10.1
[Fate/Grand Order] [Adminspace] [Sailor Moon]
The Olga Paradox
Occasions like this were rare, but when they popped up, Ritsuka liked to experiment.
Both he and Mash were Awake, they'd Awoken together in Fuyuki right at the start of the Loop, and he'd checked his memories as Mash was checking hers. He was… old. Very old, but that was perfect. His current identity was that of a Gallû Spirit that had been granted human form by Ereshkigal, or at least something akin to Enkidu's type of body. Something that would last the ages.
But what mattered was this would hopefully be the perfect time to summon Ereshkigal early, with the perfect catalyst (one of her cages from Kur), and of his own body as well. They'd yet to actually manage this one, given how hard it was to summon Ereshkigal early even with a near perfect Catalyst.
"Let's hope this Variant Olga wants us to summon a Servant yeah?" Ritsuka asked, smirking as Mash nodded.
"What's the plan Senpai?" she hefted her shield as he pulled out the little cage from his Pocket, shaking it like a small bell. "Ereshkigal?"
"Yep. She's the only person we know readily who could even attempt what I'm thinking, you know?" Ritsuka kept his words deliberately vague. Never knew if Goetia was watching.
"Oh… Oh! That would be great!" Mash exclaimed excitedly, knowing exactly what type of plan was in store. Something they'd tried before, but had never managed to fully accomplish.
Saving Olga Marie.
They'd managed a few times to stop her from being sucked in CHALDEAS, but even when they managed that, she always faded when the singularity ended. This Singularity was so early on that it was nigh on impossible for other Loopers to show up here, and those that did (Medusa, Cu or Altria), didn't possess a way to grab and hang onto Olga's soul as it was being sucked into CHALDEAS, the gravitational force effectively being like a black hole centered on her.
On the other hand, Ereshkigal, with her absolute authority over human souls, a way to contain them, and being capable of marking an area as her territory of Kur to vastly increase her effective power, would be the perfect person to save the director with. Then they might be able to get her into a spare body. They'd just have to convince Da Vinci to make one if she wasn't Awake.
Rushing off to find the director, they dropped in to save her with a bang. Skeletons were crushed with ease, and with a few… hints that he might be capable of supporting an additional Servant before they established a connection with Chaldea, they'd managed to get her to agree to allow the summoning of a second Servant.
It wasn't necessary, but her being more willing would probably help.
"Where did you get that?" Olga asked as Ritsuka set the tiny black cage atop Mash's shield.
"Catalyst. You might think I'm just a fourth rate Master or something, but I've got some stuff that can provide some amazing aid." Ritsuka provided before thinking back to his studies in High Speed Incantations from Medea and Da Vinci.
A quick word later, and the summoning circle lit up, Olga averting her eyes as Ritsuka felt the connection form with the Servant… and then felt a quick Ping.
His eyes went wide as Ereshkigal stepped out of the light. "Fujimaru," she said, her tone far colder than Ereshkigal's normal bubbly one.
"Rin," Ritsuka whispered, but neither spoke any further. The currently blonde Looper looked around before nodding.
"Fine. Servant, Lancer, Ereshkigal at your service," Rin recited, summoning Ereshkigal's spear, and smirking. "So what's the plan 'Master'?" Rin questioned.
"Ereshkigal… the Babylonian goddess of the underworld!?" Olga Marie asked in surprise as Mash slammed her foot onto the end of her shield, flipping it into the air and catching it as all three Loopers (and one Fou), looked at Olga Marie.
"Yep," Rin didn't bother to correct, before flaring out her cape. "And I'm here to beat ass and save the world," she proclaimed.
"...This is not what I expected of a goddess, ever," Olga admitted bluntly as Rin spun around, and tapped Ritsuka on the shoulder.
"One, I want Saber, two, what's the plan?" Rin questioned, Ritsuka nodding his head towards Olga.
"You're the goddess, when the time comes…" he left it there, but Rin nodded. She knew exactly what was meant to happen.
"Might as well," Rin mused. The idea was simple enough to convey. "An experiment?"
Ritsuka just nodded, and Rin smirked. "Like I said Fujimaru," Rin stated, reminding him what her price for this would be.
"Can't promise that, but I can try," he reminded her.
"Let's get going. Director?" Mash started, turning towards Olga who looked at the Master conversing with his new Servant.
"Uh… right, let's get to work on figuring out what's happened here," the Director said, walking forward to 'lead the charge' into Fuyuki city.
They made it to the Greater Grail at a fairly decent pace, only taking maybe a few hours to clear out the city. Rin had wanted to try and solo the rest of the Servants as a warm up, and aside from the Awake Cu (Who had joined them mostly to watch), it was a slaughter in Rin's favor. Darius, Hercules, Benkei, David and Cursed Arm all died to Rin rather easily, leaving only one Servant Left.
Altria,who sadly wasn't Awake, or she wasn't yet. Ritsuka had noticed that it often took being Summoned to Chaldea for a Servant to Awaken, having had many, many Loops where EMIYA, Altria and Cu weren't Awake in Fuyuki, but were upon being summoned to Chaldea.
