"So, why don't we start by introducing ourselves. My name is Fujimaru Ritsuka and this is Mash Kyrielight. What's yours?" Ritsuka exclaimed rather cheerfully.

"My name is Hakuno Kishinami, it's nice to meet you." I introduced myself.

"Ohh, then does that mean you're a Heroic Spirit from Japan? I've never heard of you. What legend are you from? And what was that thing you summoned earlier?" Ritsuka began firing off questions left and right.

As I looked into her expectant eyes I wasn't quite sure how to answer those questions. Technically the real Hakuno was from Japan, but I personally had never actually left the Moon Cell until now. I wasn't even sure if I was an actual Heroic Spirit. Of course I was one in all the ways that currently mattered. Access to nearly every Code Cast I had ever used, Skills, and Noble Phantasms, but... Heroic Spirits, good or bad, were people who carved out their names into human history. I was just... me. It felt almost wrong to compare myself to them.

"Senpai I think you're overwhelming her." Said Mash breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Ahaha, sorry about that, you don't have to answer if it's uncomfortable for you." Replied Ritsuka rubbing the back of her head.

Ah, I suppose me staring blankly ahead may have given them the wrong impression.

"No it's not that it's uncomfortable, but it's... complicated." I attempted to ease their concerns, before bringing up the one question I could confidently answer. "But I can tell you about my effigy if you want."

"Ohh, you mean your summon. It looked so cool, is it some kind of mech?" Ritsuka replied, as her eyes seemed to sparkle at the mention of mechs, and made me significantly less confident in my answer.

"Erm, I guess you could call it a type of mech?" I answered somewhat vaguely. I didn't know much about mechs, but they were mechanical... I think. The effigy was ultimately a program, so by the loosest definition possible they could be related. Maybe? Regardless, my vague answer had Ritsuka all but vibrating on the spot. Were mechs really that cool?

"More importantly, Master, it's one of my Noble Phantasms." I forged ahead with my original answer, while trying not to openly cringe at the title. It still felt strange calling someone that.

"Ohh, that's cool." She said, still excited, although looking a bit confused. "Um, what's a Noble Phantasm?"

Eh?

"They're the weapons that Servants use." The white haired girl in front called out, while tuning to address us. "Honestly, I can't believe I'm the one who has to explain this to you."

As she tried to explain the concept to an increasingly confused looking Ritsuka, I couldn't help but notice similarities popping up. A girl out of her depth, with little idea of what was happening around her. A knowledgeable, irate girl that looked ready to abandon the other, yet stuck around. Although in this case it seemed to be more out of necessity.

It brought back that strange feeling from before. I didn't get it. I was remembering happy memories, so why did it hurt?

"Ahem. Anyway, my name is Olga Marie Animusphere." She introduced herself to me after her impromptu lecture.

"By the way, I noticed you said one of your Noble Phantasms. Does that mean you have more?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Yes, I have three." I said to Olga's surprise.

I understood why she was so surprised, after all, most Servants only had one. Although thinking back to my past battles, I would have never guessed that was the case.

"Hmm. Well you can tell me more when we get to that school. In the meantime..." she said looking at Mash, who seemed to be a bit down, before looking back to Ritsuka.

"Is something wrong?" Ritsuka said and received a scowl in response.

"I'm not the one you should be saying that to. You're her Master, go comfort her." Olga said, pushing her towards Mash.

"Senpai?" Said Mash, broken out of her thoughts.

"Ah, is something wrong, you seem a little down. Did I work you to hard?" Ritsuka said, while scratching the back of her head.

"No! I'm fine. I'm operating a hundred percent. But... Senpai, I can't use my Noble Phantasm yet." Mash said

"Eh, but Mash don't you have..." Ritsuka trailed off while looking at her shield.

"No, I haven't used the true power of this shield." Mash responded as Olga sighed. "Haa. I knew this would become a problem when you said you didn't know which Servant you merged with."

Merged? So Mash wasn't a real Heroic Spirit either?

"I'm Sorry." She apologized

"That's hardly your fault. Any outstanding Master should be able to properly analyze their Servant." Olga said

"You mean..." Started Ritsuka before Olga pinched her cheek. "I mean your low level and should start working harder!"

"Ow ow ow, I'm sorry!" She slurred out.

So Mash couldn't use her Noble Phantasm. That was a bit troubling. Going by the fact that it was a shield, it was likely defensive in nature and could probably help us out in a pinch. There was a reason Noble Phantasms were considered trump cards.

"Sorry for interrupting your fun, but using a Noble Phantasm is all about your instinct." Cu said, gaining all of our attention.

Pointing towards Ritsuka he continued. "If something happens that would call on that instinct, it will awaken naturally."

A chill went up my spine, and my chest tightened. It was nowhere near the worst I had felt and clearly diluted, but it was enough to put me on edge. Cu Chulainn's bloodlust wasn't something I could ever forget.

The others must have felt it to, as Mash and Olga stepped in front of Ritsuka. A short and tense standoff followed that, before Cu smirked and went into spirit form.

We all breathed a sigh of relief after that. I'm glad that didn't escalate into a fight. Caster or not, I had no doubt he could use that staff for more than just spellcasting, and I would prefer not to end up with broken bones.

