5.1

[Fate Grand Order]

Uomo Universale

Ritsuka Fujimuru had been having an… odd Loop so far. And it had only been about ten minutes since she'd Awakened. Namely she was… not human.

It hadn't been the first, nor would it be the last, but it was the first time she's actually been… more interested than not. To say it bluntly, she was a fox. More accurately, a Kitsune. Loop memories told her the story of how she'd been hiding out as a human for a good thirteen centuries, constantly shifting identities as she tried to remain in a world that actively opposed her existence..

It kinda annoyed her how she'd only woken up here in Chaldea after Singularity F. This would have been more fun if she'd woken up earlier! Of course, with shifting identities (Which she still only had two personally) she had many, many names already in this Loop, but the two that stuck out to her the most was… well a very interesting one, and something else interesting from her Loop memories.

Kouhime, her 'original' name that she hadn't used in forever… and one of her many, many alternate identities. Deanna De Lio, from her time spent in Italy apparently.

During the life of one Leonardo Da Vinci, who she had met and spoken with, and had even had a portrait drawn of her human guise of that era. A true friend… even if it felt odd to think of Leonardo as male, even having seen her in life.

"Ritsuka Fujimaru," Ritsuka looked up from her position at the door.

"Da Vinci?" she asked in surprise as the Caster slowly decided to rub her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just wanting to ask a few questions, miss De Lio," the Caster noted, and Ritsuka had to summon up all her willpower not to cringe. That had gotten her in trouble with Holmes figuring things out by her reaction to his statements, and she really, really had to keep control of that.

"Who?" Ritsuka tried to play dumb as Da Vinci huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Ritsuka, you gave it away the moment I walked in the room," Da Vinci stated as Ritsuka thought about it for a moment, before face palming.

She hadn't met Da Vinci's female form this Loop.

'Wait.'

Before she could go any further, and before Da Vinci could say anything, Ritsuka grabbed her, and before she could protest, dragged the genius into her Pocket, into the room she had filled with resources from the Underworld, alongside the displays for the Infernal Arms.

"Ritsuka what was that for?" Da Vinci asked as she picked herself up off the floor, Ritsuka sighing in relief as she took a seat on the floor.

"We nearly got killed," Ritsuka muttered as she rubbed her forehead, Da Vinci raising an eyebrow as she looked up at her. "I'll explain in a moment, I'm going to guess the last thing you remember is us flying away from Fairy Britain…" she looked Da Vinci up and down before smirking. "And being a lot shorter."

Da Vinci huffed, but kept her smile up, fitting for the Mona Lisa. "Well you clearly know what's going on. Let me guess…" her smile faltered, only slightly. "The King of Mages?"

"Yeah, I've learned very quickly that if he catches wind of stuff, he has a nasty tendency to just warp in and blow Chaldea to hell," Ritsuka admitted bluntly as Da Vinci winced.

"...How many times have you died?" She asked as Ritsuka flopped onto the floor.

"I have lost count. Also how did you know about the Di Lio thing? I only came too like ten minutes ago," Ritsuka didn't bother raising her head as Da Vinci hummed.

"Well seeing as how that was different, and how your current form looks a lot like that one from my memories, I made an educated guess. Word of advice if you ever do it yourself, make sure you change your appearance more than just hairstyle and height." Da Vinci commented as Ritsuka sighed… and then smiled.

"Well… it's good to see you Da Vinci," she started, sitting up, and holding out her hand. "Welcome to the Loops."

"Oh this is going to be a story, I can already tell," Da Vinci admitted with a smile, taking Ritsuka's hand and shaking it.

"...How did you manage this?" Ritsuka had to ask as she looked down at Da Vinci, who had not been able to avoid getting killed, forcing her into her backup body.

The problem was, was they'd just come back from Camelot.

"You didn't explain anything about Lancelot having a mecha," she pointed out quite bluntly as Ritsuka sighed. It was more trouble than it was worth to even try and deal with at this point. She'd dragged Da Vinci back into her pocket to actually have his conversation… Goetia really was annoying.

"Does that really surprise you?" Ritsuka asked as she sighed, finally deciding, screw it and actually going over to the Mirror of Night to look at herself. Every other kitsune she knew at Shapeshift at minimum, so she probably should.

"Not as much as it should, but more than it should have," Da Vinci waved her hands, the tiny 'Rider' currently looking over the collection of stuff that Ritsuka had collected from the Underworld. "Where did you get all this stuff anyway?"

"Underworld, spent a long time not too long ago. Helped me figure out my little Identity issue." Ritsuka admitted as she put her hands on her head, concentrating and then pulling away, a pair of large fox ears appeared on her head.

"Identity issue?" Da Vinci asked, a look of concern crossing her face as Ritsuka nodded, making her two tails appear, and waving them behind her. That was as far as she was willing to go right now.

"Yeah, every single loop it is all different. Can you imagine the only thing staying the same, and sometimes not even then, being your name? Only two things are consistent… most of the time. I am the forty-eight master of Chaldea, and Ushiwakamaru is my personal hero…" In this loop that was more literal, she'd actually met the living Ushiwakamaru, at least that was what her memories told her, and knew her during her childhood. They were good friends.

It had not surprised her when she'd summoned Ushi off of those memories alone, and the Alter Ego (She had the Crescent Rose and the Silver Eyes again, that was fairly common) had seen through her disguise in an instant.

