A/N:

Yet another story, what a surprise. How many stories does this make again that I start and never finish? Doesn't matter, I'm hardly the only one with that problem.

This story will be a bit different; basically this is an idea that I've had for an imaginary Fate/Grand Order event story if I were allowed to draft it, or in other words a fan-made event story. Therefore, you'll be seeing quite a few OC's, and (perhaps to be expected) they'll be prominently featured throughout the story.

I've published a completed story a long time ago, one by the name of Song of Eden, and one of the critiques I received was that it was rather tedious reading the whole story in one chapter, since I didn't bother to split it up into chapters and just threw it up wholesale. So what I plan to do for this story is to write ten chapters of this story at a time, then upload one chapter a day once a batch is finished, while working on the next batch in the meantime so that hopefully I'll have a somewhat consistent upload schedule.

I'd also like to warn you here before you begin reading that the main character for this story is one I've featured in some of my other stories as well. If you've had the (dis)pleasure of reading the others, you may recognize them, along with whatever references they come with because I love me some references. Much like most of the other stories I've started and can barely finish, I've been sitting on this idea for a while and I've reached the point where I just have to put this on paper, but this time I'll actually put in the effort to bring a finished story...or so I say, if other things don't distract me like they always do.

To set the setting for this fan-made event story idea, I'll say that this takes place after sometime in between Agartha and Shimosa; this is mainly because as an NA FGO pleb, I only know the story up until Agartha. Maybe there's a more appropriate time frame that I can set this story as, but this is what I'll work with for now.

Oh, and I'll use Gudako, the female Ritsuka, as the Master in this story.

-TouhouSniper98

"Rise and shiiiine, Ritsuka ~ ! And smeeeeeelllll ~ the aaaaaaashes ~ !"

Ritsuka can recognize that voice from three quarters across Chaldea, and now it's shaking the walls of her own room, or at least that's what it sounds like. Such is the voice of a self-proclaimed genius; it'll even convince the walls nearby that the voice is coming from a genius.

Snapping her eyes open immediately, the Chaldean Master sits upright steadily, rubbing her eyes lightly in her pajamas, and the glint of the subtle backglow of her Command Spells is still visible underneath the initial flare of the ceiling lights.

"Good morning, Da Vinci," Ritsuka says, in her moderately accented English. The past two years of saving the world multiple times over and working closely with a mainly English-speaking staff and her own beloved and self-proclaimed underclassman has done huge favors for her English, over which she once only possessed a tenuous grasp before she applied to Chaldea on a whim. Then again, being constantly put in life-or-death situations would understandably accelerate the language learning process much faster than school grades ever could, but what does Ritsuka know, she's not a genius like this certain other person in her room with her.

"Buongiorno ~ ! You're probably wondering where Mash is right now, aren't you?"

"...in the Control Room, setting up the next simulation, I'd imagine."

Da Vinci fakes a gasp, though it's obvious to Ritsuka. "Goodness! How much time have you two been spending together ever since you came back from the Temple of Time? You even know where Mash right when you wake up! There's untapped potential you have, Ritsuka, and we must investigate!"

She whips out a notepad and ink quill pen from behind her back as if she's about to interview the still slightly groggy Ritsuka, who has no idea how those items even got there in the first place.

"Paper and pen for research? You've really downgraded, huh. Did funding for the research branch get cut or something and I didn't hear about it?" Ritsuka asks a bit dully, pulling her legs out from underneath her covers to get out of bed.

"Hey, don't judge, okay? Sometimes geniuses like me from my era like doing things the old-fashioned way. And you know that recently I haven't gotten very many chances to do that."

"Oh, you're telling me."

Heading over to her small closet in the corner of her small room, Ritsuka places her hand on a square outline on the right door to her closet which acts as a biometric scanner, scanning her right handprint to unlock the doors with a pair of small clicks.

"Going straight into training again, huh?" Da Vinci asks her Master, in a noticeably softer tone than the cheerfully playful one that she greeted her with initially.