Rin, with nary a glance, proceeded to utterly demolish the unAwake Saber with a massive rainbow laser of doom. Or love.
"Master Spark, there are many substitutes, but this one's my favorite," Rin said, blowing her smoking finger like a gun as Lev appeared.
None of them really cared for his speech, Rin just moved to stand behind Olga and prepared a cage while Mash pulled out a NFF rifle that they'd looted one Loop off of Vitch and prepared to fire the moment the magic activated.
"What you're seeing is the fate of your family's lunacy!" Lev proclaimed, throwing out his hand, a golden glow surrounding it, and then Olga. Unshackled, the soul of Olga Marie began its turn towards destruction.
"Action!" Ritsuka snapped his fingers, burning two Command Seals, just in case for Rin.
A bullet tore through the air, Lev's head being blasted clean off his shoulders by Mash, followed by another several, flinging the man's corpse into the Greater Grail pit of mud as Rin raised the open cage.
"Come here! By my authority as Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Underworld, I claim your soul!" Rin ordered dramatically.
For a moment Olga Marie stopped, her face still frozen in fear as she was floating between the open cage and CHALDEAS' gravitational pull. A moment of tense silence passing by as Ritsuka decided he wasn't taking any more chances.
"RIN!" He pulled out a Holy Grail, throwing it to the Lancer, who caught it with her free hand, and began draining it for power.
Grail against Grail, with the two casters' spells at war, Rin was the far greater Magus than Lev, even with CHALDEAS' aid. And Olga Marie began to float backwards towards the cage, her soul being claimed not by the image of the world, but by the goddess of death.
"All righ-" Ritsuka pumped his fist in cheer, Mash also cheering as Rin was smirking in victory… and that was the last thing he recalled before the world went white.
LOOP CRASH.
Manu was genuinely surprised. "What the…" the silver haired god muttered as he pulled up the crash report. "They weren't even doing anything that would have strained the Loop safeguards…" he muttered.
Manu had a habit of keeping a very close eye on his Loopers. Not just because their endless antics in wild attempts to save the world proved interesting to see, but also because he had to. Both because it was his duty, and because of his tests.
Since the Grand Order had been activated, and he'd taken over as the Admin for the Nasu-verse Branch in general, he'd been running a number of evaluative processes to test not only his safeguards, but to establish the limits of the Grand Order, how it would interact with other Loops in Fusion, and many other tests within the Grand Order itself via controlled Variant Loops; effectively enforcing things to remain as close to Baseline as could be possibly allowed for the now nearly twenty thousand Loops that had occurred for the Branch.
All things considered, it was a rather recent appointment, and he'd gotten a lot done in his time. He hadn't even had to punish his Loopers at all, just pull out some stuff from the Pockets of Loopers he'd allowed in if he'd flagged it as Read-Only; or even Quarantined in the case of that one attempt DIO had made to steal Van Gogh's powers under the guise of being polite and just trying to give her a more stable mind.
He'd thrown the vampire into a Punishment Loop for that stunt. He wanted that MLE as far away from Ritsuka as possible. One crazy vampire was enough, and Alucard wasn't the worst by any metric.
"Right, let's see… They were about to save Olga Marie and bring her back to Chaldea… that is something they've never managed to do before…" Manu muttered, typing away at the keyboard before grabbing for the receiver on his vintage telephone and dialing up Skuld. "Skuld, I found a problem."
"What's the problem?" the Head Debugger asked as Manu was looking over the code.
"I just had a very strange Loop Crash and I need to figure out what happened, so I'm going to need you to call up Usagi's Admin. She's the only one I can think of on short notice that might be able to replicate this," Manu said.
"There better be a good reason for this Manu, what happened?" Skuld restated, and Manu knew it well. Trying to deliberately Crash a Loop was not good, so it had to be serious.
"The Grand Order Loopers were attempting to save Olga Marie. Nothing but in-Loop abilities were being used nor did they strain any of the safeguards," he leaned back in his chair. "But the moment they managed to basically secure her by pulling her towards them, the Loop Crashed without warning."
Skuld was silent for several moments. "Sudden Crash, no prior warning. Nothing out of the ordinary?"
"Not a damn thing, I'm still looking at the Crash report right now, but that's why I need Usagi. I need to replicate this incident so I have comparable data to figure out what caused it," Manu asked.
"I'll get Yuteu on the line. Aside from this, how's progress on the Grand Order Loop?" Skuld asked as Manu began twirling the cord of the phone around his finger.
"I'm almost ready for the final checks before we can let it run. I've caught all the data corruption, even if I haven't purged it all yet, I've locked down on Loop Aware beings completely, rendered what needs to be Read-Only, and have managed to clean up enough code that we should be good to let it run normally after one final test," the Chaldean God slicked back his hair with a sigh.
