F/GO: Everyday Life in Chaldea

FUYUKI — 2

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"Senpai. We will soon reach the point Doctor specified."

Mash informed as I continued to walk forward but behind Mash since there was an archer that threatened to headshot me.

"There are only flames as far as the eye can see. It's nothing like the Fuyuki in our data. According to our data, it's just an average regional city.

There's no record of such a disaster occurring in 2004... The Mana density in the atmosphere is also abnormal. In fact, it's a lot like ancient Earth..."

"I guess it's due to this weird Singularity then?"

"Maybe — "

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Mash and I tensed up at the scream of a woman. That sounded really familiar too.

"Mash! Wait!"

Mash was about to run towards the scream when I stopped her. She looked at me confused as I switched my magic circuits on to prepare myself first.

"Synchro, Start!"

Feeling the familiar heat, I quickly scanned my whole body with Structural Analysis before filling the "cracks" of my cells with Od, Reinforcing my muscles and skin to E- rank levels before nodding at her.

Running to the direction, after a few seconds of rushing, I could see a familiar face who was shooting Gandrs at a group of skeletons with a face of despair.

"Wh-Who are these guys, anyway? Why do these things keep happening to me? I can't take it anymore! Come save me, Lev! You were always there for me right?"

She screams as she continued to fire, making me rush faster to her side to save her. Mash who was scanning her to confirm her identity sped up once she was sure that it was her Director.

"Director Olga Marie Animusphere confirmed! Senpai! Let's go!"

With a war cry, Mash used her D rank Agility to burst into the scene between the Director and the skeletons before twisting, using the edge of her shield like a sword as she slashes and slams the skeletons away.

"Mash! Target the archer skeletons!"

I yelled out the order as I see the skeletons with bows in the motion of drawing their arrows, making them currently vulnerable. Listening to my order, Mash makes sure to push the nearby skeletons away from both herself and the Director's way before leaping to the skeletons.

WHOOOSH!

"Hyah!"

She slams the end of her shield at one of the archer skeleton's faces, completely decimating its skull with her C rank strength before using the edge of the shield to sweep the close skeletons' legs causing them to fall like puppets without strings.

Once they were down, she slams each one of the skulls before looking back at the remaining skeletons.

Meanwhile, I reached the skeletons that were close to the Director. With a deep breath, I ducked under a horizontal swing by a skeleton before disarming it by using my strength to shatter its arm that was holding the sword.

Now with a weapon, I parried a sword strike from behind me.

KLANG!

Using the opening that I created, I raised the unbalanced sword overhead before swinging down and decapitating the skull of a skeleton.

'Two more. One disarmed and the other with no weapon.'

After a quick battle, I walked to the corpse of the skeleton who had the sword and grabbed the scabbard from its body before sheathing the sword since it would be useful for later.

"The battle is now over, no hostile enemies in sight. Are you hurt, Director?"

Mash said as she came back from the area where the archers were.

"Good job, Mash."

"Yes, Master!"

"… What's going on?"

The Director asked after calming herself down and flicking her hair.

"Director? Do you mean about my situation. I know it's hard to believe, but the truth is — "

"A Demi-Servant right? It's pretty obvious that you fused with a Servant. What I want to know is why it's successful now all of a sudden! Enough of that. You! The magus who showed up late to my speech!"

She glared at me, to which I just raised my hands in a surrender pose at the death glare.

"How did you become a Master? Only first-class Mages can enter contracts with Servants! There's no way you, a Spell-Caster, could ever become a Master! What did you do to her to have her do your bidding?"

"Hey, that sounded really weird! It's like you think I blackmailed her or something!"

I argued back as her glare deepened as magical energy started fluctuating around her in an aura.

"There's a misunderstanding, Director. I'm actually the one who forced the contract."

Mash said as she walked between the both of us, causing Olga to transfer her glare to Mash who slightly shuddered at contact.

"What did you say?!"

"I'll explain how it happened. That way we can understand each other's situation better."

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"... And that's how it happened. We were dragged into a Rayshift, and teleported here to Fuyuki. No other Master candidates shifted with us. You're the only human we've run into, Director. But this gives me hope. If you're here, that means there must be other candidates who got teleported here…"

Mash explained the story as the Director waved her hand at the last sentence.

