Disclaimer : I dont own any characters in the stoy. They all belong to Type Moon. They are really cool.
Author notes: I started to play this game Fate Grand Order and its really addicting. So I wanted to make it where Merlin was inserted as a master here.
"There will be no record of your score. Please feel free to enjoy this experience. Activating Heroic Spirit Summoning System." Said the computer AI.
"Can I just get a little more details on what am I -" He was interrupted.
"We hope you have a good experience as a Master for these 3 minutes."
Suddenly, Masahiko felt his stomach lurch as the world shifted around him. As it finished shifting he managed to get a good look around on his surroundings. Masahiko looked around and saw that he was suddenly standing in the middle of a vast green field that seemed to stretch far into the distance. In front of him, stood three people he had never seen before; a young blonde woman in a blue dress and metal armor, holding...nothing in her hands, a blue-haired man in a spandex gripping a blood red spear that seems to make the hair on the back of his neck rise from the aura it was giving off, and a slightly younger-looking man with black hair and green armor holding a red bow with arrows on his back.
'So, the blue guy with the spear is a 'Lancer', the green guy with a bow is 'Archer,' so that meant the girl holding nothing is what? Is it invisible or something?'
Masahiko suddenly saw something move in the distance, and his eyes widened as a group of walking skeletons heading straight towards them with swords and spears in hand. The three people who were there with him didn't seem to care much, merely looking at him waiting fo his orders.
Were they even real? Would I get in trouble if I do nothing? It said there would be no recording, but just to be on the safe side he'll do his best.
"Okay Masahiko, think. Think." he muttered to himself, taking a deep breath. "You're in a battle simulation, and there are three servants on your side. So, the point of this is to defeat all those skeletons and survive. Since I have no idea how to fight beyond street brawling; I need to tell them to fight for me, I think."
Masahiko waited for a few seconds before realizing that no Tutorial was coming to help, but the skeletons are advancing. He sighed. Now he just had to go with his guts. What the worst thing could happen?
"Uh...okay, Saber and Lancer, intercept those incoming skeletons!" he ordered, hoping that it was the right move to make in the given situation. "Archer, shoot at them as they are being destracted by saber and lancer. "
Once he gave out the orders, Saber and Lancer vanished as they covered the ground between them and the skeletons in an instant. As he looked on in awe as he could see broken bones and weapons starting to fly in every direction as the servants began tearing through them.
Next to him, Masahiko saw Archer launching arrow after arrow at anything that tried to run past saber and lancer. 'Damn, thats really cool. Archer is getting headshot after headshot even with the helmets on their heads.' Masahiko is impressed and a little pissed at him; showing off and making it look like it's a easy thing to do.
His thoughts were cut off as a roar was heard in the distance; it made him freeze up. Masahiko tuned his head shakily and he saw some kind combination between a lion, goat, and snake... a chimera? It charge towards saber and lancer, knocking aside any skeletons that got in its way. With Saber and Lancer completely surrounded, he turned to Archer and ordered him to "Destroy it with everything you've got! Don't let it get any closer to them." He is scared and is about to pee his pants as the bloodlust radiated in the air. 'How is this a stimulation?!'
What he was expecting was for Archer to shoot it in the eyes or maybe in its joints to hinder it's movements. What he was not expecting was for him to draw back his bowstring and notch a massive arrow-shaped bolt of light as he jumped high with a scream, "STELLA!" at the top of his lungs, and fire at the chimera, instantly annihilating it...with the skeletons... as well as saber, lancer... and himself.
Masahiko got the distinct impression that it is his fault. He'll pretend that it was all part of his plan to get rid of them all. He looked around pretending to be confident as he waited for it to end.
"Simulation complete. Deactivating Heroic Spirit Summoning System."
Once again the world, around him warped and twisted; this time Masahiko suddenly felt drained and everything started to be blurry. His last thought was, 'I should have stayed in bed.' He didn't even hear his score as he hit the ground outside the simulation room before falling unconscious.
"Fou? Kyuu...Kyuu?"
