather keep guard and let someone else dish out the damage though. Oh, and I can create some illusions with it. Nothing that big but could make for a good distraction.”

Again, more glances were sent in Ritsuka’s direction. That was going to be the norm now, was it? “A—anyway, I think it’s time you meet the other Servants,” Ritsuka coughed out. He just hoped this would go well… A second Ritsuka was going to be a massive change to the delicate balance in Chaldea…

“Hang on, before we leave, there is still one last thing we need to settle,” Da Vinci interjected while glancing between the two Ritsuka’s. “What are we going to call you two? We can’t just call both of you Ritsuka.”

“I… thought that would be easy? I could be Ritsuka and he could be Fujimaru.” While it did not feel right to relegate him to a last-name basis, it was the option that caused the least—

“Wait, how do you know that?” The other Ritsuka suddenly asked, a mild look of surprise on his face before slapping himself on the forehead. “Oh, wait. You’re me. Of course you’d know that.”

Ritsuka, however, only looked at his other self with confusion. “What do you mean by that?” Why wouldn’t he know his own name?

His question led to the other Ritsuka looking back in confusion too. “What do you mean? Isn’t that what dad wanted to name us?”

“Um… What?” Now it was everyone looking at the other Ritsuka, making him shrink from all the eyes on him. “Is Fujimaru not your name too?”

“No? That was what Dad wanted to name me but he couldn’t say to Mom and they ended up naming me Ritsuka,” he answered which only led to further confusion. “What did they want to name you?”

“Um… Both? My name is Fujimaru Ritsuka?”

“…You have two names?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“...”

“…This is definitely gonna take a while to get used to.”

Chapter Text

As they learned, the people from the other Ritsuka’s world did not have last names… for some reason. Ritsuka had to wonder how they would differentiate between two people with the same name. Either way, they would need to come up with a nickname for him later but as they entered the cafeteria— “They’re all staring at me…”

“Because you look exactly like him.”

“No need to point out the obvious…” muttered Kadoc, who finally joined them after dealing with a couple of menial tasks. His reaction had been shock (as expected) before sympathy because— as he stated —“You're going to have to deal with a lot of comparisons.”

Well, Ritsuka could not argue with that, especially since the other Ritsuka didn't lead the same life he did. Regardless though, he introduced the new Servant to everyone he could; the rounds of introductions didn’t take that long as many sought them out, glancing between the two Ritsukas to make sure they were seeing right. Besides their clothes and the other Ritsuka’s additional appendage, they were basically identical according to most. A couple of his more “observant” Servants did note some minor differences such as his hair was slightly longer than his Servant counterpart by a couple of centimetres.

By the end of it, the other Ritsuka’s head was spinning from trying to remember all the names and was faceplanted on one of the cafeteria tables. “So… many… too fast…” he muttered.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Ritsuka apologized. Meeting so many in such a short amount of time was bound to give someone a headache; it didn’t help that, as mentioned before, some were pretty in his (the other Ritsuka’s) face when meeting him. At least now they could have a break and rest for the rest of the day.

Mash and Kadoc soon returned carrying plates of food for them. “Here you go, Senpai and… Ritsuka-san…” She awkwardly said as she put them on the table. It felt foreign to say his name like that, even if it there was no other way to address him.

“If there’s one thing that helps ease the mind here, it’s the food,” Kadoc shared as he sat down with them. “You’ll grow to like it here.”

“Thanks…” The other Ritsuka groaned as he got up. He took a tired bite of his food and let out a cheery hum. “This is good. Certainly better than anything back in Fire Moth.”

“Fire Moth?”

“Uh… best way to describe is that it's similar to Chaldea in their goals. Minus the Rayshifting,” Ritsuka gave the gist of it to Kadoc who was not around earlier. With the mention of Fire Moth, a sense of curiosity ignited inside Ritsuka as he turned back towards his counterpart. “If you don’t mind me asking… how was it like there?”

“Hmm… Honestly, pretty tense most of the time. Things were not completely terrible but they were not going well when I… kicked the bucket,” confessed the other Ritsuka. “Certainly not as lighthearted as things here. It’s more… lively here is the best way to put it. Everyone is more energetic if you get what I mean.”

“I think I do…” Ritsuka nodded, knowing better than anyone about his Servants’ antics.

“That’s not to say everyone is all mopey and serious. There were definitely some bright people in Fire Moth,” the other him quickly added. “There was Elysia, Griseo, Eden, Pardo… um… Well, there were certainly smiles to be had there.”

From out of the corner of his eye, Ritsuka saw Kadoc rolling his eyes. On the other hand, Mash was curious about another thing, “Was one of them the friend you mentioned earlier?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. Well, I like to think we’re friends but nope, I was talking about someone else.” A bright smile spread across the other Ritsuka’s face as his tail started swishing happily. “Hua is one of the more serious folks in Fire Moth but she’s still one of the best parts of it if you ask me.”

“Oh, it’s like that ?” Kadoc quietly muttered, already seeing where this was heading.

Mash meanwhile naturally inquired further. “What was she like?” She asked.

“Hmm… Hua is… smart, serious, cool, cute, brave—” the other Ritsuka started listing off. “—amazing, determined, completely unstoppable when she puts her mind to something, beautiful, strong—”

‘…Oh good lord,’ was all Ritsuka could think as his other self described his “friend”.

“—quiet, loyal, sometimes a bit quick-tempered but that’s rare, definitely calm most of the time, also has this noticeable way of—”

“Okay, okay, I think we got it,” Ritsuka interrupted before his other self could continue rambling.

“You sure you two were only friends?” Kadoc loudly questioned him with an exasperated face to which the other Ritsuka’s cheeks flushed slightly.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re only friends. Everyone keeps thinking otherwise though,” he hummed in thought.

“ I wonder why ,” Kadoc rolled his eyes again before resuming eating his lunch.

The other Ritsuka looked back at him in confusion before a downcasted look replaced it. His tail even drooped slightly as he muttered, “Oh right… I wonder how she would take it…” He let out a sigh, this time more out of sadness than exhaustion. “Did she even survive that battle?”

It didn’t take a genius to figure what was upsetting him and Ritsuka tried to console him the best he could. “If Hua is half the person you described her as, I’m sure she survived and be able to get through your… what happened.”

“…Yeah, you’re right. Hua’s strong enough to move on from my death,” the other Ritsuka cracked a smile at his words. “Alright, enough talking about the sad stuff. Let’s eat!”

A couple of days passed since the other Ritsuka’s summoning and he was mostly settling in well. There were of course a couple of incidents (such as some like Scathach dragging the other him into the training room to see how good he was) but other than that, things were surprisingly going smoothly. The other Ritsuka was nice enough to get along with most of everyone in Chaldea once they got over the fact there was now a second Ritsuka.

Ritsuka would usually find his counterpart taking care of the younger Servants, helping babysit them with Atalante and such. Apparently, he had a similar role back in Fire Moth helping care for a young child who lived on base. He also learned they shared lots of interests— down to having the same dream for the future. It was… jarring for Ritsuka to look at a near-perfect mirror of himself but he moved on from it.

In any case, Ritsuka found himself in the summoning room again testing out his luck; it was again mostly duds until the triple rings appeared once again.

When the light died down, he heard a calm female voice speak. “Servant, Assassin. I can handle myself in a straight fight but if you wish for me to take out an enemy… Ritsuka?” The pink-haired Servant with fox-like ears protruding out the top of her head trailed off, her eyes widening upon seeing him. She was dressed in more modern clothing which helped Ritsuka realized what was likely going on.

“Ah… No, but yes?” Ritsuka chuckled nervously. “It’s complicated.”

Chapter Text

As Ritsuka had suspected, the new Servant— simply named Sakura —came from the same place as his counterpart did. Their reunion was surprisingly brief; that wasn't to say they weren't happy to see each other… well, the other Ritsuka was while Sakura was more curt, but they quickly went their separate ways. Sure, Ritsuka would find them talking from time to time, but for a couple of minutes before going on with the rest of their day.

“Oh, we do know each other, but she was in another division than me. Sakura dealt with more… unscrupulous missions while I was a simple soldier,” explained the other Ritsuka not too long after the Assassin was summoned. “I did occasionally bump into her, usually in the kitchen, but that was really the depths of our interactions. She’s quiet but quite nice when you get to know her and get past her lack of social skills.”

And she indeed lacked much interest in speaking to others most of the time. Ritsuka would usually catch her in a variety of places around Chaldea— the training room, Muramasa’s smithy, and the kitchen were the normal places for her to be in. She also often volunteered to help take care of the child Servants with his other self. One time, he visited the kitchen while the usual crew was preparing lunch to find Sakura there… after a couple of minutes when Boudica pointed out she was watching him from the corner. “Oh, hey!” Ritsuka smiled once he got over his surprise. He should have expected something like this to be honest; she was an Assassin after all.

“Mhmm…” she just nodded at him. Ritsuka internally debated on just leaving her be but eventually decided to take the leap. He had not yet taken the time to really talk to her yet and now was as good a time as any.

“What do you think of Chaldea so far, Sakura?” He asked her to which she answered it was fine.

“More lively than Fire Moth.” It was essentially the same as the other Ritsuka’s answer. “Most of everyone here is nice enough but there are a couple of people I miss from there, especially… her…”

Her previously neutral and calm demeanour was briefly replaced by one of sorrow before she caught herself. “Who are you talking about if I may ask?” Ritsuka asked with slight hesitation.

“...My little sister. She lived with me while I worked with Fire Moth,” Sakura explained. “Unfortunately, she had… I don't know how much Ritsuka has explained to you about our world but things were not well by the end of our lives.”

“Oh… I'm sorry for your loss,” Ritsuka sympathised with her, his mind flashing back to his own little sister. “What was her name?”

“Rin. She—” crash—!

Both of them turned their heads towards the sound to see it was caused by Emiya dropping a couple of trays. “Is something wrong?” 

“No, nothing. My hand just slipped,” Emiya answered without missing a beat as he picked the trays back up and resumed working. Ritsuka continued to stare at him but eventually shrugged it off.

“Hmm… I'll be heading to the training room, Master,” Sakura then stated. “I want to get some practice in before lunch.” She said farewell before leaving the kitchen, leaving Ritsuka slightly confused but overall glad she shared some things about herself with him.

Soon, a week passed since Ritsuka summoned his Servant self. He sought him for a bit, wishing to ask him the same thing he asked Sakura the other day and eventually found the two together talking in the halls. While he didn't mean to, they didn't notice him at first and he overheard a bit of their conversation.

“—take it. I've been meaning to ask that for a while but… I was a little scared,” the other Ritsuka asked.

Sakura didn’t answer at first but eventually— “...She has not talked about you at all. Make of that what you will.”

“I see… I just hope that she’ll stop grieving me. I'd rather not her get stuck in the past.”

“...Hua is strong. I'm sure she will,” replied Sakura before she turned her head down the hall at her Master. From the look in her eyes, she had known he was there the entire time but didn't mention it. “Master, what brings you here?”

“Hmm? Oh… hey, Master,” waved the Shielder as Ritsuka approached them.

“Hey, I was looking for you. I was wondering how you've adjusted to this place. You've been here for some now so I want to know how you feel,” Ritsuka tried his best to sound normal as he asked his question.

The other Ritsuka took a moment to think before giving his opinion. “Well, besides getting dragged to the training room, being stalked occasionally, and getting a chill down my spine from time to time… I actually like it here,” he smiled back at his Master. “I still miss Fire Moth but I don't mind sticking around here. Besides, since Sakura is here, that means some of them could end up still here.” He paused for a few seconds before adding, “...Is it bad that I wish for that since that’s sort of the same as wishing they died? No offence, Sakura.”

“None taken. I understand what you mean.”

“Well, we'll have to see about that last part,” Ritsuka chuckled a bit at his counterpart’s words. “Though it is nice to hear you're doing alright. I was afraid since… well, you know, you'd have problems settling in.” He sort of still did but overall, the other Ritsuka was doing well.

His counterpart then apologized and said he had to go help Atalante. “See you guys later,” he cheered as he left with them waving back.

There was a slightly awkward silence between Ritsuka and Sakura— until the former broke it with a question. “So… were he and Hua a thing?”

“No,” she bluntly answered. “They never got together though they were close. Elysia, a fellow Moth soldier of ours, once described them as toeing the line between friends and lovers.”

“I see…” Ritsuka hummed in understanding as Sakura let out a small sigh. “Something wrong?”

“Not exactly. I'm just reminded about something. Ritsuka— him, I mean —he was not the popular person in Fire Moth but he had his admirers… and then there was Rin who believed I was one of them,” Sakura sighed again, crossing her arms in frustration. However, there was the slightest hint of a smile on her face. “She had the gall to try setting me up with him because ‘he would be a great big bro.’ I love her dearly but she could still be an annoying child when she wanted to be.”

“I know the feeling,” Ritsuka shared her smile; he had a similar experience to her with his own sibling. “That does make me curious. What do you think of him?”

The question initially caught Sakura off guard before she thought about it for a second. “He’s… nice, I guess…” she muttered, the slightest hint of pink dusting her cheeks.

‘Ah… guess Rin did have the right idea,’ Ritsuka thought. He admittedly felt slightly awkward since they were talking about another him here but that was the norm in Chaldea. It was too bad his counterpart was still interested in Hua even after his death.

“...Actually, is it alright if I ask you a few questions, Master? I realized I don't know too much about you yet.”

…Oh. Was she—? “OH NO YOU DON’T, MISSY!” Both of them jumped back in surprise as Kiyohime suddenly popped up between them with a fierce look. “You're new here so I'll give you a warning,” she stated, narrowing her eyes at Sakura. “You’ll be facing foes greater and worse than any you've ever faced before. You do not want to go down this road.”

“Hu… huh?” Sakura could only stupidly blurt out as she tried processing Kiyohime’s warning.

Kiyohime, meanwhile, turned towards Ritsuka and beamed at him. “I’m sorry about that, Achin-sama. Please forget what you just saw,” she requested before going on her merry way.

“...You'll get used to that,” was the best thing Ritsuka could say to console Sakura.

“Okay…?”

Chapter Text

Adjusting to a new surrounding would always be difficult, but RITSUKA admitted it was a breath of fresh air to be in Chaldea. There was still some getting used to, of course; fortunately, Sakura being around helped though she tended to keep her distance from him. He wondered why but didn't push her to talk to him; she was likely getting used to Chaldea too.

Speaking of this place, besides Ritsuka himself, RITSUKA usually finds himself talking with Kadoc and Atalante. The latter admittedly did not say much, preferring to entertain the child Servants of Chaldea but every once in a while, she would ask him about his life and express some interest in how he got his tail. Naturally, she raised an eyebrow at the mention of human experimentation. "I see… that's surprising to hear. Then again, I suppose anything can happen."

"What do you mean? How did you get your tail?"

He should not have asked to save himself the headache. Apparently, Atalante was turned into a lion at the end of her life, which translated into her having cat ears and tails as a Servant. RITSUKA knew one's legend could affect one's appearance as a Servant but not to that extent. It was interesting to learn since he didn't know about 95% of Chaldea's Servants; they were legends in this world but not in his. The only exceptions were a few that oddly shared their names with some Honkai Beasts…

"...Miss Atalante?" RITSUKA spoke up after a moment only to be admonished lightly.

"Please, no need to be so formal. Just call me Atalante."

"Okay… Atalante… Can you tell me a little about our Master?" As much as he tried to ignore it, the topic had been nagging at him for a while now. He had noticed the looks thrown his way and knew the question behind those eyes— "What makes him different from him?"

Atalante pondered his question for a few seconds before answering RITSUKA. "Master is… the bravest human I've known who has done things that no one else could ever attest to doing." That was rather vague but the admiration in her voice was clear, stoking RITSUKA's curiosity more. "Chaldea keeps records of his missions if you are interested; speak with Da Vinci and she'll show them to you."

After that, RITSUKA did as Atalante suggested and searched for Da Vinci in her workshop. He happened to also bump into Sakura along the way who somehow already knew his intentions. "Do you mind if I accompany you? I'm also curious about Master's deeds." Seeing as he had no reason to turn her down, they continued together and soon reached their destination; Da Vinci was fortunately free to answer their questions.

"What he did? Hmm… that is a long, long story," Da Vinci let a melancholic sigh at the question. "It's quite the thrilling tale— one full of adventure, pain, and triumph… well, usually. Considering the state of the world now, it's one that could be seen as fruitless. To start from the beginning, Ritsu… Fujimaru was never meant to be the one to save humanity. Not by himself anyway. There were supposed to be 47 others who were supposed to work together to safeguard humanity's future; Kadoc was one of them actually but…"

Da Vinci gave a brief summation of the early days of the Grand Order and what they needed to know— the first Director's goals, the betrayal of the second Director's most trusted mentor, the incapacitation of the 47 Masters and Singularity F. Ritsuka just happened to be the last one remaining and had to carry the role of being humanity's last Master during the so-called Incineration of Human History. "Chaldea was left as the sole bastion of humanity and Ritsuka was our last hope in saving it. To spoil the ending a bit, we eventually overcame the seven Singularities and defeated the mastermind behind the Incineration, but at great costs."

"And… Master was the one who saved everyone?"

"It was a team effort, and he would be the first person to tell you he only got as far as he did with everyone's help," Da Vinci corrected him. "But if you want to get to the nitty gritty of it… yes, it was ultimately him who stopped the mastermind. He was the only person left who could have done so— so he did it."

A savior of humanity… so that's the difference between them. The thought of an alternate version of himself being more accomplished was not that strange, but RITSUKA didn't think he'd actually meet that version. Someone who had successfully saved the entirety of humanity… while he died without much fanfare doing the same thing. It… ached a bit if he was being honest. At the same time though, he couldn't help but feel prideful and happy that Ritsuka did something so amazing— even if he didn't know what he was signing up for.

When she saw the cheerful smile on RITSUKA's face, Da Vinci let out a small giggle. "I was going to say there's no need to feel inadequate next to him, but it looks like you're fine with that."

"In a way, I am. I admit I'm a little jealous, but that's not fair to him. I doubt Master wanted to do all that on his own," RITSUKA replied with a small understanding nod. "What about you, Sakura?"

The Assassin, who had been quietly listening to Da Vinci's story the entire time, glanced back at him. "…He is impressive, I won't deny that," she finally answered before turning towards Da Vinci again. "But this new situation he is facing… the Ordeal Call?"

The mention of their current crisis made the Rider sigh in exhaustion. "Yeah… to put it simply, Chaldea is being punished for saving the world the incorrect way and we have to prove our innocence. You two really joined at a bad time."

That only made RITSUKA feel even more sympathetic towards his counterpart; he doubted anyone would want to be in Ritsuka's position now. Any jealousy had been stamped out from hearing his Master's plight. "…Has he complained about anything?"

"…No," was Da Vinci's short reply.

Ritsuka had just completed his tasks for the day when he ran into RITSUKA and Sakura. Both of them had unreadable expressions, making him wonder what was going through their heads when— "Huh?!" —he found himself pulled into a hug by his other self. "He—hey, what's this about?"
"Nothing," RITSUKA answered in a small, comforting voice. "Just… I thought you needed one."

"O…kay?" It admittedly was a little weird getting one from himself, but he appreciated the gesture. "What about you, Sakura?"

"Hmm? Oh, don't mind me, I was just accompanying hi—"

"Oh, come on. You also get in here!" RITSUKA chuckled as he grabbed the Flamechaser and pulled her into the embrace too. She let out a small yelp but otherwise didn't put much of a resistance. "…Sorry by the way."

Though he didn't say anything else, Ritsuka already had a likely idea of what prompted RITSUKA to do this. "It's no bother. I…" he trailed off, unable to come up with anything to say. "…You can let go of me now, by the way. You're hugging me a bit too tight."

"Huh? Aren't you the one still hugging me though?" replied a confused RITSUKA.

"…"

Ah… that would explain it…

Chapter Text

Ever since she was summoned here, Sakura had kept to herself outside of a very select few— RITSUKA, her Master, Mash, Atalante, the blacksmith, and the kitchen crew. There were passing "hello" to others but other than that, she made sure there was some distance between herself and everyone else. She didn't hate anyone here or anything, she just… didn't feel she belonged.

'Why me…?' She kept asking herself. Her summoning granted her some meager knowledge about being a Servant and such, but the first requirement always threw her off— someone who has accomplished great deeds. A hero worthy of being seen as one, a person who was looked up to… so why her? In the end, she failed in doing the one thing that mattered most to her and yet here she was, being one of the many summoned to Chaldea.

She shouldn't be here— but she was.

"Miss Sakura, what are you thinking about?" She was taken out of her thoughts by the innocent voice of one Nursery Rhyme who happened to be passing by. Sakura didn't even notice her until she spoke. "Your face is all serious. Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, I was just… remembering things," Sakura gave a small smile as she patted Nursery Rhyme's head.

"If it's something on your mind, why don't you talk to Master about it?" The Caster suggested with a big smile. "Whenever any of us are feeling sad, he's always there to cheer us up."

While definitely a sensible suggestion, Sakura felt like she couldn't just unload all her problems so soon. As much as she liked him— which was undoubtedly influenced by her own friendship with RITSUKA —she didn't want to say a little too much too early. They were still strangers to each other… Regardless, Sakura thanked her for the advice and watched Nursery Rhyme wave goodbye before she skipped along her merry way.

'…If not Master, then maybe…'

Finding RITSUKA was easy, actually talking to him was hard. Along the way to the training room, Sakura had been trying to figure out how to breach the topic to him. During their time here, they've only really talked about how their days here had been or RITSUKA wondering what happened following his death. She had yet to tell him the exact nature of her death for plainly obvious reasons…

He was still in the middle of using a training dummy when she walked in and didn't want to interrupt him yet. Fortunately, RITSUKA didn't notice her arrival and she waited off to the side just out of sight as always… out of sight… as always…

"Is something bothering you?"

"Huh? Oh…" Her thoughts this time were interrupted by Ritsuka, who had come in after her. "It's nothing, Master. I was just watching him." Her eyes drifted back towards the other RITSUKA. "Even here, he's still trying his best, isn't he?"

Ritsuka nodded at her observation, glancing at his counterpart too. "It technically does not matter but still, I take it it was part of his routine back then?"

"Naturally, we were soldiers. It was part of everyone's day to swing by the training room," Sakura shared with some nostalgia in her voice. "He never trained alone though. He had a partner with him as far as I could remember."

"You mean—?"

"You have a younger sister too, correct?" She knew she was going back on what she told herself earlier but it was better than talking about the other thing. Not yet.

Fortunately for her, Ritsuka recognized her wish to change the topic. "Yup," he nodded with a smile. "I'm like twice her age but we're still close. Well… were as it is."

"And she's one of the reasons you're putting yourself through all this…" Sakura muttered to which Ritsuka nodded again.

"There's still a chance she and everyone else could be saved," he said with a slight frown. "But even if I didn't have a sister, I'd still go through all this because saving them is something I could do… something only I could right now."

Sakura couldn't help but wonder if she could say the same; back then, she only grew stronger and joined Fire Moth for Rin's sake. 'And look where that got me…' She felt her fist clenching as she recalled the events leading to her death— what happened to her younger sister she did everything she could to protect… If she was faster— if she had done things another way… would it have ended differently?

Sensing her growing frustration, Ritsuka thought to ask her something. "If given the chance, what would you wish for with the Holy Grail?"

The question made her pause to think. She also received some knowledge of the Grail upon her summoning— an omnipotent artifact with the ability to grant a person's deepest desire. If only they had something like that in their world, maybe their world could have been saved. That would be the wish of a better person though; maybe it would be a runabout way to get rid of the Honkai but her wish was simple. "I wish to be happy with Rin. That's all I ever desired."

"That's rather simple," Ritsuka chuckled in response. "But not a bad one. Not bad at all." It was not a wish anyone could argue with; at least no one sane. It may be a selfish wish but still a pure one. "But is that all you desire?" He then asked, his eyes flickering towards RITSUKA for a moment.

'...Guess I can't dance around it any longer.' "Master, do you know what it's like to be in the shadows?" She asked in turn. "My line of work, it usually required me to… clean up a few stains in the way of Fire Moth— and I was good at it." Ritsuka didn't say anything but was listening to every word she said. "Because of that and other reasons, I prefer staying out of everyone else's way."

And that extended to even here in Chaldea.

"But there were exceptions." It wasn't a question but a statement of fact from Ritsuka.

"Of course there were. Rin was one of them, but there were a couple of others like…" Well, it didn't really need to be said who one of the "others" were. "...He was around with a friendly smile and willing to spend time with me despite what I do. He does so with everyone to be frank but it was always nice to have someone see you."

Her lips tipped up into a small smile but as she expected, Ritsuka saw right through her mask. "But he never did see you, did he?"

"...No, he didn't," Sakura quietly confessed. "Even when I was standing in front of him, he was never looking at me. Even here, he is still thinking about her." Again, there was no need to name names; Sakura was confident Ritsuka already knew who she was talking about. "I never stood a chance, did I?"

"...From the way he spoke of her, no," Ritsuka bluntly replied. It admittedly hurt to hear that in the same voice as RITSUKA but at the same time…

"Thank you for saying that." Her smile grew wider— only a little bit, but still wider. "After all this time, that's what I needed to hear." Nursery Rhyme was right in advising her to see him; she already knew he was the type to hear her out without making any judgment but it was another thing to actually speak to him. "Thank you… You really are as nice as hi—" "Alright, that's enough."

A sharp annoyed voice from behind made Sakura jump and turn to see another Servant there. She recognized her to be another Assassin but couldn't place her name yet. Ritsuka, on the other hand— "Oh, Kama. What are you doing here?"

"I was just looking for you. I need your help with something, Master," the white-haired Servant aloofly answered before making a barely noticeable glance at Sakura. "Come on, let's go."

"Hey, wait. Help with whaa-aaah!" Without another word, Kama grabbed Ritsuka by the wrist and dragged him out of the training room. Sakura could only sigh and watch him go.

However, the commotion had gotten the attention of a certain someone who came over to check on what was happening. "Sakura, what's up with Master?" RITSUKA asked as he approached her.

"Nothing important, the others just wanted his attention," she answered with amusement in her voice.

"I see… And do you need help with anything?"

"…No, not anymore," smiled the Assassin.

Once again, Ritsuka found himself in the summoning chamber and hyped himself up for another shot in the dark. Chanting the lines that he has long since ingrained into his memory, the room soon lit up and the three bands signalled a new arrival.

"Hello! Assassin, Pardofelis, at your service! I don't really like fighting and prefer sticking back… HUH?! RITSUKA?!" …This was how things were going to be for a while, wasn't— "Nyaa!? Wait a sec—" shrieked the catgirl as she got out of the summoning circle; another three bands flashed and before they knew it, another new Servant was with them too.

"Caster, at your service. My True Name is Mobius and I do hope you'll be a fine test subject, Mas… Wait… Are you two not…?" The green-haired woman narrowed her eyes at him, recognizing him from somewhere.

Meanwhile, the other new Servant was bemoaning her appearance. "Aw man… She's here too?" She cried while hiding behind Ritsuka. "You'd think death was a good way to get away from her!"

Well… seems like things were just going to get more lively in Chaldea.

Chapter Text

The two new Servants were on opposite sides of the fun spectrum. Pardofelis immediately found kinship with those like Queen of Sheba and Caesar which was all that needed to be said about her character. She liked money and quickly set up a shop for herself to sell some knick knacks along with some other weird oddities.

Where she got all the stuff to sell, Ritsuka had no idea; so long it wasn't stolen from anyone though, he had no issues with her. She also tried some quick schemes to get more QP but that went nowhere.

As for her relationship with her two fellow MOTH soldiers already here, Pardofelis occasionally tried roping RITSUKA into her schemes but fortunately, he escaped any punishment. Sakura was usually around to give Pardo a stern warning whenever something like that happened. Either way, they were friendly enough. As for his own relationship with her, Ritsuka found her fun to hang around most of the time.

Mobius on the other hand… well, she was more "fun" than fun.

"Stay away from her," Sakura immediately advised him the second she learned Mobius was now in Chaldea.

RITSUKA, while not as blunt, shared similar sentiments. "Mobius is one of those unscrupulous people I mentioned before. I won't say she's truly evil or bad… just a bit hard to be around. She'll have humanity's best interest at heart though so that's a positive."

Just from being around her, Ritsuka could get what they meant. Her calling him a "test subject" when she was first summoned already raised some red flags; definitely one of the weirder titles he's been given though she has since swapped to the more unnerving "lab rat". Her preferred group to join were other scientific-minded Servants— expressing interests in the technology levels of this world as well as magecraft. "To be able to summon copies of a hero's soul after their death and command them like a pet… I never envisioned such a thing might happen to me," Mobius shared with a viperous grin as he showed her around Chaldea (with Sakura's supervision).

"You guys aren't pets," Ritsuka laughed off. "The others say you're dangerous and I'm inclined to believe them, but I do hope you'll get along with everyone here— myself included."

"The blunt sort, aren't you? And somewhat naive too." A small chuckle escaped the Caster before she told him she'll do her best albeit rather dismissively.

"—ua? Well… as far as I know, she was alive."

Not too long after, Ritsuka again stumbled onto his counterpart in a conversation with his fellow soldiers. He didn't bother hiding this time though and tried to ease himself into the conversation. "Oh, it's you guys," he smiled as he joined the three. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Not really, I was just wondering about what happened after I died again," answered RITSUKA before looking back towards Pardofelis.

The new Assassin gave a hesitant look as she eyed Ritsuka but eventually resumed where she left off. "Well, as I was saying, I believe Hua was alive when I died but with who we were facing…" Pardo trailed off with a sigh before looking pointedly at Sakura. "The only thing I can confirm is who died before me— and that's you, Elysia and Kalpas."

It was brief, but Ritsuka noticed Sakura's eyes widening at the news as she muttered those names.

RITSUKA's reaction was more vocal— "Elysia and Kalpas too? That's…"

"...How did Elysia die? Was it against the 11th?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"No, she… well, she's actually… Oh, how do I say this…?" Pardo sighed again, exhausted by the obvious complexity of the topic. Ritsuka naturally had questions of his own but felt like they deserved to have theirs answered first.

