Disclaimer: Nothing's changed yet and it'll never change at all.
Grand (Kamen) Rider in Chaldea
Chapter 7: Borrowed, Not Stolen
Chaldea Simulator…
The sounds of metal clashing echoed through the empty streets of the fake city, occasionally interrupted by an explosion reducing a random building to rubble and setting off several car alarms.
*TWANG*
Odysseus parried another strike from his opponent before attempting to stab the purple-armored man. While his attack did manage to land, sparks flying off the armor as it did, the armored Servant didn't seem to care at all. All he did was stretch his neck and continued with his assault.
"An Assassin, then," Odysseus assumed the Class of his opponent. Of all the Classes he could be, it just so happened to be the one he was weak against. That was just great.
While Odysseus was facing off against the cobra man, MHXX was busy distracting the other cobra man.
"Ha!" She exclaimed as she tried to land a hit on the red-and-blue man. Keyword being 'tried'. All that happened was the Foreigner Servant being blasted away from behind. As it turned out, super speed was something her opponent had. Joy.
As for Merlin, he was having just as much of a good time as the others. That is, he was getting his ass kicked, "Merlin watch out!"
Ritsuka's warning came just a tad bit late before the Shadow grabbed the wizard with its stretchy arm. The next moment, Merlin was kneed in the stomach as the Shadow, along with the Sword, dragged itself to him.
"...This is not going well at all." At least Odysseus was doing fine, somehow.
"Ah!" ...or not...
"Da Vinci! Holmes!" Mash exclaimed as she barged into the Command Room (Not to be confused with the Control Room), "Senpai is-"
"We're already on it," Displayed on the various screens were live footage of the fight in the simulator.
"That is…?" Mash muttered. She didn't know what was going on, having come to them for a slightly different reason.
"Three unknown Spirit Origins detected within Chaldea's Simulator. Classes: Assassin, Foreigner, and Saber," Da Vinci read out the data on a screen.
"A Foreigner too?" Sion remarked as she studied the fighting styles of the three new Servants, "Mash, what is Fujimaru doing in the simulator? Training should have ended half an hour ago."
"Decade… he asked Senpai for help with his Noble Phantasm," The Demi-Servant explained quickly, "He told him to bring three Servants to the simulator."
"And Fujimaru just agreed to do it?"
"Yes," Mash nodded, "How did you know that Senpai went into the simulator?"
"The simulator fired up shortly after training ended for the morning," Holmes explained, "We thought nothing of it at first, but then three new Saint Graphs were detected within it."
"We checked it out and, well… You can see for yourself." Da Vinci and Mash watched as Merlin was stabbed in the foot by the Saber-Class Servant, "Why the foot...?"
"You mentioned that Decade wanted to test his Noble Phantasm, correct?" Holmes asked Mash, who nodded in response.
"That's right. Senpai brought MHXX, Odysseus, and Merlin with him."
"So we can safely assume that those three-" Holmes was, of course, referring to the three new Servants, "-are a result of Decade's Noble Phantasm."
"But where is he? Decade is definitely in the simulator, but he's nowhere to be seen."
The simulator…
Twirling a cyan gun in his hand, Decade kept a bird' eye view of the battle below.
"A Rider, Foreigner, and Merli-" "OW!" Decade watched as the wizard was stabbed in the other foot by the Sword(sman) of Light.
"...Why the foot?" Regardless, Merlin was kept busy by Saikou. Now, the other two will have to rely on their own powers against his summons. Speaking of which, those two were…
"Hold still!" The Foreigner Servant, who suspiciously looked like a Space Sheriff, was struggling to compete with the one he had summoned. Good, Decade had a bone to pick with the Space Sheriffs anyway.
As for Odysseus, he was struggling to actually hurt his Assassin. It was less like the Greek hero's attacks weren't landing like the Foreigner but more like his attacks were ineffective. Not only that, that murderer's attacks were super effective against Odysseus. As it stands, his three summons were going to win.
"OW! WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST MY FEET!?" Once again, Merlin was stabbed in the foot by the Saber he was fighting. The Saber, however, remained silent and quickly retreated before Merlin could counterattack.
"Merlin, use your staff!" Ritsuka ordered from the sidelines.
"Got it!" Following the command, Merlin unleashed a beam of light at the Saber. What he didn't expect, however, was for the beam to go straight through the literal Shadow Servant and do absolutely no damage, "...Fujimaru, any other ideas?"
"Just...keep him busy. I have to help the others too."
"Wait! Don't just le- OW! STOP STABBING MY FOOT ALREADY!"