"Noo...five more minutes, mom..." Masahiko groaned.
"Fou! Fou...Fou!"
He felt something lick his face, which was just enough to wake him up slightly. He opened his eyes, still feeling tired as he looked down to see what is licking his cheek. It is, a dog thing? He didn't know what he was looking at, it was white and fluffy with long pointy ears, and Masahiko was pretty sure it seemed to like him with it nuzzling his chest. It's ears flickered a little before it ran off and turned a corner; as he watched it go, he heard a voice called out to him.
''Senpai, that isn't the right place to sleep, you know?"
"Ah..." Masahiko blinked several times, before looking right up at the girl who was standing in front of him. All that he could notice was that the girl in front of him was... Beautiful. Yes, she has pale pink hair and lavender eyes; she is wearing a rectangular frame glasses, a greyhoodie over a black shirt over a white collar shirt, a red tie, a black skirt with tights and brown shoes. In general, only two thing prevented him from calling her the most beautiful girl in his life is that she's way out of his league and he didn't want to called a pervert for checking her out.
"Senpai, are you ok?" the girl examined him from all sides as she helped him stand up, wondering why he was sleeping on the floor. He sighed, "Well, I just finished the simulation and it made me exhausted."
She took a step back from him as she considered his answer. She nodded her head and slightly bowed, " I see. My name is Mash Kyrielight. It's nice to meet you, senpai."
"Ohara Masahiko. It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kyrielight-san." He replied, as he never had to communicate with a girl so beautiful before.
''Well senpai, why didn't you take a nap in your room?" Mash said confused.
"I didn't know I had one. I received a letter a few days ago, saying that I got a job here because of a blood test I did a couple of months ago. They didn't give me enough time to look at the handbook as I went to the simulation room. Wait, senpai?"
"Yes, I...'' Before she could finish her sentance, a rapid movement started to run towards them from the far end of the corridor and made a giant leap to Mash, landing on the girl's shoulder, making her smile and a little bit embarrassed. She reached out to rub the neck of the creature.
"Sorry, senpai" turning to Masahiko, the girl pointed to the creature with her chin, slightly embarrassed, "This is Fou, a resident of Chaldea. It's pretty rare for someone to see him. He always hides in weird palces. I think Fou likes you." She said happily
As if to confirm this, Fou pulled his little head forward and sniffed several times before he jumps and landed on Masahiko's face covering his eyes with the fluff.
"Oh... He often does this. Bad Fou, don't do that. Senpai can't see anything if you cling to him like that." As she tried to pull him off of Masahiko, but she was doing a lousy job as Fou is digging his sharp claws on Masahiko's head.
"Ow ow ow, stop." Masahiko muffled voice yelled out as he waaved his arms, not wanting his head to bleed. Mash stopped pulling and panically said, ''S-sorry sorry senpai." He waved his hand signaling it's fine; as Masahiko raised his hand slowly, Fou sniffed it before looking away happy with his perch. Masahiko started to scratch under Fou's chin and he started to purr in satisfaction.
Prr, prr, prr*
As Fou purrred, he relaxed his paws and went down into Masahiko arms. It was a cute scene until someone had to ruin it.
"What are you doing here Mashu?" a voice from the other end of the corridor made Masahiko and Mashu turn to look at the approaching person. Fou got startled and jumped down and ran off.
It was a man and a tall one, likely 5'9'' and his age in the mid 30's. He is wearing a green coat, green hat, brown pants and black shoes.
"Ah Mash, there you are. I was looking for you." the man approaching her, as he got closer; he noticed Masahiko standing behind her. "Hello, I didn't see you. Who are you?"
"Ohara Masahiko. It's nice to meet you.'' muttered Masahiko, trying not to look at the new guy with a glare for ruining his time talking to Mash and holding Fou. 'He was so fluffy.'
"Ah, Masahiko.'' The man broke into a smile, "My name is Lev Lainur, a local technician and scientist. If you need anything, please contact me anytime. I suppose you are the last of the forty-eight master candidates. Congratulations on getting to Chaldea, my boy!"