Fortunately, Pardofelis was saved by the most unlikeliest of suspects— or the most likeliest seeing as she was the only other one with answers. "There's no need to beat around the bush. Elysia was a Herrscher," Mobius proclaimed as she suddenly joined them, carrying a rather large box in her hands. Though the box would occasionally shake and he could have sworn a muffled voice was coming from it but he didn't get the chance to inquire about it.

"You mean Elysia was the final Herrscher?!" a shocked RITSUKA exclaimed.

"No, quite the opposite in fact; she was the first Herrscher."

"...What?"

"This is what I meant," grumbled Pardo but Mobius was already on to the next topic.

"And to answer your other question, only four Flamechasers returned from their final mission: myself, Eden, Kevin, and your precious Hua," Mobius revealed. However, as RITSUKA let out a relieved sigh at Hua's survival, she continued. "Su and Aponia stayed back, leaving 6 of us by the end but~"

"But? Don't beat around the bush, Mobius," Sakura glared at her only for the scientist to let out a short laugh.

"Unfortunately, Eden and I elected to not enter the cryosleep chambers. Little Griseo had long since left thanks to Project ARK and from what I heard, Aponia had plans of her own for how she wanted to go out," Caster further elaborated. "So it's more accurate to say only three Flamechasers will be moving on to live in the next Era."

There were a lot of names Ritsuka didn't know but he got the gist of it. He thinks… "But you succeeded in your mission, right?"

"Yes, but it was a more bittersweet victory considering all that happened. In the end, what we really did was leave the problem for a future generation to solve," she replied. "But let's not worry about that, Lab Rat. That matter is of no importance here."

"If you say so..." Though he does wish to know more, he could do so another time. Right now, he was interested in something. "And… Can I ask what's in that box?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. This is for you; a small gift for allowing me to be here." Ritsuka would believe her if it weren't for the devious grin on her face.

…Then again, that might as well be her default expression.

Meanwhile, Sakura was naturally against it. "Don't. It's a trap."

"Do you truly have little faith in me, Sakura?" Mobius's smirk only grew though without a hint of being offended in her voice. "But I promise you, what's inside is completely harmless… to him anyway."

The box shook again and a small "Let me out already!!" came from inside this time. More strangely though... "Why did that sound like me?"

"...Is that what I think that is? How did you make one?" Sakura's eyes widened again as she realized what the gift was. The others did as well.

"Yeah, I don't think Chaldea has the stuff needed for them," RITSUKA agreed, also staring at the box in shock.

"That's a small problem for someone like me; I just made a few substitutions and got help from a few others," Mobius smugly replied.

"Oh, so that's what you were looking around my shop for," Pardofelis said as realization dawned on her face.

"What? What's in the box?" Ritsuka couldn't take it anymore; he needed to know what the gift was.

Fortunately, Mobius simply handed him the box and told him to open it. Taking a deep breath, Ritsuka slowly cracked the lid— "FINALLY!" —only for it to spring wide open as a tiny version of himself flew out of it. "Phew! I thought I'd suffocate in there…" The mini-Ritsuka sighed before turning and glaring at Mobius. "Would it have killed you to poke a few more airholes in there?"

"Don't be overdramatic; you don't need to actually breathe, nor was the box airtight," Mobius scoffed. "In any case, this is what's known as an ELF in our world— short for Equipment: Living Forms. I thought with how stretched out you get, you'd appreciate having a little helper."

"Nice to meet you, Chaldea's Master!" The so-named ELF cheered as he extended a handshake.

"Nice… Nice to meet you too." It was a bit odd to shake the tiny hand of what was essentially a chibi of himself but he could get used to it. It was a sentiment shared by RITSUKA too judging from the look on his face.

However— "Sorry, but I'll have to ensure this ELF is truly harmless." "Ack!" His ELF self was snatched out of the air by Sakura, who put on an unreadable face as she held the mini him close to her chest like a doll. "I'll keep him with me until I can confirm he'll be of use to you."

"Don't I get a say in this?!"

"I thought being sneaky was your strong suit," Mobius snickered, having easily seen through her intentions.

Meanwhile, the other new Servant immediately saw a business opportunity. "Psst, Mobius, think you can make a few more for me to sell?"
"I thought that sort of stuff is illegal now?"

"Illegal in our world; there exist no such laws here~" Pardo replied to RITSUKA with a grin.

Mobius, though, quickly shot down that idea. "I don't have that many cores left and I'd rather keep them to myself."

"Aww…"

Ritsuka, on the other hand, shuddered as he could already envision what was going to happen once the others found out about the EL— "Wait just a second, missy—!"

…Oh boy.

Chapter Text

There was nothing like a good workout session; RITSUKA wasn't a muscle bro or anything, but he appreciated the burnout from a good exercise. He had to skip out on using the facilities to help Pardo with a little project of hers but now he appreciated getting to relax afterwards as he made his way back to his room. As the automatic door closed behind him though, he heard the swooshing of something fast flying. “Huh?” He turned around to see nothing before hearing rapid footsteps passing by outside. “What was…”

“Phew! Thought I was never going to escape them…” RITSUKA looked back forward to see the ELF version of his Master barely managing to keep hovering. “I'll be passing out on your bed now if you don't mind.”

Without another word, ELF Ritsuka flew over and collapsed onto the bed. RITSUKA couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the sight; he also couldn't help but pity the ELF. He had managed to avoid it but the gift from Mobius had quickly found himself being pulled all around by most of Chaldea… mainly the female population. Apparently, a miniature version of Ritsuka was highly desired.

Knock knock!

“I'm not here!” ELF Ritsuka whispered-yelled, shooting up and going to find another spot to hide.

“Gimme a second!” RITSUKA waited for a few seconds before answering the door to see… “Uh… Mobius? Why are you here?”

“To pick up my creation, of course,” the snake-woman answered with a tone that asked if there was any other reason. “He’s been manhandled the past few days and I say he’s in need of some maintenance.”

RITSUKA didn't argue with that; it wasn't his place to. A part of him did wonder how she knew ELF Ritsuka was in his room but chalked it up to her putting a tracker or something. Either way, he glanced back and called for his counterpart's counterpart. “Huh? Oh, Miss Mobius,” the ELF breathed a sigh of relief before floating over to her and resting in her arms.

“Now then, let's make sure those quarrelling fools didn't damage you too much.” With that, the two left and RITSUKA could finally actually rest… only for another pair of knocking to come the second he reached his bed.

‘Oh what now?!’ he grumbled as he answered it to see it was Sakura.

“RITSUKA, why was Mobius here? And have you seen the ELF Master?” 

…Was this how things were going to be from now on?

As Ritsuka finished up with his daily duties, his mind wandered towards the gift Mobius had made for him. He pitied the recreation of himself having frequently seen him being chased around but the others all over Chaldea. “I wasn't made to be passed around by a bunch of girls!” He complained as he crashed in Ritsuka’s room a couple of nights prior.

At the very least… ELF Ritsuka helped ease the load off his back by dealing with the more clingy Servants for most of the day.

While making his way to the cafeteria though, he passed by a certain room; it had been newly occupied and he decided to make a sudden housecall to make sure nothing too weird was going on inside. As he was about to knock on Mobius’s room/lab door though, he felt a presence next to him. Turning around, he saw— “Oh, hey Sakura.”

“Any reason you're going to see Mobius?” She narrowed her eyes at his raised fist.

“Just checking up on her,” he answered only for her to frown.

“You didn't check up on me in my room.”

…Ritsuka ignored that remark for the moment. “A-anyway, were you following me?”

“No, I needed to talk to her about something too,” Sakura replied honestly as far as Ritsuka could tell. Either way, it didn't need to be said that she'd be accompanying as he chatted with Mobius. Under her watchful eyes, Ritsuka knocked on the door.

A few moments later, it opened to reveal… not Mobius? “Oh, hello. You're the Master of Chaldea, correct? And Sakura as well.” The ELF that greeted them had wavy green hair similar to Mobius along with a somewhat similar headpiece. She wore an oversized lab coat with various straps on top, one of which fastened a book to her side. One of her green and pink eyes was covered by an eyepatch as well.

Fortunately, Ritsuka didn't have to worry about a name as Sakura immediately recognized the small artificial being. “So she built you again, Klein.”

“Is that a surprise?”

“Klein, huh?” Ritsuka repeated as he memorized the name. “Nice to meet you, I'm—”

“Fujimaru Ritsuka, I'm already aware,” Klein cut him off. “I assume you're here to see Mobius. We were just about finished with work.” Without another word, she floated off— assumingly giving them permission to enter. Sakura went in first, glancing around in distrust before motioning for Ritsuka to follow after.

He glanced around and was admittedly amazed at how quickly Mobius had transformed the standard quarters into a full fledged laboratory; must be that Caster Class Skill coming into play. As Klein had mentioned, said Caster was hard at work on… something at one of her workbench. “Oh, it was you two,” she remarked upon glancing back. “Klein, finish the calibration if you would.”

“Yes,” the ELF nodded in affirmation before taking her creator's place.

“Any reason for paying me a visit? I doubt I've done anything yet to warrant such a thing,” Mobius smirked. It didn't escape her notice how Sakura was resting her hand on her sword’s handle. “Will you ever relax around me? I assure you, I have no ill intentions towards anyone here.”

“For now.”

“I don't recall you distrusting me this much, Sakura. Any reason why that's the case now?” Despite asking, the tone she had made it clear Mobius really didn't care for Sakura’s obvious distrust. “Why don't we go back to how things were before— staying out of each other's way?”

“I’d love to, but only once I've figured out your goals here,” Sakura replied.

“I only responded to his call out of curiosity if that's what you're asking,” Mobius glanced at Ritsuka. “And as of now, I'll do as our Master says as it suits my interest.”

Before Sakura could reply, Ritsuka spoke first. “And if your interests change?”

“Hmm…” The serpentine woman placed a finger on her chin as she thought of an answer. “We’ll see what happens then,” she finally answered. “But as of now, you're good enough of a test subject to warrant further research.” Her previous mischievous grin turned into a devious that slightly unsettled Ritsuka.

Fortunately, her balloon was popped by Klein joining the conversation from the workbench. “What she means is that interested in your capabilities and exploits. She's been pouring over the action reports of your previous missions,” her assistant said in a slightly exasperated voice.

“I don't need you translating for me, Klein,” she huffed. “But I’ll admit she's telling the truth. To be as blunt as could be, I want to know how a simple person like you accomplished a feat us at Fire Moth failed to do— saving the world.”

A normal person might be offended by being called “simple,” but Ritsuka was not as normal as he wished he was. “I didn't do anything; it was ever—”

“Everyone at Chaldea working together; yeah yeah, I've got that,” Mobius rolled her eyes at his attempt to refute the feat. “But the Grand Order would have fallen apart should you have gotten killed in action, and I refuse to believe it was only luck that got you through.”

“Are you implying he's not as he appears?” Sakura finally spoke again, sounding offended in Ritsuka's place.

“Of course I am, but that's not what the reports say,” the researcher voiced her doubts. “Although I'll admit again that I've yet to see Master on the field with my own eyes. Perhaps it simply is him being blessed to be able to overcome his obstacles by all the deities in this world.  But until I've come to a conclusion, I'll continue keeping a close eye on him.”

The glint in her eyes told Ritsuka he should be careful lest he ends up being an actual test subject… Nothing out of the ordinary to be honest. “Then I'll try my best to meet your expectations then,” he chuckled much to Mobius's amusement.

Sakura, on the other hand, was not amused. “Can you not play along with her schemes?” She sighed but muttered under her breath, “But I suppose that's just the sort of person you are…”

“I'll take that as a compliment,” Ritsuka smiled, having overheard her. 

“You really are a weirdo, you know that?” The off-handed remark didn't come from any of the others but from ELF Ritsuka, who floated over to them with Klein. He then turned towards his creator to complain, “Couldn’t you have based me on someone less… passive?”

“Hey, I'm standing right here,” Ritsuka pointed at his smaller copy to which the ELF apologized. 

“I mean that in a good way! All I have to go off is your previous mission reports and you mostly just went along with basically everything that happens.”

“I've learnt to accept things as they are; case in point—” he not-so-subtly glanced at the others in the room (except Klein).

“...Why don't I take issue with that?” Both Sakura and Mobius sighed at the same time. The former though decided to calm down by grabbing ELF Ritsuka and holding him close again.

“Hey! I have rights, you know?!”

“Let’s leave, Master,” Sakura stated before turning around and heading for the door. 

“She really goes at her own pace now," Ritsuka muttered. Was she always like that, or did she just dislike being around Mobius so much? Though from the scientist’s comment, she wasn’t like that before when they were alive— not to this extent at least. In any case— “Stay out of trouble, Mobius, and good luck with your experiments. You too, Klein.”

“That’s the first time a lab rat told me that,” Mobius mused before grinning. “I suppose it’s only right I tell you to take care too.”

With that, Ritsuka followed Sakura out… where they immediately ran into their new feline friend. “Oh, there you are! I was looking everywhere for you two,” Pardo cheered upon finding them.

“Did something happen?” It didn’t sound like anything bad, but Ritsuka’s curiosity was piqued. The Assassin’s response was to grin before pulling out two stuffed plushies of… Ritsuka?!

“Tadaa~ they just went on sale today! The Queen of Sheba, Caesar, and I worked hard to get these made so that our little friend here doesn't have to suffer anymore,” Pardo proudly declared even though everyone knew that was not the reason at all. “Since we're friends and all, I've saved two just for you guys.”

Ritsuka gratefully took one of the plushies and stared at it with scrutiny. He briefly wondered how they managed to make one of him so fast; it's only been a few days since ELF Ritsuka showed up so how did they make enough to be able to sell them? Sakura, meanwhile, took the other one without loosening her grip on ELF Ritsuka who was now claiming she could let him go now that she had a replacement. 

“How many did you make?” Ritsuka asked as he inspected the plushie closer.

“Oh, I wanted to start small at about 50 units just to test the waters. But then those two told me we should multiply that number by ten,” Pardo sighed. “We compromised and had 250 made but they still insisted it was nowhere near enough.”

“...Pardo?”

“Hmm? Yeah, Master?”

“You probably should have started with a thousand units.”

Just as he finished saying that, a shrill scream echoed through the halls coming from one Queen of Sheba. “-gency! Emergency! Felis, where are you?!” They heard her frantic cries before the Caster emerged from around the corner. “There you are! We have a problem on our hands!”

“Nya? What is it?” Pardo tilted her head though Ritsuka could already tell what that emergency was. 

“We’re completely out of stock for the Master plushies and they're still demanding more!” The Queen of Sheba cried.  “Meltyrillis immediately bought fifty and now the others are buying in bulk!” 

“What?!” 

“I think we better leave them to deal with that,” Ritsuka whispered to Sakura who nodded in agreement… before he noticed she had somehow snatched the plush he had. The two along with his ELF counterpart were now all in her arms as Sakura walked away without him. “...Well, better that than me.”

Honestly, he was somewhat surprised they hadn't tried selling merchandise of him before…

Once again, Ritsuka found himself in the summoning room. If the streak keeps going, he would probably find himself walking out with another of the Flamechasers. They seem to all be coming to Chaldea now. ‘Just hope that isn't a sign of something.’ He felt himself already shuddering to think about what he'd get dragged into next with them when they each already contributed to his Servants fighting one another.

Either way, he recited the summoning chant and waited for the results. Sure enough, when the flash of the first triple-bands died down— “Berserker; codenamed “Decimation, but if you wish to call me by my name, it is Kalpas,” the masked man introduced himself in a straightforward manner. “I do not care for what reason you summon me, simply point me towards your enemies and I'll turn them to nothing.”.

Well… he doesn't seem to recognize him so despite looking like a modern day person barring the mask, Kalpas was probably not a— “Wait… do I know you from somewhere?”

…Never mind. “It's probably a long story. We can talk about that later,” he tried to smile through his underlying nervousness. “For now, can you step off the circle?”

The new Servant did as told and moved from the centre of the room. After a couple more Craft Essences, another golden light followed by three bands shone. The next voice that came was a soft one. “My name is Aponia; I am of the Caster Class. I hope we get along well,” the nun-like woman smiled at Ritsuka before noticing Kalpas behind him. “Huh? Is that you, Kalpas?”

“Aponia.”

…Alright, definitely Flamechasers.

Chapter Text

The two new Servants were quiet; he sort of got that from their summoning. Despite his intimidating aura and his Class, Kalpas was rather calm. When he said he’d only go after those Ritsuka sicked him, he meant it. He usually ended up turning whatever simulated environment into ash, but stayed out of nearly everyone’s way. The only exception was the child Servants who approached him; when that happened, he tried being nice to them— that was to say, he only gently warm them to keep away from him.

As for Aponia, Ritsuka expected her to be around the other religious Servants. He was right… somewhat. While he did occasionally see her with Sanzang, Johanna and even Kiara among others to inquire about their beliefs, Aponia kept to herself most of the time. Even when he tried to speak to her, she politely told Ritsuka she did not feel like talking at the moment.

There was also something else he noticed: she always tried to avoid looking at him and when she did, Ritsuka felt like she wasn't looking at him.

“Is there anything I need to know about them?” Ritsuka asked the other Flamechasers plus himself, who all gave differing answers.

Pardo told him she did her best to avoid both back then because they freaked her out. “They’re not the sort of people to mess with. Just… You’ve been around them, Master. You know what I mean, right?” She shivered in fear at the thought of them. “Oh, by the way, think you can do me a itsy-bitsy favour, Master?”

Ritsuka already figured it was something to do with the plushies with his likeness and told her to come by his room later. After that, he went to Mobius. “Kalpas is like a guard dog if you can’t tell already. Just treat him well and you won’t be crushed,” the scientist told him dismissively. “As for Aponia, we don’t really see eye to eye on most things. Her abilities are… special. Just be careful when you talk to her.” Her vague warning did little to help and it was clearly intentional. If Ritsuka didn’t figure that out, Klein was quick to lay things out for him— Mobius wanted to see how he would handle them.

Sakura surprisingly had the most to say about Kalpas. “He was my partner on missions— the two of us were part of the same squad,” she revealed before giving similar advice to Mobius. Just careful with what he says around Kalpas as he had a habit of losing control of himself. Ritsuka assumed that was the main reason he stayed clear of everyone the best he could.  “But I think you should be fine, Master. I believe you’d be able to understand him.” With Aponia, Sakura admitted she kept her distance from Aponia. “She’s an oddity, but a good person.”

Lastly was RITSUKA as the two along with ELF Ritsuka hung out in the Master’s room. “Kalpas, he’s… frightening,” sighed RITSUKA. “Even before his surgery, I heard he was hard to be around. If I had my book still, I would lend you it.” 

“Book?”

“Yeah, Elysia put together a guide to dealing with him and I managed to snag the last copy,” RITSUKA sighed again. “I wanted to try talking to him, but never found the right time.”

“Because you’re too busy making goo-goo eyes at Hua, right?” The ELF’s teasing made RITSUKA sputter before denying he was doing such things. “Yeah, and everyone here doesn’t want a piece of him.”

“Hey!” Ritsuka cried. “…It’s not everyone.”

“Just about everyone then. I felt like there was no safe place for me here,” the tiny Ritsuka shuddered as he recalled flying around for his life. “They're still trying to get me, you know. Guess a talking, flying version is better than these.” The ELF poked the plushie Ritsuka had on his bed— another one Pardo gave him after Sakura took his first one.

Ritsuka could only shrug before turning back towards his Servant to ask, “What about Aponia?”

“Hmm… she's a strange one, to be honest. I didn't really have the opportunity to talk to her much either, but I've heard good things about her,” answered RITSUKA. “Thing is, she gives me a weird feeling whenever I do talk with her. And she always has this far off-look in her eyes— like she's looking at me but not looking at me if you get what I'm saying.”

Ritsuka nodded at his observation. “Maybe I should try talking to her again,” he muttered to himself. The best way to solve this mystery was to go straight to the source.

Knock knock

“I'm not here!” ELF Ritsuka cried before hiding under the bed as Ritsuka moved to answer the door to see… Pardo with a few boxes in her hands.

“Yaho, Master! Oh, and RITSUKA too! Perfect!” She invited herself in and put the boxes on Ritsuka's bed. Upon hearing the voice of one of the few who didn't chase him around Chaldea, the ELF emerged from his hiding spot. “The mini-one too? Did I wander into Sakura's dream or something?”

“Why would you say that?” RITSUKA cluelessly asked much to the catgirl’s amusement. 

On the other hand, Ritsuka sighed but didn't raise a complaint. “Is this about the favour? What do you need help with?”

A snicker escaped Pardo before she opened one of the boxes. “Tadaa~ Prototypes of your next line of merch!” The money-hungry MANTIS announced as she showed off another pair of plushies, dolled up in his other Mystic Codes.

“...Really?” All three Ritsuka reacted in unison. 

“Yup! And I'll make sure to get a lot more in stock. Our second batch ran out the same day, you know!” She smiled as she undoubtedly recalled the QP she and her business partners were swimming in after their successful venture. 

However, why did she want to show these off? “Why do you need my help then?” Ritsuka asked. “It looks like you have things well in hand.”

“What? You think these two are the only ones? No, no. I need your help with these.” Pardo reached into another box to pull out several costumes. “And since RITSUKA is here too, he can help! Just let me snap a few photos for referencing.” The grin on her face then grew as she added another request. “Maybe even a couple of photos without the costumes. You know, just in case.”

Both Ritsuka and RITSUKA could only look at her with deadpanned faces at her not-so-subtle attempt at another money-making product. Neither had any doubts she'd compile the pictures together into a book. ELF Ritsuka, meanwhile— “BAHAHAHA!” He collapsed on the bed in laughter. “Good luck, you two~”

Pardo was quick to pop his bubble though. “Don't think you're getting out of this, mini-tsuka!” She proclaimed before producing more tinier costumes in ELF Ritsuka's size.

“...You won't catch me alive!” The mechanical imitation cried before trying to escape. He might have gotten away too, had he not immediately crashed into someone as the door opened. “Ow!”

“Ah, sorry,” the person apologized as she got to her feet. “...Huh? An ELF?”

“Hmm? Who are you…?” To Ritsuka’s confusion, he didn’t recognized the slightly-monsterous person at his door. Did another Servant get summoned without him knowing again? ‘Is it finally that time?’ he mentally groaned at his fear coming true.

“Ooh, another member of the animal-ear group!” Pardo, not noticing Ritsuka's apprehension, was grinning at the mystery Servant(?). It was then that a more familiar Servant stepped into view and entered Ritsuka’s room: Sigurd.

“...Master?” He stared between him and RITSUKA, confusing both of them.

“Did something happen, Sigurd?” Ritsuka asked with worry before glancing at the mystery Servant again(?). “Who is she?”

RITSUKA, however, tilted his head at her. “Hang on, I feel like I've seen you somewhere before…” he muttered as he squinted his eyes. 

“It's… a long story,” Sigurd finally answered with a small sigh. “Though I do not think you need to involve yourself with it.”

“Not them then?” The mystery person shook her head before looking at Ritsuka. “I apologize, Fujimaru. Please forget you ever saw us. It's easier that—”

“Oh, I remember now! You're SCHRÖDINGER, aren't you?!” RITSUKA suddenly shouted. “...Wait, why would you be here?”

“Urm… I think it's best we take our leave before things get even more complicate. Let's find the others,,” the now-named SCHRÖDINGER(?) decided before nodding at Sigurd.

“We apologize for intruding again, Chaldean Master,” the Saber sighed before he and SCHRÖDINGER left the room as quickly as they appeared.

“...What was that about?”

“Better not to ask, Pardo.” Ritsuka didn't need another headache.

After helping Pardofelis with her request, Ritsuka went on a walk around the halls. It was mainly to clear his head, but also to look for one of the two new Servants. Eventually, he found one in the simulator: Kalpas who was just finished with letting off steam.

It felt like a furnace when he stepped into the room; it wasn't even ten seconds before Ritsuka had to wipe his brow of sweat. “Why are you here, Master?” The standoffish voice of the Berserker questioned when he noticed Ritsuka. He expected Kalpas to tell him to leave him alone, but he surprisingly didn't. “If you want to use the room, go ahead. I'm done with my business.”

Without waiting for a response, the Servant moved to leave the simulator. “...Kalpas?” Ritsuka got out just as he passed him.

“What?” The annoyed growl was intimidating coming from him, but Ritsuka didn't show any fear as he spun to face the masked man.

“I just want you to know… you don't need to fear being here,” Ritsuka smiled. “Everyone here can handle themselves. We’re used to having those who fly off the handle. Who knows, you might find someone here who can keep up with you.”

There was only silence at first; Kalpas stared at him through his mask for what seemed like an eternity before— “...Heh…” the tiniest chuckle escaped him. “Master, has anyone told you that you're the most insane out of everyone here? You're a special type of fool to tell me that to my face.”

Ritsuka's smile only widened at his derogatory remark. “I've been called that from time to time,” he admitted with a laugh of his own. “But I'm serious. You don't need to be scared of being around others here.*

“It's my choice to be alone, Master. You don't need to butt in on it,” Kalpas scoffed in annoyance. Ritsuka was going to reply when another serene voice spoke.

“He’s just trying to help you, Kalpas.” Both of them turned their heads towards the entrance to see Aponia coming in. “We all are.”

“Tsk. Of course you say that.” While he had been tempering his rage with Ritsuka earlier, there was now barely any restraint in Kalpas’s voice. Without another word, he resumed making his exit and didn't utter another word at Aponia.

Once he was gone, she turned her attention towards Ritsuka, but didn't look directly at him. “I'm sorry, Master. I shouldn't have made myself known,” she needlessly apologized.

“Don't worry, it's fine. I didn't expect to get through to him today or anytime soon, anyway.” Ritsuka gave her a reassuring smile to cheer her up. “I'm surprised to see you here though.”

“I was looking for Kalpas myself,” she answered. “Unfortunately, he still does not wish to speak with me.”

“He has a problem with you?” He asked to which she nodded.

“It’s a complicated story, I'm afraid.” 

It's always that, wasn't it— Ritsuka thought. But now that they were on topic, he had to ask… “...do you have a problem with me?”

“...I’m sorry, Master. The truth of it is more complicated than you may believe,” she tried to explain. “I do not have a problem with you or even RITSUKA. Whenever I look at either of you, all I can see is…”

“See? Wait, do you have—?”

“Please excuse me, Master. I have to go.” With a small bow, she left too— leaving a thoroughly confused Ritsuka alone with his thoughts. After a few moments, he figured what to do next.

“Merlin it is.” Just hope he could help him get down to the mystery...

Chapter Text

“You know, out of everyone to ask me about, I was not expecting it to be the nun,” hummed Merlin as he and Ritsuka sat in the latter’s room. 

His Master only rolled his eyes. “You know very well it’s not like that.”

“Oh, let me have a little fun teasing you, Master. I rarely get to do that recently with all the troubles,” the Caster pouted before clearing his throat. “Well, I do understand why you came to me, but I am probably the worst clairvoyant to ask. Need I remind you, I can only see the present.”

Merlin’s attempt to dissuade him only prompted Ritsuka to cross his arms. “That’s what you usually do, but you can see the future too, can’t you?” He undeniably foresaw the fall of Camelot

“That’s… I happen to leave by pure coincidence.” A morose look spread across his face. However, that was admission in itself as Ritsuka never mentioned Camelot. He felt guilty having to bring up a sore spot, but he had to know.

“Aponia said she sees something whenever she looks at me. The same for the other me too,” Ritsuka shared with a small sigh. “I’m sure she can see the future— my future.”

“And it worries you. Of course it does. Knowing the future comes with a price unlike any other,” Merlin shared his frown. “Frankly, it’s hard to give any advice regarding this. Depending on how far she could see and if she can only see the one future…” It’d be difficult to approach Aponia was the gist of it. Ritsuka fell deep in thought on how he could get Aponia to share her troubles. “In my opinion, it might be for the best to leave her be for now, Master. ”

“...Maybe you’re right,” Ritsuka relented with a sigh.

“Just do what you usually do. Bond with her and she’d eventually open up to you about her troubles.” As annoying as he could be, Merlin was still a good advisor.

“I guess Artoria kept you around for a good reason,” Ritsuka mused.

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?!” 

He only chuckled at Merlin’s pouting.

Days passed and Chaldea resumed operating with mild disruptions every now and then. Ritsuka had to do his best juggling everything as usual. Thanks to ELF-tsuka’s sacrifice, it was easier to focus on his tasks without having to get dragged away by any of his needy Servants… most of the time.

Of course, he tried to connect with the newer Servants the best way he knew in the fastest time possible: taking them on a day-trip into a minute Singularity to collect materials as a teambuilding exercise. Mash was tagging along too, if only because she was worried about leaving Ritsuka with Kalpas.

“So this is what you dragged me out of my lab for? A hiking trip through a forest?” Mobius grumbled as she followed Ritsuka’s lead. “Did you summon Elysia without any of us knowing or something?”

“This does sound like something she’d pull,” Pardo sighed, trudging behind her. “How much longer till we make camp, Master? I need a catnap…”

“There should be a clearing up ahead according to our intelligence,” Mash answered for Ritsuka. “After that, we can split up and begin our mission.”

"But why us specifically?” RITSUKA questioned, making a very subtle glance at Kalpas who was trailing the back of the pack. “I don't think we’re in need of a ‘team-building’ exercise as you so put it.”

“It’s mainly for my benefit to be honest,” Ritsuka professed. “I still don't know much about all of you, much less how well you'd work together.”

“I thought you'd be able to figure that out by yourself, Master. Surely you know how to read the room,” Mobius scoffed, returning the unamused glare Sakura was shooting at her.

“Your intentions may be pure, Master, but too much blind faith could lead you astray,” Aponia finally shared her thoughts, a sullen look still on her face.

“Maybe, but you can never know for sure, can you?” Ritsuka smiled in reassurance. Soon after, they reached the clearing. “And this should be the place. Mash, let's set up communications with Chaldea.”

“Alright, that should be all we’re lacking. Be sure to get extra to stockpile too. Good luck to all of you!” Da Vinci ended the transmission with a smile.

With that, Ritsuka sought to split the team to cover more ground. Sakura, Kalpas, Pardo, and Mash on one team; Mobius, Aponia, RITSUKA and himself on the other. Surely this would go well. “Leave it to us, Master,” Mash assured him as they headed west down the mountain.