"... There aren't any candidates, actually. That much I'm certain of... I hate to admit it, but I know why we were shifted to Fuyuki."

"So you understand why we survived?"

I asked her to which she just sighs before explaining.

"All of us here share a common denominator. Neither me nor you, nor Mash were actually inside the Coffins. Though Rayshifting flesh and blood isn't likely to succeed, it's not impossible. Meanwhile, the Coffins have breakers. When the success rate's below 95%, the power's cut off. So they never actually Rayshifted. We're the only ones here."

"Well shit."

I muttered a curse at the thought of being the only ones who were in this Singularity as Mash compliments the Director.

"I see. Cutting the power off to protect the Masters in the Coffin if the Singularity is not a confirmed 100% success rate. That's why you're the director."

"Wait, you weren't in your Coffin? That means you weren't about to Rayshift along?"

She kept quiet for a second after my question arose before glaring back at me with her deadly eyes.

"... Is that a problem? What commander heads to the front lines? Didn't I tell you that you were my tools?"

"... Damn, that's harsh." (Toshino)

"Hmph! Whatever. I understand the situation now. Toshino Shin, since it's an emergency I'll approve you and Kyrielight's contract. From here on out, you'll follow my commands. First, let's set up a base camp.

Listen, this is the time to search for a Leyline Terminal. A place where magical energy converges. There we'll be able to contact Chaldea. So in this town's case…"

She puts her hand to her mouth, most probably her thinking pose when Mash interrupts her.

"Um, this is the point, Director. The Leyline Point is at your feet."

.

.

.

"Pfft."

"Whoa! Oh r-right, I knew that, I knew that, of course! Mash, place your shield on the ground. I'm going to set up a summoning circle, with your Noble Phantasm as the catalyst."

She said with a blush as a faint glow appeared on her fingertip.

"... So she says. Are you all right with that, Senpai?"

She asked for confirmation as I nodded to proceed.

"Just keep the shield near you for anything, OK?"

I told her as she nodded and placed the shield onto the ground, but was just a meter away from it in case of an emergency.

"Understood! Director, if you'd please..."

I stepped a few steps back to let them do their thing in peace.

About 5 minutes of silence later (Except for the burning sound of buildings and flesh), the Director stood up with a sigh of relief before wiping her sweat with a handkerchief.

"This is… The same as the summoning experiment chamber in Chaldea."

Mash provided as the Director pointed at me.

"It's complete. Now what's left is the connection to Chaldea. You, stand close to the circle."

Following the orders, I stood close to the shield. One second later, a hologram similar to earlier appeared above the shield.

"CQ, CQ. Hello, hello? Okay, the connection's back! Good job, you secured the connection. Now we can communicate again, provide support through items, and even send ration..."

The face of Dr. Roman appeared on the hologram, a contrast to the previous hologram which only had audio and no video.

"Huh?! Why are you running the show, Romani? What about Lev? Where's Lev? Put Lev on!"

She yelled, to which the Doctor jumped from his seat at the sound of the Director speaking.

"Waaaahhhhhhhhhh! D-Director, you're alive? And you're unharmed? What the… How — "

"What's that supposed to mean? Where's Lev? What's the head medic doing in charge?"

"Don't ask me why. I'm fully aware that I'm not cut out for this job. But there's nobody else, Olga Marie. Currently, the surviving full time staff of Chaldea is less than twenty people, including me.

The reason I'm in charge of operations is that there's no one ranked higher than me who survived. Dr. Lev was supervising from the Command Room. There's no way he could survive that blast."

Her face crumbles at the knowledge of Lev's death.

"No way — Lev… No, forget that, wait… please wait. Less than 20 survivors? What about the Master candidates...the Coffins?"

"... 47 Masters, all in critical condition, and we're short on medical supplies. We might be able to save a few, but all of them might be — "

"Don't be ridiculous! Cryopreserve them immediately. Think about reviving them later. Your top priority is to make sure they don't die!"

She ordered as the Doctor suddenly had the face of enlightenment.

"I forgot the Coffins had those functions! I'll get on it right away!"

He ended the conversation and started running, away from the hologram with the call still connected as Mash looked at the Director in surprise.

"...That surprises me. Cryopreservation without prior consent is a crime Yet you made the decision right away. You put human lives ahead of your own reputation as the director."