Unfortunately, the letter only breifly mentioned Chaldea and the forty-eight candidates made Masahiko more curious about this place.
''You were the lucky to be recruited, you know? It was the last spot open where anyone could get in." Lev continued, with a good-natured smile. He put his hand behind his back and asked, "Did you train a long time for this? One Year? Two? Two and a half years?"
Not knowing how to answer, Masahiko tried to answer vaguely. "No, I didn't train that long for this."
''I see.'' Lev sounded disapponted with his answer while looking away from his face.
'Hey, when you phrase it like that, it's like I'm incapable of anything and only got here because of a miracle!' Technically speaking, it is the truth and therefore twice as painful to hear.
"By the way, it's unusual to see you with someone Mash." The man looked interested. "Acquaintances from the past? Could it be, an old flame perhaps?"
"No! No, no, I just met senpai sleeping on the floor, in the middle of the corridors." Mash cheeks flushed red when she realized that she screamed it. She realized that she shouldn't have said it like that, but it was already too late. She sent a descrete glance towards Masahiko, wanting to see if she hurt his feelings or not. 'He seems fine. That's good. Phew'
Unkown to Mash, he felt a sharp pain in his chest when she said that; though, only for a moment. 'It really is painful for a cute girl to turn you down so fast without you thinking of asking.'
"That's why?" Lev glanced worriedly at Masahiko. "Perhaps, then it is a good idea to send you to the medical room for a check-up?"
"No thank you, nothing terrible happened. I just fell asleep.".
"If you say so," Lev shrugged, and then as if he realized something, said in a concerned way. "By the way, aren't you late for the briefing from the chief?"
"Briefing from the chief?" Masahiko realized that he forgot all about it. His face paled, "Fuuu..." Sending a look to Mash, changed what he was about to say. ''Fudge. we should hurry up. We don't want to be, well later than we already are. Where are we going exactly?"
"Professor," after that, Mash glanced at Lev with interest. "Do you think... I will be allowed to come to the briefing?"
"I think if you can go quietly to a corner, then no one will even notice you." the professor answered.
"Thank you, Professor" Mash bowed to the man, after which she glanced at Masahiko. "Then, I think both of us should hurry."
"I hope you will not mind leading." Masahiko tried to smile, "As you know, I am still new to this place, so please, Mash..."
"Well then, don't lag, senpai." smiling at Masahiko, Mash passed Lev. As they left, Lev dropped his smile and went to his destination with an evil glint in his eyes.
Standing on top of the podium is a white haired woman. ''My name is Olga Marie Animusphere.'' She introduced herself to the new members of Chaldea and declared, ''I don't care for any status or past achievements you have, as long as you follow my orders we'll be fine. Under my jurisdiction in Chaldea, my orders are absolute. If I tell you to jump, you jump until I say stop.'' She informs them about their goal to protect human history and that the newcomers are just tools to be used.
She explained to the new members that Humanity would go extinct when she used the CHALDEAS and SHEBA. She presented a history that did not exist in 2004 inFuyuki Japan, "Spatial Singularity F" was determined to be the trigger cause of Humanity extinction.
As she was explaining on what they will be doing. Masahiko fell asleep, in the front row with his loud snoring, which caused Olga Marie to stop what she was saying to find the person who rudely inturpted her to slap him across the face for his rudeness. ''You must have the nerves of steel to doze off in my presence.'' She said pissed off, with her eyebrow twitching. He was kicked out of the mission. Everyone laughed silently, afraid to make any noise and be left out.
As Masahiko left the meeting room, Lev turned to Mash, "Can you escort Masahiko to his room." Mash just nodded and ran after him.
As he left, Masahiko thought, 'To find out that now you have to go back in time to prevent the destruction of humanity? Of course, it would be foolish to say that a man like Masahiko never wanted to become a hero or a villain of his own story. To save beautiful ladies or to seducing the beautiful female agents; it has a nice ring to it. But when your childhood dreams begin to come true in such a strange way, you start to understand that these dreams were not as great as they seemed.'