Ritsuka nods, putting on her default Mystic Code, the one that she's been using ever since she became a Master candidate of Chaldea. A Mystic Code that harkens back to earlier times, different times...better times, perhaps. But Ritsuka dwells on none of these things as she removes her bedclothes and puts her Mystic Code on.

"Going with the tried and true? Good choice. Remember, if you need any repairs on that, just let me know," Da Vinci reminds her.

"Yep, I know. Did you eat breakfast yet, by the way?"

"Yes, I did, in fact, thank you for asking. Just a light one, since eating too heavily in the morning can impede brain activity and performance..."

"What about Mash?"

Da Vinci's brows furrow. "That...I'm not sure of. I figure she's responsible enough to take care of herself, but..."

"I'll go ask her right now, then."

"Sounds good. I need to head back to the Control Room anyway to double check the Simulations. Mash has gotten really good at setting them up, but every so often she'll make a mistake...remember the other day where twenty Chimeras spawned instead of two? I checked back, and I'm pretty sure Mash accidentally put in a zero where there shouldn't have been..."

Ritsuka grimaces a bit. "Then it was a really good thing that we had Artoria with us..." she sighs with relief as she and Da Vinci exit her room once she's done dressing and head towards the Control Room. "Those were Super Chimeras, too, the ones we ran into at Shinjuku..."

"No kidding. Training is good, and it's great that you've been diligent at it all this time, but given how we've set up the simulations..."

"Yeah, I know."

"You need to be stricter on Mash sometimes, you know," Da Vinci pouts at Ritsuka. "I know that you know why she's working so hard like this."

"I do, but...I feel like it's worse if I stop her from doing what she wants to," Ritsuka protests calmly. "To be honest, if I were in her shoes, I'd...probably do the same thing. Do whatever I can to help the person most important to me...especially after I've lost the power I once had."

Da Vinci sighs too, then nods sympathetically. "Indeed, Mash has done much better than I thought she would after we told her at the start of Shinjuku that she couldn't follow you into these Remnant Singularities lately due to her condition. Ah, if only I'd taken her under my wing, imagine how great of an assistant she'd be ~ "

"Please don't fantasize about stealing other people's underclassmen, Da Vinci."

"Awwww ~ "

"That's my job."

"Eeek! The truth comes out!"

Laughing together, Ritsuka and Da Vinci soon reach the Control Room, where several staff members dressed in the usual Chaldean white and green are at their stations, monitoring Shiva and other vital systems. In the center of the large room, standing at the large digital table in the middle that helps give the Control Room a war room-like feeling are Mash and a pair of Servants, namely Tamamo the Caster and Emiya the Archer. At the sound of their entry into the Control Room, Mash looks up and waves good morning enthusiastically as ever to her Master and best friend, Ritsuka.

"Good morning, Senpai. Did you sleep well?" Mash asks, the same question that Mash has greeted Ritsuka with for the past two years, and for some reason Ritsuka has never once gotten tired of answering it.

"Yep. And did you eat breakfast today?" Ritsuka returns.

"Er - " Mash hesitates for just a second before answering quickly with a "Yes, I did. Mr. Emiya was on cooking duty today, so it was really good!"

"Like I keep telling you, Mash, you can drop the 'Mr.'," Emiya sighs.

But this doesn't fool Ritsuka. Having been with her for two years, the first year of which being spent pretty much constantly by her side, the Chaldean Master knows that that slight pause when confronted with a question she can't comfortably answer means that Mash is probably lying.

"Oh really? What was the food today?" Ritsuka challenges Mash, who pauses again.

"Uh, chicken omurice! With miso soup on the side."

So I turn to Emiya to confirm. "Did you serve that for breakfast today?"

And as Ritsuka suspects, Emiya shakes his head. "Today's breakfast was more of your generic American breakfast, as per the request of Edison and Paul. Hashbrowns, mashed potatoes with light gravy, sweet corn, three strips of bacon, two sausage patties, two eggs either sunny side up, over easy, or scrambled with salt, and either two flapjacks or two pieces of French toast with maple syrup and butter. I also added baby carrots, broccoli, and fresh baby tomatoes since vegetables are important, even for Servants, served with orange juice, apple juice, or milk," he answers. "And, I'm sure you've figured this out by now, but I most certainly did not see Mash at mess hall today."