Olga sighed before saying, "I'm tired, let's hurry and get to that school."

I silently agreed with that. A quick rest would be good, and maybe then I could get some more concrete answers. I had sorted through all the information shoved into my head, but the Moon Cell was as vague as always. Although it likely didn't have a choice in the matter this time.

The school was quiet and dimly lit by the fires still raging in the city. Normally being in an empty school at night would feel unsettling, but I was far too distracted wrapping my head around everything that happened. Servants, Noble Phantasms, and all that stuff Caster had told us when we arrived.

After he explained the situation in the Singularity, the Director went over Chaldea's mission for both him and Hakuno. Since we shared a common goal, Caster offered to help us out. After a bit of probing from Roman, the Director agreed. Once everyone was on the same page, we decided to rest and prepare before going after Saber.

The Director went off somewhere with Caster following her, while Hakuno wandered off with a thoughtful look on her face and Fou running after her. Which left me and Mash alone in silence.

There was clearly still something bothering her, she hadn't said a word since we got here. Olga's words from earlier echoed in my head.

"I'm sorry." I apologized gaining Mash's attention. "If you had a better Master you would probably be having an easier time with all this."

"No! That's not... it's the other way around Senpai." Mash said before looking out the window. "In the fight earlier, I left you open, and if miss Hakuno hadn't shown up you would have died."

Oh.

She continued, "If you had a better Servant you would have never been put in danger."

...

"Then, how about this." I started, grabbing hold of her hand and bringing it up. "Since we both think we've done an awful job, starting now let's both agree to do the best we can. Promise?"

She stared at me. Eh? Was that the wrong thing to say? But before my worry could show on my face, Mash started to giggle.

"You really are a human, Senpai." She said, with a small smile on her face. "Promise."

I smiled back.

I wandered the halls of the school aimlessly, thinking about what I had learned. The Holy Grail War, the ritual that the Moon Cell based its own tournament from, had taken place here. I thought the moon's Grail War was bad, but this took it to a whole other level involving an entire city of unaware people. At least the Spirit Hackers knew what they were getting into. Well, most of them did.

And from what Cu had said, this war had gone completely off the rails. Although this destruction was likely caused by a singularity, as Olga had explained it. A deviation in human history, that Chaldea would fix by going back in time and eliminating the source.

It was... not as unbelievable as it should have been. After all, I had already experienced something similar to time travel, so I didn't really feel the need to doubt them.

There was something else that stuck out for me. The date, or the Chaldeans date, was 2017. Something about it made me feel uneasy, not the date itself, but... it just felt like I was forgetting something important. Like it was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't quite place it.

"Fou!"

Startling me out of my thoughts a white creature jumped onto my shoulder. What was... oh, I think I saw this thing running around Mash. What kind of animal was this?

I picked him up and held him in front of me.

"A rodent, or maybe some type of squirrel?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Fou?" He mimicked me

I chuckled a bit. He was pretty cute.

"Fou!"

"Whoa." He jumped out of my arms, and onto my head.

"Do you like it up there?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Fou!" He cried out in happiness.

I giggled at that, before noticing where I had stopped. It was a classroom. It wasn't anything special, and looked identical to all the others. Yet, without thinking I found myself walking in.

"Fou?"

The room was trashed, with desks laying on their sides or flipped upside down. I traced my fingers across one still right side up. We were supposed to be resting, so perhaps I could...

I grabbed a couple nearby desks and hauled them upright with some effort. "Haah" I thought Servants were supposed to stronger than humans by default. Regardless, I pushed the desks up against each other and formed a makeshift bed.

I laid down on it and... it was uncomfortable. Not that I was expecting it to suddenly become comfortable since the last time I did this. But as I stared up at the ceiling, with Fou deciding to curl up on my stomach, that feeling from earlier had returned with a vengeance. Now that I had more time to process it I found it wasn't necessarily unpleasant, but I had no idea what to call it.

Maybe I could ask Ritsuka. She seemed nice, and probably had a much better understanding of emotions than I did. I wanted to go and ask her right away, but she was likely exhausted, and I didn't want to bother her before a big battle. I can always talk to her lat...

"Haaa" I yawned, as all the exhaustion from before caught up with me.

Just a few minutes. A few minutes and I'll regroup with Ritsuka. With that justification, I could no longer keep my eyes open, and my conscious slowly faded into the realm of dreams.

AN:

Hey all. A chapter in under a month, a miracle I know. Seriously though, I had wanted to get this chapter done in a week but those infernal gacha games keep eating my time. I'm aiming to finish singularity F by the end of the month.

I've also made a minor change to the prologue, so Hakuno calls Nero and Tamamo Saber and Caster. It felt a bit out of character for her to call them by their true names.

Also, I'm not sure why but on Hakuno's servant profile, the plus signs aren't showing up. It won't really change anything for the story but for anyone who cares here's the affected stats

END and MP had one plus, LUK had three plus

Code cast went up to A plus

Determination had two plus

Item const. had two plus

Demonic Atlas had three plus

Anyway, that's all I got for now, I'll see ya.