Raising his head, Masahiko again leaned it against the wall, feeling a heavy pressure on his shoulders. If they failed, then humanity is destroyed. There is no saved game or a restart button to help if they makes a mistake.
"Senpai!" However Mash, who appeared behind him, distracted him from his depressing thoughts. "Senpai... Are you upset?"
Yes, alot; he was just thinking about if they failed, then humanity is doomed, but Masahiko didn't want to make Mash upset. He just gestured vaguely in the air.
"I understand" Taking his answer as a positive, the girl nodded her head as she looked down, her hair covering her face. "It's probably hard, not knowing where you are going and what you need to do and you can't do anything about it, but just follow the inevitable future..."
"Mash?" Not having expected that from her, Masahiko was surprised. He was about to ask what's wrong when she raised her head and waved her hands.
"Oh, sorry, my bad!" Immediately, she tried to change the topic, "In any case you are in group D, I should show you your room…"
"Thank you Mash," said Masahiko uncertainly as an answer, moving away from the wall, and then he looked at the girl. "Lead on, then."
The journey to the room was short and uncomfortable. As Mash did not know how to begin the conversation, Masahiko just stayed quiet looking at the floor, deep in thought. When they reached the room, Mash raised her voice, "We're here, senpai." She then turned to him and smiled.
"Thank you, Mash." Masahiko sighed and gave a small smile and took a step past her. She spared him a worried look, after which she left but not before sending one last look over her shoulder at the door.
The thought of sleeping in a bed was a great thing to get his mind off of the dark thoughts he has.
"Good afternoon!" Masahiko almost screamed out loud when he heard the voice. He looked towards the area where a man laying on his side in his bed eating chips and reading a magazine. It's a guy, he has blue-eyes, blond with long hair tied in a ponytail and dressed in a white medical coat.
He is surprised and thought maybe Mash sent him to the wrong room. 'Isn't this my room?'
"Why are you..." Masahiko began but didn't finish it as he was interupted.
"Romani Archiman. A modest doctor at your service. Pleasure to meet you"
As Masahiko looked at the room, it has a small bed, which was occupied by Romani, a wardrobe, a desk and a small monitor hanging quietly on the wall.
"Why are you in my room?" Masahiko asked as he took a step and pulled out a chair from the desk. He sat down, so that he could look at the doctor.
''It's simple. I am always where I should be." Romani broke into a smile.
"You don't want to work at all, right?" Masahiko sighed as he put his hands on his head.
"Heh," Romani smiled awkwardly, "Well, that too."
There was silence for a couple of seconds before Masahiko accepted that Romani was clearly not planning to leave at the moment.
"So, what kind of doctor are you in charge of?" Masahiko asked.
"I'm responsible for making sure the Master candidates stay in good health." The doctor grinned. "Doctor Romani at your service!"
"That's good, I suppose." Sighing, Masahiko looked away from the man as the door opened.
"Romani? So here you are!" Looking into the room, Lev frowned at him. "What are you doing here? Reyshifting is about to begin, shouldn't you be present? Team A seems to be doing well, but Team B is all on the nerves. Can you give them some medicine to deal with it?"
"Mmmmm, maybe." Romani rose from his seat and stretched.
"Hurry up, Dr. Romani." sighing, Lev left the room.
"Lev is a famous scientist and professor, one of the creators of S.H.E.B.A., a telescope that allows you to look into the future!"
"Really that's impressive." Masahiko shook his head surprised somone could make something like that.
Anyway, I think..." the doctor's words was suddenly interrupted when the room suddenly turned dark. "What the hell?"
Almost immediately the red light of the emergency lamps came on, and at the same timet a voice rang out over the loudspeakers placed in all rooms.
''Emergency. Emergency. Fire in the central power station. Fire in the central control room. All personnel must be evacuated from the second gate. Gate closure will occur within ninety seconds. I repeat, an emergency..."