So Ritsuka eyes Mash suspiciously, eyes that Mash cannot look straight back into.

"I-I'm sorry, Senpai! I just – I just was trying to get this simulation set up properly because I messed up the other day accidentally spawning in twenty Chimeras...!" Mash cries, hiding her eyes behind her hands as if that's really going to help her case. "I was so scared that I'd make another mistake like that, so I was just making sure that there weren't any other mistakes for this one...!"

"It's true. Poor girl's been in here for the past two and a half hours double-checking, triple-checking, quadruple-checking that there weren't any errors in the simulation code..." Tamamo no Mae coos sympathetically, giving Mash a soothing hug to calm her down. "I'd do the same thing if I were her. I'd feel terrible too! By the way, what comes after quadruple?"

"Quintuple," Emiya answers. "Don't make me talk about what comes after that."

"Oya? Why not?" Tamamo asks innocently, but thankfully for Emiya, Ritsuka motions for Tamamo to let go of Mash so that she can talk to her.

"Mash, we've had this talk before. I appreciate you going the extra mile to help me in whatever way you can, but honestly the biggest thing you can do to help me is just to look after yourself," Ritsuka says earnestly. "At the risk of sounding ignorant because maybe you've already thought of this yourself, but don't you think that your mistakes lately are the result of you not eating properly and sleeping properly? It's not like I don't know about what you've been doing."

Mash nods sheepishly. "You're right, I...I haven't...really been taking care of myself very well. It's just that...ever since the Remnant Singularities started showing up, I see you continue training like we used to in between Singularities before the Time Temple, and...and since I can't fight right now, it just motivates me to keep doing my best in whatever I can do to assist, you know?"

"If only the rest of the staff had the same kind of motivation that Mash has..." Da Vinci laments dramatically. "We'd pinpoint these other Remnants in no time and bully the other Demon Pillars out of existence."

"We're trying our best, ma'am!" one of the nearby staff members responds immediately with a salute, causing the Servants and the others to chuckle in response.

"But in any case, really, you should look after yourself," Ritsuka tells Mash firmly. "Matter of fact, I wanted to grab some breakfast before starting training today. Wanna come join me?"

Mash brightens up immediately at the prospect. "Y-Yes, of course! I'm...I'm actually really hungry, too..."

"And how long were you planning to work before you finally would've gone to eat if I didn't ask you now?"

"Uhhh..." Mash looks away again darkly, completely unwilling to answer.

"Be honest with me, please."

"...until I...made absolute sure...that this simulation for today didn't have any errors...?"

"And how long would that've taken?"

"...no comment."

Immediately, Ritsuka seizes her underclassman by the scruff of her shirt and turns to Tamamo and Emiya.

"Is breakfast still being served? If not, I might need to request emergency breakfast services just for today because Mash is going to starve herself working here," the Master asks with a genuine but also joking sense of urgency.

"Of course ~ ! Who else to turn to than your lovely top-tier Arts Caster, Tamamo-chan ~ ?" Tamamo prances a little in response. "That, and I was only here because Mash asked me for advice on which enemies to set for today's simulation..."

"Incidentally, she set all Assassin Class enemies for today..." Emiya groans somewhat.

"Personally, I see nothing wrong with that," Da Vinci smirks as Ritsuka puts on a look of pained discomfort. "Oh, but I guess Ritsuka does, though."

"Er...I'm..." Ritsuka sighs, still sounding pained. "...I'm not a fan of the Ghosts...or the Werewolves..."

"It's okay, Master, a nice warm bowl of fresh rice and miso soup'll be more than enough to get rid of those bad memories. Remember, I make the best miso soup in the world! Or at least here in Chaldea."

Emiya raises his eyebrows, then folds his arms slowly and dramatically, which the man has a tendency of doing whenever he engages in something he feels personally about.

"That sounds like a challenge, Miss Tamamo. You do know what you're getting yourself into, yes?" he smiles subtly.