"...Wait not even being human?"

"Especially not being human, I'll admit, this is my first time as a Kitsune, but I've also been a fairy, hated that one, a tengu, a dragon who'd obtained human form, werewolf with more emphasis on the wolf, an actual cat person, a lamia, and many, many other things," she admitted. Oddly almost all of them had at least the ability to appear human if she tried hard enough, that was fairly consistent, but it wasn't exactly a comfort.

"I can see that being a pain," Da Vinci admitted.

"Yeah, gender too… I've yet to figure out which I like more," Ritsuka admitted. She was currently leaning female, but that was because her one solid identity as Lotós was explicitly female…

Granted she quite liked this one too… Maybe she could experience it later?

"Well I'm glad to see you're adjusting well, I must say, I certainly prefer female," the Caster admitted, and Ritsuka rolled her eyes as Da Vinci giggled.

"Well I know you do Da Vinci," Ritsuka added, smirking as Da Vinci grabbed something off a shelf, a darkness crystal.

"Mind if I use some of this later, I want to test it," Da Vinci asked as Ritsuka nodded.

"Knock yourself out, I'm still trying to figure out if I can use the mirror still," Ritsuka added as she did motion behind her. "Put it back for now though, wait until after we deal with Goetia."

"Aww…" Da Vinci pouted, but did put the crystal back as Ritsuka returned to 'human' form. "Well, back to work then."

"Yep, back to work."

"...Da Vinci it's your first Loop, how the hell did you do this!?" Ritsuka asked, legitimately confused at what was going on before her.

Da Vinci had asked to borrow some Titan's Blood, and had grabbed Hercules, and literally injected it into his veins.

End result was the fact that now Hercules was... well.

The fact that Ivan the Terrible's Mammoth was currently being swung around by the trunk spoke volumes. Also Hercules was about three times as large as normal, and was making his Megaros form look normal.

"I decided to try and make our lives a little easier, what's so hard about that! You're the one who summoned Hercules in Russia!" Da Vinci shouted at her.

"I WAS EXPECTING AVICEBRON!" Ritsuka hissed, nearly losing control over her human form

"Both of you please, stop arguing?" Goldorf asked politely from the comms as Mash was loading up with the Ortinax. Ivan was… being dealt with, but they still had to deal with Kadoc.

The same Kadoc who was about 90 meters away alongside the Yaga rebels… who were watching the emperor they feared get tossed around like a ragdoll.

"...I am glad we only decided to invade Chaldea after they dismissed their Servants," Kadoc muttered as Ivan the Terrible was chucked all the way to the utter end of Russia with 'Super-Hercules' hot on his heels.

It was a fairly quick battle for the first Lostbelt, all things considered.

"How did you get this line?" Ritsuka blinked as she was staring at the entire table of holographic Crypters.

"Da Vinci! What did you do!?"

"I had Holmes help me hack their communication frequencies!" She admitted and Ritsuka rammed her head into a wall, with all of the Crypters watching (Minus Kadoc, who'd been stolen by Kotomine already).

"...I know your pain," Wodime muttered under his breath as the various Crypters and Ritsuka all chimed in on occasion, mostly to complain, joke, and try and get Ritsuka to surrender, which she didn't.

"Cut the line darn it!" Ritsuka ordered, and the feed cut after nearly twenty minutes of talking to everyone but Kadoc, who wasn't there, and dissing Beryl for what he tried to do to Mash.

Ritsuka was very quickly learning that Da Vinci had a… very big interest in experimenting in making things fun or outright crazy.

"...I can't believe that worked," Ritsuka muttered as Da Vinci was forcing her to raid all of the Klironomia dispensers.

As it turned out, ordering them to work in the name of Hades… with her heldover authority from her time in the Underworld counted enough to force the machines to start dispensing everything without breaking them.

"More, we're gonna get them all!" Da Vinci declared as Ritsuka did hand over some of the Klironomia for Mandricardio and Charlotte.

...Now she wondered if she could command the Underworld itself, or could rip Odysseus' armor off him.

As it turned out, not only did her authority from Hades allow her to rip off Odysseus's Hades made armor and the Hades Nanomachines out of him… painfully. (She had outright winced at how brutal it had been)

It also had allowed her to bring Charlotte along via forging a new contract with her after Odysseus' death via… very violent removal of nanomachines.

It also turned out that proclaiming "In the name of Hades, I command Tartarus," had similarly given her control over Tartarus under Olympus… She had a lot of explaining to do. Which is to say she lied her ass off and allowed everyone else to do the same by just ordering Tartarus to listen to their allies when they said the same phrase.

Da Vinci, of course, was very intrigued, and had to be persuaded to not rip out everything she could from Olypmus because she didn't have a big Pocket yet, and Ritsuka only had so much room in her Pocket. And no, she was not going to grab the Storm Border yet.

By the time the Loop had ended, Ritsuka was… terrified yet happy.

Happy that Da Vinci was back. Terrified because in Da Vinci's very first loop she'd managed to upgrade her staff with the Klironomia of all twelve Olympians (Just a bit, they hadn't been able to get much of Zeus or Posideon's Klironomia), and Titan's Blood from the Underworld to make a weapon of mass devastation she'd used to blast Barghest all the way back to Camelot during their first encounter.

