AN: Well it's been a while hasn't it, but we're back with yet more sporadic updating! It's been a while since we've done this haven't we.
Also, fun notice, I'm now also posting this compilation on Archive of Our Own under the same name of Fate/Type Infinite Loops. If you want to find it, it'll be there, and I'll probably have a link on my profile to it as well.
But enough about that, on with the show!
25.1
[Fate/Grand Order] [Dungeons & Dragons]
Roll the Dice
Ritsuka adjusted her hat as she walked out of a tent. This had already been a strange situation to Awaken to. Her ears then twitched to the sound of someone whistling. She turned and waved towards Da Vinci, who surprisingly looked fairly normal, save the outfit.
"Hey Da Vinci," Ritsuka said as she walked towards the woman, looking up just to see her face. The smirk on her friends' face was well warranted.
"Well I think I'd know that voice anywhere short stuff," Da Vinci returned with a chuckle, bending down, uncaring of her robes touching the grass to be somewhat on eye level with Ritsuka. "Seems someone's gone a little green around the gills," she added with a smirk.
The goblin sighed, but chuckled anyway. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I only got to pick my Class," Ritsuka revealed, before looking at Da Vinci with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh much the same, but I got lucky," Da Vinci stated, and winked. "I'm just a humble wizard, nothing strange to see here."
"So how bad do I look? I haven't found a mirror yet," Ritsuka questioned, knowing what goblins from back home looked like. Ugly was what they were, and nowhere near as short as she was.
"You're about two seven from my estimation, mon Maîtresse." Both Da Vinci and Ritsuka turned towards the voice of Sanson, who wasn't wearing his customary coat. Rather he was wearing a simple black gi, with a white cape. Covering the left side of his face was a black mask, like that of a charred skull, in stark contrast to his bone white skin. "I assume as much, you do stand out Leona."
"That doesn't answer the 'how do I look' question," Ritsuka huffed, crossing her arms as Da Vinci rolled her eyes.
"You look human, but I'm going to guess like us, that's only skin deep?" Da Vinci asked, the witch pulling out a pair of wooden glasses and setting them on her face with a bemused look.
"You would be correct unfortunately," Sanson admitted, but didn't elaborate, looking down at Ritsuka. "Are you going to be alright like that?"
Ritsuka shrugged. "I'll live with it, but I still want to know how I look," she admitted, when her ears caught another sound, Sanson and Da Vinci looking between each other, scrutinizing to try and suss out the other's secrets.
Ritsuka smiled and waved towards the newcomer. "Hi Altria!" Ritsuka cheered.
"You three are loud, you know that," Altria said, stopping a few feet before the trio, one hand on her hip, and the other at her side, or at least as close as could be.
Ritsuka nodded, looking Altria up and down. "Seems like you got Llamrei mixed in with you Altira," Ritsuka pointed out in amusement.
The centaur smirked. "So I have. Tis a strange situation, but it will be an interesting one," she said, tapping a forehoof like she would her foot. The black fur of her coat was in contrast to her silver armor, as well as the sword on her hip. Of course there was no saddle, but there was a large amount of supplies on her person from what Ritsuka could see. "Paladin, because nothing else appealed to me."
"I would have expected Barbarian…" Sanson muttered, only for Altria to bonk him on the head. For once she was the tallest of the entire group, and thus the task was easy for her.
"Please, such rage is beneath me," Altria declared, before looking down to Ritsuka. "And what of you?"
"Bard," Ritsuka admitted sheepishly with a shrug, adjusting her top hat, and pulling the crossbow she had off her back. For everyone else it would have been a small weapon, but due to her stature she was having to hold it with both hands.
"But of course, you're certainly spoony enough," Altria mused. When Ritsuka pouted at that one, she laughed in turn, before looking at the other two. "And what of you?"
"I think it's pretty obvious what Da Vinci-san is," a very polite voice said, the group of four now turning towards the Tortle walking towards them, who was wearing a surprisingly steampunk getup over their shell. "A Wizard,"
"Hi Mash," Ritsuka waved. "Good to see I'm not the only green one here." Of course Ritsuka still had to look up at Mash anyway.
Mash smiled anyway. "It's far stranger than I assume it would be, but I should be fine. Oh, I'm an Artificer as well," Mash revealed.
Da Vinci clapped her hands together. "Oh taking after me I see, wonderful!" she cheered, walking over to Mash and throwing her arm around her younger's neck. "Don't worry, Da Vinci-chan is here to help."
"You aren't even in the same class," Altria pointed out bluntly. Da Vinci's response was to just stick out her tongue as Sanson looked around and sighed.
"It appears I am probably going to be the sole male of this endeavor… Now where are the girls? They have to be here as well," Sanson assumed, the monk looking as the other continued talking.
"Goblin, Centaur, Tortle, and two unknowns, because I doubt either you or him are going to share," Altria counted, pointing at Da Vinci, who merely nodded as she drew her arm away from Mash.
"Um… so what are we supposed to be doing this Loop?" Mash questioned confusedly. She got a couple shrugs in turn.
"My memories tell me I came here on the run from some stuffy mage group," Ritsuka decided to give, which had Da Vinci chuckling.
"Ah Clock Tower, can't live with them, or without them," Da Vinci mused.
"As much as I'd rather we would go without them," Altria complained as Sanson walked off. "And where are you going?"
Sanson turned to the centaur. "To find the girls, what else?"
"No need Mr. Sanson." Everyone turned towards the voice, seeing a girl with pure white hair and skin walking towards them, two black horns sprouting from her head, and a thin devil's tail waving behind her. She was wearing a simple wool robe, which was certainly in better condition than Ritsuka's tattered clothing and equipment, but nowhere near as elegant as anyone else's. "Abby took a while."
Ritsuka looked at what the albino tiefling was carrying. A blob of what appeared to be yellow slime. "Uh…"
Lavinia sighed, before setting down said yellow blob. Everyone else watched with either intrigue or confusion as it morphed into the shape of a young girl made of ooze. Black clothing just… forming from somewhere to protect her modesty, alongside a cute little mop cap.