“More hiking, great. I don't think I've done anything yet to warrant such a punishment,” Mobius continued being sarcastic as they went in the opposite direction. “It's just my advice but you should have gone with the other group. Kalpas might end up burning everything on this mountain into a crisp.”

“If I let you keep some of the extra materials we gather, will you stop complaining?”

“Perhaps~” the scientist grinned before turning serious again. “But really, Sakura might be able to keep him tempered but you shouldn't blindly believe everything would be fine just because he can be handled. You've never seen the fallout of his rampages.”

“I have to agree with her. He’s always been terrifying even before he got experimented on.” RITSUKA shuddered as he recalled a distant memory. “Kalpas was the type to completely reduce those who cross him to dust. Now he does it literally.”

“I’ll admit you guys know better than me, but that's precisely why I have Mash with him too. She and Sakura can handle him together.” And Pardo was there to find them should something go wrong. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

“Well, there's one way to settle things. Aponia, do you see anything going wrong with this mission?” Mobius suddenly turned towards the calm Caster, putting her on the spot.

“N-no. I don't foresee anything troubling…” she answered with the scientist responding by shrugging

“In that case, out of sight, out of mind.”

RITSUKA, however, raised an eyebrow at Aponia’s response. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“Huh? Oh, right. You wouldn't have known,” Mobius hummed after a moment of thought. “I think Master already figured it out, but Aponia here is a clairvoyant on top of her other psychic abilities.”

“Oh… wait, so is that why you always looked at me funny?”

Aponia avoided answering him, simply slowing down and letting the others move on ahead.

“So is she one of those ‘destiny can't be changed’ type of people?” RITSUKA sighed which Mobius answered with a nod. “I guess that can't be too surprising.”

“Although you were an odd case, from what Aponia told me,” Mobius shared. “She mentioned that she saw things playing differently.”

“Huh? So I wasn't supposed to be killed by the Herrsher of Binding?”

“Nope, you still died to it. Just in a different way instead of… however you died.”

“Oh…” RITSUKA deflated at her reply.

Ritsuka, on the other hand— “Herrscher of Binding?” He recognized the term from reading Jalter’s German dictionaries. He then recalled the Fire Moth Servants discussing it back when Mobius gifted ELF-tsuka to him.

“To cut a long story short, Herrschers were responsible for the ultimate demise of our world,” Mobius quickly explained. “And RITSUKA here met his end at the hands of the 11th— the Herrscher of Binding. Sakura died to the 12th; and you remember what that cat said about the Flamechaser’s final mission.”

“Yeah…” Kalpas then Pardo were killed first by the final Herrscher. But… “Wasn't a friend of yours a Herrscher too?”

“Elysia? She was, but she’s also a special case. She claimed she was actually the first Herrscher of our Era and I'm inclined to believe her.”

“If she was a Herrscher, how come she was fighting for humanity?” Asked RITSUKA. “I thought all Herrschers were driven by their hate of humanity to kill us off.”

“You'd have to ask her that. I unfortunately didn't get the chance to ask before she killed herself. With any luck, Master here might end up summoning her and the remaining Flamechasers soon.”

Considering his track record so far, that was not a misplaced belief. The only question was a matter of when.

“Oh, that reminds me too. What exactly are the Flamechasers? I keep forgetting to ask.” RITSUKA glanced between Mobius and Aponia, waiting for an answer.

“Hmm… Right, you wouldn't know anything about it. After the Tragedy of Binding— when Fire Moth fought the 11th Herrscher —only 13 of us MANTIS were left alive. Elysia wanted us to be part of a single team and coined that name but she never got the approval,” answered Mobius with a short sigh. “Quite annoying if you ask me.”

“What part?”

“All of it,” she simply said before slowing down to join Aponia, leaving the two Ritsukas to lead the way until they finally encountered their first horde of monsters.

While the other team only just ran into their first group of walking materials, Mash’s had just completed their third. Either they were exceptionally lucky or unlucky to run into so many so quickly. “And that's 4 more Void Dusts…” They were still at a massive deficit in their stockpile but at least they were making progress.

“Can we take a break first? The heat is killing me…” Pardo was sweating as she sat down against a singed rock. Feeling pity for her, Mash decided that they should take a moment to catch their breaths.

However, she barely got the chance to rest before a voice called out to her. “...Shielder, is that boy always such a fool?” 

Even without him mentioning a name, Mash knew who and what Kalpas was talking about. "Master... is always like that.” She refused to use the same word he did but she had to agree he was prone to making strange decisions. It was one with logic— split up and cover more ground —but Kalpas should have gone with him. “But I think I know what he's thinking.”

“He wants to see if I'll play nice when he's not looking, doesn't he?” Kalpas snorted in amusement.

“I mean you haven't burned us to a crisp so far so— nyaa!” Pardo immediately dove behind Sakura when the masked Berserker turned his gaze towards her. “I mean to say... uhm, I'll just be quiet.”

Sakura only sighed in exasperation before letting out a sneeze. “Pardo, go hide behind Mash.” Her fellow Servant nodded quickly before reappearing behind the Shielder. “I believe Master based his decision on what I told him,” Sakura added as she faced Kalpas. She had shared with Ritsuka that she and Kalpas were partners back in Fire Moth; it wouldn't be surprising if he believed she knew how to handle him.

“He puts a lot of faith in people he just met. Has that ever come back to bite him?” 

"A couple of times, yes. But they always work out in the end,” Mash quickly added. It was a miracle that Ritsuka's faith in others remained strong— even for those that hurt him in the past. Still, she wished he could have reservations too from time to time. “Kalpas, do you dislike him?”​

Her question made him snort again. “He's an idiot, but I don't dislike him. If I had a problem with him, I wouldn’t be dancing around the questions.” He had Mash there; she could tell he was the blunt and straightforward sort of person. “I’ll play along with his wishes for now. But he better drop that all-cheery attitude soon. It annoys me.”

“If he ever does stop, then things would be terrible…” muttered Mash before they heard a deep growl coming from within the trees.

“Aw man, already?” Whined Pardo as she knew what that meant. At least it means they were closer to finishing their expedition.

“And that should be enough for my research~” Mobius smirked as she had Klein and ELF-tsuka bring her share of the excess materials back to her lab. “I ask that no one disturb me while I work.”

“No one would want to.”

“I heard that.”

“Nyaa!” The glare made Pardo duck behind Ritsuka this time. Her skittish reaction put a grin on Mobius’s face as she left the room. “Next time, can we not bring her along?” She muttered after the door closed behind the scientist.

With Mobius’s departure, the others left to do their own things: Pardo to her shop, Kalpas to the simulator with Sakura following to keep an eye on him, and Aponia… well, he still didn’t know what she did in her free time. Maybe he should look into that?

Mash stuck around and helped him complete some reports before going on her way. “So now what?” Ritsuka asked himself as he wandered the halls. When he passed by the summoning room… well, he had no choice, did he? “Well, in for a penny.” He was halfway through completing the collection as it were. Might as well go all the way.

Ritsuka had to admit his luck had been better than usual; the first summon was already a Servant. The card depicting an archer drawing their bow faded away to reveal a beautiful young woman with flowing maroon hair and deep yellow eyes. Her ornate dress, which complimented her figure well, was dark in colour with golden accessories. “Greetings, dear Master. My name is Eden, fourth of the Flamechasers. If you’d like, I’d love to put on a show for you… Excuse me, but do I know you from somewhere?”

Well, at least she was upfront about being a Flamechaser. Though he did wonder what she meant by show.

A couple of Craft Essence later, another Servant card appeared: the Berserker. This one turned into a horned young man with dark green hair and orange eyes. For the most part, he was dressed rather normally, with a dress shirt that matched his hair and black pants. He also had a gray scarf and a black cape wrapped around him with a single pointed pauldron sitting on his left shoulder. Lastly, he wore a pair of black gauntlets with sharpened fingertips. “Berserker, Kosma. I— Wait… RITSUKA?”

“Oh, that’s who I was thinking of.” Eden— who moved to the side as the summoning continued —lit up in recognition.

“Eden’s here too…”

“I’ll… explain later.” Ritsuka requested that they be patient until then. It shouldn’t take that much longer for this specific summo—and the triple bands appeared again. Looks like things were going to be even more exciting around here than he thought.

The light faded to reveal a Class he was not expecting. The twin jesters revealed a woman with big… hair vents. Her hair was a shade of silver and her eyes were interesting— being gray with pink pupils. Her outfit had cog-like designs woven into it, the overall aesthetics reminding Ritsuka of steampunk movies and games. She’d probably get along well with Babbage. “Yahoo! I am Vill-V, an engineer for— Oh! Eden and Kosma? I wasn’t expecting to see both of you so soon.”

Well, that made eight... His unintentional collection of the Flamechasers was going well.

Chapter Text

Like clockwork, Ritsuka took the time to figure out what the new Servants were all about. The easiest for him to figure out was Kosma— for a Berserker, he was the quiet sort who liked to be out of everyone's way. Were all the male Flamechasers like that? Regardless, his wish to be by himself proved impossible as Pardo roped him into her money-making operations— mainly as a bouncer to keep the line neat and without arguments. When he wasn't being forcibly employed by the feline shopkeeper, he was with RITSUKA and Sakura babysitting.

He also found out that he, Pardo and the ever-elusive Hua were squadmates so RITSUKA was rather familiar with him. His relationship with the other Flamechasers was a bit odd too. He avoided half of the ones Ritsuka had summoned; aside from Sakura and Pardo, he only spoke to Eden and surprisingly Kalpas who was friendly in return… well, as “friendly” as the other Berserker could possibly be. The remaining three, he avoided like the plague.

Speaking of Eden, her story was pretty straightforward. She was a singer who decided to join the fight to protect humanity.

…She also liked getting drunk. Ritsuka was not expecting the refined singer to be a regular patron of Moriarty's bar. Eden was also incredibly generous with gifts; Pardo showed him a trick where after giving a few nice words to Eden, shewould just give them a bunch of beautiful carved gems and jewelry.

“Pardo?”

“Yes, Master~?”

“I don't really have any use for this.” Ritsuka said as he stared at the handful of polished jewels Eden gave him.

“I guess that's true… I'll take them then!”

Aside from that, Eden was also interested in the other musicians in Chaldea; Ritsuka would also find her in Ms. Crane’s shop, working with the Caster on some designs. From time to time, Eden would offer to host a concert for him but that was always shot down by the others who probably mistook what she meant. Either that, or they didn't want to take any chances. Lastly, she was basically beloved among the Flamechasers (minus Kalpas but he didn't dislike her which was the main point). It was surprising that there was someone like that considering all the unique… personalities but Mobius told him he just had been summoning the problematic ones.

“Including you?”

“ Hmph, I have no issues with anyone. It's them who dislike me for some reason.”

“Right, for some reason.”

Last but not least— seeing as there's five more Flamechasers he's yet to summon —was Vill-V. The sole Extra Class Servant of the lot (so far) was undeniably unique with her personality. Or rather… personalit ies . Ritsuka quickly found out how Vill-V’s MANTIS surgery, the ones that gave the others their unique physical traits, gave her the unique ability to split her mind which led to her having multiple personalities.

The second Sion learned that, she and Vill-V became quick friends. The Alter Ego would also find herself around the other inventors where Ritsuka feared all of them may make the next problem Chaldea would need to fix. Maybe he was just being paranoid but the longer it was calm, the more anxious Ritsuka got. That aside, Vill-V’s other relations was… hard to describe. Her main personality was overall nice if a bit eccentric considering everything about her but the less said about her other personalities, the better. He still wondered who Kevin was…

After another morning of grinding for materials for the stockpile, Ritsuka decided to relax by hanging out with one of the new Servants… Okay, maybe relax wasn't the right word. Either way, he soon found three of them in Vill-V’s workshop. There was the engineer herself, but Mobius and Eden were there too. The Caster was there because apparently Vill-V had challenged her to create something to make sure she hadn’t been slacking while in Chaldea.

Eden was only there for moral support, watching them compete with a wine glass in hand and an amused smile on her face.

“I’m guessing this is a normal thing for them?” He asked the Archer as they sat on the sidelines.

“In a way,” Eden giggled. “The two regularly had to invent new weapons and such for MOTH back when we were alive. At some point, the two began competing over whose creations were more useful in our fight, but they’ve never done so directly like this.” Her lively smile took on a more melancholic feeling as she continued watching the two work. “To be truthful, it’s strange seeing them be so carefree. Back then, we always had the threat of the Honkai looming over us but now...”

Ritsuka didn’t know what the Honkai was, but he could venture a good guess. He was also used to hearing that sort of thing— about being carefree here in Chaldea; several Servants had admitted finding it strange being able to enjoy themselves in ways they never truly got the chance to before when they were alive. “But it’s not an unwelcome sight, right?” Ritsuka chuckled, eliciting a joyful laugh from Eden in turn.

“Yes, it's not an unwelcome sight at all,” she agreed before taking another sip from her glass. “Say, Master. Can I ask your opinion on something? Though I will be forever grateful to you and Chaldea for giving us a second chance... Why were we given one?”

“…Huh?” Ritsuka could only react blankly at her unexpected question. Seeing his confusion, Eden immediately tried to backpedal and tell him to forget it, but Ritsuka was now curious. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what do you mean by that?”

The newly summoned Archer initially remained silent and for a moment, Ritsuka thought she was going to ignore his question. “I suppose… I didn’t want one,” Eden sighed wistfully. “I’m not sure how much the others told about you, but in the end, we failed to protect our world. We were given a second chance to go into a deep sleep until the time came for humanity to rewalk the Earth but...

“But you didn’t join the others. Mobius mentioned that before.” Ritsuka nodded, recalling what the scientist had said before about the surviving Flamechasers. He watched as a solemn frown spread across her face.

“Yes, I had no intentions of moving on to the next Era,” she said, closing her eyes and nodding. “I see myself as someone who could only belong to our Era and because of that, I walked away from the others. Even though there was one more mission left for me…” Eden trailed off. “And now I’m here— now we’re here. I did dream of us reuniting in the afterlife, if it truly exists, but I never expected it to happen especially in this way.”

As she continued airing her thoughts, Ritsuka began seeing what she meant. However, he could only give one answer: “...Sorry, but I cannot answer that.” Despite the blunt and detached answer, Ritsuka continued to give her encouraging smile. “Eden, a question like that is something you’ll have to find out yourself. I especially can’t help since I don’t know much about what it was like when you or the others were alive. All I can do is hope you find it soon.” Ritsuka told her at risk of being unhelpful, but he felt that was all he should or could say.

Fortunately, Eden could still understand his intentions despite likely being drunk by this point. “I guess I can’t disagree with that, Master. Asking someone else about this, especially someone still living, isn’t right.” Though she did let out a disappointed sigh, she perked up right afterwards with a swig from her glass. “In any case, thank you for lending your ear for a moment.”

“It’s no problem. It’s the norm for me,” he replied before turning his attention back to the competition still raging between the two inventors. Judging from what he could see, Mobius was assembling a few more ELFs; he remembered her refusing to create more of ELF-tsuka because she “wanted to save her cores,” but guess the competitive spirit made her reconsider her previous stance. Meanwhile, he couldn’t even begin to guess what Vill-V was making. He’d take a closer look, but something told him it’s better to keep a safe distance away from her as she worked.

…Well, until she produced a giant gunbarrel out of nowhere.

“Woah woah woah! Hang on a second, what are you making?!” He immediately stepped in and intervened.

“Huh? Oh, I was thinking how the Storm Border could do with a bit more firepower. Sure, the other Servants are great and all, but I heard how the ship got ambushed and forced out of the air during your last mission,” Vill-V explained her reasoning for her creation. “It sounds to me this place needs more ways to protect itself in case of emergencies like that. Especially since Chaldea is preparing to face what's in Antartica.”

Ritsuka could understand where she was coming from; her heart was certainly in the right place. Unfortunately— “I’ll have to stop you there, Vill-V. I don’t think creating a weapon like this would be needed.” They already have the Holy Sword Cannon. Anything more was simply overkill. “Besides, I don’t think the Captain will let you install something like this on his ship.” For starters, what she was making was black and gold! It would stand out too much against the sleek white of the Storm Border.

“You think so? Hmm… Well, good that you’re not the type to wish for more weapons but you could have said something earlier,” Vill-V sighed as she kicked her creation so far, causing it to comically fall apart. How that happened even though he was positive she welded some parts together, Ritsuka did not know. “Back to the drawing board it is then,” she grumbled before they heard Mobius chuckling behind them.

“I guess that means I win this round by default. If I knew Master was going to shut you down, I would have only made one of them.” The scientist had a triumphant and cocky grin on her face as she came over. Following behind her were the newly activated ELFs, five in total. All of them only had patient-like garbs on them, but were still easily distinguishable from one another (mainly from their wildly different hair and eyes).

“Don’t get a big head because just because you made our missing colleagues,” Vill-V pouted as she glanced at the five ELFs. Her eyes quickly narrowed at one of them, a male one with snow white hair and piercing blue eyes. “You.”

“...” The ELF wordlessly stared back before floating away. Another ELF with teal hair followed after him where the two sat together on the tabletop.

“I’ve only implemented some rudimentary AIs in them. Give me time and I’ll have them acting and dressing like their templates,” Mobius added before glancing over her shoulder at the ELF clinging onto her back. This one was slightly smaller than the others and had long light-blue hair with purple eyes. “But it seems like they have some idea of who they are already…” She muttered with a level of curiosity present.

It was then that Eden joined them, somehow being able to walk without stumbling over. “Oh, I did not expect you to miss the others so much, Mobius,” she giggled as the pink-haired ELF floated over to her. “Hello, Elysia. You may not be the actual one, but it’s a pleasure to have you with us.”

“Hello…?” The ELF replied/parroted before a bright smile spread across its face.

As for the last one, Ritsuka noticed the ELF was staring at him the entire time. The wide blue eyes were completely focused on him, almost distrubingly so. More strangely though, he already had an idea who this ELF was supposed to be. “Is that Hua?” He asked the three.

“Yes, the one and only Hua your other self is head over heels for,” Mobius answered while rolling her eyes. “...Judging from the way she’s looking at you, I might need to reset her memories before showing her to RITSUKA. But still, it’s odd… very odd…” she muttered. Ritsuka could see her eyes light up as she tried to figure out why the ELFs were already latching onto those “they” knew.

“You sure it’s smart to give RITSUKA this Hua?” Vill-V raised her eyebrow.

“Well, I have no use for them, any of them— especially her.” Mobius rolled her eyes again. “Master already has his own ELF assistant; it’s only fair RITSUKA has one.”

“Hmm… Well, RITSUKA isn’t the type to use a jar so it should be fine.”

“Don’t make jokes like that,” sighed Ritsuka, glancing back at ELF Hua. “What else can they do?” ELF-tsuka’s job was only to help him with some tasks (and unwillingly keep some of the Servants company in his place), while Klein was a research assistant as far as he knew.

“These ELFs are based on ones already created before in our world. They were supposed to assist soldiers in combat and the ones based on us Flamechasers were exceptionally good at it…” Mobius trailed off, seemingly unwilling to continue.

Unfortunately for her, Vill-V’s grin returned as she identified the problem. “But you don’t have what you need to make them combat-ready, right? ”

Judging from Mobius’s frustrated growl before turning around, Vill-V was right on the money. “In any case, I win this time. At least I made something.” With that, she motioned for the ELFs to follow her back to her lab.

“I better go with her too. Until next time, Master, Vill-V,” Eden bid them goodbye before chasing after her friend, leaving the two alone. Honestly, aside from stopping Vill-V from making a new weapon that may or may not end terribly, he really was able to relax. Now, it was probably time for him to go check on the others; trying to bond with Kosma might be easy since he was already well acquainted with RITSUKA but you never kn—

“Oh, before you go, Master, think you can give some suggestions for my next invention?”

“…We’ll be here a while,” Ritsuka replied with a wide grin. 

Chapter Text

The sound of clanking, welding, and other such noises had become expected when one passed Vill-V’s workshop. She and Ritsuka had been working on a top-secret project for the past several days— even pulling in the aid of a few other Servants for… whatever it was. RITSUKA had tried to get a peek inside but was caught by one of the Assassin’s guarding the workshop. “Sorry, Shielder, but Master’s orders are orders: no one can enter unless they have his and Vill-V’s express permission.

So with his literal tail in between his legs, RITSUKA retreated to do other things. ‘Maybe I should get some time in the simulator…’

While on his way, he passed along a certain other Servant accompanied by the last person he expected. “Oh, Miss Kyrielight,” RITSUKA greeted his fellow Shielder before turning towards ELF-tsuka. “I’m surprised you’re with her.”

“'Cause that guy locked himself away to work on whatever it is, I’m carrying some of his weights around,” sighed the ELF. “At least I’m doing actual work instead of getting dragged by everyone.”

“Where were you going, RI-RITSUKA?” Mash inquired with a slight hesitation at his name. Despite being with Chaldea for some time now, she was still not used to addressing him like that.

“Fuuma shooed me away from Vill-V’s lab so I was planning on taking my mind off through training,” answered RITSUKA, letting out a small sigh. “Wonder why they’re keeping it such a big secret…”

“Eh, I’m sure whatever it is, it’ll blow up in our face,” ELF-tsuka snarkily remarked with another huff before turning to Mash. "We better get going. Da Vinci wanted that report expediently as she said.”

“Yes, we shouldn’t keep her waiting any longer.” Mash nodded before saying goodbye to RITSUKA. “Take care.”

“You too,” he replied before resuming his way… for about a minute before another person intercepted him. “Oh, Kosma. How are—”

“Mobius wants to see us.”

…RITSUKA could feel dread consuming him from the inside, threatening to shatter his very Spirit Core.

When they arrived at the dear doctor’s lab, RITSUKA’s unease was written on his face. By contrast, Kosma had his usual straight-laced expression. However, that was only a front. “...Go on in.”

“What?! No, you first,” RITSUKA insisted with a smile only for Kosma to shake his head.

“Seniority takes precedence.”

“You're older than me!”

“And you've been at Fire Moth longer.”

“...Really?” RITSUKA had to wonder if that was true or if Kosma was making that up because he didn't want to knock on Mobius's door. He was positive the other MANTIS joined Moth before him. ‘Wait, why am I even considering this?!’ Both actually going to see Mobius and let Kosma gaslight him... Actually, the former was easily explained: he was still terrified of the reptilian scientist even if they were allies. 

RITSUKA opened his mouth to convince Kosma to go in first, but fortunately both of them were saved... but also doomed as the door opened. “You two argue too loud,” Klein's dry voice stated with a sigh. “Come in; the doctor’s getting restless.”

“That doesn’t sound good…” RITSUKA groaned as he shuffled into the laboratory with Kosma trailing behind him. His unease was alleviated as he saw both Eden and Sakura already there; he guessed Mobius summoned them too for whatever she had planned. He was especially surprised that Sakura had come to consider her disdain towards the scientist. ‘Eden probably asked her…’

Also there were the various ELFs that Mobius had built a few days prior; Elysia was flying around and playing with Eden, Griseo was watching Kevin and Su play a card game (where they got miniature playing cards, RITSUKA could only guess), and the last one... It seemed she was in low-power mode.

“Finally. You two took your sweet time getting here.” Mobius’s eyes narrowed at them but she put her annoyance aside for now. “I’ll keep things brief; I want you all to uncover what Vill-V is making with Master.”

“...I’m not going to get involved with this.” Sakura spun around to leave but was stopped by Eden. 

“Hear her out first, Sakura. It sounds interesting.” The singer’s amusement was written on her face as she turned back towards Mobius. “What do you have in mind then?”

“Simple, some of you create distractions while Sakura sneaks in to see what they’re making.” Mobius’s smug grin returned as she shared her plan. “The ELFs will assist you, of course. Well, most of them..." Her gaze was now directed towards a certain pair. “I’ll leave it to you to pick your partners, but everyone knows who’ll go with who. How you’ll go about it, I leave it to your discretion but just find out what Vill-V is up to.”

“Leave it to us! Come on, Eden!” ELF Elysia cheered as she grabbed and pulled the singer by the hand to the door. Another giggle escaped Eden as she let herself be led by the recreation of her old friend.

Sakura, however, still had her reservations about the matter. That or she just wanted to get on Mobius’s nerves. Probably both, to be honest. “You could just ask Master.”

“I already did. He was all giddy about it but was vague about what he was actually doing,” the Caster scoffed before a mocking grin spread across her face. “You’re free to try yourselves, but I doubt you’ll be successful no matter what manner of trick you try.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Sakura’s eyes narrowed at the unsubtle emphasis. Both RITSUKA and Kosma could feel the room start to chill as the swordswoman’s hand moved towards her hilt.

“Oh, I’m just saying that Master is pretty resistant to certain techniques. Even if you were an expert in those matters, I doubt you’d be able to get anything out of him.”

For a few seconds, RITSUKA feared things would escalate and he’d find himself having to stop the two from killing each other. Fortunately for everyone involved, Sakura kept a cool head about it. “...I’m not going to dignify that with a response. Kevin, come with me,” she stated with a glare before turning around and leaving. The ELF of (their) humanity’s greatest hero, though upset at having his game interrupted, followed after Sakura.

“That was uncalled for,” RITSUKA couldn’t help but remark as soon as the door closed.

“It was just a little fun,” was all Mobius said to defend herself. It was pretty obvious she didn’t care one way or another though. “Frankly, I’m shocked she’s still willing to play along. Now, I expect both of you to be onboard as well.”

“Yes,” both men nodded in obedience, eliciting a satisfied laugh from Mobius.

“Good boys. Now, go find out what that woman is up to.” With that, Mobius spun around and called for Klein so they could continue working on their next project.

RITSUKA nearly sprinted out as soon as she looked away; what stopped him was the reminder that he was supposed to take one of the ELFs with them as Griseo floated over. “Do you need my help?” The stand-in for their currently missing companion asked in a small voice. If he was going to be frank, RITSUKA had no idea how having the ELFs would do. They were made for combat and, assuming Mobius hadn’t modified them yet, these ELFs weren’t ready for that.

…Then again, just hearing Griseo boosted his mood. They could do with some moral support after dealing with Mobius.

“Yes, stick close to me,” Kosma nodded before he and the blue-haired ELF left the lab. That left RITSUKA with…

“I do hope you don’t mind partnering with me,” ELF Su remarked as he joined RITSUKA’s side. “Fu Hua is unfortunately recovering from some modifications the doctor made on her.”

“Oh.” RITSUKA tried to keep the disappointment in his voice hidden, but Su seemed to understand what he was feeling.

“I’m sure she’ll be just as disappointed to be out of commission for this, RITSUKA,” he consoled his new partner. “Now, let’s be off before Mobius wonders why you’re still here.”With a hesitant nod of agreement, RITSUKA chased after Kosma and the others to carry out Mobius’s “request.” He just hoped they wouldn’t find themselves getting tossed off the ship for unintentionally causing trouble…

Chapter Text

At first glance, it seemed like no guards were posted outside Vill-V’s workshop but that was a smokescreen. There were likely several Assassins with their Presence Concealment ready to show up should someone attempt to sneak inside. “So what’s the plan?” RITSUKA whispered as he, Eden, Kosma, and Sakura peeked from the corner at the end of the hall. Even at a decent distance, they could already hear the sound of metalwork coming through the door.

“Firstly, we’ll need to confirm how many guards there actually are.” Eden took command as they pulled back from the corner. “Sakura, you can detect them, right?”

The Assassin nodded. “So long as their skill is an equal rank to or less than mine. I just need to get close enough,” she added. “But that also means I can’t use mine to sneak in if there’s an Assassin with the same rank as me.”

“I know Fuuma is on guard, assuming they hadn’t changed shifts,” shared RITSUKA, making Sakura sigh.

“His Presence Concealment is equal to mine.” Just like that, their easiest plan had gone up in smoke. She should have expected someone with an A+ in the Assassin Class Skill to be part of guard duty. “What about the vents? The ELFs should be small enough to go through them,” Sakura then suggested while glancing at their mechanical assistants, mainly the one with the smallest frame.

“Ooh, we get to be all spy-like? Count me in!” As expected, Elysia immediately volunteered on the “mission.”

“Wouldn’t we need the floor plans?” Kosma pointed out which Eden agreed with.

“Why don’t you and Griseo visit the archives? A copy of the blueprints should be there. In the meantime, the rest of us will determine how many are posted outside V’s workshop.” With a plan set, Kosma split off to swing by the Storm Border’s archives to acquire the intel they needed as the others remained.

It had been some time since Fuuma was last tasked with an “important” assignment; it was a relatively easy one: prevent anyone not on the shortlist from sneaking into the new Alter Ego’s workshop. Though many were curious, most were compliant when he told them to go the other way. Some required a little more convincing— namely, him going inside and dragging his hardworking Master out to tell them he was doing fine.

“Just putting together a… a little thing,” Ritsuka would normally say to reassure them before rushing back inside. That was the usual routine for the last couple of days while Master and Vill-V toiled within, occasionally joined by the likes of Babbage, Kintoki, and even Odysseus. For that afternoon, he and Danzo were on shift together but they were about to swap with Cursed Arm Hassan and Cu Chuulain. 

Then two of the new Servants came by.

“Is V and Master still busy?” One of them asked as he appeared before them.

“Unfortunately they are, Miss Eden,” Fuuma answered apologetically. “Would you like me to fetch them?”

“No need, but do remind Master of his promised appointment with Sakura.” That was the first Fuuma was hearing of any sort of “appointment.” 

“Wait, what?” And judging from Sakura’s reaction, this was the first she was hearing about it too. “Don’t tell Master anything! Eden is just making things up.”

“I’m sure Master would not mind being pulled away from work to spend time with—”

“Let’s just go, Eden!” The flustered Assassin didn’t give Eden the chance to continue as she dragged her away before Eden could embarrass her any further. They vanished around the corner and Fuuma was left speechless but still amused. He could even hear his mother’s soft laughter despite her still concealing herself.

Behind the corner, Sakura was glaring at Eden who only found it adorable how her fellow Flamechaser’s face was matching red as her own hair. “Did you have to say that?”

“Well, we don’t want them to suspect anything, do we?” Eden grinned as she teased her. “In any case, did you figure out how many there are?”

“Assuming the First Hassan isn’t there, there are only two on guard,” Sakura answered with her eyes still narrowed. King Hassan was technically the only one in Chaldea with EX Ranked Presence Concealment so nobody would know if he was around.