It was not enough however to even come close to matching Morgan, but hey, it made her more than just another target when they'd fought her. Da Vinci had then handed Ritsuka her staff for safe keeping for the next loop.

"It's her first loop! This was her first loop!" Ritsuka finished as she smashed her head against the table, Vortigern laughing at her pain.

"Ah, sounds like you're in for dull times, aren't you?" He asked sarcastically.

"No… but I wouldn't have it any other way," Ritsuka admitted as she chalked up another personal identity for herself. Kouhime was going to be an interesting one to be later once she could actually experience it further… if that ever happened. Maybe.

"Oh joy, I can only imagine what she'll do in the future." Vortigern mused as Ritsuka sighed.

Knowing Da Vinci… it could only go well or poorly.

5.2

[Ranma 1/2] [Fate Grand Order]

Fate Grand Ranma: Lucha Libre

Ranma had made his preparations, so technically all he had needed to do was wait. He'd decided to rip the American Singularity a new one as a warm-up, even if Ritsuka had politely asked that he withhold on the murder so he could at least recruit allies.

He hadn't agreed to it at first, but when Ritsuka pointed out that just ending the Singularity early meant less fun, he'd reconsidered. He hadn't originally been here to just stomp everything flat after all, his goal was further ahead.

They'd beaten America with relative ease, with Ritsuka pointing out that they'd be running into Karna and Arjuna later when he'd asked who was actually important and he'd also managed to get catalysts off of some of the Servants that appeared here, from American heroes to Celtic myth, and the four Indian Servants of course. The one that caught his interest the most though was the Berserker, Florence Nightingale, the one who'd been with them the entire time. The determined Nurse of Steel so dedicated to healing she would kill you to do it… and was so good at it she'd kept Rama alive despite the fractured spirit origin and completely exploded heart. He still wanted to know why a nurse had the ability to pull out all sorts of medical supplies and explosives out of nowhere, but he had to admit, she was good at her job.

Camelot had had Ritsuka going for something just in case and Ranma decided not to argue, since getting the allegiance of someone who could apply the concept of Death to things was kinda a big deal for Ritsuka. He'd still bashed all of the Knights of the Round easily, the hardest of the group being Tristan, but only by comparison to the others as he'd managed to last the longest. Rhongomyniad the Goddess had been similarly put down with little issue.

He'd also made a point to fix Bedivere's broken soul while they were at it. He may not have been anywhere near as good at it as Usagi or Naruto with his seals, but he was no slouch himself when it came to soul magic. It was all just ki in the end, right? The man had certainly earned a shot at life after he'd returned Excalibur to the Lion King, and they ended up dragging him back to Chaldea to work with them. Specifically, Ritsuka had asked him to enter his Pocket and then brought him out once they were back in Chaldea.

Ranma felt the need to point out that keeping people in your Pocket past the end of a Loop was looked down upon and Ritsuka had been quick to cite a promise he'd made to someone, that he wouldn't toy with people's lives. He had refused to elaborate who, and Ranma hadn't pried… yet. He would later if he got bored or it turned out to be important.

A few more interesting events occurred, though nothing that Ranma really felt the need to particularly try for. He knew that Solomon could see him practically anywhere now, being damn near literally omniscient meant that only the Pocket was actually safe for conversation. But Ritsuka had admitted that the 'King of Mages' was a very pragmatic person even normally.

Apparently, in Baseline, there was a bit of a stigma against calling Solomon or Goetia by those names due to believing it might attract his attention. It was a bit too similar to Hogwart's annoying 'He-who-must-not-be-named' thing in Ranma's opinion, but he did note that in this Loop that there was still a very legitimate fear of Solomon just warping in and nuking them, which according to Ritsuka had occurred more than a few times.

(He still made a bit of a habit to spend as much of his free time as possible insulting the peeping jackass though, just in case he tuned in. If he got his rematch early, all the better in his opinion, but he kept it to himself when anyone else was around for Ritsuka's peace of mind.)

Harry would probably hate the whole thing and try to best the King of Mages in a wizard duel, and would all but certainly win seeing how he was one of best magic-users in the Loops (probably second only to Hermione or Twilight) and overreacting for the sake of proving a point tended to happen more often than not when someone tried to knock them down the rankings.

Regardless, when it had come time for Babylonia, Ritsuka had ended up mentioning someone very interesting during one of their recent chats. Ranma had taken to just outright kidnapping Ritsuka to grill him for information about damn near everything before it happened, even common Variants, just so that he would be prepared for another curveball or another chance at Goetia.

Which was how he found out about the supposed Goddess of Lucha Libre, as well as one of the Seven Beasts; the Beast of Regression, Tiamat. He'd asked about the latter first, to which Ritsuka had admitted she was protected by a rather… interesting case of the grandfather paradox. She couldn't be killed because she was the origin of all life, hence if she was killed then all life would cease, and the world wouldn't allow that.

She was also immune to being killed so long as there was any living thing in the same dimension as her, again due to the whole 'being the Origin of all life' thing. They'd gotten around that by dropping her into the underworld of Kur where the Goddess Ereshkigal could essentially just outright decree that 'The presence of life is a one or zero value'. Either there was or wasn't life in Kur.

Even Merlin had gotten his happy ass out of Avalon to actually assist in this endeavor and Gilgamesh (the one whose ass Ranma hadn't beaten like a tin kettle drum) after having gotten killed by Tiamat, had proceeded to summon himself during the fight to help apply the final blow; that being Ea fired at maximum power.