"There's still a myriad of bugs and glitches, Septem will probably take Eons to fix but that's at the bottom of my priorities list, Baseline is still Variable and I could go on and on about the problems still, but the point is I've managed to crack down on everything that would be a problem to Yggdrasil's stability if it got out of the Grand Order Loop."
"You work fast Manu, makes me glad you came back from retirement. Might just have to assign you another Branch at this rate," the Norn of the future responded over the phone.
"One project at a time Skuld, besides, I need this tested… they've been trying so hard to save her…" he muttered.
"This better not be another Alyma… Right, I'll get Yuetu on the line. You're going to be having Usagi replace Ritsuka?"
"Have to, and I'll need her to follow instructions for this," Manu commented.
"You're only getting one shot. Make it count Manu, and fix this before it gets serious," Skuld ordered before hanging up. Manu quickly started dialing up another Admin, somewhere to put the Grand Order Loopers while he was running this test.
"Hello, Hephaestus? It's Manu the Great."
"Ah, old man. How's the Patch we made holding up?" The Greek god asked as Manu chuckled.
"It's holding just fine, but I need to ask for a Fused Loop. I need somewhere to put the Grand Order Loopers for a Loop while I test something," Manu asked.
"Why are you calling me and not Sleipnir?" Hephaestus asked as Manu huffed.
"Because they'd probably enjoy one of your Loops more," Manu admitted.
"Or are you still not ready to release them on a more stable Universe yet?" Hephaestus asked.
"Well I did call you for a reason," Manu noted.
"Right, God of Fate, one of the first. I'll set something up. The Mega Loops or Rachet and Clank?" Hephaestus asked.
"I'll trust your judgement, I'm getting another call," Manu added, preparing for the incoming call.
"Alright, you're good," Hephaestus hung up, and mere moments later a call came through to his phone, just as he predicted.
"Yuetu?"
"Yep, Skuld said you needed Usagi for a Loop?" Yuetu responded from the other end of the line.
"Yes, I've got a Crash scenario I need to test. It managed to bypass all the safeguards and I need to figure out why, by replication."
"Alright, I'll let her know, any instructions?" The moon rabbit asked.
"To the letter, here's what I need her to do…"
'Save Olga Marie Animusphere. You'll know when.'
Those hadn't been Usagi's only orders, but she knew why she was here. An Admin asking for her assistance because she was the best to ask on short notice. From what she knew, attempting to save this one person, had ended up resulting in a Loop Crash out of nowhere, with absolutely zero warning.
The new Admin of the Nasuverse Branch had given her the set-up. Olga Marie Animusphere was the second director of Chaldea, she knew this because she had been here before and had checked during a recent Hub Loop as much about Grand Order as she could… even if that was also a convoluted mess that made the Kingdom Hearts Branch look simple in comparison.
She knew that at the point she'd Awakened, Olga Marie was already dead, the girl was a disembodied soul that had unconsciously formed a spiritual body in the midst of Singularity F, Fuyuki. She'd also been told by her Admin Yuetu and from Manu's instructions that they'd managed to prevent her from being sucked into CHALDEAS before without a Loop Crash.
And given what she'd heard about the set-up, she had an inkling what had caused the Crash, but not an exact idea. Thus here she was, replacing Ritsuka Fujimaru themselves… which had ended up with her checking her Loop memories and discovering she was apparently not human, but a Rabbit Spirit that had taken a human form sometime during the Heian era, and had been living amongst humans ever since.
Apparently Looping in as Ritsuka Fujimaru was also a surefire way to end up as some strange species of magical creature. That was probably going to drive some Loopers nuts. She didn't mind though.
Mash wasn't Awake, and it was only a few minutes after Awakening that she, for the first time, personally met Olga Marie Animusphere. White hair and yellow eyes, a sense of loneliness and desperation around her. Confusion, a need to prove herself. A storm of emotions that were all hidden beneath a tsundere frame.
Of course, Usagi could easily tell she was little more than a spirit, a soul that had yet to realize it was actually dead. But that hadn't stopped some Loopers, and it probably wouldn't stop this girl, if anything she had an advantage over them, the ability to interact with the physical world.
Saving her couldn't be that hard, could it?
"Olga, Olga please calm down," Usagi chided the poor director, who was currently in the midst of the second panic attack of the hour when she'd nearly gotten stabbed by an Assassin's dagger.
Nearly being the operative term, as not only had Mash successfully defended Olga, Usagi had blasted the Assassin with enough force to level a city block, so whoever they were, they were dead. "Why should I calm down!?"
"Because we're here, and we'll keep you safe," Usagi offered, holding out her hand to the young girl, smiling. Mash was behind Olga… slowly she took her hand, to begin leading her onwards.
The journey through Fuyuki was a short one, barely a few hours, even if Usagi could have solved it in seconds probably, but that wasn't the point here. The point was to save Olga.
And now that she was actually talking to the girl, she could tell she was way out of her depth on almost every account. Her inability to be a Master, the lack of knowledge she had regarding her own position. Having been thrown into the director's seat with zero preparation, and no clue as to Chaldea's own goals.