While Merlin was busy getting his foot stabbed, Ritsuka tried to head over to where MHXX was fighting. Tried to.
As soon as he took one step away from Merlin, Ritsuka found himself one step from going off the edge, falling roughly 15 floors and hitting the stone-cold pavement below.
"You really should be more careful, Master," Right next to him, Decade warned as he watched the battle below with a bored face, "This may be a simulation, but falling from this height would still hurt."
"Decade, why are you…?" Ritsuka tried to ask his Servant but was cut off by the Rider's answer.
"I already told you, haven't I? I wanted to test this Noble Phantasm and see if it works correctly," And to prove his point, a large explosion came from below, "...It does for the most part."
"For the most part?!" Ritsuka found it hard to believe that the three his Servants were fighting weren't 'complete' or whatever term fits in this situation.
"Yes, if they were working right, then all I needed was Evol. He alone could probably handle all three by himself."
"Evol?" So that was one of the Servants? "Which one is-?"
"The one facing the Space Sheriff… By the way, why do you have a Space Sheriff?"
"You mean Mysterious Heroine XX?"
"That's her name? Not very creative," Decade insulted the Foreigner Servant.
"And 'Decade' is better than MHXX?"
"...Touche."
"Found him!" Da Vinci cheered as she finally located Decade's… location… "He's...with Fujimaru?"
"Senpai?! How did he get up there?!"
"Decade's portals are very useful, aren't they?" Sion noted, "Makes you wonder just how far his teleportation abilities can go."
"Da Vinci, can we listen in on what they're talking about?" Holmes requested, curious as to what the two were discussing.
"Already on it!"
"-cade' is a better name than MHXX?" Ritsuka's voice came through the speakers in the Command Room before immediately being followed up by Decade's 'touche'.
"Are they talking about his na-" "Shush!"
Over the speakers, Decade continued talking, "But at least it's better than love backward."
"You mean Evol?" Ritsuka replied, "That's what his name's supposed to mean?!"
"Yes, it's that stupid."
"Evol… Reverse of 'Love'" Da Vinci mumbled as she typed in that information into their database, "C'mon Fujimaru, keep him talking."
"What about the other two? What're their names?" Ritsuka unintentionally followed Da Vinci's orders.
"The one your Rider is fighting is named Ouja… Just a word of warning, if you ever meet him or, worse, summon him, run away."
"Ouja… Extremely dangerous…"
"And Merlin-" "OW! STOP IT WITH MY FOOT!" ''-is fighting Saikou."
"Saikou fighting Merlin… Then Evol is the one fighting MHXX,"
"Why does…Saikou keep stabbing Merlin's foot?" Ritsuka asked.
"Yuri was in Avalon for about 1000 years. He's met Merlin. That Yuri may be a copy but a grudge can't be gotten rid of very easily."
"Yuri...Stuck in Avalon…" It took Da Vinci a hot second before she realized what she had said/typed, "Wait a minute…"
"Yuri? That's the one you were looking for when you met Merlin, right?"
"Yes… Just remembering that time tires me out."
"Why were you looking for him?"
"Why are Merlin's attacks not working on Yuri?"
"Because Merlin's aiming for Saikou's Shadow. Even if Merlin uses light, that's not going to affect a literal shadow," Decade revealed.
"A literal shadow?" Holmes raised an eyebrow at that. If the one they were seeing was a shadow, then what was casting it.
Luckily for him, Ritsuka thought the same thing, "If Saikou is a shadow, then what-"
"Pay attention to what I'm saying," Decade interrupted Ritsuka again, "It's Saikou's Shadow, not Saikou himself."
"Okay, then where's the real Saikou?"
"Saikou is the sword," Decade answered with a straight face, "Now that's enough talking, get back down there."
"Senpai!" Then Decade pushed Ritsuka off the edge...
"Ow!" ...and the next moment, Ritsuka was sliding across the ground. Falling vertically before suddenly going horizontally felt weird… Portals work weird.
"Master, stay back!" Odysseus cried as he blocked another blow from the now named 'Ouja' and pushed him back.
"Ow…" Ritsuka groaned again as he pushed himself up, "Just give me a moment…"
'Ouja', however, didn't let them have that moment (that sounds weird…) and slid out a card from his buckle.
"Master, go!" Odysseus wasn't asking this time.
ADVENT
Before any of them could react, a giant, monstrous cobra emerged from the building next to them. Actually, it was more accurate to say that it emerged from the glass exterior of the building itself.
"Go! I'll handle this!" Odysseus proceeded to quickly help his Master up and push him away before turning back to face the giant cobra and its master.