"Hehe, I was excited!" Abigail, because who else could it be, offered, slipping a tendril out of her sleeve to shake Ritsuka's hand. "I've wanted to visit here for a long time,"
"Abigail, focus, just because we're in one of our favorite games doesn't mean we shouldn't be cautious," Sanson warned. Ritsuka letting go of the tendril Abigail had extended, watching it slip back into her sleeve.
"...What even are you Abigail?" Mash questioned, since no one seemed to have an answer to that question. In Ritsuka's opinion, it was probably some sort of eldritch being.
"Oh, I'm a plasmoid, don't know why I am, but that's what I am," Abigail revealed with a giggle. "And I'm a Cleric, what of I ain't sharing yet~" she sang.
Lavinia sighed, and rubbed the back of her head. "And I'm a tiefling, obviously," then she smirked. "I decided to try out something a bit different from the Eldritch and alchemy. Shamanism this time," she offered cryptically.
"So you're a druid," Da Vinci guessed, and Lavina sighed, but nodded.
"Well this is already a weird group isn't it," Altria pointed out in bemusement. "So we've all assembled, now what?"
"Oh! I know!" Abigail raised her sleeve as if she would a hand. "We go get a-"
Boom!
Her excitement was cut off by a rush of hot air flowing over the entire group. Their responses varied, from Abigail almost flinging her own head off from the whiplash, to Lavinia's silent acceptance. Ritsuka was somewhere in the middle, the goblin merely turning her head towards the chaos of the camp/town they'd all Awoken in.
"What were you going to say?" Ritsuka questioned, hefting her crossbow as Altria turned to take off, already drawing her sword and galloping away with nary a word.
"Altria! Argh!" Sanson took off after her, Da Vinci doing much the same as Abigail shrugging chuckling.
"Doesn't matter now, but to Adventure!" she started running, Mash looking to Ritsuka as Lavinia started walking.
"Something tells me this is going to be one of those weirder adventures Senpai," the Tortle commented.
"You think?" Ritsuka offered with a raised eyebrow. "Come on, let's help them. Knowing our luck, it's probably demons… or pirates."
"We haven't had demon pirates in a while." Mash smiled. "But let's go help everyone."
"Off to save the world yet again probably," Ritsuka started running, Mash running alongside her, a grin across Ritsuka's face. "Let's get to work!"
25.2
[Fate/Grand Order]
Awaken My Director
"Fujimaru!" Ritsuka looked up in surprise as a familiar, quite portly man was running towards her. Confusion began to cross her face as the man in a Hawaiian shirt slowly came to a stop, panting before pointing his finger at Ritsuka. "What happened!? Why are we back in Hawaii!? Where is the Technical Advisor!?"
Ritsuka just… stared as Goredolf Musik kept screaming out questions. The New Director of Chaldea was in total panic, complaining about how he couldn't get in contact with Novum Chaldea, all his equipment was gone… and how he'd just found himself here sipping on a smoothie. "D-Did Mara get out again!? Has that dastardly vixen Vitch returned to ruin us!?"
Ritsuka listened as he kept spitting out theories as to why he was back in Hawaii, even just waiting for the poor man to get it out of his system. Of course when he grabbed her and pinned her arms to her side and started shaking her, he went even further. "AND FURTHERMORE… Uh… why do you have a tail?" he blanched. "Why do you have a fox tail!? And ears!? AND WHY DO THEY ACTUALLY MATCH YOUR HAIR COLOR!?"
"That's what you're concerned about!?" Ritsuka finally shouted back at Goredolf. "Actually that is a good question," she realized. Why did her fox features match her hair color? Actually she was fairly sure Osakabe was hiding her real hair color, but Tamamo and her various duplicates had no excuse… then again they weren't actual Kitsune anyway… "Not important! New Director, what is the last thing you remember?"
"Oh thank god you do remember… No one else does! Wait… VITCH!" He pulled his left arm off her, rearing back for a punch, turning his fist into metal. Ritsuka grit her teeth and just took it, being flung backwards from the hefty impact of a Golf Punch and skidding across the ground.
Goredolf blinked in surprise as Ritsuka slowly picked herself up. "I'm not Koyanskya, it's me New Director." She groaned, grabbing her jaw. "Good to see you've still got a hell of a hook," she muttered.
"That… that is you Fujimaru?" Goredolf questioned nervously. She could see his face going purple. "Oh gods, are you actually a… a Phantasmal!?"
"Depends on the time of day, the weather, preference and more often than not the whims of the world tree," Ritsuka stated as she walked towards Goredolf, the older man looking baffled, but still terrified. Of course it didn't take him long to get his nerve back.
"Well then explain! I need answers, and you're the only one who can provide them!" he started before chuckling nervously. "No one else recognizes me! None of the Servants do! Only my Homunculi who I know were at the end of their rope do, so they're no help! Why have we gone back in time!?"
Ritsuka groaned, the Kitsune holding her face and rubbing her nose. "That's… going to take a while. I'm more surprised you didn't run into the others."
"OTHERS!?"
Yeah… this was going to take a while.
Several hours later, Ritsuka and Goredolf were sitting together in his rented hotel room. Ritsuka had since actually put on something decent, rather than her swimsuit, but was still quite visibly inhuman. Goredolf was… frazzled, to put it mildly.
The man was… concerned. "S-so you're telling me that… the World Tree, the actual World Tree, is not just in grave danger, but that it has been in such danger since long before our time…" he started hyperventilating again. "A-and we're stuck in an infinitely repeating time loop until this gets fixed!?"
"Pretty much New Director… of course that's just part of it, but it's kinda the part that matters for us. The entire Kaleidoscope, to the best of my understanding, takes up a couple branches of the World Tree. There's a lot more worlds out there than just us. I've even been to quite a few of them."
"Since when could you perform the Second Magic!?" Goredolf shouted, utterly baffled at such a declaration.
