Chapter Text
It was going like any other night in Novum Chaldea. The base situated on an island in the middle of the Wandering Sea was the height of normality. As normal as things associated with magicks could be.
In the base, in a small room located at the end of a long white hallway, was Ritsuka Fujimaru.
The lights in her room blared down at her as she did her daily reports that Chaldea always foisted on her. Her slumped tired form was like a slug in her chair.
“Why do they always have me write these boring daily reports…” she bemoaned as she stretched her back, feeling her body crack into its regular position.
Her fingers had completely stopped any motion, her brain frying in her dumb tiny head as she tried to pull any semblance of thought out of there. Her brain however was broadcasting TV static instead of anything worth putting in the report.
“Might as well grab a midnight snack.” she thought. In moments like this it usually took at least one sugar refill for her brain to kick into gear. The tastiness of the snack was also a very nice bonus.
Her tired steps echoed down the hallway as she made her way to the kitchen. The cold metal-white exterior of the hallways were painted in a thin darkness. The only light being those set on automatic.
Just as she was about to turn the corner, the alarms started blaring at full volume in the whole base. Red lights instantly replaced the soft muted white of the hallways.
Her mind switched gears in an instant. She sprinted down the hall towards the command room.
Rounding one of the corners she came face to face with her first servant, Mash Kyrielight who had just come from said command room. Her Ortinax gear shined red with the flash of lights above them.
“Senpai!”
“What’s the situation!?” Ritsuka questioned the demi servant as they almost bumped heads.
“Apparently the summoning system has booted up by itself and is in the middle of summoning an unknown servant!” Mash quickly and concisely informed Ritsuka of the situation.
Nodding in response, the two immediately started sprinting to the summoning room, joining them as they ran was Da Vinci Lily.
“Sorry to keep you waiting Mash, I grabbed my weaponry from my workshop! Oh and I see Ritsuka has joined us!” She said as she skated through the halls with the two.
“Did you figure out anything specific about the summoning Da Vinci!” Ritsuka asked in a loud voice trying to speak over the alarms.
“A couple things!” The youthful looking girl said as she tapped on a device attached to her wrist. “One is that it’s a highly powerful divine servant! Two is that it’s somehow linked with one of our servants here in Chaldea. Which servant I couldn’t find out in time though!”
Nodding in response the three continued making their way to the summoning room that was situated in the middle of the base.
As they made their way to the hall that had the room, a loud thud echoed from inside the room.
The trio rushed over to the door, Mash tapping on the keypad to quickly open the door, throwing caution to the wind. The three rushed in as soon as the door opened and what laid before their eyes was the new servant.
The silence in the summoning room was a stark difference compared to the hallway. Making the new servant in the middle of the room stand out even more in the extremely wide blue lit lighting.
Their clothes were a jet black bodysuit that seemed like it was made to almost constrict them, they wore black heels that complimented the bodysuit. Their hair was a long soft purple colour that ended in a corrupted dark looking purple.
The faint lights that were scattered around the room reflected off of the servant’s black bodysuit that alongside the residue sparks from the summoning gave them an ethereal appearance.
The face and the servant’s size was the one familiar thing that everyone knew. The servant looked like one many in Chaldea were familiar with.
One whose form of absolute power was represented by her pure size and the many goddesses that made up her essence done by BB herself a sign of her status as a member of the Sakura Five.
Kingprotea.
The lookalike servant looked down at the trio.
“Urgh, why is the first thing I have to see after being summoned is three tiny ants crowding around me…” she said as she stuck her tongue out in annoyance.
The first one to move among the surprised trio was Ritsuka. She slowly approached the huge servant. Her normally heightened cautious attitude that had been built over the many missions Chaldea had hoisted on her thrown out the window at the sight of such a familiar face.
“You’re… Protea right?” Ritsuka asked semi hesitantly, hoping for a positive response from the new servant.
The newly summoned servant followed Ritsuka’s approach with her heterochromia eyes as the one obvious human within the group in particular drew closer to her. For some reason, this being out of the three drew her interest the most.
She reached down and wrapped her fingers around the small being before lifting her up to her eye level so she could make out her features. The sudden action momentarily surprised Ritsuka as she let out a squeak, but allowed herself to go with the flow.
She was used to interacting with the Sakura Five alongside many many more extreme servants so being manhandled was in her resume.