'You're just doomed to fail aren't you?' Usagi noted softly in her head as the team was walking towards the Greater Grail and towards Saber. Cu had stayed behind to fight EMIYA, leaving just Olga, Mash and Usagi herself to face down Saber and, unbeknownst to Mash and Olga, Lev.
More than enough.
The battle between Mash and Saber Alter went as well as it did in Baseline, Usagi stepping in to give Mash that little boost she needed to win the beam war before Cu rushed in, shirtless, and kill stole Saber Alter with his Wicker Man Noble Phantasm, before fading away alongside her.
Thus began the moment she'd been brought here for. To save the poor girl whose destiny was to fail. To be doomed forever.
She didn't even bother to listen to Lev's speech as the magic began, and Usagi raised her own hand and pulled.
The manipulation of the soul was something she'd spent eternity perfecting. Olga Marie Animusphere, at this current moment, was little more than just that, a soul with a physical body. A ghost living on borrowed time.
Lev blinked in surprise as Olga was pulled away from CHALDEAS, and towards Usagi, Mash gasping in shock as Olga looked towards her savio. A mere glance, and a snap of her fingers obliterated Lev and shut the space-time gate to CHALDEAS closed. Mere seconds later, the Singularity began to collapse.
So she went with the simple option on short notice, shoving the soul of Olga Marie into her Pocket, and directly into a spare Gigai she had laying around as she and Mash were Rayshifted back to Chaldea.
The moment they landed, Mash was unconscious, and Usagi pulled Olga Marie out of her Pocket, the Director hyperventilating in surprise and squeaking, holding her chest as Usagi grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled the poor teenager into a hug. "I told you… I said we'd keep you safe."
"What was that!?" Olga shouted in her face, only for Usagi to put a finger to the girl's lips to silence her.
"Something I will explain later Olga… for now, let's get to work," she said with a smile, holding Olga's hand as Roman ran into the room panting and looking in surprise at the unconscious Mash, yet still conscious Usagi and Olga.
"Director!" Roman ran towards them. "Are you alright?"
"I'm…" Olga looked to Usagi. "Fine. Everything's fine… I need a minute," Olga started, walking shakily towards the door, as if unused to her current form… which she kinda was at the moment.
"I'll help you Olga, come on, let's go to your office," Usagi joined her, helping the girl with an arm around her shoulders and leading her onward.
She was… pretty sure the Loop should've Crashed by now given the instructions, but if it wasn't going to, she was gonna ride it till the wheels fell off.
Manu hummed as he watched the data coming in as the Loop was continuing… it was… relatively stable. The Loop was currently compensating for the fact that Olga Marie Animusphere was alive rather than flung into CHALDEAS.
Looking at the code now, and comparing it to previous iterations where the Grand Order Loopers had saved Olga Marie in a relative sense (By not allowing her to be flung into the copy of the soul of the world), he was beginning to notice a pattern.
"Ah… that's concerning." Manu noted, seeing the data differences.
Olga Marie Animusphere's code was… to put it mildly, in a state of near constant flux. Her unknown fate in Baseline was a starting point, and there was an… interesting thing about her.
The many, many… many iterations of the girl, or girls with similar code and appearance throughout the Nasu-verse Branch… so he decided to pull up the first Loop.
The Activation Loop of Grand Order, and what had happened to Olga Marie then. Her fate of being flung into Chaldeas was Baseline, but that wasn't the important part.
What was, was the 'after'.
"Ah...That's not good," Manu noted very calmly.
Her code was in a very poor state, even worse than many of the other potential Loopers for the Grand Order. Like bits and pieces of it had been torn out and flung around. He pulled up later iterations of her from later Loops.
The next few Loops were variations on the same theme, portions of code thrown hither and yon haphazardly without care. And then it switched up entirely and became a completely different degree of problematic.
Having had her soul sucked into what was simultaneously a black hole and a sun, her data had been twisted and corrupted by the simultaneous temporospatial distortion caused by falling into a supermassive body of densely packed burning spiritual particles and the continual unrelenting incineration of her very being in a place where time, in a very real sense, ceased to have meaning. All the while she remained awake and aware.
She both did and did not exist within the center of the anomaly which connected every part of the entire history of the Branch's Earth, and therefore she both did and did not exist during all of it. Throwing her mind outward in an attempt to escape her torment, she effectively materialized randomly throughout the Kaleidoscope as a ghost of her own consciousness, neither truly there nor anywhere else.
Looking further, he found a third set of anomalous potentials. Having had her soul literally dissolved within the soul of the Planet had effectively caused the Planet to assimilate her very being, and as an entirely foreign yet simultaneously native influence, the Planet had adopted her essence into itself. In a very real sense, she became the Planet's sense of self. Whether Gaia or Alaya switched randomly in any given Loop, but it was a consistent possibility in either case.