RITSUKA, meanwhile, could only look confused like a lost puppy in between the two and wonder what Sakura was upset at Eden for. “So we stick to the plan?” He asked hesitantly to which Eden nodded.

“We do as Mobius planned and make a distraction. While we keep the guards busy, the ELFs would sneak in through the vents,” she relayed the game plan; all they needed to do now was wait for Kosma to return with the blueprints and… wait. “Where’s Su?” Eden asked upon noticing he was missing.

“Oh, he said he was going to look for someone who could help us.” Frankly, RITSUKA had his doubts about bringing a third party into their mission but Su was already off before he could raise them.

“If Su thinks we need someone, he’s probably right." Elysia shared her thoughts before noticing someone approaching them from the other end of the hall. “Oh, that was fast. He’s already back.”

And accompanying him was one of the earliest Servants Chaldea contracted. “Yo, this small guy said you needed help getting those guys’ attention?” Cu Chuulain (Caster) greeted them with a two-finger salute.

“...What do you need the ventilation layout for?” The record keeper of Chaldea asked with a slightly dumbfounded look at Kosma for his request.

“We’re trying to find out what Master is doing,” he replied like it explained everything… which was surprisingly enough for her.

“Please wait a moment while I retrieve the blueprints,” Elron told him before she went to find the hard copy of the requested document. Kosma was admittedly stunned that she didn’t question him any further, but he wasn’t going to complain. He leaned on the nearby wall and waited for Elron to return; meanwhile, Griseo was inspecting the mostly white room. Kosma may not be a mind reader, but he could tell what she was thinking.

“Have you asked Mobius for a canvas?” He didn’t see one when he was in her lab earlier. 

“Granny did… but I already used it,” the ELF confessed in a small voice.

“Hmm… I’ll ask one of the painters if they have extras." Kosma made a mental reminder to do that after they were done running Mobius’s “errand.” “But do you have enough paint?”

As Griseo nodded, Kosma heard the door opening and turned his head to see the last person he expected: Pardofelis. “Oh, Kosma? Griseo? What are you two doing here?” She was equally surprised to see them.

“Eden asked us to get something for her here,” he answered concisely. Though she was a Flamechaser, Mobius had told him to only bring RITSUKA earlier because Pardo would be too busy running her shop. Sakura could carry out the infiltration by herself either way so the feline MANTIS was not needed. “Why are you here?”

“Filing my taxes.”

“...We have to do taxes?” Out of everything so far in Chaldea, that was the most out-of-left-field thing he’d heard.

“Only if you run a shop like me. A portion of the QPs I earn goes to the Chaldea’s reserves,” Pardo whined with a pout. “It’s truly as they say, there’s only two certainties in life.”

Well, it was no skin off his back so Kosma didn’t question it any further. Elron was returning with the blueprints anyway. “Thank you,” he nodded as he took the rolled-up plans and left with Griseo so Pardo could do her business.

It was a couple of minutes before he rejoined them and was mildly surprised to see one of the Cu Chuulain variants but again, he wasn’t going to question it. If having an outsider around was something Eden thought was needed, he trusted her judgment. “Here, the plans for this wing of the ship,” he said as he handed over the blueprints.

Eden unrolled the paper and, with the ELFs looking over her shoulders, inspected them for an infiltration route. After about a minute, she let out a satisfied hum and declared, “Alright, here’s the plan—”

“Yo, Fuuma! We’re here to take over.” The Assassin heard the familiar voice of one Cu Chuulain (Lancer) approaching with Cursed Arm. With a brief thank you, he and Danzou left them to guard the entrance to Vill-V’s lab.

Minutes passed without any word shared between them, with Cu only whistling while leaning next to the door. After a particularly loud bang originating from inside, the Lancer couldn’t help but make small talk. “Did Master ever tell you what he’s working on?” He asked the Assassin who reappeared to shake his head.

“No, Master had neglected to mention that particular aspect of this task,” Cursed Arm added with a curious hum. “Considering Master’s interests, however, I think we can make an educated guess.”

“You’re not wrong, but I don’t get why he’s keeping it such a big secret.”

“Maybe he’s worried someone would want to give some suggestion? Tesla and Edison are not on the list and if it is what we think, they would want Master to use their preferred current.”

“Hmm… True,” Cu conceded as he pulled out the list of those allowed to go in.

“Kintoki, both versions… Odysseus… Charles Babbage…” Those were the three that frequently came by. There were also Da Vinci, Sion, Jeanne Alter, and Muramasa. The former two made sense, but it took a little thinking for Cu to understand the latter two. There were a couple more names besides those, including one of the so-called Flamechasers—the snake-like one who was usually cooped up in her laboratory. Cu didn’t think she ever came by though, at least during his previous shifts.

However, he wasn’t given any more time to ponder over the list as he heard frantic footsteps running towards them. He initially thought it was yet another Servant trying to make a break for the door but was shocked to see it was his Caster version, looking completely out of breath. “You… You—” he breathed out.

“What? Did something happen?” Cu asked with an unbothered tone.

“Shishou… Shishou is looking for someone to spar with.”

“...Hey, Assassin. Really hate to ask this but—”

“Don’t worry, Lancer. I doubt there'd be any trouble I cannot handle by myself,” chuckled Cursed Arm. Cu flashed him a grateful grin before disappearing in a cloud of dust along with his Caster self to hide from Scathach’s “training.”

All was calm for about a minute before the Assassin sensed another presence approaching. “Oh, Shielder. How can I help you?” He politely greeted the doppelganger of his Master. It was still a bit jarring to see someone with the same face as him running around, but it was not something anyone was not unused to by the time RITSUKA was summoned.

“I saw Cu Chuulain running this way. What was that about?” Shielder asked.

“Ah, he was just warning his Lancer self regarding an important matter. You’ll learn to understand how things are around here soon, Shielder.”

“I… see…” He still sounded confused but didn’t ask anything further. His curiosity now seemed to be directed at the workshop. “Is Master and Miss Vill-V still working inside?” 

While RITSUKA was keeping Cursed Arm busy, the other Flamechasers had split up to find and wait by the vents with the shortest routes to the workshop. “Alright, he’s busy. Go!” Eden ordered through their comms before nodding to her partner. “Good luck, Ely.”

“Leave it to me!” Cheered the pink-haired ELF before she flew into the vents, having already memorized which way she needed to go.

“Griseo and Su are in.” “So is Kevin.”  Both Kosma and Griseo notified her. Now they just had to wait for the ELFs to reactivate their communication modules when they reach the workshop. “I’ll go check on RITSUKA,” Sakura then added.

“...Eden, are you sure this is safe for them?”

“There’s no need to worry, Kosma,” Eden assured him. “Mobius wouldn’t have allowed Griseo to help had she thought any of them would be in danger.” Even if it was an ELF version of the adorable painter… Eden believed that to be the case anyway.

…Well, until the communication line flared up to life with Elysia’s panicked voice— “THEY’RE IN THE VENTS!”

“...Oh dear.”

“—see… He really doesn’t have much time for his own… hobbies?”  Sakura overheard RITSUKA talking with one of the Hassans who replied that “he” doesn’t. Chances are they were talking about Ritsuka.

“There you are, RITSUKA,” she calmly interjected herself into the conversation with them. “Are you still trying to find out what Master and Vill-V are doing?”

Fortunately, he was able to play along with her act as he spluttered, “Oh come on, you’re curious too!”

A small deep chuckle escaped the masked Assassin. “There’s no need to be ashamed, Lady Sakura. Many others are curious too, myself included.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, Master didn’t tell me but as his Servant, it’s not my place to question a direct order,” Cursed Arm replied with amusement in his voice. “It’s more than likely he and Vill-V are working on a mechanical contraption from his childhood, however.”

“Is that so…?” Sakura hummed. It was the most likely answer but “most likely” would not be enough for Mobius. “But does it really deserve 24-hour security?”

“Perhaps not, but lesser inventions were exploited for more around here. It’s a safety precaution,” the older Assassin added. 

Sakura was about to question if something similar had happened before when— BANG! —one of the vent grates above their heads busted open and another Hassan poked her head out. “We have intruders! Check the other openings for them!” Without any further explanation, Serenity disappeared back into the vents followed by the banging of her moving within.

“Hmm… Do excuse me for a moment,” Cursed Arm politely requested before swiftly leaving to find the culprits of this attempted break-in. What he failed to consider was RITSUKA and Sakura being in cahoots with said culprits.

And though things did not go the way they planned, there was now nothing standing between them and Vill-V’s workshop. “So uh… do we just go in?”

“Yes,” Sakura bluntly replied before opening the front door and going inside.

Chapter Text

When they stepped into the dark room, the first thing that surprised them was how utterly spacious it was. The room’s dimensions were not this big from the outside, as it stretched at least three floors. The second surprise came when their eyes fell on the centrepiece of the workshop: a robot arm laid on its side that RITSUKA guesstimated to be about 8 meters tall, mostly covered in white panels. The sounds of mechanical works from before were naturally louder now and came from the other side of the arm. 

“Keep close; keep quiet,” Sakura whispered to him before slowly and silently moving through the shadows towards the main attraction of Vill-V’s workshop. RITSUKA nodded and followed after her, hugging the walls when— BANG “Ah!” —a nearby vent cover blew open and startled the Shielder.

The culprit for nearly giving him a heart attack was none other than one of the ELFs. “Good, I managed to give that Assassin the slip.” Su sounded pleased with himself before turning towards them. “And it seems Mobius’s plan went exactly how she wanted it to.”

“Don’t rub it in,” grumbled Sakura as their cover was immediately blown by Su’s sudden appearance.

“Who’s there? Serenity?” The voice of their Master called out a couple of seconds before he emerged from behind the fist of the robot. He was in a brown mechanic’s overall caked in oil, with some even on his face. Surprisingly (or not), he wasn’t upset at seeing them. “Oh, it’s you guys. Impressive that you got in,” he remarked with a cheery smile across his face before Vill-V peeked out over his shoulder.

“Oh, you three! Let me guess, Mobius put you guys up to this, right?” She was equally at ease about seeing them. When they (namely RITSUKA) hesitantly nodded in confirmation, the Alter Ego let out a small chuckle before disappearing behind their project to resume working on it.

“So… What exactly are you working on?” The Shielder asked his doppelganger as he and the other two joined them around the mechanical arm. “I mean, I can see what you’re working on, but what are you guys working on?” RITSUKA didn’t know why, but he got a sense of deja vu looking at the boxy white arm.

While the side facing the entrance was complete, the other side was definitely a work in progress— revealing the glassy silver underframe that was covered on the opposite side. From the equipment on top of white sheets of metal on the central table, Ritsuka and Vill-V were in the process of welding together the remaining panels. On another table were what was likely the blueprints for their project, along with a powered-off television. 

“ Weeeeeelllll, it’s a bit of a long story, to be honest. To start—”

“Master wants to fulfil a childhood dream and I’m helping him." Vill-V cut the long story short, earning a pout from Ritsuka.

“Yeah… I mean, can you blame me for wanting to recreate it when given the chance? Honestly, this was a long time coming,” he defended himself, sounding proud of achieving his dream. 

“How big will it be once completed?” RITSUKA inquired, still in awe at the size of the project his Master was undertaking.

He would quickly come to regret asking that though as Ritsuka immediately listed off its stats with a gleeful grin. “It will stand at 19.7 meters in its initial mode, and an additional two in its alt mode. It would be 23.7 metric tons to start too but we can't really get that as we have to substitute materials here and there. There's also the other things like—”

“Master, breathe,” Vill-V interrupted him with another laugh though clearly sharing in his excitement.

“...So it is just a giant robot,” Sakura remarked after a moment with a small hum. It was something basically all of them saw coming but there was one question above all. “Why the secrecy with this?” Sure, Cursed Arm mentioned that it could be exploited but who would want to steal a giant robot? As far as they knew, there were no survivors on the bleached Earth by this point—and what Servant would want to take over Master’s pet project? 

“Oh, that was Vill-V's idea of a test or something. I don't mind anyone finding out,” shrugged Ritsuka, turning everyone's gaze towards the engineering Servant.

The grin present on her face grew wider as she explained her intentions with the security guards. “I wanted to see if Mobius would come to see what Master and I were working on herself or send someone else in her place,” she snickered before adding that she did expect RITSUKA but not Su or Sakura. “How'd you get roped into helping?” Vill-V asked the Assassin.

“...I had nothing better to do.” The unconvincing answer only earned Sakura another snicker from Vill-V. “In any case, we learnt what we came here for. We’ll leave you to your devices then. Good luck.” And just like that, Sakura vanished as if she were never there in the first place. 

RITSUKA, on the other hand—“...You need an extra hand?” It didn't take a second before Vill-V pulled him to help hold some parts in place while she secured them to the arm. That left only one other person. 

“You’re Su, right?” Ritsuka asked the ELF who decided to stay behind with them. As he had been basically locked in Vill-V’s workshop for the last several days, he hadn't gotten the chance to meet the new ELFs properly.

“That’s correct, and you must be the one and only Fujimaru Ritsuka. I've heard a lot about you,” Su replied with a smile. “I was not expecting that the young man Fu Hua was infatuated with would have a reputation like yourself.”

“Fu Hua? You mean Hua?” Ritsuka asked in confusion. Didn't the people of RITSUKA'S world only have one name?

“Oh, that's right. I meant to say Hua,” the ELF hummed but frankly, it didn't sound like he cared about that weird slip-up, only amused. “As I was saying, I was surprised to hear about your accomplishments considering what card fate had dealt RITSUKA. Then again, the alternate fate he could have had was much worse.”

“You're not really making sense…” Ritsuka's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the smiling ELF who was acting too much like a certain Caster than he was comfortable with. Cryptic comments like that were setting off red flags in his head. His remark though only made Su chuckle as he circled around Ritsuka. 

“I’m saying how it is: you are, by all accounts, a strange person, Fujimaru Ritsuka. You have a tenacity that I've rarely seen shared by anyone else—in fact, you remind me of an old friend of mine and I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing.”

“...I'm no one special if that's what you're trying to say.”

Another soft chuckle came from the ELF. “Don't you think it's a little too late to say things like that?” He asked with a curious hum. “But I suppose that is a constant with you. RITSUKA says the same thing, no? As far as I know, there is only one you who no longer claims to be normal—but the less said about him, the better. I dare say he's the strangest version of you out there. Still a nice person though, so long as you don't get on his bad side but the same could be said for you from what I've seen.”

By this point, Ritsuka had a good idea of what was up with Su; the question was how and why, not what anymore. “You’re not really an ELF, are you?”

“I think the answer’s obvious enough." Su only continued to smile before deciding he was needed elsewhere. “I better help the others; I expect they’d have been caught by your other Servants by now.”

“Let me out of here! I’m innocent, I tell you!”

“Elysia, stop banging on the door. I don’t think there’s anyone out there.”

Ritsuka watched in silent thought as Su floated off and disappeared around the arm. After a few more seconds though, “Better worry about that later…” It would likely bite him in the ass, but he had more important matters right now. Finish the second arm now; deal with the potential problems some other time. Turning back to the others, he put everything in the back of his mind and went to help Vill-V and RITSUKA with their current task.

Several more days passed after the somewhat successful mission to discover the secret hidden within Vill-V’s workshop without much to note. Mobius’s reaction to what they were up to could be chalked up to “Oh, okay then,” before she went back to her own projects. She did reward them for their troubles by giving them permission to have the ELFs accompany them.

“You were going to let us roam around regardless,” Elysia remarked when hearing the “reward,” only for Mobius to tell her to be quiet.  Either way, Ritsuka, Vill-V, and several other Servants would continue working on the secret project with laxer security. Some others would visit and help out here and there but for the most part, they were doing whatever they pleased.

Sakura naturally was one the regular visitors along with Su, who liked to tag along with her whenever he wasn't with Kevin. Frankly, she didn't understand the intricacies of what they were building, but that it was mainly a replica that ironically couldn't replicate the full capabilities of what it's based on. Why there was so much effort put into a 1-to-1 model, she also didn't understand, but Ritsuka deserved one after all he's been through.

Of course, it couldn't be that simple as Sakura woke up one morning to alarms across the Storm Border being rang. The announcement being replayed made the situation clear: a new Singularity had formed and Master’s super secret project had disappeared…

Chapter Text

Fear of the beasts that lurked in the shadows, but also those outside the walls had dominated their lives for as long as they could remember. As they worked the day away, prayed to their deity, and slept after a long day, the unease of the day the world they knew could collapse at any moment never quite disappeared. The city-state had the weakest army in the lands—the weakest navy that sailed the seven seas. But worst of all, they were barely contributing to the empire. Should the worst happen, the Emperor’s army— not even the Vormund —could or would protect them. Should war truly break out, they were an easy target for any of their neighbours with their superior military and technology, and everyone knew it. Many had fled beforehand, seeing the writings on the walls and running to the safety of other cities.

The true sons and daughters of Espérance stayed, ready to die within their homeland—but that didn’t mean they wanted to.

Then the day they all saw coming finally arrived. One of the Vormunds broke down the flimsy walls like tissue paper, letting the mechanical soldiers march in and reduce everything to ashes. The brave souls who tried to stop the army were crushed under their heels. They didn’t even care to take over—that’s how little their home offered to the conquerors.

What did they do to deserve such a fate? Why did their Emperor— their worshipped Vormund —leave them to such a fate? They could only cry in sorrow and despair to the heavens at the futility they faced.

And their cry was heard.

From beneath the land, it emerged: the metal giant that slumbered beneath the soil, left to be forgotten by the passage of time. With a body as white as snow, it answered the silenced screams and avenged those who wished for a saviour—possessing strength that equalled the Vormund that led the invasion, it was only right to bestow it the same title as those forged by human hands long ago to surpass the heavens.

The horned beast... the Horned Vormund—the Horned Guardian. When it went to slumber once more, it would do so with the prayers of those it saved.

As the alarms died down across the halls of the Storm Border, Sakura made her way to the bridge to get the situation straight. When she came in— “—ject goes missing and then a minute Singularity suddenly gives off massive readings like this? It has to be in there for sure.”

“But why? Who’d even steal it?” The Assassin heard Ritsuka’s frantic voice reply to Sion as she entered the room. Besides those two, the others on the bridge were to be expected: Mash, Da Vinci, Goredolf, and the other Master that Sakura saw around from time to time. Besides them, RITSUKA and Vill-V were there; again, that was expected, but Mobius and the ELF Su as well, despite them having practically no ties to the stolen project as far as she knew.

“What’s going on?” Sakura made her presence known by joining them in the centre of the room.

“Told you she’d show up,” she heard Vill-V whisper to RITSUKA, who rolled his eyes. “Ahem. Turns out that the security was warranted; someone broke into my workshop early this morning and stole our project.”

“And after that, our equipment picked up a Singularity and a pretty strange one at that,” Da Vinci added with a sigh. “We couldn’t determine what year or even where it is. It’s just… there. That’s why Mobius is here. With our track record, we thought that maybe—”

“This Singularity has something to do with our world,” finished Mobius with a curious hum. “Unfortunately, it’d be impossible for us to figure out until we actually enter it. I don’t have enough data to determine it quite yet. But from what we could tell, the passage of time within it is moving at a faster pace than outside.”

And if it was their ruined world, Sakura had a feeling they all would be joining Ritsuka on his next quest. ‘But not everyone is here…’ The substitutes of the remaining five Flamechasers were, but Elysia’s wish remained ungranted. She still had one question though: "Why did they steal your robot, Master?”

A heavy sigh escaped Ritsuka before he answered that he genuinely did not know. “Sure, I did base its appearance and even interior on the show but it has no combat capabilities. I know better than to have a weapon like that around here.”

“And trust me when I say we made sure it couldn’t do anything beyond walking and flying around,” Vill-V confirmed with a frustrated sigh. “It's durable and can throw a mean punch but that's about it.”

“Wasn't there a rifle?” Asked the other Master— Kadoc or something —questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Ritsuka answered that the magazines were empty. “And the sabres are glorified flashlights. Just concentrated light that couldn't cut through anything,” he added. “Your guess is as good as mine for why anyone would want to steal it… Besides the obvious, of course.” It was a giant replica of one of the coolest robots in fiction; why wouldn't anyone want it?

“Except no one besides you knows what it is,” Kadoc correctly pointed out. No one in Chaldea has seen the anime Ritsuka grew up on. However, Kadoc put the discussion back on track before Ritsuka could retort. “So someone sneaked onto the ship, into Alter Ego’s workshop, stole a 40-foot robot, and got out without anyone noticing?”

“Actually, it's 65 feet—64.63 to be more specific,” Vill-V corrected, her inventor pride flashing momentarily (even if she mainly copied something she saw) before she cleared her throat. “But yes, as absurd as it sounds, that’s what happened. We found out the security cameras around my workshop were disabled so we can’t even be sure what time precisely it was taken.”

“And whoever stole it likely fled into the Singularity,” Sion reaffirmed their theory. “We already ran a scan of the ship and unless one of them found a way to fool the system, all Servants are accounted for.”

So none of them are responsible... probably. Their innocence still needs to be determined but right now, there was still the elephant in the room. “A true Singularity..." Unlike the minute ones Chaldea entered to collect more resources, this was a real one they needed to fix themselves. Their true first mission... “When do we head out?”

“A few Servants had already Rayshifted in as a forward team to collect intel—your allies, Pardofelis and Kosma, were among them. However, we have yet to get back into contact with them,” Sion told her. “Ritsuka’s group will be Rayshifting in an hour once he assembles his team.”

“Naturally, the rest of us Flamechasers will be part of the team,” Mobius stated. “I’ve sent the other ELFs to debrief the others, but this one—” she gave Su a pointed glare who just smiled back at her.

“Don’t be so upset I was right that Sakura would come here herself, Mobius.”

She continued to stare at him with suspicion before turning back towards Ritsuka. “I have to prepare a few things before the mission. If you’d excuse me—” Without waiting for a response, the Caster stepped out and headed back towards her lab.

“I should do the same; I’ve not done as many diagnostic checks as I normally would since we were so busy.” Following her rival’s lead, Vill-V left to return to her. 

“What about you, Sakura?”

“My sword and I are always ready for a mission,” she replied to her Master with a confident nod. “Who else will be part of the team?”

“Tenoch, Odysseus, and Europa were part of the recon team with Pardo and Kosma; as for our team, only Kintoki will join.” Including Mash, that would be a grand total of 14 Servants—quite a lot but better safe than sorry, Sakura thought. “Kintoki doesn’t know yet so could you do me a favour and tell him?”

“Understood. I’ll regroup with you before the mission begins.” With that, Sakura headed out to find the Berserker (and occasional Rider) to relay their Master’s orders. An hour before the mission begins… An hour before they’ll be heading back to a true battlefield for the first time since she was summoned. ‘Time to fight once again… without her.’

The pre-mission preparations were quickly completed with some time left to spare until it was time to Rayshift. Frankly, Ritsuka would have preferred if they were rushing until the last second; he wouldn't have had the time to be more anxious if they did. Wandering the halls with his eyes on the ground was doing little to calm his mind. “Penny for your thoughts, Master?”

“Hmm? Oh, hey.” Ritsuka glanced up to see his own face staring at him. “And Su too. You guys are done preparing too?” 

“Yes, we were just heading to the Rayshift room,” nodded RITSUKA before asking again what he was thinking about.

“You mean besides my favourite robot that we spent a couple of weeks building together getting stolen before I get the chance to fully test it out?” Ritsuka retorted mostly in jest. “I guess I’m anxious over what we might face in the Singularity.” He was not a stranger to this type of anxiousness, but he usually did a better job hiding it. 

“I must say though, building something like that went a lot swifter than one would expect,” Su remarked as he effortlessly floated around the two Ritsukas.

“Well, it was mainly just a blown-up model.” Forging and assembling the pieces was a cinch thanks to the Servants; the main difficulty was wiring things inside to allow movement but Vill-V and the others were more than excited to tackle that task. The ELFs, who were small enough to squeeze into the tight compartments, were less excited—except for his own ELF. Was it still faster than one might expect? Probably, but not that surprising or unexpected. “Su, will you be joining us too?”

“Of course. This is precisely the reason I came here.”

“Su?” RITSUKA tilted his head in confusion at the ELF’s remark but he only laughed it off and told him not to mind him. “But I am just as confused as you are. If whoever stole the mobile suit knew even the bare minimum about it, they would know it’s just a giant toy. Not to downplay it, of course.” As someone who participated in constructing the stolen machine, he was just as invested in it as uh… Not Ritsuka or Vill-V. Probably Mash.

“Who knows?” sighed Ritsuka with a shrug. “The only thing I could take from them stealing it is that they knew less than the bare minimum.”

“That’s assuming they stole it because they believed it to be a weapon,” Su pointed out. “For all we know, the thief stole it just because it was a replica.”

“Hm… That’s not out of the question.” Another sigh escaped Ritsuka. “There’s only one way to find out for sure and that’s to locate it. Vill-V says she should be able to track it down the second we land within the Singularity. She insisted on having certain systems in place in case someone actually stole it.”

“Really? Hm… I suppose that’s to be expected after… That explains why she was as unbothered as she was earlier,” Su muttered before shaking his head. “It’s almost time for the mission to begin. Let’s meet up with the others.” With a small smile on his already small face, Su flew in the direction of the Rayshift chamber. After sharing a quick glance, the two Ritsukas shrugged and followed after him.

The plan was simple: upon entering, they would first regroup with the intel team. If it’s confirmed the stolen “asset” was within the Singularity, they could try locating it first. If not, then they would carry on with their other objective of correcting the Singularity. “Although, I would not be surprised if it turns out those two objectives were one and the same.”

“Don’t even joke about that, Da Vinci,” Ritsuka bemoaned at the Rider’s poor attempt at humour. He didn’t want to entertain the possibility that they would have to destroy the culmination of their efforts and hard work.

Of course, someone had to take issue with that plan—“Why are we trying to locate Master’s toy first? Shouldn’t solving the Singularity be our main concern?” Mobius gave both Ritsuka and Da Vinci an unamused glare at them prioritising a walking piece of metal over what she rightfully saw as a larger problem. Da Vinci’s carefree reply only made her all the more annoyed.

“Don’t worry too much about that. You'll learn soon enough everything will work out in the end as it always does.”

“…I’m now questioning how Chaldea got this far with that sort of attitude,”  Mobius grumbled before heading to wait with the others.

“Hm… If it’s her wish to figure out what makes you tick, then this is the best opportunity she’s going to get just as this will be the best opportunity for you to truly see them in action,” hummed Da Vinci with a wink. “Good luck, Master of Chaldea~” Her use of that title managed to elicit a short chuckle from Ritsuka.

“We’ll succeed, you can count on that at least,” Ritsuka smiled back at Da Vinci before turning around and heading for the Rayshift coffin. Time to begin operation and make true on that statement: ‘Everything will work out in the end…’ That prevailing thought echoed in his mind as he and Mash entered their respective coffins for their entry into this odd Singularity. 

Unsummon Program, start.

Spiritron Conversion, start.

Should just be a routine operation.

Rayshifting in 3.

2.

1.

…Right?

All procedures clear.

Commencing operation.

…

…

…Beep beep!

“Rider, Berserker, other Rider! Tlamacazqui has finally arrived!” The eager cry of one Pretender Servant filled the underground bunker that had served as their base for the past several weeks. Now that the signal came that their Master had Rayshifted into the Singularity, all they needed was to reunite with him and—

“Wait, those coordinates… he’s in the wilds.” Odysseus was quick to realise the potential danger Ritsuka’s group was in; even as a Servant, he was well acquainted with the strange monsters that roamed the unpopulated regions between the various cities within this Singularity. They had plans to procure more supplies, but this naturally took precedence over anything else; the others would understand. “I deeply apologise, but we need to rescue him first.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. I’m excited to finally meet this Master you all love to go on about~ Let’s see if he truly is the type of person deserving of such a reputation.” 

Chapter Text

Vill-V could only blink in confusion for several seconds at Ritsuka’s request. “You want to make a… what?” She finally asked after a couple of seconds. A few more seconds later, she broke into laughter as Ritsuka repeated himself again. However, she was surprised by his one specification: “Just a replica of the toy version? Not one that can actually take part in combat?”

“Yup!” Ritsuka nodded excitedly as he showed her a pair of photos of a certain machine for reference. Why he had one in his pocket, she couldn't say but didn't question it either. So when given the opportunity to construct a true one-to-one copy of his favourite robot, he'd rather have her make a giant toy. She didn't know if he thought she was incapable of that but one thing was sure: Vill-V was intrigued.

“Sure, why not!” The newest addition to Chaldea’s crew cheered. What better way to familiarise herself with Ritsuka than to help him fulfil a lifelong dream? She assumed it was one anyway judging from the sparkles in his eyes. She took the photos out of his hands and inspected them with a scrutinising eye; they were clearly still frames from an anime but she assumed Ritsuka would have shots from other angles. From what she could glean from the single picture, it would be a complicated process to get everything working.

However, Vill-V was more than up for a challenge. There was only one question left: “What's its name?” 

The familiar blue vortex of light soon gave way to a sea of green as Ritsuka woke up in the middle of a forest clearing. He was alone at first, but soon he heard himself being called by one of his Servants. “Eden? Where are the others?” It was just their luck to be separated upon landing but he wasn't that surprised. 

“I’m not sure but stay close to me, Master. I have an uneasy feeling…” The Archer spoke in an uncharacteristically guarded tone as she glanced around.

Ritsuka was getting the same uneasiness and spoke to his communicator in an attempt to contact the others However, all he got was static. Sounds like their initial objective of “regroup with the recon team” has been altered to “regroup with the others and then the recon team.” Assuming their equipment worked correctly, the earlier team should be notified of the arrival of Ritsuka's team within the Singularity. The objectives of Odysseus’s team were simple in comparison: find a place to set up shop and gather as much information as they could in preparation for the main team’s arrival. “Eden, in your opinion, is it safe to wander around shouting everyone's names?” 

Or more accurately, was she up to fighting should they attract trouble? He could provide some back up with Shadow Servants but it would be likely she’d have to take the brunt of it all.

The confident smile Eden gave was an answer in itself. “As a Servant, it's my duty to protect you no matter what. I only ask you to trust me in turn.”