Shit!" Roman almost swore, "Show me the central office, immedently!"
The monitor that hung on the wall instantly blinked at the command, it quickly charged to show the office. The picture on the screen did not inspire optimism at all. Upturned tables, scorched walls, cracks on the walls to the ceiling, crushed equipment, smoke and fire. It like a bomb had exploded in the room.
''Mother of God!" Romani once again cursed then turned his eyes to Masahiko "Find shelter and hide! The gates are about to close, you need to leave, now!"
Such words, did not convince Masahiko. He thought of Mash and decided to help.
Therefore, when Roman almost flew off and rushed into the control room, Masahiko followed him at the same second.
''Where are you going?! Gates on that side!" Noticing his companion not slowing down Romani threw the words to Masahiko over his shoulder "Run that way!"
However, Masahiko only ignored the words of the scientist so Romani was forced to let him follow him.
Literally after a few corners, the two men stumbled to the front door of the entrance to the control room, which now looked pathetic. Twisted pieces of metal were stuck in the wall preventing the doors from opening. It was just enough for one person to go through at a time.
Stepping inside, Roman almost immediately rushed to inspect it - but it was impossible to make out anything between the twisted pieces of metal so after just a few seconds Roman was forced to give up the useless exercise. However, the very core of Chaldea stood in place just as before, completely untouched by the explosion.
"The bomb must have exploded here!" Romani angrily kicked the piece of metal, as he glanced at the untouched core. "But how did this not get damaged?"
''Reduced energy levels. Energy generation is insignificant. " The warning system immediately responded. "Automatic power supply change is impossible. Staff please manually change the power source. The doors will close in forty seconds. Please, all staff personnel..."
"Power supply!" Romani grabbed his head. "It's in the basement. You need to run away from here! You still have time."
With these words, Roman left the room, but before Masahiko could think about the doctor's suggestion another warning distracted him.
"Transition to the final stage of reyshifting. Coordinates: 2004; January 30; Fuyuki; Japan. Materialization of the Laplace system. Adjust the time factor of the singularity. The summoning program is carrying out. Please prepare the masters..."
A quiet cough near the destroyed console caught his attention.
Instantly, Masahiko jumped towards it. He moved the heavy wreckage aside, he was able to detect the source of the noise.
Mash looked pitiable. It seems that the console crashed into her with the force of the shock wave, and then pressed her on the floor. "Mash, hold on. I''ll get you out of here, soon.''
Blood flooded through the tears in her clothes, and some still covered her legs making it impossible to lift.
"Sen... Senpai" Opening her eyes, Mash focused on Masahiko. "Everything is all right... Run... Leave me, I'll be fine... You need to leave…"
However, before Masahiko could respond to such words, another alert sounded out.
''Warning to all supervising personnel. The status of Chaldea is changing. S.H.E.B.A. observes a change in the foreseeable future. The absence of signs of intelligent life on earth over the next hundred years. The survival of humanity is not guaranteed."
Mash's eyes widened to these words while Masahiko gaze was fixed on a rapidly changing color for the Chaldea's oncle blue - and now red core. Literally a second later, the loud crash of a metal partition that struck the floor distracted them both.
The interior is closed. Starting to clean the interior... "
Too... Too late..." Mashu said plaintively, at the moment when she realized her doom "The doors... Are closed..."
''There is no possibility of reading the vital signs of the Masters' capsules" The cold metallic voice of notifications was heard again "There are not enough masters to complete the reyshifting procedure. Search for potential masters... A potential master was found. Installation of master number forty-eight as a priority master. The process of conversion of the Heroic Spirit begins..."
Mmm" Mashu sighed "Senpai... Can I take your hand?"
"Of course." Masahiko replied to her, as he extended his hand to her. He squeezed her hand softly as he smiled.
The computer continued, "The reyshifting procedure was launched. The Grand Order Demonstration is running. Transfer - Fuyuki..."
The last thing he thought was, 'I dont want this to end. Please anyone, please helpus.' Unkown to him, someone heard his wish.