"I can't. It's something called a Fused Loop. I don't know how it works at all, but sometimes rather than Awakening in our own world and timeline, we can wake up in another world and timeline… besides I've been to parallel worlds, you know this! Shimosa, the Servant Universe, heck you were with us when we went to Enma-tei!"
Goredolf raised a finger to dispute that… and then recalled what the past year had been for him, and slowly lowered it. "You make a fair point, and here I thought I'd have seen enough impossibility for one lifetime," he gulped. "Oh Clock Tower is going to have our heads for this! I can already see the Sealing Designations coming!"
"What Clock Tower doesn't know doesn't hurt them," Ritsuka cautioned, the man still looking quite pale.
"The reports really don't say everything do they?" Goredolf questioned, and Ritsuka shrugged.
"They never do, what do you think we actually write down every single thing that happens? Clock Tower already wanted to have our heads for the official report, what do you think they'd do if they knew half the stuff we get up to normally?" She reminded him.
"...I am well aware of the technical advisor's advice that we don't record everything for posterity. I can see why now," he took a very deep breath. "Now… as your director and commander-" Ritsuka almost snorted at that, "Can you please explain why you're a kitsune like Koyanskya?"
"First off, technically you don't own Chaldea yet, and second off Tamamo and her various duplicates aren't actual kitsune," Ritsuka pointed out.
"If it looks like a vixen, talks like a vixen and acts like a vixen, then it's a vixen!" Goredolf shouted. "Distinction without a difference, whatever she is! Now answer the question, Fujimaru!" he ordered.
"Okay… this is… gonna be a long one…" Ritsuka started, the new director crossing his arms, awaiting her explanation.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Goredolf muttered, gripping the soft chair tightly as Ritsuka returned to the form she was certain he was most comfortable with. That of a standard human (looking), girl. "Don't… even bother hiding it." Goredolf started gripping a hand to his chest.
"New Director…"
"Just...don't Fujimaru." Goredolf started, slowly opening his eyes to look at her, a serious gaze within. "I trust you… I trust you a lot. But I will rescind that trust if you hide your true nature from me any longer. I can forgive you doing it for something you cannot control, if your story is true… which knowing our luck it most certainly is." He gulped at the mere thought. "But not now. I order you, as your Director, to be yourself. I want to see the real Fujimaru, right now."
Ritsuka closed her eyes… she knew just how much he did trust her. That trust had allowed him, even for a brief moment, to break the hold a Beast had over him. That same trust was what had him allowing and sometimes even enabling her various actions throughout the Lostbelts. And indeed, she trusted him as well. "That's kinda hard to do given… you know."
Goredolf groaned, resting a hand on his head. "Then show me what you think you should look like!" he started, before wincing. "On second thought give me a moment," he stood up, slowly wobbling towards the bathroom. She waited until he'd entered… and winced when she heard him vomiting. Probably from all the stress.
'He would probably be taking this better if he hadn't woken up in Hawaii.' Ritsuka thought sheepishly. Goredolf was utterly incredible under pressure, and could take a lot of things at face value… but she knew the New Director quite well, and how he could get overwhelmed sometimes.
He'd get used to it. He'd gotten used to Chaldea, he could handle the Loops. But first, she needed to figure out what to do…
"Perhaps I might make a suggestion," A voice spoke in her mind, one normally quiet and content to wait until either called, or he felt the need to act.
"What would that be Count?" she questioned Edmond Dantes, the Servant living inside her mind.
"You have multiple identities, mix the forms to create one to appease him. You are a shapeshifter capable of self-modification, it should be more than within your grasp. What that form is, is up to you."
She thought on his offered solution, and nodded. A 'true form' she didn't actually have would probably be a good idea. "I'm not showing off all my tails."
"I never said you had to," he replied. She turned towards the bathroom, hearing groaning from within.
"Goredolf?" she called out in concern.
"I'm okay!" He offered… of course the sound he made afterwards was quite clear on how he was actually doing.
"Make up your mind. Shall I inform the others?" Dantes asked.
"Go ahead." She felt his familiar, and quite dark presence fade, leaving her alone in her own mind. And thus figure out how she was going to appear to her boss before he got out of the restroom.
Figuring out 'who' was going into this form she was going to she Goredolf was a tricky subject. The identities she held close to her… obviously she had to have her 'normal' self in there, which her Kouhime identity partially was anyway. Lotós was another obvious identity to mix in, even if Goredolf wouldn't understand the meaning behind it…
Witch form was right out, and her Puella form was just that, an alternate form brought about by her Soul Gem. Her Zhenren Form (which she and Alucard had thought was a True Ancestor), was also out, if only because… well it looked human anyway, and Goredolf would just call her out on it.
Her thoughts drifted to a particularly recent identity. Just recalling those adventures, and the friend's she'd made brought a smile to her face. 'Ritsu' would have to be included in some way, which was fairly easy visually.
She didn't want to go crazy, so picking the three identities most important to her would have to do. A mix of a kitsune, a demi-goddess and a Twili… well it was going to be interesting figuring out how the hell it was going to look.
"Okay! Fujimaru, I am coming out!" Goredolf shouted, before barging through the bathroom door. He looked around. "Fujimaru?" he questioned.
"Over here," the magus turned and blinked in surprise. "Wat."
"Hey you're the one who asked for 'the real Fujimaru'. And this is as close as I can provide," Ritsuka responded, sitting in a chair she'd pulled out of her Pocket.
She'd kept it fairly simple, for the most part. Fox ears and only three tails, representative of one of her preferred forms as a Kitsune. She'd replaced her normal scrunchie with a Sol Bangle, and extended her sidetail's length a bit to make it fit properly. Her skin was a mix of the ash grey of her demi-goddess form, and the black skin of her Twili form. Of course the end result made her look pretty similar to her form as Ritsu anyway, just taller than normal. She'd gone with heterochromia in a weird way. Her left eye was green, despite being on the side of her face that corresponded with her Twili form, while her right had yellow sclera and an orange iris, her actual Twili identity (the iris color coincidentally being her normal eye color as a female anyway). While a majority of her skin was the ash grey of Lotós, below the elbow and knee, her limbs were black and lined with the blue markings of her Twili form.