Ranma had to admit, the whole thing was a pain in the ass, but they had gotten around it. Sure the whole 'So long as there is life she cannot be killed' even after being brought down to mortal was annoying, but hey, he could probably just warp her into the Underworld himself and have Ereshkigal fix that problem.

His plan to deal with the Kaiju taken care of, he'd then asked about this so-called 'Goddess of Lucha Libre.' Ritsuka had smiled about that, speaking fondly of the Goddess Quetzalcoatl and her very intimate love for the sport, to the point where she always remembered and loved it no matter where or how she was summoned. So great was her love for it… and so skilled was she at it, that apparently she had an 'EX' ranking in the sport; an unquantifiable degree of mastery.

To say Ranma was interested in trying his hand at beating this supposed goddess of Lucha at her own game was a bit of an understatement. Heck, the last time he could remember going a full round as a luchador was against Ricochet and Buena Girl a few subjective eternities ago. Add in the fact that Ritsuka had pointed out impressing her was one of the goals and if they beat her then she joined them?

Icing on the cake.

For some reason, Ritsuka noted Kingu didn't even bother to show up to face them. Ranma had asked why it mattered, and he'd pointed out that by this point Servants had started recognizing him by reputation alone. Ranma thought about that and recalled something that the Goddess Rhongomyniad had said about the Master of Chaldea… and his monster of a Servant, and just sort of shrugged in agreement.

Meeting Merlin and Ana, they headed to Babylonia, and Ranma finally got to talk with Gilgamesh… who was suitably impressed with him having beaten his arrogant younger self. The King of Heroes actually being nice, if strict, was weird; since he was spreading himself so thin.

In point of fact, he was pushing himself so hard he'd outright died of the overwork and they'd had to go fetch his soul from Kur; which had also been what had allowed them a chance to recruit Ereshkigal in the first place, so it kinda worked out. Though Ranma admittedly wanted to test his might against Tiamat at her full power.

However, what he was truly anticipating was Quetzalcoatl, and when Gilgamesh informed them that he needed them to scout the jungle, he knew it was time.

"Alright everyone! The following contest is scheduled for One Fall!" Jaguar Warrior belted out into the microphone of the desk that Ritsuka had pulled out of his Pocket for her while Ranma warmed up in his corner of the ring. He had Mash rubbing his shoulders, and on the opposite side of the ring prepared for them, Ritsuka was doing the same for Quetzalcoatl.

Recruiting her to their side had been easy. In fact, Ritsuka had done it in seconds with just a simple Order Change spell and screaming something about the 'SKY HIGH RIDER-BUSTER JUSTICE BOMB!' which had been Ritsuka dropping themselves from terminal velocity and attempting to power-dive the Goddess, who had saved his stupid ass and was on their side just for his bravery alone. Ranma had to admit, it was definitely one of the weirder ways of appeasing a Goddess he'd seen in a while.

And then Ritsuka had informed her that Ranma wanted to fight her, and a ring had been assembled for them in record time. It was going to be three rounds, pure wrestling. A good clean fight. If one of them was pinned for three seconds, they lost the round. Nice and simple.

"Introducing the Challenger:" Jaguar Warrior announced, "From Nerima, Tokyo Japan, weighing in at 210 Pounds, RANMA SAOTOME!"

"This is stupid…" Ana noted from the sidelines as Ishtar sat watching with a banana she'd gotten from somewhere as a snack. Overhearing her, Ranma snorted. This was gonna be the furthest thing from stupid anyone of them had ever seen. An all-out fight against an opponent who was just as interested in perfecting her craft as he was? They were gonna knock people's socks off.

"You better get ready to put up a splash guard, cause I ain't planning to hold back on this one," Ranma noted to Mash as she nodded. He pulled an old mask out of his Pocket, slipping it on. The luchador mask was yellow for its main color, outlined in blue, with the center of the mask taken up by an 01. Pretty simple, but it got the point across. He was number one, the best of the best.

"And now, The Goddess of Mexico City, Weighing in at a respectable 100 pounds, She Is La Campeona: QUETZALCOATL!"

Looking across at his opponent, she was wearing a mask herself, one that was simple in design. A white mask with red Aztec script around the edges. On each cheek was a pictograph of the Aztec sun, while her forehead was taken up by the sigil of 'Rider', the class that she was as a Servant. On her head sat a feathered headdress crown with brilliant quetzal feathers splayed around a band of gold and leather of traditional Nahuatl design.

"Good luck Ranma," Mash offered, removing her hands from his shoulder, Ranma smirked in response.

"Kid, I got this in the bag. Two rounds, easy." Ranma stood up, throwing off the towel he'd had around his shoulders. Quetzalcoatl did the same as Ritsuka stepped away, before they all backed up a good couple meters to avoid what was about to happen.

"Just so we're all clear, there are three rules here!" Jaguar Warrior belted through the microphone as both Ranma and Quetzalcoatl got into their ready stances. The goddess using Taiga's body raised one finger. "No eye gouging!" she raised a second. "No instant death effects!" Quetzacoatl cracked her neck as she flashed a grin full of sharp teeth. "No nut shots!" the referee added before concluding. "Otherwise! Anything goes!"