Yet another particularly concerning prospect came to his attention as he dug ever further into the enigma that was Olga-Marie. In her suffering, within the center of the soul of the Planet, in a temporospatial anomaly of a spiritual black hole, she had attained an emptiness of mind so absolute as to become「」, and in so doing gained access to the Root by way of the purest epitome of an all-consuming pain which drove out all concept of 'self'.
The seat of her being returned to the place where all possibility began and ended, from which the entirety of the Branch's code originated and returned in cycle, and having no consciousness to conceive of anything other than her continual suffering she was subsumed and reduced to nothingness to be returned to the cycle of transmigration.
Yet her spiritual being remained trapped within the anomaly; in which of the two absolutes she was located was indeterminate. Impossible to say with certainty without breaking things even further to provide an answer.
Absent.
The more he looked, the more potential issues he found, some more alarming than others, but few of which weren't in some way problematic. In a way, he reflected, the fact that this hadn't caused a Crash sooner than it did was yet another indication of the Anchor's somewhat ridiculous luck. Given all the ways this had to go poorly, the odds were not by any means in their favor.
Even with how rarely they had managed to pull off even a partial success in saving the Animusphere girl, the chances of a Crash happening were no less than one in ten, at best. And yet, it wasn't until now, when he had nearly been ready to sign off on it, that it had reared it's head. 'I wonder how well they'd do actually playing the gacha game their Branch is Backed Up as in the Hub. Their draw rate would be a sight to see.'
Bleak amusement aside, for now, he'd have to settle for a Patch to prevent this sort of Crash from happening again, as well as figure out how to prevent all of the various other possible outcomes that could result in the same. But that left a new problem, Olga Marie's code was, quite frankly, a mess. It wouldn't interfere with his planned Fused Loop, but it was going to be a small problem going forward that would have to be solved. Finding out what in Kur the 'correct' outcome of events had been and what it had done to her code in the process.
As well as how to prevent it. Or, at least, account for it being prevented. Certainly, the Loopers weren't going to give up on trying to do so; the least he could do was try to make sure their efforts weren't pointless and in vain.
And, well, he'd never said dealing with this Branch was easy. But he was coming to enjoy the challenge.
10.2
[Fate Grand Order]
The Genius and the Fox
The workshop of a Magus, the most sacred of places for any who delved into the Moonlit world. A place where the World did not watch, its evercrushing presence not seeking out our secrets to force back into non-existence. A place of horror, cruelty, and tools of bygone eras.
This… was not at all the type of Workshop Leonardo Da Vinci held. A bright and warm place, filled with gadgets and gizmos. A place that many a Magus would find horrid. A place where magic and science worked as one to achieve feats beyond almost any mere Magecraft. Reagents from across the world's eras, Magical Grails a mage would sell their own soul to merely behold, and tools that gods themselves would praise.
In fact, a few gods actually had praised them. Mostly Ereshkigal, Asclepius or Rama.
This was the place where Ritsuka Fujimaru found herself. A lonely Loop with only a single companion by her side. The identity she had originally awoken to didn't matter (it had been another fae anyway, even more reason to ditch it), and thus, she was Kouhime once more. They'd already faced down the ruler of the Timeless Temple, thus they had a year (or two) of relative peace before them.
"So why did you need me here Da Vinci?" Ritsuka asked, laying across a sofa and letting her three tails wave through the air softly.
Da Vinci turned from her latest project, which was some sort of generator to Ritsuka's knowledge. "What, can I not want to spend time with my friend?" she asked with a smile before walking over to the sofa and smirking.
Ritsuka didn't even bother resisting as Da Vinci sat down beside her and rubbed her ears. Fox ears were extremely sensitive, and it felt really good when someone knew what they were doing.
"You know, I do find our situation quite fascinating," Da Vinci mused as the kitsune opened a single eye to look at her. "That you're so willing to be something other than human," she stated.
"It was disorienting at first," Ritsuka admitted, before sitting up straight and stretching. "But by the time I figured out I could just… be human, I actually preferred not being human," she mused.
"Mere humanity too constraining for you?" Da Vinci asked with an amused smirk, Ritsuka curling one of her tails around and gripping the fluffy appendage between her hands.
"I'm already over nine hundred thousand years old and I've been human for less than twenty thousand years, and that number increases very, very slowly. Sure I've looked human for a majority of that, but knowing that I'm not?" She gestured to herself again.
"Well, I originally became a woman because that was the ideal I sought, so if your ideal isn't human in form, who am I to judge," the Caster started before rubbing Ritsuka's hair again. "Besides, what your body is doesn't matter, what does is who you are on the inside. You're still Ritsuka Fujimaru. And you're still my best friend."
Ritsuka giggled as Da Vinci pulled away, ears still flicking wildly as the Caster stood up, and mused. "I'm still uncertain if I prefer my adult or child self though, then again if you can have multiple forms, so can I. I am a genius after all," Da Vinci proclaimed, putting her hands behind her head. "Hmm, then again there are other forms that have interested me…"
"And here I thought you were trying to prescribe to the golden ratio?" Ritsuka joked as Da Vinci laughed.