Of course she was wearing her Chaldean Combat Uniform, which she knew was the outfit Goredolf most associated with her anyway, with slight modification to make sure her tails weren't lifting up her skirt. "What, too much for you?"
Goredolf was silent for several moments before speaking. "...I'll admit, I half expected some sort of monstrous abomination, or perhaps a giant robot. Not… some sort of monochrome skinned version of you with fox features." he then looked at her arms and pointed. "Also having your magic circuits active at all times is not healthyyyyy…." he paused. "When did you get more!?"
"These aren't magic circuits," she pointed at her arm. "They're natural bioluminescence."
"Oh… well, I suppose that makes more sense than the usual," he seethed. "My life has become so weird that this is acceptable…" the man muttered.
"Hey chin up," Goredolf nearly screamed when the large hand coming from Ritsuka's hair reached out to him. "I've got my own ways of being weird."
"You don't say Fujimaru," Goredolf muttered, his face turning purple again as Ritsuka retracted her hair, returning it to its natural state. "What even are you?"
"Been asking myself that same question for a long… time," Ritsuka admitted, standing up and dissolving her boots into Twilight Particles. "But I am me, just what 'me' is can change."
"I'm going to get the Technical Advisor to explain this to me later," he mumbled.
"Well you can, she's stuck in this mess with us. In fact she's here," Ritsuka admitted. They'd been hoping to use Luluhawa as a vacation this Loop… and she wasn't giving that up.
"Wait, she's here in Hawaii!?" he questioned quite loudly.
"Luluhawa," Ritsuka corrected. He was gonna need to learn that one.
"But we're on… what?" Goredolf looked very confused, which was understandable.
"See not everything makes it into the reports. Come on, let's go meet the others." Smiling, she offered out her hand to him. The New Director looked at it… before slowly taking her hand.
"Director," Da Vinci offered with a smile, shaking Goredolf's hand as the rest of the assembled Loopers, and those they regularly had 'in the know'. Robin, Edmond, Ushiwakamaru, Ibaraki and Jeanne Alter, the other Luluhawa regulars as it were. And Gilgamesh for some reason.
"Are all of you stuck in this Time Loop thing too?" Goredolf asked, looking at the assembled group. Aside from the Servants and Da Vinci. Mash, Altria, Irisviel, Kiritsugu and Medea.
"Depends on which one you are speaking of, Gordolf," Kiritsugu admitted, the Magus Killer sitting beside his wife.
"Wait there's more than one?" he questioned, Jeanne Alter scoffed, currently lining up a shot with a paper football between Robin's fingers.
"Yeah, we've been trapped here in Luluhawa for like two weeks now," Robin offered, turning his head to look at Goredolf.
"Long story short New Director. BB has turned Hawaii into a Singularity, which she dubbed Luluhawa. We're also stuck in a time loop here." She closed her eyes. "Inside of a time loop."
"...Why does that not surprise me. At least this isn't as bad as-" Whatever Goredolf was about to say was cut off by the sound of Robin screaming and slamming into the ground. Jeanne Alter was cackling as the Archer pulled the paper football out of his ear.
"Really Jeanne!?" he shouted at her, the Berserker still laughing as Ushiwakamaru chimed it.
"Perhaps you shouldn't leave yourself exposed Robin-san!" she offered, laughing herself as Ritsuka sighed, shaking her head as Goredolf sighed in relief.
"Seems some things don't change," the man muttered as Altria stood up.
"I'm going to James' bar," she stated, starting to walk off, Medea following behind her as Ibaraki walked over to Robin.
As the Servants started to converse more about summer activities, and Robin complained about getting stuff flung at him, Ritsuka looked to Goredolf. "So we've had a pretty rough go this time around, and we'd wanted to spend a bit of time just… relaxing."
"Fujimaru, we've gone through utter hell this past year, I need a vacation," Goredolf complained, before grinning. "But… we are in Hawaii, perhaps I could barbecue for everyone?"
"You're taking this better than expected," Da Vinci noted as Goredolf closed his eyes.
"I'm still quite confused. But I fully expect you and Holmes will be able to explain everything in the fullness of time. So I'm just going to ignore it and focus on what's important… lunch."
"That's the New Director alright," Mash said with a smile, chuckling as Ritsuka huffed.
Lunch sounded quite nice.
"I'm sorry what?" Ritsuka muttered as Da Vinci was sitting with her and Mash in Chaldea's conference room… aka James' Bar. All of Chaldea's leadership gathered around one table.
Which was to say, Ritsuka, Mask, Da Vinci, Sherlock, and James.
"Goredolf sent a correspondence, he wants to negotiate a deal for Chaldea early," she said, holding up the encrypted letter that had arrived recently.
"Doesn't he realize the only reason we were put up for sale was because of Salem? And the whole investigation surrounding that mess?" Ritsuka figured, but Holmes raised a hand.
"Actually miss Fujimaru, following the 'Agartha' Incident, mainly due to the various kidnapped men who became aware of magic, as well as the excursion to Hawaii… as well as the missing year from the Grand Order, Chaldea is currently under investigation. Even if said investigation is not happening yet, it will occur."
"Not helping matters is the fact that, with Olga Marie dead, technically we have no way to access the Animusphere funds. As it stands, Chaldea is dead in the water and slowly going bankrupt," James Moriarty pointed out, rubbing his chin.
"Who the fuck are we paying bills to?" Ritsuka complained.
"Clock Tower," the full trio of Sherlock, Moriarty and Da Vinci all pointed out, leaving Ritsuka to bang her head on the table. There was a rather loud bang from the Sol Bangle she still had in her hair.
"Did mister Goredolf say anything about NFF in his letter Da Vinci?" Mash asked, the Caster raising the letter again and looking at it.
