Time to tell the story
Chaldea 2020
Mash PoV:
Today is the day. After many times she saves his life and passes some time together, Mash Kyrielight is going to ask senpai what his story was. From the fatidic day one when she meet him sleeping on the floor and solving the singularity F he had shown abnormal abilities, and she said as the only demi-servant alive, which has studies the general line of magecraft and history, but she never had seen what her senpai did.
Walking to the cafeteria to get breakfast from Emiya-san and maybe some of senpai's coffee. Even Emiya was impressed by the quality of the coffee that Senpai's brewed and his curry, which is not something small as Emiya is capable of making 5 stars meals easily.
It has been some days after the booming and the incineration of humanity and Chaldea is slowly recovering with the help of the surviving staff, Da Vinci's machines and the new servants that have been summoned. Emiya was the first one and followed close with the world famous King's Arthur, who truly is a girl named Artoria. Both of them have been really close to each other since the beginning, almost like they know each other from another time.
But the real surprise had come into the form of pseudo-servants, servants that are too weak to manifest themselves or that are too strong to be able to manifestate without a limit. First came the greek goddess of witchcraft and magic Hecate as a caster with the body of a platinum blonde woman and the monkey king Sun Wukong as a rider class servant, using a dye blond boy as his vessel. Two powerful divine spirits and senpai manage to guide them without trouble. Well except if you don't count the daily verbal fights between Wukong and senpai's familiar, a tuxedo cat that can transform and have the same power as senpai.
"Good morning Mash" Says a voice behind me. Director Olga Marie Animusphere at first sight looks like she won't doubt firing you if it is necessary, but she is really a good person and capable lider. By the sheer coincidence that she met senpai before and saw him so bad after the simulator that she decided to see how senpai was, that ended saving her life from the bombs.
"Good morning director, having some breakfast too?" I asked her with a smile. The first two days after the bombing the director didn't eat any food trying to repair and pull Chaldea up. It didn't last long before doctor Roman, Emiya-san, senpai and Artoria stopped the director from working if she didn't have some food beforehand.
"Yes, some coffee and curry. It sounds weird at the beginning but they really mix well" Says the director with a small smile on her face.
"Well the coffee I could see, senpai made it delicious, but the rest of the breakfast is still so good, Emiya-san really likes to cook, especially to Artoria-san." I say while still thinking about asking senpai about his strange power and history. "Do you want to have breakfast with me and senpai director? I want to know more about him and that power he had. I told her honestilly, I am not an alligator waiting for it's prey to fall into a trap.
"Ohhh yeah, we didn't tell you all about the Tokyo's incident four years ago." I look at the director surprised for the revelation. "Do you know what exactly happened four years ago?!" The Tokyo incident in 2016 was the first time that SHEBA detected an anomaly, the center of the anomaly was in Tokyo, Japan. No one could ever tell what exactly happened. Chaldea was low on numbers and the rayshift experiments still on the test stage, neither the Mage Association and the Holy Church could tell too. The only information that we have is that during that incident rains of blood red drops from the sky.
"Well yes, that incident and the one half year later had a weird connection. I guess you can deduce it." The director says with a sly smile. Yeah, she is right, that group is the only connection that happens in both incidents, The Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Nobody knows who exactly they are, one day they appeared and broke the number one rule of the moonlight world, the secret of the supernatural exposed to the rest of the world. That would be if it really was magecraft involved in the hypnosis they pulled, no traces of prana in the mind of the victims, no curse or blackmail either, they were truly phantoms. When Mash knew them for the first time, thanks to doctor Roman, she became a fan. They were so similar to the original Phantom Thief, Arsene Lupin, that made Mash fall in love with the idea. As an avid reader of mysteries and adventure novels, she likes a lot the two characters that are on the opposite side of the law, Sherlock Holmes and Arsene Lupin, even have some crush on them.
The stunts they pull, how they manage to fool Japan with the death of their leader just to reappear in every screen in the country to give the calling card to the possible next Prime Minister of that time, or how they hijack a company blimp to trow many calling cards to say their next victim was the president of the same company.
"Umm Mash, are you ok?" Asked the director with worry on her face. "Umm. I am so s-sorry director, I was thinking about that group, The Phantom Thieves of Hearts. I guess they are the connection you were talking about" I said to her. She just nodded with a small blush on her face. "Well I guess it is the time we tell you all about what exactly happened four years ago" Says the director with conviction.