The purple haired woman stared at her, studying her as her brain made connections that Ritsuka had no way of knowing what they meant. She was spun around in the servant’s grasp being inspected like a doll, feeling just as helpless as one too.
Her arms were lifted up and down, her hands that were unconsciously clenching were forcefully opened by a giant digit, she was looked at from this angle and that angle. Even held upside down for a second.
As the servant continued this assertive inspection of Ritsuka’s being, her frown slowly grew deeper and deeper with each new angle she viewed the human girl from.
She turned Ritsuka one last time to look at her straight in the face. Her giant face now a billboard of one emotion.
Anger.
Suddenly the black latex covered fingers tightened around her body like many huge serpents beginning to strangle their prey.
The giant’s eyes glared down at her as pain rushed through every part of her body.
“What. Did. You. Do.”
Her words dripped like poison as they exited her mouth.
Mash audibly gasped at the aggressive display as she quickly swung her shield from the side of her body to the front, she shot a glare at the servant while exclaiming “Leave senpai alone!”
“Shut up. This is between me and her. Your tiny voice is aggravating me.” The Protea like person said glaring down at Mash.
Mash held her defensive posture, wanting to rush over and save Ritsuka as soon as possible. However in spite of her being squeezed like a stress ball, she called down to Mash “I- It’s ok Mash! I can handle this!”
Each word she forced out was a balloon full of needles popping in her chest cavity. The pain causing her teeth to chatter involuntarily.
“Let’s j-just keep this… calm ok?” she croaked out aimed at both Mash and the new servant with a painful chuckle at the end as sweat dripped down her forehead. She really wished she could wipe it right now.
Mash with fear in her eyes looked up at Ritsuka being slowly strangled by the giant. Holding herself back with all her might to not capsize the situation even more.
“It depends on how you answer my question, you human shit.” the purple haired servant spat out. Her hostility drilling into Ritsuka’s being.
“W-what’s the question?” Ritsuka painfully smiled, trying to keep things under control.
“Did you do some mage shit to me?”
“W-wha?”
“You heard me. For some reason I find you, a shitty human, interesting.” She spat out, as if the concept alone was poison to her.
The vitriol this servant held for her and specifically humans made her regret more and more that she had stepped up to her just because of her having a familiar face. She should’ve been used to these types of scenarios by this point but her clumsy heart won out over reason this time.
What an idiot she was.
Ritsuka struggled in the giant’s grasp trying to get out the questions she had. However the force of the grip she was in stopped any full manner of speech from even exiting. Not to mention how much it hurt. “C-can you loosen your grip? It makes it hard to respond.” Ritsuka coughed out with that pained smile she put up when she had to handle anything that would cause her a lifetime of stress.
That expression was used a lot by her in Chaldea.
“...Fine” the giant responded after a pause as the pressure on her chest lightened. Still painful but bearable enough. She was surprised this servant’s strength was controlled enough to not kill her instantly. One thing she and Protea had in common. Minus the part where it took Protea three months to control her strength.
Ritsuka breathed in fresh air that had been denied for a good bit. Her chest expanding to its normal size as her body took in the oxygen greedily.
She was finally afforded the ability to look up and meet those aggressive big purple and orange eyes drilling holes into her spurring her on to talk.
“W-what do you mean by interest?” Ritsuka quickly stammered out.
The giant servant clicked her tongue, obviously not happy with the answer just given.
“I usually don’t give a single CRAP about humans but for some reason when I saw you. It’s like my brain wasn’t my own. If this is your doing to try to get me to be your servant I’m gonna make sure the pain you felt a bit ago will be nothing compared to later…” She said menacingly, bringing her face close enough to Ritsuka where her nose bumped into the orange haired girl’s chest.
Mash, without even thinking made way to rush over to save Ritsuka but was immediately stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder by Da Vinci, stopping her mad sprint and almost causing her to fall over.
The huge servant glanced over at the commotion down below her. A smirk creeping up onto her face.
“Oh? Not even going to attempt it? You two could at least try fighting me.” She said with the nasty smirk now complete, relishing in the possibility of a fight starting any moment now.
Ritsuka saw in the corner of her eye Da Vinci trying to call people by tapping her device as she calmed Mash down. That single action would cause this situation to spiral out of control.
So she did the only thing she knew how to do. She pleaded.