"My specialty," Ranma said with a grin

"BEGIN!" Jaguar Warrior shouted into her mic, and both Ranma and Quetzalcoatl shot forward. Less than a second later they met in the center of the ring, massive grins on their faces as they grappled with one other. Quetzalcoatl snapped up, her legs wrapping around Ranma's neck and flipping him around in a hurricanrana; smashing him into the ground as both of them went down.

Not to be outdone he grabbed the Goddess' legs from his spot on the ground, lifting her off her feet as he stood. The goddess dangled by her leg in his grip for a moment before retaliating by snapping out with her arms, grabbing his legs and forcing him to split them as her free foot kicked at his hand.

The two-pronged assault left her to drop, shifting into a handstand and doing a 180 kip-up back onto her feet. The two of them began to circle one another, both having taken the moment to test the waters. The Goddess and the Martial artist both smiled as they went for it again.

The next two minutes were filled with commentary as Jaguar Warrior kept up with the action. "Quetzalcoatl goes for the hurricanrana, but Ranma reverses it! Oh, he's going for the ropes! He leaps, and she catches him, they both flip, Ranma's pinned! One! Oh, they're both back up!"

"So… how long is the round going for?" Mash asked as Ritsuka shrugged.

"Until the pin," he muttered as both Quetzalcoatl and Ranma kept going at it. It took four minutes for one of them, Quetzalcoatl, to be put into a strong enough hold for the next count to start. They got to two before she broke free and pinned Ranma herself, forcing another count that lasted to only one. It took another nine minutes before Quetzacoatl finally got Ranma into an exceptionally strong headlock.

"This round will be mine Amigo!" She boasted as she forced Ranma to his knees. Within the rules, he was pinned, but he broke the lock and tried to grab her in a Full Nelson. She avoided it by flipping over him and wrapping around him, going for a lotus lock. Before she could apply it, Ranma rolled backwards and sprang to his feet with a quick flip off his hands. She quickly followed suit with a nip-up, landing on her feet before Ranma could grapple her, the two still smiling as they dove for each other again.

What Ranma hadn't been expecting was for her to go for a headbutt without a grapple, a bit of a surprise, but it bought her enough of a moment that she got him again. "And Quetzacoatl goes for the tope! Following up with an attempt at a Nudo! No, wait!'' Jaguar Warrior's excited commentary blared out as Quetzelcoatl pulled hard, gritting her teeth as she struggled to keep Ranma's arms bound behind him before knocking them both to the floor, the Goddess wrapping his legs together as she finally got him in an exceptionally hard pin.

He struggled as Jaguar Warrior counted. "One!"

"Oh, you're not going anywhere this time Rudo!" Quetzacoatl cheered as he tried to bash his head against hers, but she straight up tanked it by meeting it with her own forehead.

"Two!"

'I'll give her credit, she knows her stuff," Ranma admitted mentally. Sure, he could easily break out of this if he teleported, or used any sort of battle aura, but where was the fun in that. This was a sparring match with some rules at least.

He'd just have to turn it around like he always did.

"Three!" Jaguar Warrior finished as the crowd cheered, the people of the city Eridu cheered for their Goddess of the Sun. "Round one to Quetzacoatl! Ranma Saotome has taken the Primera caída!"

She let him up, both of them going back to their corners of the ring as Quetzacoatl cracked her neck, smiling as he smirked. The long, drawn-out match had given him a good chance to observe her. A true master of her craft, always searching to improve, and with a massively mixed bag of tricks. But even she had her favorites.

And those were her weak points.

"Round two! Begin!" Instantly, they both shot forward again. At this point, even Ishtar was cheering. "Get him Quetz! Show him the power of a Goddess!" The goddess belted out, pumping her fist into the air and punching it as the two continued to go at it.

"You can do it Ranma-san!" Mash cheered, leaping up and down as Ritsuka kept quiet. He didn't really want to cheer for either of his friends, since that meant he'd be favoring one over the other in this sort of match.

About a minute into the second round, the ring exploded. "EH!? They've broken the ring! Ah well! Keep going!" Jaguar Warrior shouted energetically as Ranma and Quetzalcoatl started throwing each other around the courtyard; clearly, neither was going for full power by any metric, as they weren't destroying the landscape with each blow, but they were still putting out a significant amount of power regardless.

Both were clearly exceptional, but with Ranma sticking to actual wrestling techniques, rather than pure martial arts as a limiter, they were fairly even; even with Ranma getting more holds on Quetzacoatl than she did on him, both were very clearly enjoying themselves. Still, enough was enough for Ranma.

Quetzacoatl flew at him, kicking off a wall to attempt a Tornillo, spinning through the air with her legs extended towards him.

He ducked, and shot upwards, grabbing her by the leg and reversing her momentum, smashing the goddess into the ground with a massive thud before getting on top of her, pinning her legs with his arms and her arms with his feet. She, of course, struggled even as Jaguar Warrior started counting for them.

"One!"

She tried to rip her arm out from under his foot, but he'd placed his foot on her wrist, which given his weight and pure strength, even with her might as a Goddess, was keeping her pinned down.

"Two!"

She was able to rip her arm out from under his foot and grab his leg, managing to raise it slightly before he simply just dropped in place, sitting on her back and forcing her to stay pinned to the ground.

"Three!" Jaguar Warrior called out, ringing the bell. "The Segunda caída has occurred! Ranma Saotome wins this round!"