"He did, namely that after he returned from Hawaii, he'd been approached by a representative from NFF. He very pointedly decided not to engage with them, which is a good move on his part."
"Going by what you've explained, Nine Fox Foundations… They aren't even trying to hide it…" Holmes shook his head, taking a hit from his pipe. "This company will be a major factor in 'acquiring' Chaldea. Goredolf was very explicit during Hawaii in his dislike of one 'Koyanskya' or as we know her true identity, Tamamo Vitch."
"Da Ji would be a more accurate name," James pointed out, and Holmes didn't refute him as Da Vinci tapped the letter.
"Another good part about this is Goredolf's family, the Musik, are part of the Policies Department. In fact, they're pretty close to the Clock Tower's police for minor cases. He can easily justify the expense to Clock Tower by saying he's speeding along the investigation," she pointed out. "Of course… there is also the advantage that he's obviously on our side."
"There is also the advantage of the Musik family's resources," Moriarty started with a grin. "Unremarkable alchemists they are, but they're an exceptionally old family. Funds and resources are their forte. Think about it, with Goredolf assisting us 'early' as it were, we could do much if he's willing to funnel the resources of his family towards Chaldea."
"As much as I hate to agree with the professor, he has a point. Goredolf is capable of providing a lot just beyond his experience with the future, such as your own." The detective smirked. "One could say his 'Awakening' is a great change of fortune for you."
"I'm the current Director here, so this decision falls to me," Da Vinci pointed out, but smirked. "Of course, I'm not going to turn down something we can exploit to all hell."
"I wonder how he'll take experiencing Chaldea properly, before the Lostbelts begin?" Mash asked excitedly.
"Knowing him, he'll try to make sure we do everything as safely as possible, like that's going to happen," Ritsuka snarked. Goredolf could be such a worrywart, even if his fears were justified...
Well, things could only get more exciting from here.
"Why can't we just stop the Lostbelts from occurring?" Goredolf asked the million QP question.
Da Vinci, Ritsuka and Altria were with him at the moment, making some of the final preparations to the Shadow Border for the Loop.
"It's not for any lack of trying we can't," Altria complained, holding up a blowtorch that Da Vinci grabbed from her hand. "Can you even imagine trying to fight an enemy that doesn't exist?"
"Come again? We know the Alien God exists!" Goredolf pointed out, only for Da Vinci to turn towards him, still using the blowtorch.
"We do, but we can't touch it. Or even sense it. See, it's hard to fight something that, as far as we know, doesn't have a defined physical form until it incarnates. Olympus is quite literally the earliest point in the Loop we can do a damn thing to it, and even then we can't do much… sometimes." Da Vinci grumbled.
"So you've tested trying to stop it before?" the New Director of Chaldea asked, motioning for several homunculi to bring some boxes of materials over.
"We've tried, but no matter what we do, we just can't seem to sense it. CHALDEAS can't pick up on anything it does until quite literally the moment it acts, you know, when CHALDEAS turns completely white," Da Vinci reminded him, the portly man nodding, recalling the event from his memories of CHALDEAS going blank. "And even then, all we get is the fact 'something' occurred to blank the world. We still don't even know what it did to do this, nor could we pick up on the Alien God."
"We've scanned across Space-Time, alternate dimensions, I even asked Gilgamesh to try using his Clairvoyance to find out about it, and at best he could point out the world getting blanked. He knew something happened, but not what did it or how."
Goredolf frowned. "I see… and this creature, being, or whatever it actually is, as we know, could make the earth blank in an instant. And we aren't even capable of finding it until it incarnates!?" he shouted.
"Nope," Altria pointed out bluntly. "Hand me that screwdriver."
Goredolf passed said tool over, Altria leaping atop the Border and going for the delicate internals, tightening a few screws to exact specifications Da Vinci had both told and taught her multiple times to assist in the construction of the marvelous machine. "So we really can't do anything to stop it from erasing the world."
"Not yet at least. We've even tried unthawing the Crypters early, and nine times out of ten they aren't even in the coffins," Da Vinci admitted.
"That time they were was fun," Ritsuka mused, recalling the event with a small smile across her face, Goredolf looking her up and down.
"Even BB's useless," Altria called out from up above. "And she's from the future, literally."
"The Alien God really is troublesome isn't it," Goredolf complained as Da Vinci scoffed.
"Doesn't help we don't have an accurate rating just how tough it is. I mean, in Olympus it incarnates and Wodime smacks it with basically the power of the Universe itself and his Sirius Light Command Spell, and the best he can manage is kicking it out of Olympus and into space for a bit," Da Vinci complained.
"We've tried other things, to varying levels of success, but even if we do actually 'deal' with the Alien God, it doesn't matter, so why bother at that point, it screws off somewhere and stays wherever. Loop tends to end before that point," Altria added, and scoffed. "At least we assume Excalibur will be working on the thing. We all have our theories on what the Alien God is."
"Oh no not this again…" Goredolf complained, recalling a massive argument from his 'first' Loop. "Please don't hold another airsoft war over that debate…"
"Later," Da Vinci said. "Now help me with this, we've gotta get the Border ready. We've got a few months before the invasion starts, and you're paying for everything."
"Suddenly money and resource stockpiling doesn't seem all that important knowing the world is going to be blanked in a few months…" the man muttered, but continued on to assist anyway.
"Give me the wheel!" Goredolf shouted, Irisviel yelping as Kiritsugu dragged her out of the Shadow Border's driver's seat.
"Shouldn't we have a Rider driving?" Okita questioned, the Saber hanging on for dear life alongside several other Servants crowded around the central cabin of the Shadow Border.
"Are you kidding? I don't even think I could outdrive this!" Achilles complained as the Border shook from an explosion, Goredolf sliding into the driver's seat. "Gods don't tend to miss!"