“Hold on hold on! I think I know the reason!” the orange haired woman called out quickly, flaying her arms like an inflatable tube person in the servant’s grip to get everyone’s attention.
The servant’s gaze swapped from the two on the ground to Ritsuka in her meaty grasp.
“You’re familiar with Kingprotea right?” she asked hoping, begging that in this situation for once, it was as simple as Kingprotea having an Alter.
“Of course. I’m her Alter after all. But don’t think that makes me her. We’re completely different people.” She said as she glared down at Ritsuka.
Ritsuka nodded in response to the purple haired woman’s answer, letting the new information seep into her brain before quickly giving her response, not wanting a chance to let the giant get angry.
“We have Protea here. You uhm. Might have gotten Protea’s feelings mixed in with your own when you got summoned?” She wasn't really sure how any of this servant summoning stuff fully worked besides some basic strokes.
The purple haired woman stared at Ritsuka with a look of pure exasperation painted on her face as Ritsuka’s face turned red. “Are you sure you’re a mage? That was a pretty half assed explanation and even I could tell that.”
“Ok ok, I’ll explain.” Da Vinci announced, making a big show of clearing her throat, her device now nowhere to be seen. “This summoning is extremely simple if we think about it in one way.The Sakura Five being here in a space where they were able to express themselves in any way they liked opened up more possibilities within the throne for different selves to also be summoned. The anchor used to call you was probably Kingprotea herself.”
Da Vinci continued her diagnosis as she aimed her next line of reasoning at Ritsuka’s theory. “Which then makes the rest of Ritsuka’s guess correct.” Way to go her.
She paused for a bit “Of course I’m almost 100% sure on this theory but without proper testing…” Da Vinci said before she started muttering to herself, despite the tense situation.
Protea Alter looked from the girl who was just explaining things back to Ritsuka in her grasp. Blushing in embarrassment from not being able to explain things well and the conversation having to be taken over by Da Vinci. “Yeah, um what she said.”
“I’m really really sorry for having you be summoned here and immediately being affected by another person’s emotions. I really did not mean for that to happen.” Ritsuka said with a genuine frown. Not wanting anything unnatural to affect how a person felt about her even in this situation.
Protea Alter studied the girl’s small face from a very close distance, looking for any sign of lies that humans loved to spin, but she seemed genuinely remorseful. A surprise for her.
Sighing, she unfurled her fingers and let Ritsuka lay on her palm. The strong flare of pain that had been tormenting her body up until now slowly diminished until it was a persistent pulse. She felt like her whole body was one giant pulsing wound.
Kingprotea Alter shifted, moving one leg from its crossed position to have it bent and letting her free hand rest on it while supporting her head.
“Great. Not like it’s much of a problem when I realize it but that’s still really annoying. Also what do you mean you have the Sakura Five summoned here? What the hell is this place? The two little shits down there are also servants.” She stared at them for a bit before making an addendum. “Or at least defective ones,” she smirked.
“Did the summoning not go through properly in other ways too..? You should already know where we are…” Da Vinci said resting a finger on her chin before continuing.
“We’re in Chaldea. A place that’s currently trying to save Proper Human History. We summon servants all throughout history to have them help us with fixing it! If you change your attitude, you could help too… “ She said the last part under her breath.
“I’ll decide for myself. Also if you butt in my conversation with this girl again I’ll fucking squash you ok?” She said with a big smile on her face.
The tension that had seemed to calm down had once again reared up and ran through the room. The atmosphere was not unlike one would feel being in the eye of a storm.
“H-hey! Do you want to do anything while here? If you don’t like it we can send you back!” Ritsuka called up at Protea Alter.
“Master I don’t think that’s a good ide-” Mash finally piped up before Protea Alter interrupted her.
Protea Alter shook her pointer finger back and forth “Tch tch tch remember I’M talking to her.”
“Let me meet up with Protea. I want to see why she likes being here and get her read on this place. If she says stupid stuff I’ll just leave.”
“And.... I’ll be taking you as insurance when I go to Protea’s room.” She said dangling Ritsuka by her collar. Showing her off in a taunting manner to the two below. Ritsuka swung awkwardly back and forth like a baby cat in its mother’s grasp, her expression one of usual worried acceptance in a situation like this. “Pretty fitting for a giant to kidnap the weak weak little human girl if I do say so myself,” she said with a nasty smirk.