He got off of her as she huffed, but was smiling as she stood back up for the third round, the crowd still going wild, it was one to one, and she'd gone down fighting. To them, there was still a chance for her to win. As the pair got ready for the final round, Quetzalcoatl called out to him.

"You're amazing Ranma," Quetzalcoatl noted, brushing a strand of hair out of the way as Ranma did a quick cross arm stretch between rounds.

"Damn straight. But you've clearly put a lot of work into your Art too, Miss Goddess," he said, before readying himself. "This next round is mine though."

She grinned as she got into a similar ready stance. "Ah! How incredible it feels, to fight like this! I know you could take my Xiuhcoatl, but that would be against the rules," she said as Jaguar Warrior screamed, "FINAL ROUND! BEGIN!" and they shot at each other once again.

This time though, Ranma wanted the win. As fun as this was, there was one rule above all that he lived by.

Ranma Saotome didn't lose a fair fight.

The woman had clearly not shown everything she was capable of, but her preference for aerial grapples and the like was evident. That was her weakness, one he'd tried to exploit in the second round and pin her down, only for her to roll out of the pin and kick off again. He knew he could easily trounce her if he absolutely wanted to… but this was supposed to be just for fun. For the audience just as much as the fighters.

It took another eight minutes before it was finally settled, with Ranma grappling the Goddess in a four-figure armlock; even as she struggled to get out of this position, the referee counted down steadily.

"ONE! TWO! THREE!" Jaguar warrior called out, ringing the bell manually as Ranma let go of the hold and rolled off the Goddess as she lay in the dirt, laughing as she spun to her feet from the ground.

"Well, that was fun!" She cheered before flashing him a grin. "Let's do it again sometime!"

Ranma blinked as the woman laughed. Quetzalcoatl walked over and patted him on the back. "What, did you think I couldn't take it?" she smirked. "I knew you were sandbagging amigo, but it was fun. Just this match has taught me a good bit. After all, I didn't become a master of Lucha Libre by winning every match," She laughed.

"Really, and here I thought a Goddess would easily trounce anyone?" Ranma asked a bit sarcastically.

"Nah, that's no fun. I've fought other luchadores and luchadoras, had to start somewhere after all!" She beat her hand against her chest. "I've won and lost my fair share. I can only call myself a master because I've indeed mastered the art of Lucha Libre. That doesn't mean I am unbeatable. After all, you yourself are a master of much more than that," she explained with a smile.

"You know what, next time we meet, I'm up for another go," Ranma noted, as the Goddess nodded. She wouldn't be remembering their first bout next time… but that didn't matter. It was always interesting to meet another master of the Art, and finding an opponent who didn't swear vengeance against him was a pretty novel pleasure given his Baseline.

"Let's be friends, Ranma Saotome," she gave him a thumbs up.

"You know what, sure," he shook hands with her as he caught Ritsuka out of the corner of his eye, walking around and grabbing some random stuff off the ground.

So the goddess Quetzalcoatl joined them on their adventure for a time. A Servant Ranma was quite happy to share stories with. She certainly had no lack of stories of her own to tell, strange as they were and it wasn't often one met such a friendly goddess who was also an exceptionally competent combatant.

5.3

[Ranma 1/2] [Fate Grand Order]

Fate Grand Ranma: Tiamat

Ranma was quiet as Ritsuka and he flew on the back of one of Quetzalcoatl's quetzalcoatlus, Mash on the creature's head with Lord Camelot raised already.

Before them, almost a mile away, was Tiamat. And Ritsuka had decided to put on a bit of a show, even with all the prep work done to render her killable… With Ranma's surprising friendship with Quetzalcoatl, he'd wanted to let him see what she could really do.

They watched as she channeled her Noble Phantasm, an orb of energy in her hand the size of her palm pulled from the Sun Stone back at her temple, before launching herself off of her own quetzalcoatlus. "PIEDRA DE SOL!"

He watched as she smashed the orb into the Chaos Tide below, and with an almighty bang sent a cloud of pure flame rising into the sky, Lord Camelot saving them from being caught in the blast. When the light faded for just a moment, the Chaos Tide beneath Tiamat and for dozens of miles around her had been vaporized, leveling the ground around her as molten magma began to pour from where the Beast stood.

He watched as the Rider, still standing in the molten pit, ripped the energy out of the entire field of magma. It all cooled in an instant as the woman herself rocketed into the sky.

He had to whip his head upward to keep up with her speed as Tiamat looked skyward, the currently flying primordial goddess raising a three-layered shield that Ranma could feel the energy behind even from as far away as they were. And all of them were sparking with power as the comet shot down towards the earth. With a scream that was heard by all, the Goddess of Venus, of the wind, of war, and the sun, shot down towards the primordial goddess with the force of an extinction event.

Literally. "Her final Noble Phantasm… the concept of the comet that killed the dinosaurs," Ritsuka provided as the goddess roared.

"ULTIMO TOPA! PATADA!" She smashed into the first forcefield, and the impact alone once again reduced the ground around them to magma… and then shattered it, revealing the Underworld of Kur below them; but with Tiamat flying she wasn't about to fall into it. The ensuing explosion turned night into day as once more the heat flew over them.

It was still pretty damn good, all things considered. Compared to everything he'd seen in his long time Looping though, it wasn't that impressive. She hadn't even-

The first barrier broke, the force pushing Tiamat down towards Kur as the comet impacted the second barrier. 'Eh, nevermind.'