"Oh, but of course. I'll concede that you are very knowledgeable about a variety of cuisines, Emiya-kun, but when it comes to cooking, you're just a jack of all trades, and the master of none. I'll show you who the true Gordon Ramsay of Japanese cuisine is around these parts!"

"And so the challenge is officially issued. I figured we would have this moment at some point, sooner or later. It was only a matter of time," Archer chuckles with a tone of anticipation that is unique to the feeling of one wanting to prove oneself superior. "Well, as they say, this Chaldea certainly isn't big enough for two Japanese culinary masters."

"Right you are, Red Man! Without a doubt, our battle will be legendary!" Tamamo puts her hands on her hips and puffs out her ample chest, doing so with such force that the bosom of her blue kimono gets tugged down by the size of her breasts, threatening to descend more than what would keep this story PG-13. Thankfully, the genre-savvy Ritsuka quickly fixes Tamamo's dress for her before anything bad can happen.

"As much as this Hell's Kitchen would be quite the morning entertainment, I need to give Mash's simulation work some professional overview," Da Vinci clears her throat to bring the situation back to reality before turning to Mash and Ritsuka. "You two can take your time with breakfast. And make sure Mash eats everything on her plate, okay?"

Ritsuka nods and snaps off a crisp salute. "Understood, Generalissimo Da Vinci!" she barks back.

"G-Generalissimo..." Da Vinci can't stop herself from feeling flustered over being addressed like this. "Ritsuka, can you say that just one more time, please - "

"No."

Da Vinci grasps her chest. "Oof...! My poor heart – who else can fix my bruised ego now...?"

After making sure that Mash has indeed eaten her proper fill and escaping the Hell's Kitchen that the mess hall has turned into as a result of Tamamo and Emiya having their legendary showdown with a good chunk of Chaldea's Servant roster participating as the live audience, Ritsuka and Mash return to the Control Room.

"Ah, good timing, you two," Da Vinci greets them again, waving them over to the center table where she's been fine-tuning the simulation that Mash has been working on for the morning. "I've made edits to the simulation so it should be safe. I've also been working on simulation enhancements so that we can simulate AI interaction, kind of like the interactions you've been having in all these Singularities, but I do need to have Ritsuka enter the the Simulation field so that I can get some data that the enhancements I want to put in need first."

"Sure thing. The others will be here once Tamamo's and Emiya's duel out in the mess hall ends," Ritsuka notifies Da Vinci.

"Hm, and when is that supposed to end, exactly?"

Ritsuka simply gives a slow, vague shrug.

"Mm, that's...what I was afraid of. Oh well, good for us, it gives me more time to recalibrate the simulations. We can also have a tactics meeting, just the three of us, in preparation for the next Remnant, whenever that shows up."

So Ritsuka heads over to the door leading to the Simulation field just outside while Mash is asking Da Vinci about how much she's altered the simulation in their absence. The Chaldean staff has vacated the Control Room so that she, Mash, and Da Vinci are the only ones in the Control Room, which means that Ritsuka is the sole living being that enters the Simulation Field, where occupants are engaged in simulations run by the Control Room next door. Usually Ritsuka would be accompanied by a varying number of Servants who would join her for her daily training, so entering the Simulation field alone is a novelty that she isn't sure whether to enjoy or ignore.

Positioning herself in her usual spot for the beginnings of simulations, Ritsuka waits for either Da Vinci or Mash to begin speaking to her over the intercom, and sure enough, Da Vinci's pokes through.

"Alright, Ritsuka, the enhancement calibrations are about to be underway. It should only take a minute or so."

"Do I need to do anything in particular? Or just standing is fine?" Ritsuka calls back.

"No, just stay like that, you're fine. Alright, beginning calibration in three, two, one..."

The simulation field begins to glow, signifying the beginning of a simulation coming online. The walls of the large room starts to distort, with cubes forming out of them as if someone is pressing square-shaped cookie cutter molds into them like cookie dough. The colors in the walls shift from dark blue and black to gray, continuing to become lighter until they reach a state of pure white as the cubes being cut out from the walls begin to slowly float up into the air like bubbles.