"Stop moving so fast!" MHXX tried to once again hit 'Evol', only to miss again.
"Hahaha!"
"And stop laughing already!" The deep, somewhat maniacal laugh from 'Evol' made it clear that he was enjoying toying with her, "Why did I agree to this in the first place?!"
"MHXX!" Oh, right… That's why…
"Master, be careful!" She warned Ritsuka as she tried to track down where 'Evol' was.
"C'mon, think, think…" Watching two of his three Servants currently suffering hurt him, but he can't show it here. Not now. Instead, Ritsuka tried to come up with a good fighting strategy, "Odysseus has Resourceful General Insight and MHXX has Justice at World's End…"
"OW!"
"And Merlin has his Charisma Skill… That's it!" Hearing Merlin's suffering lit a lightbulb over Ritsuka's head.
"Merlin! Odysseus! Get over here!"
"Understood!" "Got i- OW! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU?!"
Shortly after, Odysseus arrived, being chased after by 'Ouja' and his giant snake while Merlin came from the opposite direction from them, 'Shadow Saikou' right behind. For his plan to work, Ritsuka had to hope that the three Servants weren't smart enough to see through his trap.
Now that all of them were together, they could move on with the next step.
"Merlin!" Ritsuka cried out to the wizard.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Merlin grunted for every step he took as he bled from his foot, "...Do I know that Servant from somewhere?"
"Merlin, focus!" Why Saikou kept stabbing Merlin in the foot wasn't important at the moment, "How close are all of you from using your NPs?!"
"A couple more hits would charge it up." "Same here!" "I just need to use my Dreamlike Cha-"
"Then use it!"
"...Fujimaru, are you still angry about what I said before morning practice?"
"Angry's not the right word!" Ritsuka shouted. Merlin may or may not have made a small comment about him and…someone earlier before the morning grind. That non-existent comment may or may not also be the reason why Merlin had to skip out said morning grind in order to avoid the wrath of…someone, "Just get on it already!"
"Fine, fine. Ahem… What do I usually say?"
"...Fou, help Merlin." "Fou!" From literally out of nowhere, Fou came flying in and kicked Merlin in the face.
"Cath Palug?! Where did-?! Ow!" Admittedly, it wasn't as painful as getting stabbed in the foot multiple times but Fou was deceptively strong… "Okay, okay! I'll do it!"
Ignoring the pains in his feet and face, Merlin casted a spell on himself and his two allies, boosting their attacks and charging their NPs.
"Odysseus, MHXX, use your skills too!"
"Understood, Master. Oh gods, observe closely," Odysseus chanted. A strange feeling enveloped(buffed) the three allied Servants, boosting their Arts and Quick Effectiveness.
"Got it! Set Up!" "Th...X...der's lin...!" Ignoring Decade's cries (not that they could even understand what he said), XX activated Justice at World's End.
"Merlin! Use-"
"I know," As he said that, a pink magic seal appeared under Merlin's bloodied feet, "From the stars of the inner sea, from the tower of insight…"
Around Merlin, a field of pink flowers sprouted around him as the simulated night sky was dyed blue, "From the four corners of paradise, let them know…"
As he continued chanting, a beautiful floating tower appeared above everyone, "Their stories are filled with blessings."
A sparkle of light shimmered as it fell from the bottom of Merlin's tower, pink petals fluttering around the wizard as it did, "Only those free of sin may pass…"
"Garden of Avalon!" With a carefree smile on his face, Merlin unleashed his Noble Phantasm. A third magical sensation was felt by the three Servants, a more calming and healing one.
"MHXX!"
"Gotcha!" "Tha...oseigers'!" "Releasing Twinmyniad Safety Mode!" MHXX cried before taking off into the sky with her jetpack, "The Dazzling Azure Galaxy, namely Cosmos, the Order of the Aether Universe."
A swirling nebula appeared in the night sky before being absorbed into Twinmyniad, "Here I go!"
Swooping down from the sky with frightening speeds onto Evol (who for some reason was no longer moving at super speeds), MHXX used her Noble Phantasm on the Foreigner, "Twinmyniad Disaster!"
*KABOOM* As all good final toku bosses do, Evol was sent flying before exploding upon being struck by the NP. However, unlike how Servants usually disappear in a shower of light, Evol turned into pixels(?) as he vanished.
"Hah! Take that, you speedy son of a-"
"Odysseus!"
"The triumph card, let's go." Odysseus already knew what his Master was planning and activated his Noble Phantasm, vanishing into thin air.
"...Hey, Master," "Ah!" Without any warning, Decade appeared right behind Ritsuka, startling the poor Master, "Decade?! How did you get down here so fast?!"