Quetzelcoatl paused for a brief moment… before firing off a third Noble Phantasm in a row. "BURNING FIGHTING SPIRIT! XIUHCOATL!" She raised her foot and smashed the second barrier even faster than the first with a single kick, Tiamat being forced downward as he watched the horns begin to crack; a pillar of pure red firing into the sky as she smashed into the third barrier.

Ok, so even without impacting her Quetzacoatl was doing enough damage to hurt the monster that was Tiamat. And the monster sang as she threw up another wide barrier, trying to stall out Quetzacoatl as the third barrier was smashed. He felt the energy of Ritsuka's command seal fire off, even without the younger Anchor speaking.

The Goddess smashed through the two barriers without pausing, Tiamat's song echoing through his ears as one of her two horns fell off. Quetzacoatl screamed as she kicked the primordial goddess straight downward into Kur.

He knew from Ritsuka that, in Baseline, Merlin's tricks had resulted in Quetzacoatl losing half her power from throwing the axe of Marduk at the Blood Fort. So Ritsuka had asked him to throw it. As the hole into Kur erupted with molten fire, Ranma nodded. Yeah… she was pretty impressive for a non-Looper.

"Let's go," Ranma ordered, Ritsuka tapping the dinosaur they were riding and flying towards Kur, with Jaguar Warrior speeding ahead of them before shooting back out past them with the unconscious Quetzacoatl on her own mount. Ranma didn't even wait as he landed on the ground next to Ereshkigal, the Goddess of the Underworld already straining as Tiamat stood back up, having changed from the lumbering titan into an utterly horrific abomination that vaguely looked like a dragon; one of her many horns having fallen off from how hard Quetzacoatl had smashed her into Kur.

"She's still not down," Ereshkigal stated through gritted teeth as Tiamat roared, the Chaos tide beginning to flood into Kur from her feet as Laḫmu, the beasts she'd been spawning from within, began to swarm through the Underworld.

Ranma watched for a second, and then looked up as a great armored man appeared, wielding a pure black sword. The 'King Hassan' from Camelot, having come to honor his contract with Ritsuka. He watched the specter of death vanish into blue flames before appearing on a falling rock, his sword alight as he tore into Tiamat with it. The Beast screamed as blue lines began to cover her form.

"She's mortal! Ranma!" Ritsuka called out from above as King Hassan began killing Laḫmu with extreme speed. Ranma just smirked. Kid had set the stage for him.

Might as well put on a bit of a show.

Ranma launched himself back into the sky, flying out of the realm of Kur and into space in barely more than a full second. He stopped on a dime and looked down toward the clouds, the storm that covered the Demonic Front Mesopotamia directly below him.

He could have done any number of things. He could have used Spiral Power to drill her to death. He could have used a spirit bomb, powered by the planet itself. Maybe he could have just fired a full-powered Kamehameha wave at her.

Instead, he decided to use something from his own Baseline. The Mōko Takabisha, a ki blast powered by his confidence… and ki of course. And he was absolutely, utterly certain that this was going to kill her… but he still intended to be a bit dramatic about it.

He raised his hand, forming the Mōko Takabisha and keeping it there above his hand, compressing it, before causing the technique to spin; forming it into a spear before grabbing it out of the vacuum of space. He aimed downward… and threw it.

Then he vanished, appearing right in front of Tiamat just above a field of flowers, Merlin having come and removed the Chaos Tide for him. He held out his hand behind him, the spear of his own Ki not stopping as he wrapped his hand around the hilt before it had appeared, reacting with speeds beyond light to spin the spear directly into his target.

He rammed the Mōko Takabisha spear into Tiamat's stomach, and there was a moment of pause before an almighty bang resounded, the Goddess of Primordial Life being evaporated from the energy he'd shoved directly into her, disintegrating from the inside out in less than a fraction of a second. Her form dissipated, and the Underworld shook at the energy released from the outline that had been her body, beginning to collapse as he vanished and reappeared beside the rest of the group, save King Hassan who'd screwed off at some point already, with a smirk.

"One dead Beast. Wasn't so bad once she was mortal," Ranma admitted, even as internally he calculated just how much power he'd shoved into her. Technically that had been enough power to outright annihilate a small solar system. Not exactly a level of power most Loopers who weren't heavily focused on shonen level combat, or paranoid enough to keep their skills sharp anyway, could achieve on a whim.

"Well that was easier than expected, not unsurprising," Merlin noted with a smirk on his face as Ranma looked towards the pretty boy magician, both Ritsuka and Mash looking at him with some confusion as Ritsuka finally asked something.

"Merlin… are you…" he paused, clearly wanting to say something, but shutting his mouth because they were all aware Goetia was watching, or at least should be after that display of power.

"Am I what Ritsuka? I'm many things, you're gonna have to be more specific," Merlin started, laughing as Gilgamesh dropped down into Kur from above, riding the Vimana, still alive this time around.

"If you are attempting to get answers out of the Magus of Flowers, you are already asking for trouble, Ritsuka Fujimaru," the King of Uruk noted as he dropped the Vimana back into the Gate of Babylon, dropping down next to them with a smirk on his face and joy in his red eyes.