“We can’t let you do that. You’ve been mishandling her this whole time already. If you harm her-” Da Vinci tried to start before being instantly shut down by Protea Alter.
“Ok? And? Can you guarantee that you won’t jump me if I let her go? You and your entire organization?”
Mash who had been holding herself back this entire time finally snapped. Her body was tense and slightly shaking from her anger. She stepped forward with an audible clack of her heel hitting the ground ready to confront the giant. “Stop messing around! We’ve been patient this whole time as you threw out selfish demand after selfish demand while threatening Master!”
“Does the new definition for patient mean pestering me every second?” she said. Protea Alter had a grin painted wide on her face, enjoying how easily she could change and predict the purple haired girl's reaction, just like a little doll.
Mash glared up at the giant, tired of being jerked around in this demeaning festival this woman had built. “It means you let go of Master right now or else. You think you’re so great just because you’re bigger than normal?”
Protea Alter leaned her large face down near the girl, stirring the honey pot more. “You want me to prove it?”
“Prove whatever, I’m saving Master.” She said, challenging back the purple haired servant.
“Mash! Please! It’s ok! I can handle this, I promise. Just please don’t fight.” Ritsuka called down from her damsel position. Her eyes filled with pleading, hoping to defuse the situation.
She hated always having to take these risks and worry Mash but it's not like she could help it. Not when she was dangling some ten to twenty feet off the ground by a servant who may or may not kill her out of boredom.
Mash stared at those eyes, conflict running through her being as her anger still called to her to help her friend.
Protea Alter returned her posture back to normal, seemingly satisfied with having made Ritsuka relent and the strife she caused with the purple haired girl.
“You heard the girl, she’s fine being kidnapped by me. Now leave.”
Da Vinci leaned over to whisper some things to Mash. Her face changed in multitudes. From angry, concerned, panicking to finally regaining at least a bit of calm.
Da Vinci called up to Ritsuka’s new captor. “Fine, but you better hand her over to Kingprotea after you’ve got your answer Kingprotea Alter.”
Mash looking back worryingly at Ritsuka multiple times as Da Vinci led her to the door and hopefully later to a warm cup of tea. Their footsteps slowly fading away into the distance once the door closed behind them.
It was now just the two of them in the wide summoning room. Human and giant. Ritsuka was turned around to face Protea Alter who went from staring at the door to the small human.
“Can’t believe all that fuss over your shitty human life. People must be really desperate here if they want to keep you around.” she said in a bored manner as she swung Ritsuka side to side like a pendulum.
Ritsuka let out a short stressed chuckle “Y-yeah…”
“Hmmm.” she stared uninterested at the human as she continued. “Makes me wonder how much you’re inhibiting that purple haired servant. Must suck to be her.”
“Chaldea helps with the magical energy so she’s pretty strong actually.” stated wanting to defend Mash after all the effort she had put throughout the years. The swinging was making her a bit woozy.
“So there's a workaround to your weakness.”
Chaldea had always helped Ritsuka with her variety of faults. From supplying magical energy with their reactors when she herself could barely sustain one servant with, training her in basic magecraft and even muscle training. Servant after servant assisted with the training too.
World renowned tutors that had been carved into mythology, Mages whose lectures people would sacrifice tens of thousands of lives just to hear and even servants who could clear her fatigue from all the lessons with a wave of their hand.
However, the insane amount of effort she had put in and what she had gotten out of it were as far away as heaven and earth were from each other.
The giant sighed while dropping Ritsuka into her open palm and moving her fingers around causing her to be jostled. “Though I don’t really care about you either way. I just took you hostage so I could meet up with Protea. So don’t get a big head.”
Ritsuka held herself low on all fours trying to keep her balance as she continued to be at the whims of Protea Alter. “I-I’ll try not to.”
The purple haired woman paused her harassing for a bit as she went silent. Seemingly thinking of something. “The ones who I’m more interested in are the masters who’ve summoned the Sakura Five. ”
Ritsuka slowly raised a hand, getting the attention of the purple haired woman.
“Uhm. That’d be me…” she said hesitantly.
Protea Alter paused. Looking directly at the girl. “You’re joking.”
Ritsuka shook her head. “The only master here is me. It’s been me for a long time now.”