I just nodded sagely at the Director's smart move as she just groaned in annoyance.

"Don't be stupid! As long as they're not dead, I can explain myself later - why else? In the first place, 47 lives… There's no way I can carry that burden! Please don't die… I'm begging you… If only Lev were here!"

Ugh, this boss of mine and her obssesion with Lev...

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"...This concludes my report. Chaldea has lost 80% of its functionality. There's only so much that the remaining staff can do. I'm shifting available manpower to Rayshift repairs, and maintaining Chaldeas' and Sheba's current states.

As soon as external communications are back up, we'll request supplies and start rebuilding Chaldea."

Doctor Roman finishes his report as the Director took a second to think before nodding.

"That's fine. I would've done the same if I were there... Sigh... Romani Archaman. I don't like it, but until I return you're in charge of Chaldea. Make the Rayshift repairs your top priority. We'll be investigating this town. The Singularity F."

"Yes Ma'am. And should we rayshift some materials for summoning..."

"Yes, do it now. The more Servants, the better our chances..."

"Material?"

I asked in curiosity as Mash explained while the Doctor called someone.

"There was a Singularity, though a very minor one, while experimenting with Rayshifting. There was this stone that had a high density of Divine Energy at random places, it's what's called a Saints Quartz by our Head of Research.

A Saint Quartz is basically a Pseudo-Spiritron Crystal. Long story short, they are defined as the 'true essence' of the soul. Using these crystals, we can directly connect to the Throne of Heroes and get a higher summoning rate."

I just whistled at the knowledge that Mash was explaining. This was HUGE, especially since with this material, a complete summoning without any problems could be achieved.

"It isn't easy, you know. One, we only have 4 Saint Quartz in Chaldea. We had 7, and tested it beforehand to create our version of the summoning system called FATE. It takes 3 for each summoning using FATE, and there may be a chance that the Servant may NOT answer your calls."

"So there are still chances where the summoning can fail outside a Holy Grail War? That's actually not that bad considering the fact that you're summoning a Servant outside a Grail War."

I commented as suddenly a glow appeared on Mash's shield, once it dimmed away, it left behind 3 rainbow crystals that had edges all over.

I could feel the amount of power that each individual stones contain and gaped at the beauty of it."

"Come on, 48th. Summon your Servant already. The circle is already ready. You do know how to summon a servant right?"

Her voice snapped me back to reality as I just looked at the stones before raising my left arm that held the Command Seals. I had learnt how to summon a Servant before coming to Chaldea, but summoning one myself is a nerve-wracking experience.

"Synchro... Start."

After listening to the suggestions that the Director and Mash gave me, I swallowed the saliva in my throat before starting the summoning incantation.

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Let silver and steel be the essence.

Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.

Let FATE be the system I pay tribute to.

Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.

Let the four cardinal gates close.

Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.

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The Command Seals starts to burn slightly and glow as I continued to pour Od into the summoning.

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Let it be declared now; your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword.

Submit to the beckoning of my will.

Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth.

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The pain was now starting to increase, and I gritted my teeth in brace as I continued the chant after a breath of air.

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An oath shall be sworn here!

I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven!

I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!

From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power;

come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!

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BOOOOOMMM!!!

A pillar of light shone from the summoning circle and soared into the sky, the blinding light forced us to cover our eyes at the luminosity.

Once the light faded, I opened my eyes to see a man with closed eyes standing next to the shield.

It was a man wearing a purple kimono with an exotic appearance, pale skin and purple hair tied into a ponytail paired with indigo eyes. The man was fairly tall, standing at about 176 centimeters (I was only 173) and held a purple nodachi almost his length.

"Wow..."

The Director said with awe as the man looked around the fiery field around us with a hint of realization in his eyes. His eyes then glanced to me before looking at the Seals on my hand. He walked towards us, and once he was close enough, he introduced himself.

"I am Sasaki Kojirou, an Assassin-class Servant. And I have been called upon to your service. Are you my master?"

"Y-Yes, I'm Tohsino Shin."

He said with a deep voice as I suddenly felt a connection link to my soul, causing him to nod.

"Connection confirmed. Very well, you are now my Master."

He looked around us again before asking.

"The situation here is quite bad, should I recommend we relocate to somewhere safer? Most preferably with a gate nearby..."