"Oh I've been that ideal for millenia. One has to adapt with the times dear Ritsuka… say, how have you been practicing with your powers as a Kitsune?" the woman asked as Ritsuka blinked.
"I mean, I've practiced a little bit." Da Vinci walked up and bopped her on the head.
"You've gotta stay sharp, Rits," Da Vinci chided as Ritsuka gripped her head. "I know Tamamo likes to be exceptionally rude and forceful about being the only fox here, but there are others who can help you. I'm sure we can 'convince' Osakabehime to assist you in actually training your powers." She waggled a finger, Ritsuka blushing a bit. "I'll get her, try and practice a bit?"
"Thanks Da Vinci," the kitsune responded, the Caster walking outside of the workshop to go fetch the resident hikikomori fox as Ritsuka looked at her hand.
Flexing her fingers, she willed a small blue flame above her hand, smiling softly as she stood up. Practice did make perfect after all.
The promise of figurines, manga, and a chance to get one over on the Tamamo squad (Consisting of Mae, Cat, and Shark at the moment), was all it took to get the only other actual fox in Chaldea to come to Da Vinci's workshop.
The genius who had done the convincing was currently out conscripting Chaldea's premier figurine maker, dragging manga out of her pocket, and rallying Merlin into pranking the crap out of the Tama-Squad while Osakabehime and Ritsuka were alone in her workshop.
Thus while Chaldea was being prepared to descend into absolute chaos for the week, the two foxes were safe and sound.
"So Ma-chan…" Osakabehime noted as she looked Ritsuka up and down in honest surprise. "You wanted my help?"
"I mean, when it comes to foxes and shapeshifters, there really only are three options, and we both know how… feisty Tama can get," Ritsuka admitted, and Osakebhime winced.
"So that would make Tama-chi the reason you've been masquerading as a human then?" the princess asked, flopping onto the couch without a care in the world, her hood falling down as a pair of fox ears popped out of her head, a tail snaking its way out from beneath her without even a hint of effort or exertion from her.
"I would say that, but also since I've kinda just been trying to stay alive in the Age of Man," Ritsuka admitted. That had been the excuse her actual identity in this Loop had used, so it was the one she was going with.
"That explains why you've got more than me," Osakabe complained, flicking her tail towards Ritsuka's three. "You're a noob at your own powers, but in sheer age you've got me beat. Tama-chi cheats since she's a fragment of Amaterasu, but you and me? We've actually gotta wait for it or train for it, and I can't anymore since I'm a Servant," the facade of the bubbly princess completely fading as she shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch.
"You know we do have ascension for that, and probably some way to incarnate you…" Ritsuka mused, recalling the use of magical materials being used to enhance Servant containers, and how it had… sometimes weird effects. Like turning Lord-El Melloi into his younger self.
He'd been rather miffed about that the one time he'd been here Awake.
"I wish I could explain how it actually works, but given the only other kitsune on the throne is that half-breed Seimei, as far as I know, that gives us two examples of actual foxes. Tama-chi likes to call herself a fox, but as a fragment of a Solar-Divine Spirit, it's likely just a form she likes," Osakabe pointed out. "Doesn't help that I never really met any other Kitsune either, so I only have myself as an example," she admitted sheepishly.
"Well then as the only example that automatically makes you the best example!" Ritsuka declared, throwing herself onto the couch, causing Osakabe to bounce a bit.
"Aie! Don't do that Ma-chan!" the other kitsune blurted out as she used her hand to push away one of Ritsuka's tails.
"Sorry," Ritsuka pulled her tail away, Osakabehime sighing as she removed her coat.
"Well I guess I can be your sensei for this. I do demand video of whatever the pretty boy plans to do to Tama-chi and her groupies," Osakabe started before tossing the coat off to the side haphazardly.
"So how are we gonna start?" Ritsuka asked as Osakabe started walking around the workshop, grabbing a wrench and tossing it up and down before throwing it back on the table.
"Shapeshifting. Something you at least are passable with, even if it's only good enough to fool people into thinking you are human. On the other hand-" She spun around, Ritsuka watching her form shift like water, from that of a woman with only minor fox features, to that of an actual fox, dropping to the ground. Even her clothing had been taken in by her form.
The large fox sauntered out from behind Da Vinci's workbench before speaking, sitting on its haunches. "Easily the most simple shapeshift," Osakabehime pointed out, raising a paw towards Ritsuka. "Since of course we are fox spirits, adopting the form of one is easy enough. As for something much harder."
Ritsuka, still sitting on the sofa, watched the fox shifting back to a two-legged stance, a pair of wings like those of an actual bat popping out of her back as she returned to an at least somewhat human form. Her fox ears were replaced by those of a bat. "Additional limbs are far from impossible." Osakabe leapt up a little bit, her large wings flapping to keep her aloft for a moment before she landed, her bare feet touching the ground as Ritsuka noted just how little she was actually wearing now.
"You really do make that look easy," Ritsuka noted as Osakabe grinned, flashing her currently clawed fingers.