"The armor is buckling!" Nemo shouted from nearby as someone fell on the windshield. Nobunaga, who'd been atop the Border. Goredolf waved for her to get out of the way, the Archer climbing back up on top of the Border as the New Director hit the gas.
Ritsuka pulled up her radio. "Nobu, David, focus on what's in front of us! Get-"
"Hold that order and get them down here!" Goredolf ordered.
"You heard the man, get inside!" Da Vinci shouted, Nobunaga and David dropping back into the Shadow Border and closing the hatch behind them as more explosions, as well as the Divine Beasts and the Kali were approaching.
"The stage is yours, Director!" Holmes shouted, Goredolf grabbing the stick shift and adjusting to the highest gear.
"Hang onto something," he ordered calmly as the Border began to accelerate even further, pulling ahead of the monsters chasing them.
"Oh Goredolf-chan's gotten serious," Peperoncino noted as Koyanskya strapped herself in wildly. Just in time as the Border began to drift.
It drifted clean past a large rock formation, which exploded from one of Arjuna Over Gods attacks. Goredolf made a clean turn directly back towards the Sky Boulder. "Da Vinci, Nemo, make sure the engine doesn't give out on us." He stated.
"Understood!" Nemo shouted, as Da Vinci came over the comms.
"Still holding strong!" she reported.
"We've got an army of Kali in front of us!" Mash reported.
"I see them," Goredolf responded, his eyes scanning the area ahead of them before spinning the wheel.
"We're gonna die!" Meuniere shouted in total panic as the Border was aimed directly at a rock ramp.
Goredolf didn't respond to him, merely pushing the Border as hard it could go to drive up the ramp, outracing the attack from divine beast and god alike, a Mahānaga flying over the Border and roaring, trying to drop lighting on them to drive them off course.
The new Director simply adjusted the course slightly to dodge around the lightning bolts. Back on course for the rock ramp he looked down. "Nemo, you installed turbo right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Good!" He took one hand off the wheel, pushing his thumb against the green button he assumed was just that. Quickly grasping the wheel as shouts and screams resounded from those merely hanging onto something rather than being buckled in. The Shadow Border rocketed up the ramp, Goredolf adjusting slightly to make sure the Border would fly just the way he wanted too.
For a tense few seconds, they were in the air, but when they landed it was perfectly atop a cliff, the Border not even slowing down as it raced towards the sky boulder, Goredolf turning to keep away from the cliff's edge as the Vimana behind them sped up to keep pace, more Mahānaga flying above them and attempting a divine assault alongside their deity.
"Well someone's pissed!" Ritsuka shouted as Goredolf kept driving. If he had to drag race a divine ship, he would.
"He's really good," Irisviel commented, Kiritsugu looking out the front and preparing to draw his gun.
"Damn straight! Didn't know you had this in you fatso!" Nobunaga proclaimed from her place pretty much plastered against a wall from the speed they were going.
"We just passed the Sky Boulder dammit!" Ashwatthama shouted, only for Goredolf to flex his fingers.
"No, we didn't. I just needed the off ramp." he spun the wheel, drifting into a turn. Everyone inside the Border hanging on for dear life. "Grab your weapons! We're stopping at the base of the Sky Boulder in ten seconds!" he shouted.
His order was punctuated by the Border straight up drifting off the cliff and into the valley where the Sky Boulder was situated. Cleanly it passed through a gap between the boulder and the cliff, landing while still drifting and coming to a quick stop right outside the Sky Boulder, while also parked to be ready to take off at a moment's notice. "Battle Stations!"
Goredolf held the wheel tightly, shivering as Ritsuka, the Servants, Peperoncino and Koyanskya all piled out of the Border to activate God's Skyboulder. "Sloppy," he muttered, he'd gotten the paint job scratched and they'd still taken hits.
He kept the engine warm and running as everyone piled back in. He saw the Vimana taking off as the team returned, sans Ashwatthama and Koyanskya. However Ganesha, Lakshimi Bai and Karna rejoined them. "Goredolf! To the Tree." Ritsuka shouted, slamming the door behind her as she, Mash and Peperoncino were the last ones in.
"Strap in and hang onto something, we've got a long road ahead of us," Goredolf ordered. The situation was far more serious than last time.
Very well, the Phoenix would continue to ride! Especially if he was stuck Looping through eternity with everyone now…
He'd probably be panicking about this later. After this, he wanted cake. Preferably not poisoned.
"So it's ending shortly?" Goredolf asked the girl at his side. He and Ritsuka standing alone atop the Storm Border, his 'Anchor' in the form he'd requested she show him. That 'true' form, or whatever was close to it.
"This Loop will yeah, and then we'll be doing it all over again, and again… and again," Ritsuka answered, her tails waving in the wind as Goredolf groaned.
"Do we ever get a break?" Goredolf complained, Ritsuka merely chuckling as the man looked at her.
"Depends on your definition of a break… but yeah, we do," she offered to him, before looking down at the Storm Border. "Hope no one steals this thing again."
"Do people just keep stealing our ship!?" Goredolf questioned in surprise, Ritsuka throwing her hands behind her head.
"I mean if you could steal the divine warship with near zero consequences, wouldn't you?"
"No, because there will obviously be consequences! Maybe not legal ones but there will be eventually!" Goredolf shouted.
"I mean from what I heard from Leman he still has yet to get the Border to work properly for him, but he ain't an engineer, super genius, or a pilot," Ritsuka mused, Goredolf blinking in surprise before she shook her head. "You'll meet him eventually."
"Oh right… these 'Fused Loop', things you mentioned," he muttered.
"Still, it should be smooth sailing until the Loop's end in like… I dunno, twenty odd minutes?" She pointed out.
They were silent for several more moments, staring into the sunrise as they were about to pass back into the bleached Earth. A very weird moment where the sun vanished and the sky turned blue as they passed over said border between Lostbelt and Earth ensued. "Minor question." Ritsuka hummed as Goredolf continued. "Where did Melusine get the anti-material rifles from?"
"We've still yet to figure out how Knight of Owner works."