"Well, she's dead, and we've saved Uruk. So why are you here Goldy?" Ranma questioned, even as Gilgamesh kept a pleasant smile on his face. He'd faced the King of Heroes before in the Stay Night Loop. Many times, in fact. Humiliating him was a favorite pastime of all Loopers due to just how massive his ego was, and how easy it was to get around him when he wasn't being serious or using any of his super-powerful abilities.

But seeing the King with a genuine smile on his face was new.

"Well, I do have something I need to give you all," Gilgamesh noted as he held out his hand, and all of them watched as he pulled out a holy grail filled with rice wine, and offered it to Ranma. "The other grail is-"

"Right here," Merlin noted, pulling the other Holy Grail from the Singularity out of his robe and flipping it over to Ritsuka, who easily caught the golden cup.

Ranma took a small sip of the wine in the Holy Grail Gilgamesh had given him. He wasn't usually all that into alcohol outside of Bar Loops, but it really was stupidly good wine; even the Toriko Loopers liked to get a bottle of the stuff whenever they got the chance. Slowly he Pocketed the Grail, and its contents, for later as Gilgamesh chuckled.

"Now, like a certain King of Mages, both Merlin and myself have access to powerful Clairvoyance. Not as powerful as his, but certainly potent," Gilgamesh amended as Ranma looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "So we've witnessed your journey and your battles, Ranma Saotome, and I would like to more personally commend you."

Ranma blinked in slight surprise before the man laughed. "Oh come now. Your actions not only saved the greatest treasure in my possession, but they also saved the world. And what's more, I fully expect you to do so yet again later. So I plan on rewarding you in advance for your efforts," Gilgamesh noted as he opened a golden portal beside him, motioning for Ranma to follow.

Ranma did so, following the King of Uruk as they entered the Gate of Babylon, the first time that he, and probably near any other Looper, had been personally invited into the King's treasury out of gratitude, rather than breaking into it or Looping in as Gilgamesh himself. "So Ranma," he gestured to the endless treasury. "Claim your prizes."

"What, like everything?" Ranma asked as Gilgamesh laughed.

"In a way. I've turned off the Gate of Babylon for the moment, which has prevented it from refilling with treasure while we remain here," Gilgamesh tossed him a heavy tablet, the one he'd been using to activate his many magical staves. "I'm sure you'll find some use for it. After all, I'll get it back after the Singularity corrects itself," he said with a laugh as Ranma smirked.

He spent a good while talking with Gilgamesh as he continued to Pocket ancient treasures, vehicles, buildings, foods, weapons, and more; although Gilgamesh admitted he'd had to seal quite a few of his Divine Constructs away so that not even he could access them at the moment. Just as well, even if he wasn't allowed to take Enkidu. Ranma didn't really care all that much though, he was getting a lot of cool stuff regardless. He even got a new Vimana, since there were multiple copies of it. Surprisingly, once you got past the ego, this Gilgamesh could be fairly easy to talk to if you'd earned his respect.

Something Ranma had achieved not only by beating his Servant form, but also from having saved Uruk before Tiamat and her children could decimate it. Thousands had lived, thanks to his actions. He'd saved one of the things the King of Heroes cared about most. The only thing more that Gilgamesh admitted he could have done, was bring back Enkidu… but he'd moved on from that, and Kingu was similarly dead.

Once he had finished Pocketing everything he'd wanted, Gilgamesh led him outside to the area in front of Uruk, where everyone still alive was waiting for them. Quetzacoatl was awake now, as were Merlin and Ana. Ishtar and Ereshkigal were also there to see them off back to Chaldea.

Ranma, Ritsuka, and Mash were all Rayshifted back to Chaldea with smiling faces as they were wished farewell by their allies. All in all, a good adventure for Ranma Saotome. He got to fistfight a Goddess, kill another, and got paid with more treasure than he'd ever probably need. What more could he ask for?

Nabiki would probably get a kick out of it later just going through everything.

Of course, Ritsuka also went to the summoning chamber and proceeded to use the Catalysts he'd gathered throughout all of Babylonia and a few from his Pocket to summon up all of their allies from the Singularity, except one. Ereshkigal being suspiciously absent was commented upon, but Ritsuka explained he didn't have to worry about it. It was a problem to be solved later.

Ranma had to admit, it was pretty obvious that Ritsuka and Mash cared for Uruk greatly. They had looked so happy with what he'd done and how cleanly they'd taken care of Tiamat, saving the people of Uruk and Mesopotamia. They'd been in Uruk for a month thanks to Gilgamesh's antics, Ritsuka and Mash taking the time to help the people while he had just sort of watched. He'd even watched the king himself give every one of his subjects the care they needed to fight on and live for the next day.

It wasn't that big a deal to him, but it was evident that Ritsuka and Mash still cared a lot about it. Their job was to save the world after all, and they kept pushing forward… honestly the more he learned, he was kinda a bit impressed Ritsuka hadn't gone insane already. Then again, the fact he could manage to get through it, and the sheer amount of variety in how he could accomplish most goals probably helped.

Still, that was one more checkmark ticked off the list. It wouldn't be long now until his rematch with Solomon.

And he was fully ready to show that slimy little sneak-thief a thing or two about why you didn't piss him off Ranma Saotome.

5.1: Enter Da-Vinci Chan!

5.2: Wrestlemania with Lucha Goddess!

5.3: Hit her with everything you got. Okay not actually everything, but a heck of a lot.