As she's watching the cubes ascend into the whitening sky, Ritsuka only now realizes that she's feeling lightheaded, and that for some reason, it's becoming progressively more and more difficult for her sense of self, as if her mental consciousness is rapidly evaporating.

This is not a simulation. Something has gone wrong.

"Da Vinci...?" Ritsuka calls out, but due to her mental fatigue, if she can even call it that, her voice doesn't come out as strongly as she wants it to, so she puts in much more effort to make herself heard. "Da Vinci, can you hear me? Something – I think something's...going...wro - "

Parts of her vision blurs horribly all of a sudden, but before she even gets a chance to register in her head that her eyesight is compromised, Ritsuka hears the sound of cold, icy hot steel tearing its way through flesh. Realizing that her body is suddenly being weighed down by dozens of extra pounds that most definitely is not body fat, she looks down to see a total of six black swords fixed inside her body, protruding out from both her front and back.

What surprises her more, however, is the absence of blood.

As it turns out, she doesn't have the time to wonder why there is none, either. The moment Ritsuka looks up, one final blade pops her in the face, right between the eyes.

"Listen only to the sound of my voice.

"Let your mind relax.

"Let your thoughts drift.

"Let the bad memories fade.

"Let peace be upon you.

"Surrender yourself to your dreams.

"Let them wash over you like the gentle waves of the bluest ocean.

"Let them envelope you.

"Comfort you.

"Imagine somewhere calm.

"Imagine somewhere safe.

"Imagine yourself...in a frozen forest."

Unfamiliar words whispered by an unfamiliar voice...it's enough to stir Ritsuka out of her mysterious slumber, and she pushes herself up from the ground, though still seated as she shakes her head and clasps her hand against her face where she feels like something very sharp just punched her in between the eyes.

A cold sensation immediately greets the skin on her forehead, which helps wake her up a bit more at the startling sensation. She glances at her right hand, which is covered in...snow.

Slowly becoming bewildered at her vague situation, Ritsuka shakes her head more vigorously to force herself to come to her senses and takes an initial look around at her surroundings. She finds herself laying on snow-covered ground next to a small little bank of snow that's built up behind her, or perhaps it was already there when she got here somehow, laying at the bottom of a morose, withered, and blackened young tree that has a grand total of three branches. A tree whose life has been stopped before it could truly grow.

It's hardly the only tree in the area. Tall trees of varying sizes stand tall, with some of the larger ones towering into the sky like small skyscrapers; they remind Ritsuka of the big trees she's seen in the forests of America during the Fifth Singularity or the ones in Babylonia during the Seventh, but unlike those trees, these ones seem ominous, frozen...dead.

Small flakes of snow flutter down from the sky, which appears to be perpetually blanketed by murky white clouds that are so thick it's impossible tell where the sun is. A small stream, presumably made by melting snow and ice somewhere further ahead, flows eerily quietly not far in front of her, and boulders and rocks also of varying sizes dot the snow, interspersed throughout this forest landscape with the silent, cold trees.

Speaking of the cold, Ritsuka feels gripped by the cold that fills the atmosphere. Having been to many different kinds of Singularities, even being the mediocre mage that she is from a conventional standpoint, she's since developed a sense of detecting ambient magic in the atmosphere. So drawing from this experience, Ritsuka determines quietly to herself that it's as if this place is simply devoid of any and all ambient magic energy. Whether or not this alleged lack of ambient magic is the cause for the cold is something she can't explain on her own, but given that the cold is penetrating her Mystic Code, which is at least supposed to protect her from the elements to a degree, it's clear that the cold is not natural. It's not quite cold enough where it's causing Ritsuka serious discomfort or is putting her life in immediate danger, but it's definitely something that she'll have to get used to during her time here in this strange land...however long that she'll be stuck here.

Clapping her hands against her cheeks, Ritsuka gathers herself one more time and mentally prepares herself. This isn't the first time she's been dragged into another world randomly like this. After all, she's already been through Dantes' Prison Tower and the like, and she's survived those; there's no reason why she wouldn't be able to fight her way out of this one, too.