It was a rather foolish question from Eden as he already did.

“Mash! RITSUKA! Can you hear us?!”

“Mobius! Sakura!” The Master-Servant pair shouted their missing companions’ names as they walked through the forest. As they were still unsure where they were, the two headed for higher ground to get a better view of their surroundings; Ritsuka hoped the others would get the same idea and they'd meet along the way. Of course, things could never be that easy and Ritsuka found his throat feeling hoarse after 10 minutes of constant shouting. At the very least, they hadn't run into any trouble.

“I don't mean any offence, but do missions typically start off this terribly, Master?” Eden questioned as lightly as she could.

“Well… I wouldn't say this is the first time this has happened. But frankly, it was worse last time; I lost contact with basically all the Servants who were meant to go in with me.” And in the end, he met up with the two Alters so all's well that ends well. “What about you? How do your old missions typically go?”

“Hmm… It varies. A routine clean-up job tends to go smoothly barring some unforeseen circumstances, but some missions…” the singer trailed off, no doubt recalling the outcome of the Flamechasers’ final mission. Ritsuka resisted the urge to slap himself for forgetting that important fact.

“So-sorry,” he quietly apologised to his Servant who replied that it was alright.

“But to answer your question, I don’t believe I’ve ever been separated from any squadmates the second our mission began before,” she lightly giggled at their misfortune to lighten the mood. “I’m sure the others would be fine; they are more than capable of looking after themselves.”

“I don’t doubt that but it doesn’t change that we all got split up in the first pl—ah!” Ritsuka was cut off by rather embarrassingly tripping over something and falling face-first on the ground. With a silent groan, he quickly got back to his feet and checked what he literally stumbled on. “That’s…” There was not much that could be taken from a buried piece of rusted metal, but that was already an anomaly in and of itself. Despite getting a solid grip on the buried object, all he managed to do was loosen the dirt around it. “Hmm… Eden, can you lend a hand?” As a Servant, she should be able to pull it out with little effort.

“I know I’d be getting my hands dirty but I didn’t expect it to be literal,” the Archer mused as she kneeled down and replaced his hand with hers. With very little effort, she managed to pull the mysterious object halfway out of the ground. That was still enough for them to figure out what it truly was: “A sword?” One that was as wide as them and about 2/3rds their height with more of its length hidden under the dirt. Several questions quickly shot through the two’s minds. Who or what swung this massive weapon? How did it end up buried? How long has it been hidden underneath the soil?

There was one thing certain, however: there was something dangerous lurking within this forest for a weapon to be left in this state. “Eden.”

“I know, Master. Stay close to me.” With a more intense air of trepidation hanging over them, the two resumed heading for a higher place to find their missing companions. Eventually, they climbed to the top of a hill where they could survey the forest below. “Should I fire some shots to signal the others?” From here, it should be easier for them to be seen. 

“...Wait,” Ritsuka started to get an uneasy feeling in his stomach as the air grew silent. That was never a good sign, especially in a dense forest like this. His finely honed instincts (honed from constantly getting into trouble) were telling him something was going to—

KABOOM!

“...I hate being right,” he muttered as he and Eden turned in the direction of the explosion to see a pillar of fire shooting up some distance away. “That was—”

“Kalpas,” Eden stated with a short nod, recognising the Berserker’s flames anywhere. “Apologies, Master, but it’ll be faster this way.”

“Fast—ahhh!”

Why?

That was Sakura’s initial question when she, Kalpas, and the Rider known as Kintoki ran into a group of monsters she thought she was never going to see ever again. While they did theorise there might have been a connection to their original world, she hadn’t expected to get confirmation so soon after arriving. As she sidestepped and cut down another Honkai Beast, the Assassin could only curse her luck in having to fight the accursed beings that brought the ultimate end of her world.

“THUNDER SPARK!”

“DIE!” 

The other two, meanwhile, were going to rupture her eardrums with how loudly they were fighting. She could handle dealing with Kalpas and his literally fiery outbursts, but Kintoki and his lightning were pushing it. The latter naturally had no clue what the Honkai were and was treating the legion of Chariots and Seraphs as if they were some typical enemy—which admittedly proved how capable he was as he kept up with the Flamechasers in terms of fighting the horde off.

“Assassin! Behi—” Shiing! “—Never mind,” whistled an impressed Kintoki as Sakura cut down three more Honkai Beasts that tried to get the jump on her. The Rider swiftly resumed fighting as if nothing had happened, continuing to prove his hands were rated E for Everyone.

Sakura felt the small swarm they encountered was easier than she remembered fighting back when she was alive; she attributed it to her being a Servant now but for now, she just focused on clearing them out so they could try finding Ritsuka and get out of this forest. To her surprise though, her worries were answered as yet another pair of Honkai Beasts tried to strike her from behind— BANG! BANG! —only to be taken out by a pair of finely aimed bullets. “Sakura! Kalpas!”

The Assassin turned to see it was Eden and Ritsuka—the latter being gently put down on the ground by the former. While Kalpas was the centre of attention and continued tearing through the white monsters (and surrounding trees), Sakura and Kintoki rushed to his side. “Master! Good to see you in one piece!” The biker-gang-looking Servant cheered.

“Urgh… Give me a second to adjust...” groaned Ritsuka as he looked like he was about to collapse any second. Eden, meanwhile, reacted as Sakura thought she would.

“The Honkai...” she muttered under her breath at seeing the familiar monsters that were swarming Kalpas. Despite her shock, she easily shot any that turned its attention towards them. “Sakura, what are the others?”

“Missing. Only the three of us were together when we woke up,” she answered quickly as she turned her attention back towards Kalpas. Getting too close was a bad idea but she was going to assist him as best she could. She entrusted Eden to keep Ritsuka safe; in the meantime, she dashed off to help him clear the horde once and for all. Ritsuka though could tell there was more going on than it appears; either way, he was not going to let them fight on their own.

“I’m guessing you guys know more about these things than us,” Ritsuka remarked once his vision started clearing up. “But that's for later. Let's take care of them first. Kintoki!”

“Leave it to me!” The Rider grinned before leaping into the air and landing a lightning-embued flying sidekick at the closest Honkai Beast. With the four (mostly) working together, the last few remaining monsters were cleanly swept under the rug before regrouping excluding Kalpas. “Give him time to calm down,” advised Sakura as the Berserker walked off into the forest. Ritsuka could tell that by himself but thanked her either way.

“What were those things? I remember you mentioning the Honkai before, Eden,” he questioned the two Flamechasers.

“The Honkai... is a complicated story—it’s best left when we get to a secure location. For now, you can treat them as any other hostile force,” Eden answered somberly while avoiding his gaze. Sakura had similar inclinations, requesting that they escape the forest or find the others first before sharing what they knew about the horde they just wiped out.

Ritsuka accepted their reasoning and tried to contact the missing Servants through his communicator. This time, he did get a response… but not from anyone expected: “Tlama—zzt!—hear us? Be caref—zzt!”

“Tenoch?” Ritsuka muttered in surprise. He hadn’t expected them to find them so soon. “Where are you?”

“ Zzt!— icking you up of course! But— zzt! —angerous plac— zzt! —nemy heading for your position!”

“Enemy?” He was sure that was what the Pretender was trying to say. ‘But not enemies.’ Tenoch clearly knew more and that just made him worry all the more about their current situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others already reaching for their respective weapons in preparation for whatever new threat may come next. “You know who’s coming after us? What are they?”

His question only confirmed that the static was not only on his end. “What? I can’t—zzt!” Tenoch’s frustrated cry came back through the comms. “Damn these accursed parti—zzt! Zzt!—place to hide, Tlamacazqui!” 

“Master, let’s get a move on. If a deity like her is so worried, we better do what she says.” Kintoki was the type to always be up for a fight so it made it all the more compelling for them to heed Tenoch’s advice. Of course, that made Ritsuka even more worried and curious about what this threat could possibly be. He could wonder about that later once they were in the cle—

“Wait—!” Sakura suddenly interrupted as her gaze turned towards the sky. Ritsuka could see her pink ears twitching and rightfully assumed she heard something. “…Something’s coming,” she further added while looking around to locate where exactly it was coming from.

“Already?” It was just their luck that they immediately ran into more trouble. “A flying enemy?” Ritsuka strained his ears to hear what Sakura was hearing but naturally failed; looking up at the sky yielded no results either. However, his instincts told him to be wary.

After another few tense seconds, another mutter escaped Sakura. “…A jet?”

‘Huh, not a dragon or something?’ Ritsuka expected that but then again, he wouldn’t discount it with the Berserker Lancelot…

“Sakura? Where is it coming from?” Eden asked what they were all thinking as she also tried spotting the incoming plane(?) but even she was unable to see anything. After a few more moments though, they could hear the low rumbling of an engine too that was slowly getting louder.

Realising that continuing to stand around in the now-charred field was a bad idea, the Assassin grabbed Ritsuka’s wrist and urged him to follow along. “Master, we have to go now.” There were naturally no complaints however they would find out it was too late. Despite the engine still sounding distant, they barely took five steps feeling the ground shaking as if there was an earthquake.

“Master!” The three cried in unison as they immediately surrounded him, ready to face whatever the enemy was or wherever it was coming from.

‘It can fly and is big enough to cause a minor quake like that?’ Ritsuka thought as he frantically looked around. Whatever it was should be taller than the trees; why haven’t they—

“Unknown squadron, identify yourselves.” A sudden voice boomed around them. “What nation or alliance do you belong to?”

“We ain’t answering anything till you show yourself!” Kintoki yelled back before Ritsuka could say a word (though he was going to say something along those lines anyway). The unknown voice ignored their question in favour of giving them another warning.

“...Unknown squadron, identify yourselves. You are trespassing on the territory of the Sovereignty of Viridheim.” While they did end up revealing something important, it was a detail Ritsuka had to put away for now.

“We've no interest in causing trouble. We’re just passing through.”

Unfortunately, that was not enough to satisfy the mysterious voice. “Identify yourself; that is your final warning.”

Ritsuka was hoping to see whoever it was first but looks like they had no choice. “...We’re from the Chaldean Security Organisation.” Hopefully, that was enough to appease the stubborn—

“Chaldea?! Then you're an enemy of Viridheim!” 

‘…What did they do?!’ And why did he think the blame lies centrally on Tenoch? At the very least, their now-enemy showed themselves at last—a sudden shadow cast over them made them look up to see a giant black figure fade into existence. Two thoughts immediately went through Ritsuka's mind: first, the invisibility explained why they couldn't see it before.

Second, why was there a goddamn Gundam looming over them?!

Chapter Text

An engine’s roar echoed through the forests as Kintoki rode through the trees with his Master hugging his waist. The ground shook as the titanic machine trying to squish them like bugs failed to step on them, instead crushing several trees underneath its massive foot. “So cool…”

“Master! I agree with ya but now’s not the time!” Cried the Rider as he swerved to avoid another stomp. “Assassin, Archer, what’s taking you guys so long!?” And where the hell was Berserker?! How has he not noticed the giant robot stomping around trying to kill them?!

Schwing!

“What!?”

His cries were evidently heard as the pursuing machine was literally frozen in place; its left foot was encased in ice, glueing it to the ground and stopping it from raising it. It was swiftly knocked off balance as a burning tree was thrown straight into its chest. The ground tumbled once again as the jet-black robot fell on its back and flattened everything behind it. “Great! Cool move, Assassin!” 

“Please don’t.” Kintoki’s attempt to praise Sakura was met with a deadpan face as she landed next to the bike, which had skidded to a halt after their pursuer’s tumble. “Master, are you alright?”

“Never better!” 

“…I shouldn’t have asked,” she sighed at Ritsuka’s unnaturally cheery response after nearly being crushed to death. Glancing back at the fallen machine that was already getting back up, she urged them to get moving before dashing off to rejoin Eden and Kalpas. While it was incredibly resilient to their attacks, all they needed to do was stall it long enough for Ritsuka to get away.

Seeing as Ritsuka was very clearly not in the right mind to be giving out orders, Kintoki made the call in his place. “You heard the lady, Master. Let’s burn more rubber!” His Master thoughtlessly nodded in agreement, his attention still being held by the giant robot trying to kill them.

“An actual mobile suit… but why?” He murmured in both awe and confusion. It was far too much of a coincidence for it to simply be that after his one was stolen. They needed to regroup with the recon team to get a better understanding of the Singularity’s situation. “Tenoch? Where are you now?” He tried to contact the Pretender again. After a few seconds of static, he got a response from someone else instead.

“Chaldea’s Master, I presume? So that’s what you sound like.” A giddy feminine voice came through the communication device. She sounded familiar, but in the same way Anne Bonney and the various Artorias sounded familiar. “Sorry to tell you this, but the conditions here tend to mess with long-distance communications. I doubt even that Vormund’s pilot could call for backup right now.”

“Vormund? Wait, no. Before that, who are you?” Ritsuka questioned the strange woman, only to receive a soft giggle in response.

“Don’t worry, I’m a trusty ally of yours, Fujimaru Ritsuka~ We’ll meet soon enough." The friendly tone she used had the opposite effect on him. He knew better than to trust an enigmatic voice claiming to be on his side, especially as she could speak through his speaker without difficulties. “Just take care not to get stepped on and hang on until your Servant arrives. Since it’s on its own, the Fulminar will have no choice but to turn tail the second it sees your Servant’s own machines.”

“How can you be sure there aren’t more lurking in the sky?” he replied, earning a more amused laugh this time.

“There’s no need to worry about that. The Fulminar is the only one in this world capable of utilising that kind of stealth technology... that we know of,” the mysterious woman added, almost teasing him. “We’ll talk again later; I can promise you that, Fujimaru.”

Just like that, the communication lines cut off, leaving Ritsuka even more puzzled than before. “Master? Who were you talking to?” His stupor was broken by a confused Kintoki.

‘So only I heard her.’ Ritsuka sighed, shaking his head and glancing towards the black machine—the so-called Fulminar. “Never mind that. Let’s keep our distance from that mobile suit, Kintoki. We must wait for Tenoch to arrive.” The ground would shake again as the other three managed to send it tumbling down again. A part of Ritsuka felt sorry that the pilot was essentially getting bullied… but he did start it. Ritsuka also felt pain at seeing a childhood joy of his getting beat up but he swallowed it and chanted to himself that it was for all their safety.

However, the Fulminar clearly had enough of getting thrown around by what should have been flies to it; the sound of hatches opening was all the warning Ritsuka needed. “Everyone, cover—now! Kintoki!” Ritsuka barked that order hoping that the three would hear him. Just as he thought, the sound of missiles being fired filled the air. Ritsuka didn’t think the pilot would resort to carpet bombing so soon but as it stood, they needed to get to safety. ‘Where was Mash when you needed her?!’ Ritsuka briefly entertained the idea of having Kintoki summon Golden Bear if even for a moment to shield them from the incoming fire, but even using a Command Spell might not be enough for that—at least not without severe backlash to both himself and Kintoki. Their only option then was to pray for the best that Kintoki could evade the missiles with only his bike. 

“Hang on tight, Master!” As the first volley blanketed the area, Ritsuka had to hold on for dear life to the Rider; his ears were ringing and he was hacking up a lung from all the dust kicked up by the explosions, but at least they had all their limbs still attached. Probably. However, they could not breathe a sigh of relief quite yet as a second volley was about to strike.

Another sea of fire levelled what was left of the surrounding area, and they were as fortunate as last time. Though they somehow managed to avoid most of the onslaught, the shockwave of the final missile sent the motorcycle flying and separated Ritsuka from Kintoki, landing on the charred ground with a heavy thud. “Master!” He barely had time to get his head straight before a dirtied Sakura appeared in a flash next to him. She didn’t even bother helping him up and simply picked him up in a bridal carry before dashing off to safety.

Even with his dulled hearing, Ritsuka knew that there was one last salvo about to rain down on them. Seeing as Sakura was able to evade the hellfire so far, he trusted her to keep going but fortunately for all of them, it didn't have to come to that. A blue laser beam cut through the air, intercepting the missiles and making them blow up harmlessly above them. Ritsuka’s ears were still ringing, but now he could breathe half a sigh as the ground shook from the arrival of a white giant. “Thank you Odysseus…” He made a mental reminder to reward the Rider once they returned from the mission.

“The White Horse?!”

“Viridheim’s Diener, I shall warn you once: leave, or be destroyed. You know well you do not stand a chance alone,” Odysseus’s voice boomed, making Ritsuka wonder when he got a speaker installed into the Trojan Horse or if it actually had one from the beginning. Either way, his warning was heard loud and clear.

“...You’ll pay for your heresy to our lords, Chaldea.”

As suddenly as it appeared not even 10 minutes ago, the black mobile suit vanished as it activated its stealth system. The low roar of its jets firing was the only confirmation they could make that it took off. It was not time to rest yet however as they needed to regroup—but first… “...Sakura, you can put me down now.”

Ritsuka was less surprised to find out that there were compartments within the Trojan Horse. It was, after all, the Trojan Horse. Once they were free of danger and he had been checked for any injuries, Odysseus picked them up and they departed for the base they managed to set up for themselves where the remaining members of the recon team were waiting. Tenoch was with him however, eagerly anticipating their reunion. “The Viridheims again? They've been a thorn in our side the entire time we've been here,” the Pretender loudly grumbled upon learning who attacked them first.

“And why do I think you weren't helping matters, Tenoch?”

“I simply spoke my mind when I learnt what the people here revere, Tlamacazqui. Nothing more than that.”

Her response made Ritsuka sigh; her not being at all remorseful over it was completely expected, but still incredibly annoying. Any sort of punishment would have to wait until later though as he sighed in exasperation. “Just catch us up to speed, Tenoch. Why was there a 40-tonne mobile suit?” Frankly, that was not a bad way to go out for Ritsuka with his love of robots, but he'd at least want to know the reason why.

“The easiest way to put it is the people here worship a pantheon of giant machines similar to my and Rider’s Noble Phantasms as gods they call the Vormunds,” explained Tenoch with an affable tone. “That one as you could tell belongs to the people of Viridheim. Their capital is not too far from this forest.”

“And have you upset all the nations within this Singularity, Lady Tenochtitlan?” Eden inquired in her usual polite tone. “If we're going to be faced with machines like that who could resist our attacks, our mission here would be a difficult one.”

Though her eyes were hidden behind her shades, there was no denying the annoyed glance pointed in Eden’s direction, who met it with a cheery smile. “No. They're more like territories rather than full nations but there are a few with their own machine gods that are neutral to Chaldea. We've also joined up with a small enclave of outcasts who fled from the cities for one reason or another.”

“Did Lord Odysseus and Lady Europa handle the talking?” Kintoki snickered, earning him a cold glare from Tenoch.

After a few seconds though… “I will neither confirm nor deny that.” In other words, yes. “Tlamacazqui, we've yet to fully confirm the location of the Holy Grail here but… we have an idea.”

“...Why do I not like the sound of that?” Ritsuka had a bad feeling about this but he waited for Tenoch to explain further.

“Each of the territories in this Singularity worship or falls under the protection of a Vormund, but there are a couple of singular city-states that have maintained their independence thanks to their own machine gods—one of which is more important to our mission. While the others could expand and control their territory thanks to their pilots, the city of Espérance’s Vormund is completely autonomous and has only awakened to protect the city according to their legends.” Tenoch paused dramatically but they all already had a good idea where she was going. “According to their legends, the Vormund has armour as white as snow and a single horn, awakening whenever the city cries for it to save it. We've yet to get the chance to see the machine for ourselves but acquired drawings of it.”

“White armour, a single horn…” He heard Sakura mutter next to him. Those were the most simplest of descriptors but knowing their luck, it was more likely than not that this so-called Vormund was none other than the machine stolen underneath their noses.

Without a doubt, it was that. There were plenty of questions now but one thing was clear— the city of Espérance was in possession of the beast of possibilities. “Unicorn…”

Chapter Text

“Unicorn… Did they pick the name first and then design it with that name in mind?” RITSUKA asked as he looked up with awe in his eyes at the head of the mobile suit his Master and Vill-V were making. The single white horn seemingly glimmered under the spotlight around the workshop. But aside from that distinguishing feature— “I have to admit, it looks pretty... basic.” Not that he disliked the look but he had gotten a look at some of the schematics and there was not much to say about it.

“For now. Wait till you see its other mode,” Ritsuka giggled as he walked up next to him with a stack of boxes filled with wires and small components. 

“If you say so,” the Shielder shrugged before taking one of the boxes from his doppelganger. “Though would there be enough space inside the head for the cockpit?” He had watched Vill-V shoved bigger components and machinery into the head earlier before they dry-fitted the shell; there was no seat yet, he was pretty sure.

“The pilot's seat isn't in the head; it’ll be in the main body,” Ritsuka corrected him as they put down the boxes on a table where one of the ELFs they had “borrowed” from Mobius began rooting through to complete their assigned task of making sure the wiring was all set up inside the head. “Alright, we'll be leaving that to you,” he nodded at them.

With that, the two of them went to sit and take a break. “Why did you want to build this one in particular, Master?” RITSUKA continued asking, having not yet inquired further into Ritsuka’s motives.

“Besides it being cool? Hmm… Well, the Unicorn has another moniker: the beast of possibilities.”

“Beast… of possibilities?” 

“Not like one of the Beasts Chaldea faced. Nothing like that,” Ritsuka chuckled with an amused smile. His gaze then turned back towards the incomplete head of the Unicorn ahead of them. “A symbol of hope; a guide for humanity to a better path—to unlock the God inside of humans. That's the Unicorn…”

Though the Trojan Horse did have a ladder down its legs to an exit, it was a lot faster to open a side hatch and jump down. However, Ritsuka suspected that was not why Sakura suggested that. Either way, he clung onto her as they fell from about twenty meters—the Assassin, though, landed gracefully despite the added load. 

Immediately after, Ritsuka heard another thud behind them followed by a slightly aggressive, “...You can put him down now,” from Tenoch. He was pretty sure Sakura let out an annoyed scoff, but his attention was no longer on either of them as they were now on the two guards of the outcasts’ bunker. The gunmetal grey and black mobile suits did not blend in at all against the snowy cliff face but he doubted being covert was their intention. There were of course a couple more actual guards, oddly in clothes and armour that were anachronistic under the shadow of the mobile suits—looking more like they came from the 19th century than the present.

“Silver Bullets?” Ritsuka muttered absentmindedly, finding the two mobile suits looking way too similar to be a coincidence. ‘Now that I think about it... the Fulminar looked a lot like—’

“Welcome back, Lord Odysseus, Lady Tenochtitlan.” His thoughts were interrupted by the metal entrance opening up to reveal a middle-aged man in tattered ornate robes. “If these new faces are any indication, your mission to rescue your master was successful?”

The Trojan Horse disappeared behind them as Odysseus appeared in a flash next to Ritsuka and nodded towards the man. “Indeed. Master, this is Mercer. He is the de-facto leader of those who come to this refuge away from the cities.”

“Refuge is an exaggeration, Lord Odysseus. While we do our best to protect the lost souls here, we are ultimately more exposed to the wilds than those who live under the Vormunds’ protection,” the leader of the outcasts corrected the Greek hero before turning towards Ritsuka. “Where are my manners? As your Servant said, you may call me Mercer. It's a pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance, Lord Fujimaru. Your Servants here speak highly of you. We owe them and you by extension a debt of gratitude for aiding us these last few weeks.”

“And thank you for giving them shelter,” Ritsuka nodded… before turning back to Sakura are requesting she put him down now. “Where are the others?” 

“Lady Europa and Lord Kosma are inside. Let me show you the way to their quarters.” 

With that, Ritsuka and company followed Mercer inside the bunker. At first, there was not much to say about the metal halls that echoed with their footsteps. It reminded him somewhat of Chaldea, only colder. Once they reached the end and entered the elevator down to the lower levels, they were greeted with a bustling great hall that was filled with people going about their day. Like before, Ritsuka noted their worn, more old-fashioned clothes and told himself to ask about that later. For now, Mercer continued to lead them down one of the corridors branching off from the main hall further down, greeting some of the local folks along the way, until they reached their destination. “I wish I could give you a more complete tour; I have some other important matters to attend to first. I will come by later. Until then, take care.”

‘He seems nice enough,’ Ritsuka mentally remarked. Seeing as the recon team had been staying and helping the people here, he had no issues letting his guard down here. Once Mercer left, the group entered the room to find a rather spacious living quarters. Well, formally spacious if they were not going to be given another room with how many people were now inside. 

“Oh, Master. Thank the gods you're safe,” Europa smiled as they walked into the room before asking why he and the others were so dirty. Meanwhile, Kosma gave a similarly short greeting before going to an adjacent room to get something. There was still a notable absence though, and Ritsuka recalled Mercer not mentioning where the last member of the recon team was.

“Where's Pardo?” He asked whilst glancing around the room. There was a rather convenient large table in the middle of the room with more than enough space for all of them to sit around first. 

“Lady Pardofelis is currently out working with a caravan,” answered Europa with a reassuring smile. “Her role as a merchant is mostly a cover, however; she's been using it to get into the cities and gather intel for you when you get here.” As she said that, Kosma re-entered the room carrying thick stacks of paper and other assorted materials, putting them on the table. He immediately unfurled a large map of the area which had already been marked and labelled with several points of interest.

“You all have been hard at work, huh?” Whistled an impressed Kintoki, earning a small chuckle from Odysseus.

“Naturally. It was the task assigned to us, after all.” The Rider then turned to Ritsuka and asked, “Shall we go over everything, Master?”

“Lay it on me,” Ritsuka nodded, looking down at the map. There were several lines dictating borders where he quickly counted about five different major territories with a red spot marking the capitals. Besides the red marks, there were also a few spots marked blue and one marked green.

“Firstly, this is where we are,” Odysseus pointed to the green mark located in the mountainous region in the northern part of the map—outside the defined borders of any other territory. “The people who live here are those who have been banished from the cities or left them for personal reasons. They make their living off the land or trading with the cities.” He then pointed to the territory closest to their current location, just a little ways south (he thinks; Ritsuka was not sure of the map's scale). “This territory belongs to the Sovereignty of Viridheim. It's fortunate that you landed in the outskirts of their borders; any further south and we might not have gotten to you all in time.”

The closest territory being hostile to them was unfortunate but Ritsuka expected nothing less. However, it did make him question if Viridheim knew about Chaldea being in an alliance with the outcasts—and it was not just him who was wondering about that. “Do Viridheim know you've established a base with the people here?” Eden asked.

“They are aware, but have not done anything because we're situated outside of their borders. Even if they're close by, we're still outside the reach of their communication lines. On top of that, if the other nations see their expedition north as an attempt to expand their territory into unclaimed lands, it might shatter what little peace they have with them,” explained Odysseus, earning an understanding hum from Ritsuka. The Rider moved on to the next territory to the southeast of Viridheim. “Next is the territory of Bastor. They are unfortunately also hostile to us but have also been feuding with the people of Viridheim. There's no official word of full-blown conflict but Lady Pardofelis has reported that there are devastated areas on the borders between their territories.”

At the mention of Bastor being hostile, Ritsuka gave Tenoch a side glance to see her looking unbothered by the fact their neighbours hated them. “Alright, is there actually anyone that doesn't hate us?”

Odysseus pointed out the region southwest of Viridheim— bordering both it and Goethar —and a pair of large islands west of that across a massive channel. “The leaders of these two territories have not declared Chaldea to be enemies. When we initially surveyed the land belonging to the Dominion, we ended up protecting one of their cities from an assault by the local wild beasts and earned the good graces of the local High Priest.” He gestured to the southeastern territory labelled the Dominion of Veynar with its capital being on the coast. At the mention of “local wild beasts,” Ritsuka felt the air grow a bit stiffer as the Flamechasers shared glances. Odysseus however continued and pointed to the other neutral territory—named the Isles of Dainas. “As for the Isles, we've yet to have any positive or negative interactions with them. There's not much we can say about them beyond that.” 

Well, that was certainly better than every major faction wanting their (or Tenoch’s) neck but Ritsuka couldn’t help but still feel uneasy. While it wasn’t a true indication of their strength, the Dominion’s territory was the smallest of them all, and there was a sizable distance between the mainland and the islands. Actually, now that he was taking a closer look at the map, he noted that what he assumed was each territory's main city was always the dead centre of their respective regions, with a slight exception being the Isles. “Because of the communication difficulties, right?” He asked after voicing his observation.

“Yes. From what we learnt, each of the capitals has towers that aid in communication; the range of these towers is what determines all these borders,” nodded the Rider. “It’s that same reason it is hard for the territories to expand as they need to take over the others’ capital city to solidify their rule.”

“Okay… I think I’m getting the gist of all this.” He hoped the others were keeping up well too. The only one who seemed that they weren’t was Kalpas, who clearly cared little of the politics of this Singularity. That led to his next question though— “So why are there mobile suits running around?” Ritsuka hoped his voice didn’t crack from excitement at the prospect even though most seemed to be enemies.

“That’s what these are all about, Master.” Kosma directed his attention to the thick stack of papers and books he set down earlier. “These are the texts Pardo acquired regarding the history of this world and the machine gods they worship. I’ve been trying to read up on as much of them as I could but… there’s a lot to cover.”

“Vormunds, right?” Ritsuka was confident that was a German word but that’s about it. “And each territory has one?”

“Close. Each territory has a couple but there is always one that’s seen as a sort of patron god,” the Berserker elaborated, glancing at the map. “The outcasts don’t have one, but you saw the Argents outside.”

“…Argents?” Ritsuka parroted in brief confusion before shaking his head. The names didn’t matter at the moment. What was more important was why they were here in the first place: to solve the Singularity and recover their stolen mobile suit. “Which one is Esperance? Tenoch mentioned that’s where the Grail and Unicorn might be.”

“That’s our best guess, Master,” Kosma nodded before pointing out a blue mark bordering the Dominion and the last and most southern territory they hadn’t covered yet— the Freehold of Zephon. “The intel Pardo brought from Esperance always says how the Horned Vormund does not have anyone piloting it like the others.” 

“On top of that, it shouldn’t be capable of combat as per the way you constructed it, Master. We think that somehow became the host of a Grail and attained some level of sentience that way,” Odysseus shared their working theory. “However, none of us here have had the opportunity to see the Unicorn in the flesh—err, metal. From what we know, it will only appear should the city be threatened.” 