"..." "Oh, right… Portals…" "Hey, Decade!" Merlin jumped in on the conversation, "Why did you order that Saber to stab my feet so many times?!"
*BOOM*
Before Decade could answer, however, a new challenger appeared. From the sky, a giant silver robot horse dropped in, completely dwarfing the 5 Servants plus 1 Master.
And before anyone could make a comment about it, the giant horse transformed into a giant robot. A giant robot with a massive cannon in its chest.
"...Is that supposed to be the Trojan Horse?" Ritsuka had to give Decade some credit, the Servant was taking in the giant robot pretty well…
"Troia Hippos!" Odysseus' cry signified the end of the remaining two enemy Servants, as his Trojan Horse released a giant beam at them from its chest blaster.
*KABOOM*
"...Overkill much?" Not only were Saikou and Ouja absolutely annihilated by the beam, but the entire (simulated) city block was leveled as well, "Guess it was a good thing I came down when I did."
A short time later, Chaldea cafeteria…
After the whole debacle with Decade, Ritsuka finally got the chance to rest and unwind. Emphasis on chance.
His supposed moment of relaxation was hijacked by Decade deciding to sit with him and practically driving away pretty much everyone else. Mash, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. He heard that his kouhai had left for the Command Room shortly after he went into the simulator.
"You're taking your loss rather well," While he would prefer to not be around Decade at the moment, Ritsuka was slightly surprised at the fact that Decade was just as passive as always.
"If I wanted to win, I would have," Decade said with complete confidence, sitting opposite of his Master, "Like I said, I was just testing my Noble Phantasm, nothing more. Whether I won or not didn't matter."
"You're completely full of yourself, aren't you?" Ritsuka sighed in exhaustion.
"Is it just me or have you been more irritable today?" He had noticed it earlier, he just didn't bring it up until now.
"...It's Merlin's fault."
Chaldea infirmary...
"Please hold still as I complete the checkup," Nightingale's calm voice was completely at odds with the giant syringe that she had and the fact that Merlin was strapped onto the medical bed.
"What do you even need that for?!" The Caster struggled to get out of his bindings.
"I'll repeat myself," Nightingale stated as she raised the massive syringe, "Please remain still."
"Damn you, Decade! This is your fault!"
Outside the room, a certain knight (well, several of them) snickered as they listened to Merlin's screams of pain.
"So long as it's not my fault, I don't care." Decade dismissively said before taking out a slightly thick deck of about 20 cards.
"...You're not even going to ask what he did?" Ritsuka asked as Decade shuffled the deck with his eyes closed.
"I already got the gist of it," The Servant had long since figured out what Merlin probably said, "...That should about do it."
"What should about do it?"
Decade opened his eyes and stared at the cards in his hands for a moment.
"Uh...Decade?"
"Pick one," The Servant ordered, showing Ritsuka the 20ish cards, all face down, "Ignore the symbols."
"Wha-" "Just pick one," The Rider insisted, "I want to get this over with already."
"Fine, fine..." Ritsuka sighed before glancing at the cards in Decade's hand, "Hmmm… this one."
A/N: At this point, I can say with complete confidence that updates for this fic would be on Monday nights (For me anyway). Now watch as I take about two months before updating.
So, Clairvoyance NA strikes again and now I have to rework my entire summoning plan for the next two years. When I posted the last chapter, I was completely unaware that LB6 was coming out and was caught off guard by it. And now I'm simping for Morgan… What? Don't judge me! I simp for all Saberfaces! I have a problem
The SRs for the first banner are also...somebody has a fetish is all I can say about Fae Gawain (not that I'm judging). Fae Tristan is also nice even though she looks too much like Elizabeth (again, I'm not judging). And as for the Lostbelt King… Like I said, I'm now saving for her specifically. Help me!
It's too bad that this story requires LB6 to be completed for their presence to make sense…but this is (supposed to be) crack. I can do what I want, however I want it, and when I want it without any consequences! Plus it'll be hilarious for Morgan to pop up and claim Ritsuka as her husband.
Now, that doesn't mean that they'll appear in the next chapter and act like they've been around the entire time. We still don't know much about them seeing as they just came out like 4(?) days ago. I'm just saying that the next summoning session may be hijacked by an hot, evil witch, a shoe-obsessed fairy, and...Fae Gawain (I don't know much about her yet). And I could pin all the blame on Decade and/or Merlin.
Remember, if something in this story doesn't make sense, blame Decade and/or Merlin (i.e. crack).
Now gimme dopamine.