After breakfast and a quick call to the communicator we were all ordered to go to the conference room. Olga is sitting next to me waiting for the rest of people to appear. Doctor Roman and Da Vinci are sitting together sipping a mug of coffee. Artoria is eating a lunch box that Emiya cooked beforehand, as for the man himself he is standing next to her with his arms crossed.
The doors open and four familiar faces appear. First was her fellow member of team A, Hinako Akuta. A petite woman that her most distinctive traits are her hair tied in two pigtails and her glasses, she usually is a very distant person. Mash had never seen Hinako-senpai interact with the rest of the team A or the rest of the staff more time than necessary. Well almost, the only two times that she truly interacted with other people were when she was passing by and heard a friendly conversation between Olga and Hinako. The second time was just days ago after the director and Senpai made a magecraft ritual to wake her up and heal her wounds, the only witness of that ritual was doctor Roman, but he said that he can't tell what happened there because it would violate the patient-doctor confidentiality. Senpai and Hinako-senpai appear to have a history before Chaldea.
The second was the goddess Hecate. Her attire is mostly back with some red lines crossing it, that combined with her blonde hair, blue eyes and mastery of all forms of magecraft, she can be called a true female fatale. She was arguing with the third person, Sun Wukong. He wears traditional chinese clothes with mostly yellow and black, the small tiara in his head and the monkey tail make his identity difficult to hide, and it's worse when he screams it in Singularity F against Berserker to taunt him.
The last person groans because the petty fights between his servants and decide to continue the conversation with Hinako. Senpai is a black hair japanese man, early twenties, wearing fake glasses that cover his blue eyes. Ritsuka Fujimaru is his name and is the last master of Chaldea with his twin sister Akane, who is now at the infirmary to heal her wounds after Singularity F. For being civilians, they show more than the eye can see.
"Ritsuka, you came late" Says Olga unimpressed. "Sorry Olga, i lost the sense of time while i was chatting to Akane" Replies Senpai
"Well with the kind of injuries she received it is not surprising that she needs time to heal, and patients who are in good humor heals faster." Says doctor Roman giving his medical advice.
"Hey! I was doing some projects and you decided to have a meeting this time. You can't interrupt a genius when they are in the zone you know?" Says Da Vinci a little annoyed of losing some time whe she could work on the perfect and most beautiful project.
"It is for a good reason Da Vinci." Says Olga while turning to senpai "After all, here in Chaldea is the last bastion of the Human Order. To survive and overcome this threat we need to trust each other with our lives, and to do that I think the first step is telling the truth. Don't you agree, Ritsuka?" Olga gives Ritsuka a serious expression that means all the words she just said.
Thinking a while what he is about to say, Senpai steels himself "I guess it is time to share it. I hope you don't mind but this will take long, after all my history is also the history of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts." After that statement several reactions happened in the room. Artoria frowns and do not look very happy. Emiya looked more interested even if it was mere curiosity. Romani keeps silent, even if just only because his mouth is on the floor. Da Vinci looks less annoyed and more interested in the conversation now. For some reason, Hinako-senpai, Hecate and Sun Wukong don't show a visible reaction. I was connecting all the dots and drawing a conclusion.
"Senpai, don't tell me you are a part of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?" I asked the question that most of the people in this room were thinking.
"Ahh my dearest kouhai, I am not just a member of the Phantom Thieves, I am its founder and leader" Ritsuka said it in a very flamboyant way.
After that declaration Artoria raise her voice "So you are saying that my master, the one who I sworn loyalty is just a petty thief?" The room fell into silence for the venom in her words, but senpai appears as confident as the beginning.
"And the King of Knights used a special dagger to assassinate a witch. Do not take the moral high ground too soon Artoria, after all these petty thieves only targeted evil people. Let me tell the story first and later judge our actions." Says Senpai seriously. Artoria keeps silent for the moment waiting for the story to begin.
"Well I guess it is time for the story, and as all the stories we need to start from the beginning to understand the situation…" Senpai starts his story. The story of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
April 9, 2016
Ritsuka PoV:
Crowded, is it a word you can use to describe the train system of Tokyo with all the people using it every day. I was looking at the skyscrapers and thinking about the situation that made me come to the big city. That dreaded night that my life changed forever.