Ritsuka nodded slowly again as he took in that information. His eyes were soon drawn to the southern region of the map. “...I’m guessing that Zephon is hostile to us too?” 

“That’s not my fault this time. The people down just hate everyone else,” Tenoch quickly defended herself. “They do not take kindly to anything they see as Vormunds within their territory—those that don’t belong to them, that is. We made the mistake of protecting ourselves from the monsters while traversing the region and earned their ire for that insult.”

Again, the mention of the wild beasts drew minute reactions from the Flamechasers. “…What exactly are the Honkai?” Ritsuka finally asked, glancing at each of their faces while for a reply. They promised to tell him when they were safe and now they were.

Several tense moments passed before finally one of them answered. “…The Honkai was what destroyed our world,” Eden revealed while avoiding eye contact. 

“Pardo and I had been looking into them too but all anyone ever says is that those monsters have always been around since ages past. No one knows why but they’re considered a fact of life here,” Kosma added with a quieter voice.

“Oh…” Ritsuka was not expecting something that serious and was now mentally slapping himself for not considering that. “Well… what do you think we should do abo—”

“We can ignore them for now, Master,” Sakura interrupted him, earning everyone’s attention. “We only need to focus on the mission. The Honkai should disappear along with this Singularity if we recover the Grail, right?” He got what she was trying to say but Ritsuka had a feeling it might not be that simple. However, since there were no other leads right now, they only had one real next step: find and reunite with their missing companions.

But for that, Ritsuka believed the best way to somewhat skip to the step after that. “Then we should head to Esperance. Vill-V has a way of tracking down the Unicorn and if they’re all together, they would be going there at first.“ That was on the off-chance that they’d agree that finding the Unicorn was their best shot at regrouping with Ritsuka and the others— but it was better than nothing.

There were no complaints about the plan from his Servants. “I suggest we wait till Lady Pardofelis returns with the caravan; they should be coming back within the next couple of days,” Odysseus advised before adding, “However, some of us would need to remain here to help protect the bunker in case those beasts attack again.”

“Does that happen often?” Eden asked in concern.

“It’s not common, but enough that the guards are on edge,” answered Kosma. “Occasionally, we’re asked to go out and take care of some nests within the valley too. It’s not much different to our days back in Fire Moth.”

“Then we’ll wait,” Ritsuka agreed with Odysseus’s suggestion. Besides, it’d give him time to study up on those books and figure out what was going on with the mobile suits running around the place. He had some other questions too, among them the second blue mark on the map in the southeastern-most part of the map. “What’s this one?”

“That’s the other independent city I mentioned, Tlamacazqui. There’s not much we can say about it either.”

“The people of the city, Eidrilis, have isolated themselves completely from the outside world. All they ask is that no one disturbs them, and they won’t retaliate,” Odysseus clarified. “According to legends, the Vormund there is responsible for the fall of the old empire.”

“…Yeah, I think we can stop there for the day.” Ritsuka was frightened to discover just how far back the history of this Singularity went; he would rather learn about the Vormunds first. However, that too could wait, as understanding the circumstances in the bunker was likely more crucial. “Think we can get a tour of this place first?” Mainly the mess hall if there was one; Ritsuka was only realising now he forgot to get breakfast in their haste to start this mission.

“Allow me, Master.” Europa volunteered herself, glancing at the two Servants who just returned with Ritsuka and telling them to get some rest. “Kosma, do you want to come with?” 

“…Sure.”

With that, the group headed back for the door and just as they were about to leave—

Knock knock

“Now who could that be?” The Rider hummed as she opened the door.

From where he stood, Ritsuka couldn’t see who it was but when he heard the voice… “Lady Europa, good morning… again. I’ve heard that the others have returned from their mission already. I was hoping to meet the fabled Master you all have been talking about.”

Seems that enigmatic woman was right; they were meeting soon but Ritsuka didn’t expect it to be this soon. “Oh, he’s right here.” Europa stood aside to let Ritsuka and the other see who was standing out in the hallway. He heard muted gasps from Eden and Sakura—not that he could blame them. The woman dressed in white robes looked similar to Su, the main difference being her piercing pink eyes and her hair not being tied like the ELF. 

The stranger let out an inquisitive hum as she leaned forward a little, staring straight into Ritsuka’s eyes. “So you’re him? I must admit, you’re not what I expected from the stories I’ve heard.” She had the same tone and inflections as the one who contacted him earlier, making Ritsuka wonder again what was going on.

“I’m… sorry?”

“Oh don’t be. Perhaps I set my expectations a tad bit too high,” the woman giggled before catching herself. “Allow me to introduce myself—I am Vita; it’s a pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance.”

Chapter Text

The tour of the outcasts’ underground base was relatively short. Despite the vastness of the base— a map of the upper levels showing it was about the size of the original Chaldea —only half of it was actually used by those living here which totaled to roughly 200 people. “As you might have guessed, it’s not an easy thing for the average person to make their way all this far north,” their self-proclaimed tour guide who took the role from Europa, Vita, explained as she led them through the halls and showed off the various facilities. “But those who successfully make the trek are rewarded with a life of... not exactly luxury but of ease. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you living here beats the more old-fashioned cities and towns.”

“Old-fashioned?”

“Yes, the technology of the outside world is not as advanced as the bunkers, at least for the common folk; it’s quite the shock for those arriving for the first time and takes a while for them to get acclimated. But in the end, they have little worries compared to their old lives.” Apparently, the advanced technology included electronic lights and microwaves. It was starting to remind Ritsuka of how the people of the Chinese Lostbelts lived but he doubted (and hoped) it was not that extreme. “In exchange, they have a harder time getting supplies and don’t have a tower so any sort of expansion outside is a fool's errand. Not that they need to, of course; this base stretches deeper underground.”

“Although most of the space are hangers for the Argents,” added Kosma as they all walked past another one of the many halls—this time one being used as a classroom for the children living here.

“The mobile suits, right?” Ritsuka wondered how and where they could enter the base from but assumed there was another gate on the other side of the mountains.

“Mobile suits, is that what you call them?” Vita asked curiously. “I can’t say that’s a term anyone else uses.”

“Uh… Yeah, it’s one I’m more used to,” he smiled in slight embarrassment; he should have expected they’d not be familiar with that term. “They’re called Vormunds, right?”

“That’s their official title, but there are the Lesser and Great Vormunds; as you probably figured out, the Argents are considered Lesser Vormunds and the one you ran into is a Great Vormund. I heard about your little encounter with Viridheim’s patron from the others.” 

The smile Vita gave was outwardly warm and friendly, but Ritsuka had a hard time buying her genuineness. Even if he didn’t already recognise her voice from earlier, she seemed too friendly with him. It was a sentiment he could tell the others had. “Vita, have you been here long? You keep calling the people here they.”

“Ah, you caught that, didn’t you?” The already suspicious woman let out a soft giggle at his observation. “That’s right, I only came here a few weeks ago. Not too long before your Servants came here too, actually.”

What convenient timing.

Their tour continued a bit longer until it came to an end at the place Ritsuka wanted to go first. “And here is the mess hall. I’d recommend something, but the menu is the same all day. Be sure to give me a good review~” With a cheery wave goodbye, Vita went off to do… whatever it was she did around here.

“...So who is she?” Ritsuka turned towards Kosma, who let out an exasperated sigh and said he’d explain over breakfast.

“She’s a strange woman. She acts like she’s a local but Pardo said she’s seen her in the library studying,” Kosma answered as Ritsuka finally got something into his stomach. Kintoki had gone off on his own, wishing to find a place where he could do some repairs on his bike and leaving his Master with the newer Servants. “She also has a habit of disappearing from time to time. But despite that, she’s been helpful to all of us,” the Berserker continued.

“In other words, keep an eye out for her,” Sakura muttered next to Ritsuka. Under normal circumstances, he disliked the idea of being guarded around a friendly stranger—not wanting to think the worst of people—but admittedly, Vita was setting off several red flags in his head. Too much for now until he gets an idea of what she might be after.

With Sakura making her thoughts clear, Ritsuka turned towards the last Flamechaser present, “…What about you, Eden?”

“Hm… I agree that she’s suspicious but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt,” the Archer shared her opinion. It went unsaid that Vita’s resemblance to Su was playing a part for both of them but Ritsuka leaned more towards Eden’s idea. Adopting a wait-and-see was the best case right now—especially since they had other priorities. The first act (after eating) was naturally finding out more about the Vormunds and figuring out why they happen to resemble mobile suits. 

The walk back was uneventful, with Ritsuka noting that the people here would avoid them. It didn’t seem they were distrustful, but rather that they seemed...nervous at his appearance as they peeked around the corners or let him pass in the hallway. He had noted it earlier when the cook gave him his tray of food too, but he planned on fixing that. They were going to be here for a couple more days after all. When they re-entered the room, Ritsuka immediately went to read the books the recon team had prepared for him.

As he flipped through the first few pages of the topmost book—one that came from the Dominion—Ritsuka finally asked Odysseus and the others the question that’s been bothering him since they arrived. “What year is it?”

“Mhmm, we neglected to mention it early, didn’t we?” Muttered Odysseus. “The people here use a different calendar system from what you’re used to.”

…Yeah, that sounds about right. “This place is sounding more like a different universe than a Singularity,” Ritsuka remarked with a shake of his head before asking, “What is the calendar called then?”

“Casus Empirei—or C.E. It’s specifically 19 C.E. or 19 years after the fall of the empire.”

“It was bad enough to reset the year?” He muttered at the Rider’s explanation. A fall that was caused by an independent city in the southwest; the more he heard about it, the more worried he was about dealing with the Vormund. With all hopes, they could keep their heads down and ignore that city like that city was ignoring everything that occurred outside its borders. Something told him it wouldn’t be that easy though…

That led to his next question— “And what’s the average tech level for the people here?” If Vita was telling the truth, the cities might be stuck in the mid-19th century... but have colossal mechs running around. There’s also the fact they were sitting in an electrified bunker with a working heater; something didn’t sound quite right.

“From what we’ve seen when visiting the city, a couple of centuries behind at the most. Aside from the obvious,” Kosma answered before instructing Ritsuka to check a specific page. Ritsuka flipped to it to see a section about the history of the Dominion’s Vormund, and a specific line got his attention. Underneath a drawn illustration was a section about the Vormund’s discovery. 

As with every other Vormund, Veynar and its legion were discovered in chambers buried underneath the Veyrscour Peaks east of the capital of Maradion over a millennium ago. The complex of tunnels and chambers served as the region’s central military base under the Rayderion Empire. They and the Veynar continue to serve as the seat of military power for the Dominion falling the Rayfall.

“...They were all buried?” Or more accurately, their hangers were located underground and discovered by the people of the Singularity. “So they were constructed way before anyone alive now?”

“An ancient civilisation existed or so the people believe,” nodded Kosma. “The towers are the same. No one knew who built them or what they were used for a long time.”

“This bunker is the same, Master. Lord Mercer discovered it and the Argents several years ago,” Europa added. “But without a tower or a Great Vormund, this region could not be recognised as its own independent territory.”

“I see…” So tack on a super-ancient, Gundam-building civilisation on top of everything. ‘…Wait, then how do they…?’ “What about the maintenance for the Vormunds? How did they handle it if they were found a thousand years ago?”

Kosma was the one who cleared his confusion; for most of their history, the Vormunds were essentially statues that were objects of worship for the regions. That changed when what would become the Empire discovered that the Vormunds could be piloted and used as weapons about 200 years prior—turning them from simply being relics of a previous era into gods of war. Being the first to do so, the Rayderion swiftly conquered the whole region with the exception of the Zephion in the south, who managed to activate their patron Vormund and fight off the Empire’s main Vormund in time. 

“So they’ve only been combat-ready more recently than when they were discovered…” Ritsuak muttered as Kosma nodded again. 

“From what Mercer and the people here told us, they don’t have the capability to manufacture the ammunition used by the Vormunds like missiles and their beam weapons. There’s stockpiles, but rarely are they used in battle.”

“That pilot that attacked will probably get into trouble for trying to blow you up, Tlamacuzqui,” added Tenoch who decided to lean on next to him as he read.

Kosma continued explaining that the Freehold of Zephon would continue fighting and maintaining their independence for the centuries since, with the various wars being uncreatively called the four Rayderion-Zephon Wars with the last one ending 19 years ago.

“When the Empire fell?”

“That’s when it gets… confusing,” muttered the Berserker. “The city and Vormund that destroyed the Empire did not exist before the day they brought it down. They announced their existence to the world by reducing the former capital to nothing.” He picked out another more recent book from their pile and gave it to Ritsuka to read.

From the sky, a beam of pure light descended upon the Rayderion capital and its people. Not a scream or laugh was heard that moment—only silence echoed through the Empire as it fell. In an act they call peace, the Vormund of Light wiped out the Rayderion Royal Family and its champion White Vormund, bringing about a time of chaos and fighting that lasted for 15 years.

The day the empire fell and the start of C.E. had since been dubbed Rayfall, perpetrated by the city of Kruezen and its Vormund. They declared their existence by claiming that what the Empire had done with the Vormunds was against the intention of its creators and sought to correct the injustice. Since that day, the city has gone silent and turned away all those who seek to enter their walls. 

“So where does the Unicorn come into all this?” That should have been his first question, really. It was Ritsuka’s pride and joy, after all. 

“It emerged at the start of the 3rd Rayderion-Zephon War nearly a century ago. Since then, it would awaken whenever there is fighting near the city,” Kosma again was the one who explained.

“…You know, it sounds like you also did a lot of reading, Kosma. I didn’t take you for a reading buff,” Ritsuka grinned as his Servant averted his gaze.

“I… was just passing the time. There’s not much I could do compared to the others here,” he tried to say and that’s easy to believe. However, Ritsuka was still going to tease him about it.

…Well, he was going to anyway when another knock came from the door. This time, there was no waiting before Vita peeked in with a charming smile. “Sorry for disturbing all of you, but Mercer would like to speak to Mister Fujimaru. You can lead him there, right? I have a little something I need to take care of first.” Vita then disappeared as quickly as she appeared, leaving Ritsuka just utterly baffled. A part of him had trouble believing someone acting so suspiciously was actually secretly evil; surely she would do a better job, right?

In any case, might as well do as she say and go see Mercer, wherever he was in this base… ‘...He’s going to ask us to go on a mission, isn’t he?’ Ritsuka would be surprised if he didn’t.

Chapter Text

“How’s the seat, Master? Comfy enough for you?” Vill-V asked as she peeked in the spherical cockpit that would soon be installed into the main body of the Unicorn.

“Pretty good,” Ritsuka answered as he leaned back and forth before gripping the handles as well as the buttons and sliders on the seat’s arms. “The controls feel good as well.”

“In that case, let’s seal it up and toss it around for a bit. Buckle up!” The Alter Ego grinned before stepping back to close the hatch for the next part of testing. Once he heard the soft hissing and locking, Ritsuka let out a nervous sigh and made sure his seatbelt was fastened properly.

“Alright… alright… calm down…” He told himself as he continued to take deep breaths. It wasn’t that successful, but he was not as jittery as earlier. “...A little while longer, huh?” He asked no one in particular. “Wonder when the programming for the AI will be done." Just a rudimentary one to assist in movement and balancing though Vill-V wanted to add some security features to it. She wanted to add a lot, actually. “Better safe than sorry, right, Unicorn?”

…Ah. Well, Ritsuka didn’t have much to sit on that as he was quickly distracted by the cockpit being flung around by the Kintoki and the others.

Mercer’s office/personal quarters were on the other side of the base, away from the central hub of the bunker. Ritsuka briefly wondered why he chose to live there when he was the de facto leader, but quickly had his question answered. It turns out Vita’s tour only consisted of the civilian sector of the bunker; Mercer stayed on the more interesting side of the base to Ritsuka—naturally, the side with the Argent hangars. ‘Definitely not giving a good review.’ Ritsuka mused to himself as they passed by a window looking into the massive docking bays where several dormant Argents stood. “…No, that’d be a terrible idea,” he shook his head to rid himself of his intrusive thoughts.

“Master, this way,” Odysseus urged him along to their destination. Besides him, Kosma had also volunteered to go with them, as did Sakura. Though they all knew it was more likely than not that  Mercer was going to send Ritsuka out on a mission, most of them were fine with getting briefed afterwards on the details. It did not take much longer before they stood before his door where they knocked to announce their arrival.

“Come in.”

The first thing was the large blacked-out window behind Mercer’s desk; the middle-aged leader was looking over some documents with a frown, clearly frustrated over something. “Hmm… I’ll make this quick, young master. Lord Odysseus and Kosma are already aware but we were planning on a mission to acquire fuel for the base and our Argents. I’d like you and your Servants to help carry out this mission.”

“A supply run?” That sounded simple enough but Ritsuka had a feeling it was anything but. He also had the feeling it would put them at further odds with one of the nearby territories— something quickly confirmed as Mercer unrolled a map.

“According to our intel, there is an ancient supply depot along Goethar’s north-eastern border. It's not as well-defended due to not being on any sort of front; with all hopes, there won't even be any Lesser Vormunds guarding the location,” Mercer briefed him. “All I need from you and your loyal Servant is to infiltrate and steal some crates of the fuel we need. Most importantly, try not to be discovered. Though Goethar and the General already regard us with disdain, we need not give him more reason to attack us.”

Ritsuka hadn't even accepted the mission yet but he could tell there was a lot riding on this. “Is the bunker that low on fuel?” What sort of generator did this place have anyway?

“Truth be told, it's less that we're running out and more that for some time now, I've been unable to shake off a feeling,” hummed Mercer, his frown deepening. “We've been fortunate that we’ve not frequently clashed with any of the major territories in recent years. However, that is likely to change soon…” 

…So now he was guilt-tripping him?!

“During the chaos after Rayfall, our home faced an energy crisis as a result of frequent fighting and refuelling of our Argents. I fear a new time of conflict will come soon and—”

“Alright, alright, say no more. I'll help,” Ritsuka relented with a slight sigh. It was only fair that he lent a hand anyway in return for letting him and his Servants stay here. Helping them acquire supplies was the least he could do. “When do we leave?”

“As soon as the Argents are ready to go. Three will be joining you in bringing back the fuel crates.”

“A stealth mission… with your mobi— I mean, Vormunds?” Ritsuka silently stared at Mercer for several seconds, trying to wrap his head around that logic. “…Alright, definitely doing it!”

“Master…” “You really could just be a kid sometimes, Master.”

As the mission was meant to be done covertly and silently, that disqualified most of his Servants from taking part; Kintoki and Kalpas were ill-fitted for such missions as their fighting style was ill-suited for a mission like this. Tenoch on the other hand did not have subtle in her vocabulary and was forced to stay back. Meanwhile, Eden and Europa elected to stay back too for similar reasons—the former wanted to spend some time getting to know the people in the bunker first and the latter offered to help her. Tenoch naturally took issue with being benched and Ritsuka was pretty sure Sakura had a smug smirk but it was only for a brief second.

In other words, the three who joined him to see Mercer were the ones coming with him. Of course, there would also be the three pilots who’d be tagging along for transport—one of whom Ritsuka was not surprised to find out was Vita. Oddly, her uniform was completely different from what her comrades wore; her white suit was more form-fitting compared to the looser black ones the other two wore… not that Ritsuka was staring. He assumed she was a higher rank (despite only recently arriving).

“So that old man did assign you to help us, Fujimaru.” The shady woman tilted her head with a strange grin. “I didn’t take you for someone who’d take on a mission like this.”

“What exactly do you know about me?” Ritsuka replied while avoiding looking at her. He was much more interested in the Argents anyway; the grey colossi were objectively better than the grey-haired woman. However, Vita moved to stand right in front of him and basically forced him to maintain eye contact.

“Only what your Servants shared with us here—a kind young man who wouldn’t hesitate to do what he sees as the right thing. How true is that?” Vita questioned him with an odd glint in her eyes; Ritsuka felt as though she was trying to read his mind as she stared right into him. “An espionage mission like this doesn’t sound like you.”

“That just proves you don’t know much about me,” he shook his head in amusement before attempting to change the conversation. “You pilot one of these things? I’d have thought they wouldn’t let someone new use one of these things.”

“If this were one of the cities, you’d be right. From what I’ve heard, becoming one of their pilots even for a Lesser Vormund requires one to have proven oneself loyal to their patron and whoever is in charge. But that old man is more pragmatic; since the bunker doesn’t have many hands around, anyone who’s willing to pilot one to protect this place is free to do so,” Vita hummed before adding, “He’s a little too trusting if you ask me. That’s practically an invitation to steal one of their beloved idols.”

Ritsuka fell silent for a couple moments before remarking, “…You don’t seem to be all that impressed.”

“Hmm… Well, I’ve seen better ones. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still impressive but I don’t think it’s anything worthy of worship,” Vita whispered to him, glancing at the others nearby in case they were listening in. “Don’t tell anyone I said that though, alright? But when you’ve had better, anything less is just not doing it, you know.”

“Can’t say you’re wrong. There are definitely more impressive ones than that but I think it should still be treated with respect.”

“Who said I’m not respectful of it?” Vita pouted though it was clear she was playing it up. “I’m just not as fervent as a few others I could name. I’ve heard some like to spend time inside talking to theirs.”

“...I see.” Ritsuka avoided her gaze at that last part.

Vita meanwhile let out a small giggle at his reaction. “I take it you’d do the same? How cute.”

“What I do in private is none of your business,” Ritsuka scoffed with a slight blush, prompting another soft chuckle from her. He was going to say something else only to be interrupted by a certain Assassin suddenly appearing in between them. 

“...What are you two talking about?” Sakura questioned with a straight face while glancing between the two.

“Oh, just discussing a few things,” smiled Vita before glancing towards the others who were not climbing up the ladders to the catwalks to enter their Vormunds. “I take it they’re ready to go?” 

“Yes,” the Assassin nodded. She then turned towards Ritsuka and said, “Master, you and Kosma will be with Lylou in that one. Lord Odysseus will be with Chelle.” That left Sakura to be with Vita.

“Hmm, I would have thought he’d use his own but I suppose it’s better to keep our numbers down,” hummed Vita before turning towards Ritsuka too. “We’ll talk again once we touch back down, and I do hope we have more time to speak, Fujimaru.”

With that, she sauntered off to enter her Vormund. Before she chased after her, Sakura glanced back at Ritsuka and with the most blunt tone possible, “Don’t let your guard down around her.”

“…Can this source truly be trusted?”

“Perhaps not, but do we risk it, sir?”

On the one hand, the supplies within the targeted depot were not much use to their army; on the other, it was better in their hands than in the enemies’. “Damn you Mercer. You’re resorting to stealing now…?”

“Sir?”

“…Is the Great Duke ready for battle?”

“Yes, His Exaltedness has completed maintenance and is ready for combat once more.”

“And the Sturmbote?” His condition was as crucial to them as their Lord; with no one else capable of awakening the Vormund and directing him, that boy was one of their most valuable assets.

“He is still resting in the infirmary following his last mission.”

“Then wake him up and get him ready to go out again. They wish to run away with our supplies? Then they shall face the Duke’s wrath. May whatever God they worship have mercy on their souls.”

Chapter Text

‘Just a little bit longer…’ The guard thought to himself as he suppressed a yawn threatening to escape. His night shift was due to end in another hour but it felt like ages already. ‘What did I ever do to deserve being stationed all the way out here…?’ There was no way to find out as there was no chance in hell he was gonna ask his commanding officer about it. Either way, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps and continued his patrol route on the northern side of the base. While it was one of the easiest and safest posts within the Goethar, damn if it wasn't boring. He joined the military to one day become a pilot, but there was no way he'd rise up the ranks out here in the middle of no-

“Sorry,” —was all he heard before feeling a sudden pressure to the back of his neck. In an instant, everything went black.

Ritsuka was not sure when it became night but under the cover of darkness, he and his group quietly flew towards their destination. As it turned out, the Vormunds’ way out of the bunker was a massive gate in the room of the hangar from which the mobile suits would jet out. “Guess a catapult was out of the question.” They were beneath the ground and under Earth’s gravity; the usual system would likely not work. Would have been fun though.

“...Why didn't Lord Mercer send a fourth with us…” muttered the pilot as he was stuck between Ritsuka and Kosma. They were that cramped but they were pushing into each other’s personal space. Ritsuka wasn't sure why Kosma didn't simply dematerialise for the time being; he assumed he just disliked it. “Lord Fujimaru. You understand the importance of this mission, correct?”

“Yes, Mercer already explained it all to me,” Ritsuka nodded while glancing at Lylou (if he remembered his name correctly). “Do you really think the bunker would be caught in a long-term conflict?” he asked before turning back to look around the panoramic cockpit.

“Maybe. It's been years since the detente between the five territories but everyone can tell that as things stand, it's a lit powder keg,” the pilot answered. “Regardless, as one of the Argents’ Jagens, it's not my place to question Lord Mercer’s orders. His will is my will and if he says we need to prepare, then we shall prepare.

Quite the loyalist, huh? If this was the level of loyalty the bunker's pilots had, Ritsuka wondered how the other territories’ would be… Also, ‘Jagens?’

Bang.

“No need to scare him away, Lylou,” Vita’s ever-charming voice echoed through the cockpit after her mobile suit grabbed onto their leg. “A child like him could easily be disturbed by your devotion to Lord Mercer.”

“A child?” Ritsuka mouthed incredulously as Lylou replied to the other pilot.

“It's Captain, Vita. What did I say about addressing me by name while out on missions?”

“Sorry, sorry. Being part of a command structure is still a new experience for me~”

Ritsuka heard the captain click his tongue derisively before controlling his machine to motion for the third pilot to grab onto him. “We're nearing our destination. Fly low to the ground to avoid detection,” he began relaying the infiltration plan. “We’ll land 2 kilometres away from the depot where Lord Fujimaru and his Servants will travel the remainder by foot. Once you've neutralised any threat within the depot, send the signal and we'll fly in to pick you all up with the cargo.”

It sounded like a simple plan; Ritsuka only hoped it'd be as easy as it sounded.

“Hmm? What's this?” The pilot loudly muttered in amusement as he spotted the three distant Vormunds through his scope. “Hmm… Those are… that Mercer guy’s men? What are they doing here?” They technically had a better reason to be in this area than them but still. Depending on what they were planning to do, this would complicate things. In a good way or bad, it was hard to say but for now, he has to keep them in mind. “Haro, keep track of them, will you?”

“Got it, keep track. Got it, keep track.” The robotic voice replied as the pilot turned his scope back towards the base.

“Now where were you… oh, there.” It took a second to relocate his partner but now that he had reconfirmed his location, the pilot zoomed his scope back out to resume his lookout. That was when he spotted a pair of guards patrolling close to where his partner was hiding. If they turned the corner, they would undoubtedly find him. They were told to avoid casualties but it couldn't be helped anymore. “Sorry, but wrong time, wrong place.”

Soon enough, the three Argents landed within the sea of trees a good distance north of the supply depot. With words of goodwill and prayers from the pilots, Ritsuka and his Servants disembarked from the mobile suits to begin their part of the mission. “Just knock out everyone we need to; try not to… well, you know. Just be on guard,” he instructed them as they neared the depot. He'd rather avoid spilling unnecessary blood and just rob them all blind.

“Master, I'll scout ahead.” Sakura told him before dashing ahead without waiting for an answer, making him sigh.

“Is she usually like this, Kosma?”

“Don't ask me, I’ve never been on a mission with her before.” The Berserker replied and added that he did trust in her abilities regardless. 

“I don't doubt that, but that doesn't mean I can't be worried,” Ritsuka answered back. “At any rate, we better get a move on too. The longer we take, the greater the chance of the Captain's squad being discovered.” The remaining 2 kilometres was an easy distance for them to cover and it wasn’t long before they reached the depot. Essentially immediately, they found the first victim sitting against the fence. Admittedly, it was hard to tell whether the guard had been knocked out or was just asleep but either way, the three left him be. “Now where did she go…”

And more importantly, where would the crates of fuel be? Within one of the warehouses? Maybe it was underground? Ritsuka wasn't sure if there was a lower level but he wouldn't be surprised if there was. So their plan now was to find Sakura, and see if there were any floor plans laying around… or just interrogate a guard—whichever way worked. As they continued sneaking through the base, they only continued to find knocked out guards that had been moved out of sight. The only reason they even found them was because they were moving from cover to cover. The flickering lamp posts around the base were helpful in their infiltration but damn were they also unhelpful in finding Sakura.

“Should we try waking one of the guards up?” Odysseus suggested as they stumbled into the 15th unconscious guard. “Hmm… if I knew Lady Sakura was this skilled, I would have stayed behind.”

“...No, something's not right.” Ritsuka muttered after taking a moment to think. Sakura shouldn't be too far ahead of them and he felt like there were too many guards already down. He contemplated on going with Odysseus’s suggestion for a few more seconds before nodding, “I trust you can get some information out of one. Kosma and I will go on ahead to try catching up to Sakura.”

Leaving the Rider to his devices, Ritsuka and his remaining Servant went on ahead to continue chasing after the Assassin. He felt like there was just something off about the situation and after coming across a couple more guards. However, these ones… “...Master, there's someone else besides us.” Kosma stated the obvious as instead of being knocked out like the others, these two were bleeding from their temples and unmoving. Short blood trails showed that they were moved from the main path but a quick inspection revealed something else.

“Bullet wounds?” Ritsuka noted, stepping back from the recently deceased guards. If the fact they had been killed didn't make it obvious enough, their cause of death confirmed there was another person sneaking around here. Now the question was who and why. There was only one way to find out: keep moving and run into the other infiltrator. Knowing his luck, he'd find himself staring down the barrel of his gun. The best way to go was the centremost building in the depot; Ritsuka believed that'd be the main one used.

Resisting the urge to just sprint through instead of sneaking, he and Kosma arrived at the building to find the lock on a side entrance to be broken. It was impossible to tell if it was by Sakura or their mystery intruder, but they pressed on either way and entered the building. The hallway and room lights were similarly flickering, making Ritsuka feel like he was in a more a thriller movie (again) rather than a stealth mission. They'd peek into several rooms only to find nothing that looked like it could help; Ritsuka noticed that though each door was marked like 1-B or 1-C, they were also labelled in a different language. One he didn't recognise. “That's the language the people here speak,” Kosma explained, having noticed his confusion.