"Oh… hmm. Well, I suppose I will see you again soon, Fujimaru," Goredolf offered his hand to her.
"You too New Director." She shook hands with him, happy to have a new friend along for the ride of eternity.
25.3
[F/GO] [The Nightmare before Christmas]
The Santa Wars: Christmas Strikes Back - Part 2 (Conceptualist)
Altria was rather annoyed at herself. Not her current-self, but her previous Unawake-self. How hard was it to pay attention in a strategy meeting, really? But that was then and this was now. It was time to save the day from Christmas!
'That still feels weird to say. It's usually the other way around,' Altria pondered. This Loop really was throwing her for a loop… 'Gah, now Ritsuka has gotten me doing it too!'
Altria ran past yet another bank of Snowmen, who ignored her in favor of loading up their snow-boulder catapult. It seemed that word hadn't yet reached this battlefront about her switching sides, so Altria was trying to take advantage of that to search the back lines for the enemy Santa Servant. So far-
A flurry of mortar shells landed right where Altria just was, devastating the Snowmen artillery group in a bright and furious blaze of colors.
-all that Altria really was doing was being an obvious moving target, ruining the Snowmen's camouflage by virtue of not blending into the snow drifts. Whoever was in control of the artillery over there was getting better at aiming it quickly, that last volley was only several seconds too late to hit her.
'Might have to start speeding up a li-' Acting on instinct, Altria interrupted her own train of thought to make a ninety degree turn to plow through the closest squad of Snowmen. Bullets rained down after her, pelting apart the Snowmen she had put between herself and the source of the danger. 'Finally!'
"Was Thanksgiving Town too much for you to handle, Rider? Or did they just run out of food to stuff down your gullet?" taunted a lady floating down from the roiling grey storm clouds above the battlefield. While her snazzy red jacket and white fur trim denoted her as one of the Santas, it was the green parasol/machine gun hybrid she was using to slow her fall that betrayed her identity.
"Florence Nightingale, to what do I owe this honor?" Altira grinned.
"We're using True Names then, Miss Pendragon," Nightingale sighed as she daintily landed on a branch of one of the few intact trees that had not been blown up in the crossfire. Furling her parasol, Nightingale continued, "Nothing much. I just got word about you abandoning your post from Christmas Town. Then I find you here, getting my men killed with your careless lack of stealth."
"I wouldn't exactly call it careless," Altria idly said as she gave a mighty stretch, interlacing her hand above her head to pop her finger joints.
Nightingale glared at Altria. "Oh?"
Altria casually dropped her hands to her sides, one of them lightly resting on the hilt of her sword. "Let's go with 'malicious' instead."
Altria kicked off the ground, propelling herself straight towards the other servant. Sword clashed with Parasol and the force of Altria's leap propelled both of them farther away from the front lines.
"So, the Tyrant Santa has turned traitorous," Nightingale accused. As the dueling pair landed, she unfurled her parasol to deflect Altria's sword up and wide of herself. "Have you no pride as one of the bastions of Christmas!"
"I just have two words to say about that," Altria smirked. Swinging her sword in a cleaving blow straight at Nightingale's head, she declared, "『Excalibur Morgan』!"
Nightingale, in response, deployed her own Noble Phantasm. "『Assault Medicine -』"
But it was seconds too late, as Altria had stealthily been keeping Excalibur Morgan on the cusp of being activated since Nightingale first revealed herself. The holy darkness crashed down upon Nightingale and for miles around all that could be seen was the un-light of Altria's attack.
When the dust eventually settled, there was not a cloud left in the sky. The small section of forest they were fighting in had been replaced with a gigantic crater, which was quickly filling with all the meltwater the clashing Noble Phantasms had produced. Altria, as the one who attacked first, had been almost entirely untouched by the resulting explosion. Only a few of Nightingale's bullets had managed to make it through the blast wave. It was enough for the buff disruption effects Assault Medicine had on Nightingale's enemies to take effect, but Altria simply began to re-engage her Mana Burst.
On the other side of the crater, where the blastwave had thrown her back to, Nightingale was much the worse for wear. Her parasol was ripped and punctured, her Santa Suit had it's fur scorched and blackened, and Nightingale was visibly exhausted from weathering the blow. But then she let out a shuddering gasp of air and finished with "『- Full-Burst Party』."
All around the crater, Snowmen that had previously been hidden under the now melted snowfall were being reassembled and healed under the effects of Nightingale's Noble Phantasm. Altria could see the bullet holes that proved the delivery method closing up on many of them.
'Nightingale's improved NP should have a max target limit of 50. Between attacking me for the damage and buff removal effects, and healing herself to survive my point blank Excali-blast, that leaves me surrounded by up to 48 fixed-up Snowmen golems and one pissed-off Servant.'
"For Christmas! Charge!" Nightingale ordered, causing the avalanche of Snowmen to rumble down the crater at Altria.
Shouldering her sword, Altira chuckled. 'A fair fight then.'
Time to thin the herd.
Altria rushed forward, raising her sword with one hand, and her present sack with the other. Spinning on her heel to dodge one Snowman's swing, she used her bag of gifts to uppercut the head of the offending attacker cleanly into the sky. But even without its head the golem tried for a second swing.
Her response was to remove it's arm with a swing of her sword, the black blade then cleaving into it's torso, the snow collapsing in the crater as Altria leapt up and over. A pair of Snowmen leapt at her, and rather than engage with them in the air, she activated Vortigern. The Hammer of the Vile King cleaved through both, and she landed amid melting snow.
She didn't get a chance to remain still. Nightingale took to the air and fired down on her with a barrage of syringes. Altria took off at a run, pumping mana into her legs to increase her speed to stay ahead of the healing harm. She slid between a Snolem's legs, using her sword to cut it vertically as she passed under it.