"For us, as true shapeshifters, it should be. One simply has to have the imagination. After all, what would you call… this?" The Neet struck a pose, shifting the position of her wings from her shoulder blades more to her waist as a pair of horns arose from her hair. Her ears shifted to be simply like that of a human, but more pointed, and a long spade tipped tail emerged from her backside as well as her hair turning from pure black to a fiery red.
Ritsuka giggled as she leaned back. "What most would call a succubus, right?"
"Oh most certainly Ma-chan," Osakabe teased, the false demoness flashing a pair of fangs. "Of course this is still a very simple composite shapeshift, now if you want something even more complicated."
Ritsuka watched the kitsune's form shift even further, her legs and lower body shifting into that of a gigantic spider, her torso sitting atop the spider's head as her kimono reappeared, draped over said torso as she leaned back. "Faking the form of another youkai, like a Jorōgumo for example. I know Tama-chi can't do this one. Sure I can't do what one normally can naturally, but magecraft can compensate for that."
Taking a deep breath, her form shifted one final time, back to that of a mere woman with fox ears and a tail before throwing herself on the sofa again. "Ok, your turn," she stated bluntly.
"What just like that?" Ritsuka asked as Osakabe looked up at her, ears flicking.
"Yep, I showed you how it works, so start practicing Ma-chan," Osakabe ordered, snapping her fingers. "Chop chop."
Ritsuka sighed before standing up from the sofa to begin said shapeshifting practice, Osakabe watching… interested.
"So, in return for a month of vacation time, you want me to keep the Tama-squad off the neet and Master's case, yeah?" Merlin asked, smirking as Da Vinci sat with the magus in a very secure closet.
One she had proceeded to also reinforce with three layers of bounded fields, shut all vents, sweep for any form of surveillance, magical or otherwise, and then had barricaded the door once both she and Merlin were inside.
"Yep. As the current director I can practically give you a pass to leave so long as its 'official' business. You obviously can keep your head down well enough that I doubt the MA will investigate too closely if an… employee takes an official visit to the Hawaii observatory to make sure everything is running smoothly," she bargained.
"So the only restriction I would have is I have to leave and reenter Chaldea from Hawaii, yes?" Merlin asked, chuckling as Da Vinci set a stack of papers on the folding table between her and Merlin.
"The documents for this are right here. If we have a deal, I'll get them pushed through," she said. "Pranks first."
"Consider it done, Da Vinci," Merlin closed his eyes with a pleasant smile across his face. "One request. I wish to take Bedivere and Astolfo with me."
"Approved. Now get to work," Da Vinci replied, and Merlin nodded, rubbing his hands together as Da Vinci unsealed all of her protections on the door before leaving the closet, Merlin vanishing as he was wont to do with his teleporting. She expected to be seeing his antics on security in time.
But now, having handed off her Workshop to the foxes (She had zero illusions about what Osakabe would attempt to get up to with Ritsuka in there), she was on her own for a bit.
Walking through the always random hallways of Chaldea towards where Moriarty had set up his bar this Loop, she entered the passcode into the keypad at that door. James was being extra secure with the place this time, mostly to keep the pirates from wrecking the place… and keeping out Sherlock's habits.
She didn't blame the criminal mastermind. She'd still been unable to figure out just where the detective kept pulling all his illicit substances from this Loop. She swore it was like he spawned them or something!
"I see that look," she turned to James as she entered the bar. "Thinking about Holmes and his drugs again?"
"One day I will figure out where he's getting them from," Da Vinci pouted, she always did, this time it was just being particularly tricky. Normally she tolerated his antics, but she'd had to stop him from literally drugging Ritsuka's food multiple times this Loop already. He'd been acting pretty suspect this Loop as well.
Ritsuka had a panic attack when she found out about that. She'd… adopted a heck of a stance against both alcohol and drugs for herself.
"I have my theories, Miss Da Vinci," the bartender offered, and she took a seat at the bar. There were only three other Servants in the bar at the moment alongside her and James. "But we'll handle those later. What just so happens to be your reason to join us today?"
"Just looking for a drink James. I'd like a 1444 brandy mixed with fresh apple cider and 735 sake," she rattled off, the Archer nodding before grabbing several bottles off the shelves. If there was one thing time travel allowed for, it was very, very good alcohol from ages past.
"Going for the hard stuff today Da Vinci?" she turned towards the voice. Hektor was standing at the pool table, holding a cue as Jing Ke was lining up a shot, the table's rim surrounded by shot glasses filled with various exotic drinks… and probably some less than pleasant substances as well.
"Going to need it for what's about to happen," she said as James started shaking his cocktail shaker, humming as he did so.
"And what may that be?" the other occupant of the room besides them spoke up. Sitting in a plush sofa off in the corner of the bar was Edmond, the Avenger nursing a tall glass of alcohol himself before taking a sip.
"Whatever a certain magus plans to do to the resident foxes," she admitted, before raising an eyebrow. "I'm surprised to see you here Count," she noted.