Flashback
It was a calm night, I was walking back to my home from club activities with a little present to my sister when a scream filled the night.
Walking ahead a woman was asking for help against a man clearly drunk that wanted to have a "good time" with her. Ritsuka, as a good person I am, went to help that woman in danger and put in between the pair.
The drunken man got angry and tried to move against me, but the liquor was stronger and made him fall and hit his head. Upon recovering a little, the man rose up with a burning hatred to me, his face covered in blood making him more menacing.
The cops came but they didn't sue the man, they sued me. The man apparently has many connections and influences that make the woman declare against me. The trial was a circus show, the man was anonymous and my sentence was decided before I put a foot on the courtroom. The sentence was a year on probation away from my parents, between that and the juvenile detention center, there were no options.
The consequence of that trial and the mark of a delinquent was all the previous friendships and classmates wanted to get away from me. The worst was the tears and the sad face that Gudako had. She is always like the sun, so saw her that bad…
The day to leave came and this morning I promised my parents I will take care and don't enter into problems. Before leaving Akane comes with a little present, a pair of false glasses. "I want to give you this, it makes you look like that super hero from westerns comics we read. And remember that between the two, you always will be the nerd Gudao".
Flashback end
"Shibuya, we arrive at Shibuya". The arrival of the train wakes me up. It was blurry but I remember seeing a glowing blue butterfly, maybe part of the dream.
I decided to walk by the streets of Shibuya to get to the underground, using a maps app on my phone. I am certain of the route to get there, but just before I passed the famous crossroad a strange app appeared on my phone. It looks like a red eye, but has something unsettling.
One usually would try to erase a strange app that appears out of nowhere and screams "virus". But I was really curious and ended up opening the app. The world around me stops, people, cars, anything...the time has stopped. A presence appears at the other side of the street, it looks like a demon with blue flames at its side. A second later all back to normal.
Already in the zone where my probation officer lives, Yogen-Jaya, I asked around to see where Sojiro Sakura lives. An officer told me where he lives, but when I ring the bell nobody comes out. I was lucky that a delivery man was there talking about Sakura-san usually works in his coffee shop nearby.
The cafe is called Leblanc, and is funny because one of my favorite series is about Arsene Lupin. Inside have a warm atmosphere, a little place that makes you feel at home. There three persons inside, two eldery couple and a middle aged man. The couple appears to be talking about something related about the recent news of those strange accidents, sometimes asking the third one about his opinion.
When the trio appears to finish, the middle aged man looks at me. "Right, they said it was today". Says the barista to himself. The couple decide it is time for them to leave and leave us alone.
"Are you Fujimaru-san right?" The man ask me. "That's right, i am Ritsuka Fujimaru sir."
I said with a polite bow.
The man is a little impressed, "Wow, when they told me about a young man with a probation I do not expect a polite boy. I am Sojiro Sakura, nice to meet you." Sojiro says with a frown but with a little smile on his face.
He told me about meeting my parents before and when they asked for his help, he accepted. The thing is he wasn't accepted in his house for a reason, but he gave me the attic of his coffee shop to be my new room. To say it was a mess would be short compared to this room. All the boxes were scattered and so much dust, but hey, at least it was double the size of my original room, but at the same time it would be more than double the effort to clean this mess.
After cleaning most of the dust and moving the boxes out of the way, Sakura-san comes and looks at all the work I have done. He congrats me, but remember me that if I do cause trouble for him, he will kick me out and throw me to juvie. He left and told me to sleep, tomorrow we would go to my new school to speak with the principal. I was left alone in this attic thinking about how my year would be, at the time I didn't know it, but it would be an interesting year.
Author note:
Hi my readers, I hope you are fine. First of all this is the complete version of the fic i was writing in spanish, it would be practical the same but if you comparing this chapter to the 1st chapter of my spanish fic you would notice it only have the coming to Tokyo section, that is because the spanish 1st chapter was my first chapter ever, I am still learning and english is not my first language. Second, the reason that some characters are alive is because, well you can deduce it in Hinako's case and in Olga's case I told it in the same chapter. I want to make the character as real as they appear in the story and how they change because of the external and internal factors they have to deal with.
I appreciate any constructive review and you can PM me if you want to share theories comparing the Nasuverse and the Personaverse.