With a roll she was back in a standing position, she tossed her sack of presents at one snowman, knocking it off balance before she ran for another. Nightingale dropped an air strike of pills down upon her while she was assaulting another Snowman. After taking off it's head and it's arm, she flipped out of the way of an explosion, landing back her present sack and picking it up. With a spin she bashed the recovered Snowman clean through the chest, removing most of its torso with the heft of her swing.
She wasn't in time to avoid the swing against her back, being sent flying from a surprise sucker punch from one Snowman and into a crowd of four. She spun herself mid air, using her present bag to block another magazine of syringes from Nightingale and landing between the four Snowmen below her. Lighting up her sword with darkness, she spun it above her head, the surprising speed she'd done so cutting the Snowmen into pieces.
Catching Excalibur Morgan back in a reverse grip, she rushed forward towards the Snowman who'd punched her in the back. A couple syringes caught her back, piercing her clothing but she ignored the damage. The Snowman spread its arms, ready to hug her in an attempt to grapple. Rather than give it what it wanted, she activated Vortigern.
With the Hammer of the Vile King, she flew forward, far faster than the Snowman had been expecting. "Enjoy Christmas!" she shouted, being a little silly as she kicked right through the Snowman's torso, leaving a 'her' shaped hole behind. She followed this up by swinging the darkness-emitting blade in a wide arc diagonally, sending a sword slash of dark energy straight through another Snowman, taking it out as well.
'Avicebron was right, snow golems are pretty terrible,' Altria mused as Nightingale landed on another Snowman's shoulder, the large golem looking directly at her. Spinning her sword back to hold it normally, she hefted her present sack over her shoulder.
"Are you going to hide behind your toys Miss Claus, or are you going to fight like a war hero!?" Altria shouted, mostly because she really wanted a good fight out of Nightingale. It was quite rare for any version of the fearsome nurse to be an opponent.
"I shall face you like a true Santa. My Merry Men, to the front!" She pointed her umbrella towards Altria, the remains of her army of Snowmen pushing forward, united in their goal of taking down the lone Santa.
Altria merely smirked. "Bring it on Mary Poppins, let's see if I can't get the Little War Office out to play…"
The fight was long. It was brutal. Many good Snowmen were destroyed in the line of duty. But eventually, it was down to just Altria and Nightingale. With the disintegrating remains of the last Snowmen kicked to the wayside by Altria, both Servants came to a mutual unspoken agreement to momentarily pause the battle and reassess.
Altria definitely looked the worse off between the two servants, with bullet wounds dotted all over and her injuries slowly turning her suit from black to blood red. Florence Nightingale was doing much better, with only a few burns from the consecutive releases of Excalibur Morgan and residual clothing damage. However, that wasn't scouting for the amount of damage Nightingale had healed.
A better judge for this situation was their respective magical energy levels. While both Servants had been summoned with and were being maintained by the Santa Grail, there was a maximum amount of power their Saint Graphs could pull from it. Absurdly higher than pretty much any Master could give them, but they still had their personal limits. And at this point, Altria was reaching hers.
Even if Nightingale (Santa) was an Archer, her Saint Graph was still predisposed to the higher draw and upkeep of her stronger Berserker self. In a war of attrition, Altria would normally be at a disadvantage. Having both increased the size of her energy reserves and improved in skill over the course of the Loops, it was still an even fight.
'Probably time for an attempt at diplomacy,' Altria pondered. "Do you even realize what would happen if you succeed in your invasion?"
"Irrevocably change the course of Human History by replacing every instance of 'Independence Day' with 'Christmas', throwing millennia of history into chaos." Nightingale nodded. "Weren't you paying attention during the meeting?"
"You do know Independence day has only been around for eighty years?"
"It's more than just the American version you know. It's basically every Independence Day type of traditional celebration rolled into one conglomerate-" Florence trailed off, as a noise sang out from high above their battle grounds.
With the whistling roar of an oversized firework, a bright red blur was screaming across the sky towards the two Servants. Altria began dodging back from where the rocket's red glare looked like it would land, as did Nightingale. With the percussive boom of a firework going off much too close, a star-spangled giant landed in the crater that Altria had previously carved out, doubling the size of the hole and shaking the snow off the trees for miles around.
Clad in a red and white pinstripe paint job, a massive metal behemoth clanked up from the three point landing it had made. The American Flag fluttered behind the enormous mecha as a cape, attached to star-spangled Pauldrons adorning it's shoulders.
The domed helmet of the patriotic machine hinged upward, revealing a lion-headed man wearing a white top hat, with a blue band bearing white stars. "Four score and seven hours ago," rumbled the person Altria recognized as Thomas Edison. "I declared I would kick your invading Commi-red asses out of my country and crush all of your men. And it looks like your little civil war has run you all out of men!"
Nightingale's and Altria's eyes met. In a single instant, a silent conversion was held between the two. Nightingale was accusatory, as if this was all Altira's fault. Altria was indifferent, as Edison would have been a problem no matter what.
Altria sighed. There was only one thing to do, really. "To quote myself: I just have two words to say about that."
Edison's flag-wearing robo-golem reached up and slammed the helmet back down. Hidden ports opened up all over the invention, and red-tipped rockets nosed out of the launch mechanisms.
Altria's magical power flared once more. "RUN AWAY!" she screamed, spinning her sword and grabbing a random stick off the ground. Tying it to the handle of her sword and straddling it like a witch's broom, she fired off Excalibur Morgan. Both Edison and Nightingale being left to watch as she flew away like some sort of deranged Christmas Witch.
A moment passed as they reeled from the absurdity.
"You bi-"
"『Viva la Capitalism』!" boomed Edison through hidden speakers in his mech, launching the rockets he had readied at the only remaining target.
25.1: Ain't the first time Loopers have been in D&D, sure won't be the last.
25.2: Welcome to the madness Goredolf, enjoy your stay, or don't. We have cake though.
25.3: Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of bullets, wait that's not right.
AN: And we're back! Once more with feeling, and there is a lot of backlog to post to the compilations. As in at least a few hundred snips worth, and they ain't short. Hope you'll stick around for the show. It's gonna be a ride.