Though, admittedly, in those situations, she had Servants and comrades to work with. Here, there is not another soul in sight. Just Ritsuka, the trees, the snow, the water, the rocks, and the cold.

Not knowing what her next course of action should be, Ritsuka, slightly absentmindedly, looks back up at the sky, having to squint due to her vision still in the process of recovering fully.

A single butterfly floats lightly through the air. Ritsuka isn't sure how high in the air it's flying. Is it flying? Or is it floating? She's not sure. Its wings are black, and its body is white. If nothing else, the mere sight of it flapping its wings through the air is enough to give Ritsuka the impression that at least something, anything, in this forest besides her is actually alive, because until now, this place hasn't done a good job in suggesting otherwise. Ritsuka blinks, her eyes watering slightly from staring up at the murky clouds that still irritate her eyes somewhat.

The butterfly is gone.

Not thinking much of it, Ritsuka lowers her gaze. If her previous Singularities have taught her anything, even if she can't always make good on it, it's that she needs to take action first. So she'll try to do just that -

"Good morning."

Ritsuka almost jumps out of her boots at the sound of the soft voice.

A small girl is standing before her, behind the small stream that separates them. She seems to be about Jack the Ripper's height and wears a painfully plain black dress bordered with white felt, with matching Mary Jane shoes on her feet and sleeves that are prim and proper. Her clothes are so plain, in fact, that they accentuate what's perhaps the most distinctive feature about her: her quiet, silky and metallic white hair that drapes down to the backs of her shoulders with no particular hairstyle. And because there is no wind around them, everything about this girl is still. Frozen still, if you will.

Her eyes are closed. Yet her face is angled up at Ritsuka's, as if she were looking straight back into her eyes if her own were open.

This girl was definitely not standing where she is now just a moment ago.

Feeling the need to speak first, Ritsuka swallows the cold spit in her mouth to help herself gather courage and asks,

"Where's Da Vinci? Where's Mash? And...where is this place? What is this place?"

Ritsuka doesn't know what to expect, especially not in a situation like this, so whatever the girl does in response will come as a surprise. And surprisingly enough, the girl answers.

"0730 hours. Date: unidentifiable. Rendezvous with the Master of the Chaldea Security Organization completed. Initial vitals scan indicates slight disorientation, effects negligible."

The girl now begins to step forward, dipping a foot into the stream once before reaching Ritsuka's side of the forest. Instinctively backing away from the girl, Ritsuka keeps her eyes peeled on her as she stops now just a few meters away, at which point, due to her walking, she now sees the small black cross that she wears on a frail-looking necklace that rests on her chest. The ornament blends in perfectly with her dress, so it practically vanishes if the girl is standing still.

"Er..." Ritsuka doesn't quite know what to say, and she just stares back at the girl. While her voice is not quite monotone, it's serenely quiet and calm, almost too calm. It's a wonder how Ritsuka can even manage to hear her talking at all with how quiet her voice is. She then adds, softly:

"Welcome to the Silva Gelida."

Ritsuka continues to gaze down at this mysterious little girl. She is standing incredibly still – almost like a robot, an inanimate object; it certainly matches her robotic, computer-like , and the fact that there's no wind blowing right now just makes it worse because the girl's clothes and hair aren't moving as they normally might be in any other situation, so the eerie atmosphere is compounded by the girl's mere presence in the area.

Thankfully, the girl begins to speak again, which somewhat breaks up the chilling air about her.

"This subject requires the assistance of a Master to fulfill its current mission profile; requesting permission to establish temporary Servant-Master contract for the duration of mission profile."

Staring blankly back at the little girl, Ritsuka slowly raises her hand with her Command Spells on it, and they glow with their confident red aura as the contract is silently established between the two.

"Confirming successful establishment of contract," the girl nods lightly. "Ritsuka Fujimaru, Cause-Rank Mage of the Clock Tower Association. The pleasure is mine."

Ritsuka can't help but just stare down at the little girl dressed in black for a few minutes. For those few minutes, the girl also stares back, still with closed eyes that do not open.

"...who are you?" she finally asks.

"Jeannie," the girl replies crisply. "Jeannie...Sawatari."