“This organization, Chaldea. It has servants catalogued into its database. I have a contract with all of them but really it's Chaldea doing all the heavy work with keeping them around and powerful. That’s what allows me to have so many contracts with so many servants”
Ritsuka pulled up a device from her pocket, as a light blue holographic screen appeared in front of her. She tapped on the screen a bit before turning it around and enlarging it for the servant.
On it was detailed information on the many contracts Ritsuka had with the servants in Chaldea. The list seemingly going on forever as it continued to scroll even when Ritsuka was done showing it to Protea Alter.
“The only one who has a direct contract with me is the purple haired girl. Mash. But even then she still is connected to Chaldea in the usual ways.”
Protea Alter looked down at her, that no good smirk that Ritsuka had become slightly familiar with throughout this ordeal growing on her face once again.
“Guess holding you hostage was even more worth it than I thought."
Ritsuka did not have a good feeling about that smirk.
"Well then I’ll have you lead me to your oh so great contracted servant Protea then.”
Protea Alter pulled herself up from her seated position as Ritsuka held herself against the surface of the palm to not be thrown off by the large movements.
Making her way to the door where the two servants left, it beeped before sliding open, revealing the normal hallways to the two. For Protea Alter however, those normal hallways were more like play tunnels you’d find at child play areas.
“Hey. Are all the hallways here this small?” She questioned as she stared down the hallway that would make her have to do the most awkward crouch walk of her life.
“Around this area, yeah they’re around this height.” she said as she propped herself up using Protea Alter’s thumb.
She stared down at Ritsuka with a look of annoyance. “How does the other Protea usually get around this place?”
“She likes to crawl through the base.” Ritsuka stated up at the giant who was scrunching her face for what was to possibly come.
“She crawls.”
“Yeah?”
When the normal Protea had found out about the hallway situation, she had actually gotten excited. Talking about how a good amount of kaiju walk on all fours on top of being bipedal and that she could be one step closer to the kaiju ideal by switching between them.
Ritsuka was still unsure why the Throne of Heroes had decided that Kingprotea knowing about tokusatsu was necessary.
“Why don’t I just bust up the ceiling so I don’t feel like an idiot.” Protea Alter said, flexing the fingers on her free hand before creating a fist.
However this Protea seemed to be the exact opposite of her. Her comment about them being separate people seeming more and more true.
“I-it’s really not that far to Protea’s place. It’s pretty much a straight line to the storage area which is where her room is located. The ceilings are tall so you’ll be able to stand at your full height too!” She stammered out to the giant with quick panicked words.
Protea Alter let out a tired sigh as she furrowed her brows in annoyance. “Fine. I guess I’ll put up with it until I meet Protea.”
She decided right here and now that if anyone saw her in this embarrassing position; she’d crush them.
The human girl in her hand was quiet as they made their way to Protea’s room. The few times she had talked was when they reached a crossroads as she quickly pointed out the way. But otherwise sat in her silence.
Protea Alter had quickly found out that the distance wasn’t a ‘straight line’ like the human promised. She was lucky that at this point she was more annoyed at something else.
The human’s quietness.
“...You’re distracted about something.”
“Oh. Uhm no, it’s fine. It’s not important.” Ritsuka said as she turned around before attempting to turn back and sit in her silence once again..
“Don’t try to hide things from me, that annoys me.” She said, pushing her finger into Ritsuka’s back, tipping her over straight into a faceplant on her palm.
Ritsuka paused for a bit as she pulled herself up before looking up at the giant’s eyes “...You’re sure?”
“Not like I’m gonna kill you just because of one question. Unless you say something REALLY stupid.”
Ritsuka sat with that comment, seemingly weighing if her question was the really stupid type. She finally seemed to have come to a conclusion as she began to talk.
“I’m uh just wondering how you know the Sakura Five and BB while being an Alter. I know it’s different with each Alter but you seem more like Jeanne Alter who’s disconnected from the normal Jeanne.” Ritsuka questioned as she looked up at the giant, her face illuminating in the hallway lights when her head passed over them.
“That’s what you were being clammy about? That’s stupid.” She said as the girl slightly flinched in her hand from her choice of words. She let out a sigh. “It’s not really that big of a deal. They feel like old memories in my head that if I focus on I feel like I know them and can possibly name their features, but besides that and how BB just feels gross to say. It’s not much.”
Protea Alter thrust her hand forward after finishing her comment, getting Ritsuka’s attention as her knees buckled from the sudden movement.
“Now come on, we’re at the next crossroads. What’s the way?”