“Do they not maintain the lights here?” Ritsuka couldn't help but wonder aloud after a little more exploring. He then remembered what Odysseus mentioned earlier; people actually capable of repairing and maintaining electrical equipment should be few and far in between. 

“Master, in there.” Kosma called out to him, pointing out a door that was slightly ajar. “Please stay behind me,” he requested as they moved towards it. Slowly, the two entered the room to see that it was some kind of filing room with rows of rusty cabinets. “Maybe this is it.” Ritsuka hoped there would be some sort of file that’d tell them where the cargo they were looking for might be… before remembering that he wouldn't be able to read it anyway. The urge to slap himself for a useless endeavour grew but he managed to resist it.

…Mainly because he felt a hand suddenly grab his shoulder. “Ah!” He yelped in fright and immediately turned around. “Oh… Please don't do that, Sakura. You nearly have me a heart attack…” 

“Sorry, Master.” Judging from her amused voice though, she wasn't as sorry as she appeared. However, her tone quickly turned into a more serious one as she asked, “Did you notice anything odd on the way here?”

“Yes,” Ritsuka nodded before mentioning how he was sure it wasn't she who knocked out all of the guards.

“It wasn't me. They were already all out when I snuck through,” she confirmed. “This room seemed to be what the other intruder was looking for, but I couldn't begin to guess which one of these files they were after.” Seems that whoever it was already made their escape.

“...Let's just regroup with Odysseus then,” Ritsuka decided that was their next best step. Hopefully the Rider got something out of the guards and they could finish this mission.

The pilot spied the group of three exit the central building and retraced their steps. “So what are all of you after?” He hummed to himself. Were they here for the same parts as them? Hope not. While they could easily defeat the three Lesser Vormunds lying in wait nearby, he would rather they don't get into a fight—especially not within foreign and hostile territories. “Hmm… Haro, think we should do a pre-emptive strike?”

“No. No. No fighting, no fighting.” 

“Guess that's true. Boss would get on my case for that,” he chuckled as he continued following the strange group for another minute. They were heading towards the southern side of the base and though he occasionally lost sight of them when they turned corners or went into cover, he kept constant track of them.

“Returned. Returned. Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished.” His mechanical companion’s repeated crying prompted the pilot to finally pull away from his scope and look to his right at the stationary Vormund next to his. His mission partner had finally come back and was riding the rope up to the cockpit.

“Welcome back~ You found what we're looking for?” The first pilot asked in a singsong voice through their short-ranged communicator.

“Yes, the frames should be in warehouse SW-2. We should move quickly ; it's almost sunrise,” his partner replied in the calmer, more blunt voice.

“SW-2, huh?” He muttered, checking his scope once again. “Southwest… Hmm, yup. I think those guys are after the frames too.”

“Those guys? What are you talking about, Lyle?” 

“Let's wait a little longer before going in. Consider it another call from my finely tuned instincts,” the sniper chuckled under his breath much to the continued confusion of his mission partner.

“SW-2, SW-2… There it is.” Finding the faded sign was a bit difficult but they finally managed to locate the warehouse containing the fuel crates they were looking for. As thanks to the guard who graciously told them after waking him up, they knocked him out again and put him somewhere safe. “He said that there were crates of other materials, right Odysseus?”

“Yes. The crates we’re looking for are marked with a red symbol on the side.” Red symbols usually means dangerous but they’d need to assess the boxes first to be sure. When they found the entrance, it was a simple draw from Sakura’s sword to cut the lock. The door loudly creaked open, the sound echoing inside the dark warehouse. Their footsteps were the same as they entered it. “Where’s the light switch here…?” 

“Over here, Master.” Ritsuka heard Kosma say before with a soft click, the lights turned on… only to reveal the warehouse had been cleared out. “...I think we need to interrogate another guard.” 

Once again, Ritsuka had the feeling that there was something off. It would be one thing if the stuff they were looking for was missing, but everything was. That screamed suspicious to Ritsuka. “Let’s look around first.” Besides, it’s not like the knocked-out guards were going anywhere yet. Their footsteps echoed once again as they split to look around. There were fresh skid marks and similar clues that pointed to something large being moved recently, but that was all they could find. 

“...Wait.” Sakura’s sudden proclamation made the other three pause with Ritsuka standing in the middle of the vacated room.

“You hear something?” She managed to pick up the sound of the Fulminar approaching them before but Ritsuka couldn’t even be sure what might be hearing now… until he felt the concrete below him rumble. A loud crack filled the air and he was sure his Servants cried his name. He was too preoccupied by the fact the warehouse floor started crumbling beneath them. Everything happened too fast for him to process but when Ritsuka’s brain finally caught up to the present, he was being carried by Kosma as they ran through the dust cloud to escape whatever was coming out of the ground.

“Master! Get out of here!” He heard both Odysseus and Sakura cry out again as Kosma barrelled through the wall and out of the collapsing warehouse. However, they didn’t have a moment to catch their breath as whatever caused the ground to cave in was already crawling its way out from underground. As they continued putting some distance, the dust cloud was slowly dissipating and Ritsuka could already see the silhouette of the mechanical giant rising to stand tall.

As dusk then broke, the light slowly revealed its true appearance, starting with the yellow-gold v-crest upon its head and going down its mostly white and blue body. In its hands was a dark mace with spiked tips, likely serving as its main weapon. “That’s…” Ritsuka immediately recognised the second giant robot which very nearly killed him that day. However, while he knew what the Fulminar and Argents might be capable of, he had very little knowledge of this one’s capabilities. At the very least, he knew its true name… not that it could help them right now. “…Barbatos.”

Chapter Text

He had a routine after every mission; when he returned from accomplishing his boss’s wishes, he’d return to the central base and spend hours afterwards resting in the medical bay. Despite being one of the highest-ranked positions within their culture, being the Strumbote was taxing on his body. He knew he had it good compared to his predecessors, who barely had time before missions during the age of turmoil that only ended a few years ago, but he was beginning to understand. He had only completed a mission the previous day when his commander entered the infirmary.

“The general wishes you to take care of a new problem. We’ve learnt of some individuals who are after an old fuel stash we have stored away in a base up north.”

“…Is the Duke ready?”

“Maintenance is almost finished; you’re to depart in half an hour.”

He had hoped to rest a bit longer but his will came second to what was in Goethar’s interest. Pushing himself out of bed, he put on his uniform and followed his commander to the Grand Duke’s hangar. 

The metal gates screeched open, but it wasn’t enough to cover the sound of those old pieces of equipment the mechanics used to repair their Greater Vormund and his weapons. To the average citizen, the sight of their patron deity standing tall above would leave them in awe but for him, who spent most of his time within and controlling (even if others would take issue with that specific term), it was not that impressive. Sure, he still held great admiration and respect for the Great Duke, but the magic lost most of its lustre after a couple years.

“I’ll wait inside,” he told his commander before climbing up the ladder to the walkway level to the Great Duke’s cockpit within his chest. The tight chamber in which he sat was a second home to him by this point and he was sure the leather seat had moulded to his ass after so much time. “Initiating activation system…” he muttered as he thoughtlessly began flipping switches and pressing buttons.

The screen lit up in front of him with those words he did not know how to read. The lost words used by the ones before them were near-indecipherable in this era, but he understood what the two words before him were; the Great Duke told him every time he awakened. He wondered if the other Greater Vormunds’ pilots experienced something similar.

‘No, no need to think about that or of others.’ 

Just with his own name, only their titles were of importance. The Great Duke and his Sturmbote… extensions of Goethar’s will.

Gundam Barbatos— a part of Ritsuka was always miffed that he never got the chance to watch one of his most anticipated shows before he took that summer job a few years back now. He was too busy during the brief period before the end of the first Grand Order and the beginning of the Human Order Revision Incident (or whatever Da Vinci recorded the operation to destroy the Lostbelts) to get around to watching it… if it actually came out considering all the weirdness that happened after. Needless to say, he was ecstatic not only about seeing the best approximation of the real thing, but also about it trying to kill him!

…Wait, that was a bad thing.

Slapping himself back to his senses, Ritsuka searched his pockets for the signal flare to call the three Argents for help though they probably could see that a Greater Vormund had appeared— especially since with a loud crash, the Trojan Horse appeared. Odysseus had taken the liberty of using his Noble Phantasm to fight off the hostile mobile suit. Either way, he located and took out the flare gun—aiming it at the sky and shooting it. It was hard to admit defeat but he was sure they’d agree retreating was the best course of action.

“Master,” he heard Sakura call out as she touched down next to them. “We should keep our distance. It’s best Lord Odysseus and the others deal with this new one,” she advised, looking up with worry as the Trojan Horse and not-Barbatos duke it out, crashing through the various warehouses.

‘I think we can consider this stealth mission a failure.’ Ritsuka mentally sighed before remembering something. “Sakura, Kosma, help move the guards away.” Assuming the two colossi fighting didn’t wake them up, the unconscious guards were at the mercy of being crushed either by them or under debris.

“My, my. You really don’t think of yourself, do you?” His communicator came alive with the voice of Vita. “Don’t you think you have bigger worries than that?”

Ritsuka resisted the urge to talk back for now and simply repeated his command. Though both of them still look hesitant, they obeyed and went off to rescue whoever they could. Only then did he respond while running away from the mech battle, “Don’t you have bigger worries than what I’m up to? And who exactly are you, Vita?”

“Hmm… Perhaps~” She answered in a singsong voice. “As for my true identity, I think I’ll keep you guessing a little while longer. It’s more fun that way.”

“People like you really love to give me headaches…’ Ritsuka grumbled, earning him a soft chuckle from the strange pilot. “Stop laughing. If you want to have more fun with me, at least do the minimum and help out.”

“Quite the commanding type, aren’t you?” She only sounded even more amused with another laugh. “Just sit tight then. We’re just about—”

Woosh—!

He couldn’t catch that last part as the three Argents flew over him to assist Odysseus. “That one is Goethar’s Greater Vormund, right?” He asked as he ran as fast as he could until he passed by one of the unconscious guards. Without thinking over it for a moment, he knelt down to pick up the guard and move him to safety.

“Yes, it doesn’t have a name like the others but is known as the Great Duke. A simple title to be sure but it’s just as simple a machine.” Vita sounded disappointed as she answered. “It doesn’t utilise any form of beam weaponry in its long history as Goethar’s patron deity from what research I’ve done, preferring to use weapons like that mace of its.”

“That doesn’t make it boring though,” Ritsuka immediately argued, taking a moment to glance back. “Especially when it’s beating your ass with that mace,” he added with a snicker as he saw the Great Duke was expertly swinging its mace to block the beam sabers the Argent trio were using but also smashing it against the Trojan Horse. He didn’t know which one Vita was in, but it wasn’t a good look for her. ‘Wait, don’t be excited that it's beating us!’

Vita let out an indignant huff as she replied, “For now. I assure you, if I’m serious, none of these outdated machines stand a chance against me and Sta— actually, forget I said anything.”

“Oh, you have an actual mobile suit of your own?” Vita was becoming more mysterious and interesting by the moment. “Why are you cheating and using an Argent then?”

“Cheating? Quite the accusation, Fujimaru. But I assure you, I have my reasons for not wanting to introduce a new Vormund to the people of this world.”

“So you are not from this world.” Ritsuka could already guess that just from the vibes he got from her before but that confirmed it. The next question was naturally— “Why are you here in that case?”

“Again, I've my own—” Vita was briefly cut off by a loud banging noise just as Ritsuka watched the Great Duke bring his mace down on the arm of an Argent. Guess he knew which one Vita was in now. “As I was saying, I have my reasons for being here and it'd be nice of you to play along for now.” Vita sounded calm for someone whose mech was literally disarmed. “Do that, and I'll give you the chance of getting into my personal mobile suit as you call it.”

Ritsuka knew he should not be bribed with such an offer, especially since Vita hadn't fully proved her trustworthiness to them yet… but— “Deal.” —he was just a boy with a love for giant robots at the end of the day. “But if the others find out on their own, don't rat me out.”

“I know better than to get on your bad side, Fujimaru.” With that last remark, the communication line went dead. Ritsuka soon finally got a safe enough distance from the battlefield—within the outskirts of the supply depot—and gently put down the unconscious guard he was carrying. A couple moments later, Sakura appeared with two more guards, setting them down before taking off again to rescue more.

“This mission really is a disaster,” he sighed but couldn't help feeling giddy at the battle happening right before his eyes. Sure, he should be wary and should think of something to help, but his mind was too preoccupied with other things for that. “A Command Seal to boost? No, right now might not be the best time,” was as far as planning went before he squealed in delight as the Great Duke swung his mace from below and sent one of the Argents flying… in his direction… oh.

“That is… Goethar’s Great Duke, isn't it? I've seen drawings but…”

“Now there, partner, don't sound too impressed. You're a subject of Dinas, remember?” Lyle smirked as he put on his helmet. He knew one of their orders was to avoid any unnecessary fighting but it was increasingly looking like fighting was the only way to achieve their objectives. Though the warehouse that the Great Duke burst out of was supposed to be the one that contained the frames they were looking for, Lyle’s instincts told him they were still around somewhere. The question now was where they were, and when he should intervene in the battle between the five Vormunds. It’s been a long while since he last fought another Greater Vormund—not since Zephon tried to raid the Isles a year ago—and he was admittedly excited at the prospect of facing the Great Duke.

‘I’m sure though… you've noticed I'm here…’ he sensed the Great Duke a couple moments before he emerged—the same must hold true for the Great Duke’s pilot. What was their title again…? Sturmbote? Regardless, when two Greater Vormunds were close, they'd sense each other’s presence; that had been recorded since the days of the Rayderion-Zephon Wars. “Haro, do you have any records of the Great Duke?”

“No, no. Great Duke and Dinas never fought before.”

That was slightly frustrating but understandable; their territories were the furthest from each other. “That’ll be changing soon,” the sniper proclaimed as he pulled down his Vormund’s targeting system and lined up a shot. He wasn't going to pull the trigger now but readying one wouldn't go amiss in this situation. ‘Now then… show me what you got, Sturmbote.’

Fortunately for Ritsuka and the unconscious guards with him, the Argent sent flying overshot them and crashed just only a couple hundred meters away from them. He was sure that being squished by a giant robot was a quick way to die but he wasn't going to test that anytime soon. ‘That’s the third time in 24 hours.’ Technically more if he counts each separate attempt by the Fulminar.

“Master!” This time, it was Kosma running to join him. He really shouldn't be surprised that the Berserker could carry five people at the same time… but he wondered if he could carry eight.

“Kosma, get all of them further away,” he quickly ordered his Servant as he turned his gaze towards the unmoving Argent. He was worried that the blow could have knocked out the pilot inside… and a smaller part of him got the best worst idea he's had in a while. Ignoring the confused cry from Kosma, he took off in a sprint towards the Lesser Vormund. Climbing the Argent's side proved a little difficult but nothing he couldn't handle before he found the latch to open the hatch. “Are you okay?” He immediately cried out as he peered into the cockpit. He heard a pained groan which at least confirmed that the pilot—who he quickly realised was the third member of their party, Chelle—was still alive.

‘Alright, Ritsuka. Be smart about this. He may have internal injuries and moving him out of his seat could be worse for him,’ he told himself as he dropped down into the cockpit to further inspect Chelle. “Does anything hurt?”

“Only my head…” he answered with a groan. Likely a concussion if Ritsuka remembered the signs of one from his lessons with Nightingale (for emergencies).

‘If he doesn't have internal injuries, then— no, Ritsuka, don't. You don't even know how to pilot one!’ Ritsuka continued to bat away the increasingly powerful idea he had. Sure, he could probably do it through trial and error, but this was no situation to be testing—

“You… Can you take over for me? The captain and Lord Odysseus need all the help they can get.”

“...Yes, I understand.” ‘Fuck yes!’ Gently assisting Chelle out of his seat, Ritsuka took his place and buckled in. He could feel his heart going a mile a minute but he knew there was nothing he could do about that—there wasn't anything he wanted to do about that. Though he did do a couple test drives inside the incomplete Unicorn, this was a different beast altogether. ‘Guess I'm the one cheating now…’ he mused to himself as he gripped the seat’s controls. The hatch closed and the panoramic screen flared to life again, showing their surroundings and the battle that was levelling the supply depot. With a mute whir, the damaged Argent rose back to its feet—ready to probably get its ass kicked once again but this time, with Ritsuka inside it.  “Alright… let's do this!”

“So we walked this entire time… for nothing?!”

“Now, now, Mobius. It wasn't for nothing. We now know that there is another landmass,” Vill-V answered as the group gazed upon the distant shore. “We just need to build a boat to sail across the water. Once we find the Unicorn, we can bunker down and wait till Master and the others find us… Though I think we can take a break right about now.”

“Can’t believe I'm now chasing after a giant robot named after a mythical creature… Where did it all go wrong?” RITSUKA heard Mobius grumble under their breath as they all settled down by the rocky shore. They may be Servants, but a break after an entire day of walking was sorely needed. Sitting next to the worried Mash, he tried to ease her concerns.

“Don't worry; I'm sure he's doing fine. The others are probably with him.”

“I know… but I still feel uneasy,” she confessed with a worried sigh. “This whole string of events has me concerned that something is going on… Those monsters we encountered last night, they're from your world, right?”

“Yes…” Admittedly, that was immensely worrying but it was difficult coming up with a solid theory they could prove in their current situation. Just then, he noticed the final (non-ELF) member of their group was continuing to gaze across the channel with a far-off look in her eyes. “...Aponia? Is something wrong?”

“...Kreuzen.”

“Huh?”

“...Nothing.” RITSUKA was going to say something in response but before he could— “All will be nothing… Kreuzen.”

“...Aponia, what do you see?” Mobius quickly got over her annoyance towards Vill-V as a barely disguised look of concern spread across her face.

“A beam of light… then nothing,” Aponia replied, her gaze shifting down to the blue waters. “This world is in danger from the folly of the past, that's all I see, and…”

“And…?”

“...Nothing.”

Chapter Text

“If the hydraulics are functioning correctly, then… Alright, Master! Give it a go!” Vill-V shouted, looking up from her screen at the half-completed machine where the Alter Ego could see Ritsuka through the open cockpit hatch. Her Master gave her a thumbs up before gripping the controls. A soft hiss filled the workshop as the right arm rose with seemingly no effort. “Hmm… looks fine enough. Master, any comments!?”

“I think the sensitivity is too much!” Ritsuka shouted back for her to jot down. “It’s going higher than I meant it to!”

“Noted, fix the control sensitivity…” She hummed to herself. That should be an easy enough task to do; they could proceed with building the second arm then. “Alright, Master! You can come down now!”

“Things are going smoothly, huh?” It was still getting some use to, but Vill-V recognised the voice coming from behind her to be RITSUKA. “I still find it hard to believe the first thing you’re doing here is making a giant robot.”

“Believe me, I’m just as surprised.” But she wasn’t complaining; it was a nice project that served as a sort of icebreaker after her summoning. She was enjoying the time she spent so far with how enthusiastic Ritsuka had been in making his dream robot. “How were things for you when you were summoned? Considering… you know.”

If she was being honest, Vill-V didn’t really know much about RITSUKA. While he knew a bit about him, they’d never talked before he bit the dust during the Tragedy. In fact, what she knew about him came from Elysia after his death when she (Vill-V) asked who Hua was mourning. Needless to say, she was surprised to not only see RITSUKA here with half of the other Flamechasers, but also the Master of Chaldea to be an alternate version of him.

“It was… awkward as you could probably guess,” RITSUKA nervously chuckled, averting his gaze. “But I think everyone’s gotten used to me by now. Enough not to confuse us anyway.” He glanced back as his tail languidly flicked around. “I’m sure it’d be a while before any of us get used to how things are around here. It’s very different from how Fire Moth operated, isn’t it?”

Vill-V could easily agree with that. When she was developing weapons for their former organisation, the only thing stopping her from going too crazy with designs was budgets; here, their Master stopped her from even making a defensive weapon though he had rather believable reasons. ‘And now we’re making a giant toy.’ Not how she’d thought things would go but again, Vill-V had no complaints. It was endearing in a way for Ritsuka to make his oddball request when she was very much capable of creating the real deal.

Though with how often Ritsuka and the rest of Chaldea had to fight to preserve Proper Human History, Vill-V couldn’t blame him for wanting to mess with something fun that could in no way backfire. Totally and absolutely cannot backfire in any way.

“By the way, Master mentioned how apparently this Unicorn had sister units—”

Sakura moved like the wind, snatching one of the unconscious guards before they could be crushed by fallen debris. She really had to question how they hadn’t woken up from all the chaos happening around them but now was not the time for that. After managing to grab another one (this time nearly being crushed by one of the Argents being knocked down), she fled to take them to safety outside the compound. She quickly noticed that the previously rescued ones were further away than before and… “Kosma? Where’s Master?”

“Where do you think?” He sighed in exasperation while glancing at one of the Argents currently fighting the ambushing Greater Vormund. 

“...How has he not died yet?” She sighed in turn. With him constantly throwing himself into trouble like this, it was a miracle Ritsuka hadn’t bitten the dust yet… more than that one time she heard about.

On the one hand, Ritsuka knew it was a terrible idea to hop into a mobile suit with little experience piloting one— especially against an undoubtedly more powerful enemy. On the other hand, he was suppressing the urge to cheer like an idiot in front of the real pilot. ‘Now if only I knew Barbatos’s weakness.’ If they shared any anyway, he shouldn’t assume the Great Duke would be the same just because it looked like the one Gundam he knew little about. That’s just his luck, wasn’t it?

Fortunately for everyone, the Argent’s controls were similar enough to the Unicorn’s which he had some knowledge of piloting even if barely. “Chelle, anything about the Great Duke we could exploit?” Surely they would know more than him, right?

“Don’t get too close; the Great Duke is a master at close-quarters combat. And don't use the beam swords, they're useless against its armour.”

…Okay, he didn’t want to be rude but he could see that . That mace the Great Duke had was a force to be reckoned with; Ritsuka was shocked it didn’t cave in the cockpit earlier. “In that case…” Ritsuka quickly read through the displays to figure out how to activate that and— “There!”

Enemies of the Goethar— of his boss —were his enemies; that meant that these people conspiring to steal from them were enemies that needed to be destroyed. Fortunately, they made it easy for him by coming with only some Lesser Vormunds that he didn’t know the names of. He recalled seeing them before, but he drew a blank when trying to remember who or what territory they belonged to.

“It doesn’t matter. Duke!” He found himself crying out as he controlled the Vormund like it was an extension of his body, slamming his mace into 

What did matter though were three— now four—things. Firstly, the white Vormund that had appeared out of nowhere recently. From what he heard, it belonged to a new faction that was parading around. Secondly, one of the three Vormunds he was fighting was faking being a typical pilot. Sure, he was easily beating it but from experience, he could tell that all the hits he landed were because the pilot let him; that pilot in turn was the only one who scored an effective hit against him. The third thing that came out of nowhere was that the Vormund who he had sent flying a couple minutes prior had flown back in and was suddenly fighting like a completely different person.

Trrrriiiing!

‘This sensation—!’ He let his instincts guide him as he quickly spun around to block the incoming attack. His mace easily blocked the first blow but the second managed to get around his weapon to land a punch strong enough to make him stumble back. “Wires?!” In hindsight, reading up on the outside Lesser Vormunds would have been useful. He didn’t expect what he usually regarded as pests to be equipped with rare tech. However, it was nothing he couldn’t handle; it was nowhere as devastating as Veyne’s punches—

Trrrriiiing!

“Again!?” That brought him to his third worry about this skirmish— the presence of another Greater Vormund. He had sensed them earlier but was too preoccupied fighting the three to go find them. Now it had come to bite him as a powerful beam to the shoulder not only ripped the Duke's arm off but also sent the Vormund flying like he had been doing to the others earlier.

Had he not sensed the incoming shot, the beam would have hit its true target and maybe likely vapourised him within the cockpit. ‘A beam? That shouldn't have gotten through the Duke’s armo— huh?’ His thoughts were interrupted as a different but still familiar sensation went through his body. ‘But… our mission…’

…

“Understood.” It pained him to retreat on multiple levels, but he trusted the Duke to know what's best for them— just as it trusted him to direct it in combat. 

The INCOM, or whatever they were called here, proved successful as a surprise attack and managed to get past the Great Duke's defences. Ritsuka knew that it'd only work once and the enemy would be careful now; fortunately, the timely assistance of a mysterious ally forced the Greater Vormun to retreat—quickly putting away its weapon and grabbing what remained of its severed arm before blasting off.

“Don't give chase! We don't need to give them reason to continue fighting.” The Captain barked out as they watched the Great Duke fly away in the sky.

For all intents and purposes, Ritsuka considered that a pretty good first battle. He doubt that the three of them would last much longer against the Great Duke. However…

“...Master Fujimaru, how did you know about the Argent's weaponry like that?”

“Uh… Intuition,” Ritsuka came up with that white lie on the spot before glancing at the control panels again, realising something that he had failed to notice earlier in his excitement about being in a mobile suit cockpit. ‘The displays are in English.’ He had a decent understanding of the language (among others) from his time in Chaldea. Regardless, that fact brought up even more questions… as well as made Ritsuka believe more in a theory he already had since earlier when he learnt about the buried machines. 

Right now though, they had bigger and more immediate concerns as the sound of flares going off above them snapped him back to the present. “Who?” Looking back over his seat, Ritsuka spotted two mobile suits flying towards them. The glowing particles trailing behind the two MSs were already a big enough clue enough of their identity; without even getting a good look at the green and white one in front, Ritsuka already guessed what it was from the utterly massive rifle it had that was a big as the mobile suit itself. “Dynam—”

“It's Dinas! Why is it out here?!” Chelle cried out in shock first.

“...Right, Dinas.” Ritsuka shook his head before turning his attention towards the accompanying Vormund. ‘A custom FLAG? Guess that's what their main forces are made of.’

“Chelle, exit your Argent, the Dinas and its pilot wish to meet us.” The Captain's command filled the cockpit, making Ritsuka aware of his situation again.

“Will he be angry at you for letting me take control?” He asked with a slightly nervous chuckle.

“Only one way to find out.” The grimace on Chelle’s face was not helping him feel better.

As soon as they got out of the Argent, both Sakura and Kosma quickly joined him but were giving him disappointed looks. They didn’t need to say anything, but Ritsuka could only continue to chuckle nervously before asking them to prepare just in case. He was sure Odyssey shared the same apprehension as him as he remained within his Noble Phantasm, standing on guard over them.

“Are you expecting to turn another faction against us, Master?” Ritsuka couldn’t tell if Kosma was being sarcastic or not but either way, it was better to not go into it too blindly.

Shortly after, the captain and Vita also joined them, the former giving him a look that said, “We’ll discuss this later,” as the Dinas and his companion landed before them. The sound of the Greater Vormund’s cockpit opening drew their eyes to its chest.

“Yaho! You guys are part of that old man’s group from up north, right?!” They heard the pilot’s voice— an obviously young man —before they saw him come out and lean over the edge of the opened hatch. Ritsuka couldn’t see his face as the pilot’s visor was blacked out, but he could at least tell his voice was not the same as those two . The pilot did still sounded familiar though… “What brings you all the way out here?!”

“I expect it to be a similar reason to your own, Honorable Diener!” Captain Lylou replied, shouting back at the pilot.

It took a moment for Ritsuka to remember Odysseus having called the Fulminar’s pilot by the same title the day before. Regardless, the Dinas’s pilot quickly responded with a bemused tone, “Then that begs the question, are we after the same thing ?! Assuming of course that it wasn’t stepped on in all this mess!”

“If you’re asking that, then we definitely aren’t!” Vita sounded equally amused with a wide grin on her face. “This whole place would have gone up in smoke had what we were looking for been crushed during our fight.”

That reply seemed good enough for Dinas’s pilot as a few tense moments passed before he gave his partner a hand signal. “Alright, I’m coming down!” He replied before using a cable lift to descend from his Vormund.

“A true Diener… This mission keeps throwing surprise after surprise…” Ritsuka heard Chelle mutter next to him as they watched the young man clad in colours matching the Dinas come down to join them. When he touched down in front of them, he “introduced” himself with a polite bow.

“A pleasure to meet you all. As you may guess, I am the one granted the highest honour within the Dinas Isles: the pilot for our patron Vormund. And that —” he gestured towards the black mobile suit. “—is my partner. He’d be staying in his Vormund just in case. No offense but we have to be a little careful, you know?”

Seeing as the Trojan Horse was still watching over them, it’d be hypocritical of them to judge. “The pleasure is all ours. Thank you for your assistance in driving away the Great Duke,” the captain showered him in gratitude as the still unnamed pilot scanned their faces.

“It’s nothing…” He muttered before he stopped at Ritsuka. “...You. I saw you get into that Vormund, but you’re not a real pilot. You’re part of that Chaldea group we’ve been hearing about, right?”

Ritsuka noticed Sakura moving her hand towards her sheathed sword but he motioned for her not to calm herself. At this point, Ritsuka had a good feeling about the situation. “That’s right. I am Fujimaru Ritsuka, and you are…?”

“Hmm? Oh that’s right. I’m so used to people back home already knowing my name. I’ve only ever needed to say my title.” Dinas’s pilot laughed to himself before finally taking off his helmet and freeing his mop of platinum blonde hair. The full-body suit had previously hidden it earlier, but they could see he had pale skin. Ritsuka's eyes met his light green ones as he spoke. “ Ahem , allow me to reintroduce myself then. Lyle Collodi, the appointed Diener of Dinas, at your service.”

…Well, at least the name’s the same but Ritsuka felt like there was something wrong about all this. ‘Wouldn't be the first time…’

Chapter Text

It had only been a short few years before the armistice between the remaining territories of the fallen empire (and Zephon) went into effect, though it could be argued there was no such thing as the five territories continued to scheme to undermine the others. As for him, the honourable Diener of the Dinas Isles, Lyle was no stranger to being on the frontlines should any conflict arise. His usual deployment was during the waning period before the peace settlement when he was freshly appointed, mainly defending the coastline and shooting down anyone who tried invading his homeland. It was more often than not Zephon and their fleet of transforming Vormunds and should the line ever break, his subordinates were capable enough of driving them off.

When “peace” came, he spent most of his days after lounging around headquarters; there was simply no need for him to do anything anymore. It took 3 years before he was assigned more… secretive missions. Officially, his participation was not on record—if they were even recorded in the first place; Dinas’s presence was more of a moral support, as it usually became obvious if he was involved in any battle but in the rare scenario that more firepower was needed…

That all led to this moment, where he was now peeking over the edge of the hole from which the Great Duke emerged. “That’s pretty deep, isn’t it?” Lyle hummed in intrigue. “Hmm… Oh, yup. I see some boxes down there. That should be what we’re looking for.”

“You can see all the way from here?” The strange young man sounded amazed as he leaned over the edge next to him. “I mean, I know you’re a sniper but—”

“Hate to interrupt the small talk but I’m certain all of us are eager to complete our respective missions already,” the equally strange woman who piloted one of the Vormunds interrupted her… ally(?) with a teasing laugh.

“I can't disagree with that,” he chuckled before glancing up at his partner’s FAHNE. “Alright, get down there and bring all those boxes up for our new friends here!”

“No need to suck up to them,” came the annoyed voice from the black Vormund. However, he graciously did as asked and activated his Vormund’s thrusters. It lifted off the ground and glided over them to make its descent into the underground facility. It did not take long before he slowly began transporting the boxes stored below— starting with the ones they were here for that were helpfully labelled in their modern tongue and, in near-completely faded text, the ancient language spoken by those that came before.

Naturally, the young man asked what they were, stepping closer to get a better look. “If you can tell us, of course,” he quickly added while trying to read the letters… the faded ones.

“Sorry, that’s a secret~ But if you know what they are, surely you can make a good guess,” Lyle answered as he normally would. After a moment, he saw the young man’s eyes widen in shock before he spoke again.

“These are… I see. I won’t pry then,” he muttered before stepping back from the crates.

‘How interesting…’

“Thank you again for your assistance, Honourable Diener,” the captain expressed his gratitude as they all prepared to leave the area, watching as Lyle ascended up into the Dinas.

“We just happened to have the same goals this time. I don’t see how it’s deserving of any thanks,” was the pilot’s answer before he entered his Vormund. A moment later, the soft whirring of the engine starting up as eyes briefly flashed. “Farewell; pray our next meeting is just as fortunate.” With that, the two Vormund lifted off in a shower of glowing particles. 

“Dinas…” Ritsuka found himself muttering as he watched the Greater Vormund fly into the horizon, carrying the crates of special material. “What are you planning…?” Or rather, what did they intend to do once they’d implanted those materials into their Vormund? If what was written on the crates was correct, Ritsuka could only think of one reason they’d want those for.

“Now then, what should we do with your… unexpected actions?”

…Oh right, he was probably in trouble for that, wasn’t he? And he didn’t have the excuse of managing to beat the Great Duke to bail him out. At least they did get what they came here for so maybe there would be a reduced punishment.

It was an awkward and silent trip back to the bunker; this time, it was only him alone in the cockpit with the captain while both Odysseus and Kosma rode with Chelle. Ritsuka didn’t remember the last time he stayed quiet for so long. In any case, when they got back, Ritsuka found himself being sent straight to his room while the captain and the other pilots spoke to Mercer about the mission.

“Well, this isn't a military institution so the chances of you getting punished severely are small, especially since it was to help out,” Eden assured him with a calming smile after being told of the situation. “If I were to be honest, I do understand why they would have issues with you commandeering one of their machines, even with the permission of their pilot.”

“In my opinion, it's better for Master to be punished if it dissuades him from taking such risks in the future,” Sakura shared her thoughts, briefly shooting Ritsuka a disappointed glare. “You're our leader here, Master, if something were to happen to you, it'd not only jeopardise the mission, but Chaldea as a whole.”

“Unfortunately, knowing him, any sort of lesson from any punishment would not stick should he be put in the same situation again.”

“I'm sitting right here!” Ritsuka shouted in indignation, prompting an apology from Odysseus (with a soft chuckle as he did so). “I'll admit it was a little stupid for me to do that—” “A little?” “Okay, a lot stupid, but you can't really blame me for wanting to help however I can, can you?” Ritsuka tried to defend himself but most of the others only rolled their eyes or sighed in amusement. 

The only one who was on his side completely, of course, was— “I’m just upset I missed the whole thing!” Kintoki complained with tears of despair running down his cheeks. “The chance to watch Master finally become a fighter… is a moment that I will never get to experience.”

Needless to say, they all gave him various looks for his over-the-top reaction. “...In-in any case, I believe there's something besides Master’s reckless actions that needs addressing,” Ritsuka wasn't sure if Kosma was only saying that to get the heat off of him but either way, he was grateful.

“You mean how this Singularity’s past was proper human history?” At least enough for their language to be present in this Singularity.

“So that really is the case?” Hummed Eden, who had evidently been suspecting that to be the case too. “I assumed there was a previous civilisation that built these structures and the Vormunds from what we know about their history, but how are you certain it's our history?”

“Well, for starters, it is a Singularity. No matter how different things are, it would be spun out of normal history.” Unless it was a Lostworld, but that's a whole ‘nother can of worms. “But aside from that, we noticed English writing in the Vormund's cockpit and at the supply depot.”

“I see… A previous civilisation…” Eden fell quiet though he noticed the gazes she gave Kosma and Sakura. “How long ago would they have existed?”

At that question, Ritsuka turned to the two who had been investigating before them. “Any legends or myths about when the Vormunds were built?”

“There's nothing concrete, Master. Everything we gathered only says they were constructed a long time ago,” answered Kosma, making Ritsuka sigh in frustration.

“How about what ended the previous civilisation? Any information about that, Kosma?” Eden then inquired.

“That's… a bit more vague.” It was the Berserker’s turn to sigh before Odysseus elaborated on the subject.

“From what the legends say, a rogue Vormund triggered a calamity that nearly wiped out the entire world. After that, what remained of the previous civilisation collapsed due to another disaster.”

“A rogue Vormund, huh?” Ritsuka muttered. He had a bad feeling hearing that; he could only hope that it wasn't based on that one or that it was no longer around. ‘Better not be the one Kreuzen has.’ He had already begun to suspect which one was most similar to that for erasing an entire city with a beam of light. Ritsuka would rather take the city destroyer than the civilisation destroyer. ‘The latter is technically the former too…’ He couldn’t help but muse before shaking his head to rid himself of that thought.

Instead, he turned to see the reactions of the others (read: the Flamechasers). Sakura was more evident in her feelings, having a pensive face while putting her hand to her chin in thought; Eden meanwhile kept her emotions in check and only let out a thoughtful hum. “It’s not the exact same history, but…” Seeing as Vill-V or the others never mentioned building giant robots, Ritsuka assumed the same thing they did—that this Singularity despite containing the beasts that ravaged their world, was ultimately unconnected.

…Now, Ritsuka expected there to be a catch but that would come when the moment arrived. No use worrying about it right now. Instead— knock knock —he should be worrying about something more immediate. ‘Time to face the music…’

Once again, it was Vita— this time to escort him to Mercer’s office. “Unfortunately, only him. So please cooperate and remain here~” Vita requested in a playful voice before stealing Ritsuka away, moving quickly so they would not be followed. Firstly, that was a useless endeavour; Ritsuka didn’t even need to question if any of them would chase after them. Secondly, she was leading him down a different way than Odysseus did last time. That didn’t spell trouble at all .

“So… are you really taking me to Mercer?” Ritsuka asked, cautious but also interested in what she was scheming this time.

“Oh, I am, but I’m sure he can wait a couple of minutes.”

“Wha—?” Before he could even finish talking, Vita shoved him into a nearby room. He steadied himself and turned to see her locking the door. The playful grin on her face was naturally setting off red flags in Ritsuka’s mind… but he wasn’t one to back down from people like her.

“Now then, I’m sure we have a lot to talk about, dear Master of Chaldea.”

Chapter Text

Had it been anyone else in his position, they would be on high alert; the dangerous vibes Vita had about her would make anyone feel uneasy. However, in Ritsuka’s experience, the more dangerous one looked to be, the safer he would be locked in a room with them alone. Guess that was just how things were for him at this point.

“You know, pushing me in here would spark a lot of trouble if someone saw us,” Ritsuka remarked, leaning back against one of the walls of the cramped closet. “But I take it you don't really care.”

“Not particularly, no,” Vita shook her head with a soft amused cackle. “Now then, as if I said, I'm sure we have a lot to discuss, Fujimaru Ritsuka.”

“...Who exactly are you, Vita? You're not around here, I can figure that out as much.”

“Oh, who I am isn't all that interesting; I’m just a wanderer who’s visiting places that piqued her interests.” To say she sounded like she was lying was putting it lightly but Ritsuka figured it was easier to go along with what she was saying at the moment. “A couple things here and there in this world: giant robots being worshipped like living gods— one of whom is capable of bringing down an empire with a single move; the locals living in old bunkers built by an ancient civilisation; the Honkai running amok without anyone really questioning it. I just happened to be here when your little underlings arrived.”

“One, they're not my underlings—”

“Sure they aren’t.”

Ritsuka only rolled his eyes at Vita’s sarcastic reply before continuing, “Second, you're after Kreuzen’s Vormund?”

“No, not really. I just said it piqued my interest. As I told you earlier, the Vormunds around here are toys compared to my Star Jumper,” Vita disinterestedly waved her hand. “You, on the other hand, are here for one, isn’t that right? I've heard from those three that you're trying to steal Vormund in Esperance.”

“Okay, firstly , the Unicorn is mi— Chaldea’s. We made it by ourselves.” The fact the design could be considered stolen did not need to be mentioned. “It got stolen from its hanger and ended up here, somehow…”

“And that's your main mission here? Making use of your organisation’s resources to make yourself a toy? How childish. I thought Chaldea's main objective was to keep your small little race alive and steal Holy Grails.” An amused but sarcastic cackle escaped Vita with a wide grin plastered on her face.

“Reclaiming the Unicorn is only one of our objectives here; the other is… wait, how do you know about that?” While it was possible that the others had already told her about Chaldea’s mission, but he had the feeling they hadn't said a thing about Holy Grails to her. So that meant… “Who are you really?” He asked again.

Unsurprisingly, Vita only reiterated her previous answer. “Just a passing-through traveller. No need to overcomplicate things. But what does matter is that this world has one of those annoying wish-granting cups lying around somewhere. Am I understanding the situation correctly?”

“We’re operating under the impression there’s one.” And at the moment, he had several places in mind—mainly the capitals of each region as well as Kruezen and the ruins of the former empire. If there were anywhere the Grail had formed, it’d be in one of those places… or maybe the Moon. He was not convinced that there were no Moon people. Wait, before that— “Are you after the Grail too?” Ritsuka asked with a raised brow.

“I won’t say I’m not interested—we’ll see how the chips fall,” she replied as ambiguously as one possibly could.

“You’re one annoying woman, you know that?”

“I prefer the term ‘mysterious ,’ if you would so kindly use that,” Vita grinned at his unamused remark, making Ritsuka roll his eyes. He was used to her type by this point and saw no reason to be worried. Would that be his undoing? Maybe, but he kept more dangerous people around and nothing that terrible has happened yet.

Back to the topic at hand though— “Can we go now? I don’t want to delay the inevitable with Mercer.” And the longer he stayed in this small closet with Vita, the more likely someone would stumble onto them and that he feared more than whatever the annoying woman could do. It was better that it went unmentioned, however; he didn’t want to jinx himself. 

“Huh, you don’t really care about the position you’re in, do you?” Vita sounded both amused and annoyed before letting out a put-out sigh. “Well, I have to keep my cover going a bit longer so best not delay any longer. Needless to say, don’t go blabbing about this to anyone, okay? I’d know, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to get on my bad side, right~? ”

Ritsuka only rolled his eyes again. Wasn’t the first time he heard that and it wouldn’t be the last. At any rate, Vita stepped aside to let him out and— “What were you two talking about in there?”

…Well, it could be worse.

Fortunately, Tenoch was willing to temporarily let it slide after some convincing that nothing inappropriate happened inside that closet. Ritsuka was sure a couple others were silently following too now as he and Vita entered Mercer's office. “Got lost on your way here? The halls here could be a maze at times.” the older man mused; he was not as annoyed as Ritsuka thought he'd be so that was a good sign. Mercer did not waste any more time and continued, “Lylou informed me of what happened during the mission. While I must thank you for helping us succeed, I'm sure you'd understand why there are some… issues regarding certain actions you took.”

“Will Chelle be punished for allowing me to pilot his Vormund?” Ritsuka asked first, earning a small surprised hum from Mercer.

“His punishment will be a light one considering the injuries he sustained and the circumstances you all were in,” the leader of the bunker replied, a little amused. He was likely not expecting Ritsuka to worry over someone else in his current position. “You, similarly, will not be facing any harsh sentencing after some consideration. Even if you helped fight the Great Duke, Chelle’s Argent sustained heavy damages during the fight and we expect that to be repaid through a certain type of labour.”

In other words… “Another mission then?” Ritsuka guessed correctly, judging from the smirk on Mercer’s face.

“It is my understanding that you and your group seek Esperance's Horned Vormund. You are planning to travel there as soon as Lady Pardofelis returns with our caravan, correct?” Ritsuka wondered if he had been listening to their conversation or if the remaining Servants had informed him about their plans. Either way, Ritsuka had no reason to lie and nodded his head.

“If you're asking me to steal it for you, I'd have to say that would be repaying you a bit too much,” Ritsuka half-joked. 

“Oh, nothing of the sort. No, what I would like you to do is to broker a deal with Veynar,” Mercer told him. “As you are already aware, this bunker is not the best supplied, especially when it comes to arming our Argents. That is why I'd like you to meet with Veynar’s pilot and convince them to provide us with aid.”

“You'll have to go through the Domininon’s territory to reach Esperance and with your luck, you'd probably run into the pilot. The High Priest there already owes a debt to your people so it’s a win-win for us,” Vita clarified with a giggle. He couldn't really say they didn't have a point. In the 24 hours he had been here, he had already run into three of the five (six if he wanted to include Kreuzen) Greater Vormund. Granted, two of them tried to kill him but this one shouldn’t try squashing him like a bug.

“In that case… I can't make any promises but I'll try my best,” Ritsuka decided after a brief moment. “...I’m guessing you’d have someone tag along with me to make sure I do as asked?”

“As told—and yes.”

“3 guesses who, and the first two don’t count.” Ritsuka was sure he was not the only one who felt Vita was going to continue being a pain in his ass. In other words, things were going along as expected in this type of situation. At least it’s not as bad as it could have been…

The next couple of days passed without incident; sure, he had to come up with a white lie that Vita was just being friendly but overall, Ritsuka managed to keep Tenoch in check as they waited for Pardo to return. Vita, for her part, busied herself with other things to the point she barely bothered him so it was not like he could press her for more details. In the meantime, Ritsuka did his best to read up on how this world operated and what they could expect to face in the near future, focusing his homework on the two Vormund they’ve yet to encounter. It was fortunate the people here used their language and the “ancient” one rather interchangeably.

“Unlike its brethren, Veynar relies on the full body movement of its Diener to fight. Only the top disciple within the Dominion’s school of martial arts will be chosen to fight for its people as an extension of Veynar’s will,” Ritsuka surmised after going through all he could on the matter, eventually reading an excerpt within an old tome. “ When its hand shines with divine light, Veynar could obliterate an opponent in a single strike. Full body piloting, hand shining…” 

…He wondered if the pilot liked to shout a lot.

As for Zephon, all it took was reading the two clues for him to determine its identity. A body was like the heavens—blue as the calm skies, white as clouds, and black as storms; it was capable of shifting its form to fly like a bird with speeds rivalling light itself. Exaggerations, to be sure, but it was enough for Ritsuka to make a solid guess of the final Vormund. “And Esperance is on its borders,” he sighed, already expecting something to happen if/when they reach that city.

“Master, don’t make a habit of letting yourself go hungry.” In the middle of his research, it was surprisingly Kosma who frequently pulled him away from being too engrossed to the point of forgetting to eat or rest. He got the feeling that Kosma was used to that—something confirmed by Eden when he brought it up with her.

“Yes, one of us Flamechasers was a young girl who loved to paint to the point she frequently forgot to keep herself healthy at times. Kosma was one of her caretakers as it were,” the singer explained to him with a slight hint of nostalgia in her voice. “I’m sure you’d like her and she’d like you as well, Master. RITSUKA would also spend time with her before he… I think she’d get along with the other children in Chaldea too.”

Ritsuka didn’t know whether it would be right for him to say that he wished to summon a young girl… for several reasons really.

In any case, three days after their arrival at the bunker and the mostly successful first mission, the caravan finally returned with the last member of the initial party. Ritsuka foolishly believed Pardo would whine about not getting a moment to rest after what was a long journey but— “Let's get going then, Master! There’s money to be made and the sooner, the better!”

He really should have expected her to react that way. Without any further delays—and Odysseus staying behind to continue guarding the bunker in case one of the two territories decided to seek revenge—the group set off for their next mission…

After days of pulling together all they could, the group managed to put together a (barely) seaworthy vessel to get them across the channel. Of course, Mobius (but really, everyone besides Vill-V) had her gripes with using a cobbled-together sailboat but it wasn’t like they had any other options to cross the channel. “At least it doesn't look like it will rain soon,” the scientist sighed as they prepared to set sail. If luck were on their side, they would be able to reach the other side with no problems.

…Of course, their luck didn’t even allow them to even take off before a warning shot hit the water near them. “What is it now?” RITSUKA did not need to read minds to know Mobius was likely regretting coming along instead of doing whatever she does in her lab all the time. Either way, they immediately prepared to fight whoever or whatever was threatening them and followed the trajectory of the energy that nearly hit them.

Needless to say, they did not expect to see a hovering dark-green mobile suit hovering in the sky menacingly with its rifle aimed directly at them. In hindsight, they should have realised that other mechs would be involved after the theft of the Unicorn…

Chapter Text

“Ehhh… You've got a real knack of getting into trouble, Master,” Pardo snickered as the caravan made their way through an expansive forest on their way to Veyne's capital. After catching Assassin up on the troubles Ritsuka and co. found themselves in while she was away, Ritsuka asked her what she had learned on her latest trip up and down the region. “Not much of note, really.”

“You weren't too focused on making profits, were you, Pardo?” Teased Eden, who walked alongside the two at the front of their entourage. As the most capable of protecting the group, the Servants were strategically spread across the length of the travelling band of traders and merchants with them. Not helping matters was that wheeling on a rickety but still-functioning trailer in the middle of the caravan was the inactive Argent belonging to Vita, making them a slow and attractive target for just about anything.

“Hey, I wasn't too blinded by money to do my job, Eden. After all, information is just another form of currency~” Pardo defended herself with a wide cat-like grin. “I just didn't learn anything that wasn't already in those big binders Kosma put together on my latest run.”

“In any case, should there be anything we should be aware of while we're in Veyne’s territory?”

“Hmm… Well, the place is just about the same everywhere else but they're a bit more extreme. They worship their big hunk of metal like a god and you could get thrown into a cell if you badmouth it or its pilot; after all, their whole governing body is a priesthood.” Ritsuka liked giant robots as much as the next… Actually, he was probably the most fanatic in their group but that was still taking this a bit too far. “Fortunately, Kosma and the others managed to get us into their good graces after bailing them out from a spot of trouble when we first got here. They've been treating us pretty well whenever we stop by their city.”

That was good to hear and all, but Ritsuka was still expecting them to get into trouble either way. It was just Chaldea's and his luck to get into fights wherever they went…

“So… what about you guys? Did you find out anything about that Vita woman?” Pardo’s voice fell to a conspiratorial whisper after glancing around to make sure said woman was not nearby. “She's been making my hair stand up ever since we met. Something about her just gives me the creeps.”

“Er…” Ritsuka found himself avoiding either her or Eden’s eyes. “She's… something alright.”

“...Hey, Eden, I think Master might have a little crush,” Pardo loudly whispered to her fellow Flamechaser, not even trying to hide it from Ritsuka. 

“Hey!”

“Oh, leave him be, Pardo. I thought you knew by now Master has particular tastes from our allies back at base.” Eden joined in on the teasing.

Ritsuka wasn't going to even entertain either of them with a remark anymore. “How long will it be before we reach the city?” He asked to change the topic, to which Pardo answered that depending on how long they spend resting for the night, they should reach Veyne’s main city by midday the next day. “Gotcha. I’m gonna go check up on how the others are doing.” Leaving the front of the caravan to the two, Ritsuka made his way through the rest of the caravan.

First guarding the right side of the caravan was Tenoch, who instantly cheered up when she saw Ritsuka… before complaining about their current mission—or more specifically having to guard a mobile suit. “Why do we have to keep an eye on that woman's sorry excuse of a machine? I see nothing divine about the useless statue,” she grumbled while Ritsuka did his best to calm her down. “Whatever. Tlamacazqui, just to remind you, you don't need to take someone else's body—do not forget you have the key to my innermost chamber.”

“I'll… keep that in mind,” Ritsuka chuckled before heading towards the back of the caravan where Kosma and Kalpas were, trailing a decent distance behind. The latter decided that was the best post for him and the former thought it would be better for someone to be around the other Berserker in case something happens; Sakura, who initially volunteered, was instead directed to another place within the caravan under a certain person’s suggestion/insistence. “How are you two holding up?” 

“I thought our mission was to find that robot and cup of yours. Why are we guarding a bunch of—”

“He means to say we're doing fine,” Kosma translated for his teammate before shooing Ritsuka away before he could say something to get on Kalpas’s nerves. Granted, interrupting him may have also annoyed him but Ritsuka didn’t stick around to test that.

Ritsuka continued clockwise through the caravan until he caught up to Europa who had been riding her mechanical bull the entire time. “Oh, Master. How are you?” She asked before he had the chance to. The Rider did not have much to say as the trip had been smooth sailing so far with the exception of— “I’ve noticed a couple of the merchants trying to secretly watch me and my steed,” she laughed, feeling both embarrassed and honoured. 

After exchanging a bit more pleasantries, Ritsuka headed for the heart of the caravan where they were towing the Vita’s Argent. The mobile suit was guarded by the last two Servants on this mini-mission—one of whom was clearly regretting going on this little errand. “Master… can I exchange places with that Pretender?”

“Oh come on, Sakura~ I’m not that annoying, am I?” Vita cackled lightly at the Assassin’s misfortune. Meanwhile, Kintoki was having a more enjoyable time.

“Yo, Master! This woman and I were talking about this sweet ride of hers.” The (other) Rider caught Ritsuka up to speed on what they were talking about. “Apparently this type of machine was part of the Empire’s Royal Guard. You know, before they uh…”

“Calling me this woman is rude, you know.” Despite her scolding, Vita only continued to sound amused before turning back towards Ritsuka. “So what brings you to see little old me, Ritsuka~?”

“Just checking up on everyone. Pardo said it'd be a long while before we reach Veyne's capital,” Ritsuka answered without missing a beat before turning towards his two Servants. “Besides this loud woman—” “ Hey! ” “—is there anything bothering you guys?”

“No.” “Nothing at all.”

“Then I better get back to Eden and Pardo.” Ritsuka tried his best to not break into laughter at Vita’s pouting face. She was clearly the type who didn't like being ignored like this—in other words, there was no better way to get under her skin and make it easier for her to say something she didn't mean to. Before he could go though, Sakura had something to say.

“Master, you've yet to tell us what our actual plan is.” She gave Vita a side glance, unsure if he'd say anything with the suspicious woman around but there wasn't any other opportunity to ask on this trip until they reached the capital.

“Right now, just do as Mercer asks and get Veyne’s help for the bunker. After that, we split off to head for Esperance to recover the Unicorn.” Ritsuka, however, had no issues talking as if Vita wasn't around. “After that… I’d need to ask Pardo if she knows the way to Kreuzen.” 

“So it's going to be like that, huh?” Vita grumbled while rolling her eyes as she saw through what Ritsuka was doing. “Don’t come crying to me then when Kruezen’s mobile suit blows you to kingdom come and you need a powerful one to beat it.”

“Eh, I’m sure the ones we have are more than enough firepower,” Ritsuka retorted with a small smirk—and that wasn’t accounting for when they got the Unicorn back. “To be honest, I’m not sure what yours can contribute if—” or when “—we get in a fight with Kruezen.”

“Oho, don’t think I’m going to fall for that, Ritsuka~” Well, it was worth a shot. “Why don’t you run along now and try another day?”

“Maybe I will.” Ritsuka only smiled before heading off to rejoin the head of the caravan, leaving behind a smug Vita and his somewhat baffled Servants.

“Best not to question it, rookie,” Kintoki whispered loudly to Sakura, who looked like she was about to say something. “You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“Is that even a good thing?” Sakura sighed in exasperation, no longer sure if they could complete this mission unscathed with how accepting Ritsuka was of danger like Vita. She could only hope things didn’t continue spiralling from here…

“We’re innocent, I tell you! In-no-cent!” The Alter Ego Servant cried as she pathetically shook the bars of the cell where they had been kindly escorted in to wait.

After being arrested for “nearly causing a diplomatic incident”, the group found themselves being brought to the island’s capital city—a trip made within the hands of the mobile suit that found them along with another one that was a different model. None of their questions were answered upon their arrival, where they were only requested to cooperate in the meantime while the two pilots reported to their superior officer. As they were being led and waiting around their holding cell, though within what they could only assume to be the central governmental building, it didn't escape a few of their notices that despite the mechanical wonders that they ran into, the city’s streets and the building’s interiors—including their cell—was lit with candles or normal daylight.

“Will you cut that out already?” Mobius grumbled, which made Vill-V stop and look back at her with a grin.

“Oh, lighten up, Mobius. I’m just having a little fun. It’s been a while since I got locked up like this,” she snickered before resuming her act of a distressed and wrongly imprisoned damsel.

Mobius continued staring at her in contempt for a few more moments before turning towards Mash, who sat on a bench on one side of the cell with RITSUKA and the Su ELF. “Remind me again why we went along with that kid? Or why we don’t just bust out of here?” The Caster was clearly questioning her life’s decisions that led to that current moment.

“Whenever we’re in a situation such as this, it’s better to ‘go with the flow’, as Senpai would say,” Mash answered without missing a beat. While they could easily bust out of their imprisonment and likely deal with anyone trying to stop them — giant robots included — Mash had leveraged her status as the most senior member of the group to have them peacefully surrender. “We might be able to better understand what’s going on this way too.”

“Not a good feeling being locked up, is it now, Mobius?” The ELF commented with a straight face, earning him a glare from his creator.

“Shush you,” she huffed before going to sit and wait by Aponia, who opted to stay silent and let the dice lie where they fell as per usual.

“...You know, Su. I can't help but notice you’re a bit… different from the others,” RITSUKA remarked, tilting his head as he stared intently at the mechanical recreation of the Flamechaser. “Why did you come along in the first place anyway?”

“Hmm? What ever do you mean, RITSUKA?” The passive grin on his face did little to help his suspicions.

“I mean… The others were left behind ‘cause they weren't combat ready but you wanted to come along anyway,” the Shielder pointed out which Su tried to play off lightly, saying he was just curious to see how things would play out here.

“Now that you mention it, I've also noticed that you're oddly… sentient compared to the others,” Mash joined the discussion with her own observation of the ELF. “What I mean to say is that you tend to go at your own pace instead of following any orders anyone else gives you like before we Rayshifted here; you ignored Miss Mobius’s orders to debrief Miss Sakura.”

“Yeah!” RITSUKA didn't know that happened but it served to further his point. “Mobius, what did you programme into him to make him so independent?”

The Caster simply stared exasperatedly at the both of them at RITSUKA'S question. “You two… haven't figured it out?” She scoffed in disappointment. “Then again, neither of you really knew him so I suppose that's to be expected.”

“Huh?” “What do you mean?”

“I am allowed my secrets,” Su enigmatically chuckled before going dead silent as his small body went limp.

“Did his… battery run out?” Mash loudly asked while RITSUKA inspected the deactivated ELF. 

“Of course not; even the substitute energy source I use wouldn't die this quickly,” the green-haired scientist was quick to defend her craftsmanship abilities. “No, Su wanted to be special from the rest of us and took a unique opportunity he saw.”

“...Ah, I get it now.” The look of realisation dawning on RITSUKA’s face was simultaneously amusing and annoying to Mobius for it taking him weeks to figure it out. She was fairly confident that Ritsuka had already caught on to Su’s half-hearted deception and he didn't even know Su before summoning them!

However, she was unable to make a snarky remark at RITSUKA'S expense before— “I get it. I get it.”

“Oh, it’s you again.” Vill-V finally stopped her ceaseless bar shaking to crouch down and to speak to the green ball that rolled in front of their cell. A bright smile was on her face as she asked the strange robot, “What’s your name, little one?”

“Haro, Haro!”

“...Is it trying to say 'hello', or is that its name?” RITSUKA asked as he moved to her side to also look at their visitor. He was quickly answered, but not by the green ball but by the pair of feet that stepped into view.

“That’s what he says so that’s what he’s called,” hummed who they, upon looking up at his face, recognised to be the pilot of the green mobile suit that found them. “Sorry for taking so long. My boss got angry at me for a little accident on my last mission.”

“Just as I warned you.”

“Bad Lyle, Bad Lyle!”

“Hush, you two. I was in the right and you know it,” the so-named Lyle retorted with a grin at his friend before turning towards the occupants of the cell. “Besides, if we didn’t lend them a hand, these guys would be in an even tighter spot. Don’t you agree, Chaldeans?”

“You know who we are?” Mash stepped forward, hiding her surprise as she joined the two by the front of the cell.

“Mhmm, we ran into his twin and his own group back on the mainland during our mission,” he nodded while gesturing to RITSUKA. “I don’t know how they ended up working for old man Mercer—he’s a former commander within the empire before it got wiped off the map. If I have to guess… you guys are looking to reunite with his brother?”

“He’s not my—”

“And if it is?” This time, it was Mobius who spoke. “You haven’t introduced yourself yet, boy .” While Haro said his name, it was still a little disrespectful to not do so properly.

“Oh, sorry about that. I’m used to everyone around here already knowing who I am,” he not-so-arrogantly replied while his friend rolled his eyes behind him. “Dinas’s honourable Diener, Lyle Collodi, here to escort you to meet our oh-so-wise king and his general. Will you continue playing along for a bit longer, Chaldeans~?”