"I took my leave from them after they started… experimenting as it were. All I will say is Master is making rapid improvement in her studies, and that yet another has fallen to those innate charms of hers, by their own volition at that," the Count of Monte Christo noted. Due to his… unique position, he wasn't a Looper, but living inside Ritsuka's head with nigh on full access to her memories meant he was very much aware of them.
That also meant he knew all of Ritsuka's actual relationships, even if he wasn't willing to name names for Ritsuka's own sake. It was easier to get such information out of her friend when they were alone.
"Only one this time," Da Vinci muttered as Moriarty passed her drink to her. She raised the glass, before taking a long sip. She was far more aware of Ritsuka's… tendencies than she let on. Even if it wasn't on purpose, her friend had a habit of somehow attracting people to her. The three Baseline stalkers of Kiyohime, Serenity and Raikou were proof alone of that. But actually going any form of distance was a rare occurrence for Ritsuka.
Who they did it with, however, was quite consistent, so a new one ending up on that already short list was a bit surprising.
"Have to see if this lasts," Da Vinci noted. Male or female, Rits had those charms with people… and attracted paramours of both genders… mostly female.
Most of the time with Ritsuka as female as well, surprisingly.
"Going to need to clean the workshop later then," Da Vinci mused.
"Care to hear my current theory on where Holmes is getting his illicit substances?" James asked as Jing Ke scoffed.
"I seriously doubt the man has a Noble Phantasm he's hiding related to his drug habits, James," the Assassin noted before finally hitting the cue ball, sending it bouncing around the table and knocking the six and ten balls into holes. The Assassin turned to Hektor with a smirk as he sighed and grabbed two of the shot glasses, beginning to down them.
"Now hear me out," James started, tapping his fingers to the bar counter as Da Vinci began to listen to the man's musings. "He already has a dependency on several substances, and given the two Noble Phantasms we know he has already been based on the stories, one of which wasn't even that important, what evidence is there not to say that he has a Noble Phantasm that allows him to create drugs? Failing that, we all know he has EX rank territory creation and the knowledge to make such substances, and with his Noble Phantasm he could easily find a 'solution' to the problem of 'acquiring the means to make drugs'. I'm giving an extremely simple overview here, but the use of a Noble Phantasm could be such an answer," the criminal mastermind concluded.
"He's not wrong you know," Edmond noted, taking a long, hard drink from his own alcohol as Hektor finally spoke.
"My money's on the second theory," the lancer added, before sinking three more balls on the pool table, leaving only two remaining besides the cue ball. Jing Ke chuckled as she grabbed three glasses to begin downing them before her next shot. "It makes more sense than him literally having a Noble Phantasm dedicated to drugs."
Da Vinci, and Edmond thankfully, decided not to point out that there had in fact been variants where Holmes did have a Noble Phantasm literally dedicated to his substance abuse. On multiple occasions.
"James, mind if I ask you to do a sweep of Holmes' place later?" Da Vinci asked as James shook his head.
"Oh he'd know exactly how to hide it from me, and likely has such defenses up already if he does have some sort of facility in place. However, I do have a recommendation for such a sweep," James offered before pulling up a folder from behind the bar counter, and sliding it to Da Vinci.
She picked it up, flipping it open with one hand while sipping her cocktail. She raised an eyebrow before setting her drink down. "Might cause a fair bit of collateral damage, but nothing that can't be fixed. And if she finds nothing, no harm done," Da Vinci noted as James chuckled.
"Indeed. Also, I would like to request an upgrade to Reichenbach. I know you've got some spare supplies from your… previous adventures," James said, careful to avoid anything notable with Jing Ke and Hektor also in the bar.
"I'll think about it James," Da Vinci noted, closing the folder and setting it back on the table with a smile, the professor taking it and nodding. The old man, like Holmes, often figured out what was going on through interaction and deduction. Details no, but they could easily figure that they were trapped in time, and bringing along stuff from previous adventures.
He hummed before grabbing a remote from under the counter, waving it before pointing it at a small television sitting at the end of the bar. Turning it on and revealing the hallways of Chaldea, rapidly flicking through his spycam network in search of today's comedy.
"Oh this should be good," Hektor commented as he started drinking from the shot glasses again, Jing having managed to sink the last two balls, the eight ball after the nine ball with ease in a single shot, thus Hektor was having to clean up the drinks.
"Stop," Edmond said, Moriarty halting his rapid camera flicking as the Avenger stood up, walking over to join the pair at the bar with Hektor and Jing joining them moments after to see the sight on the
Tamamo no Mae, alone in a room, and Merlin hiding in a corner looking at the spycam with a sign in his hands. 'Show starts in ten seconds', it said, before he, and the sign, vanished.
The five in the bar waited for the action… and Jing burst out laughing the moment it started. Hektor blinked in surprise as Edmond scoffed, shaking his head as James chuckled.
"You know, even I wouldn't have thought of such a use for a rubber chicken, divine wine and a pair of magatamas," Moriarty complimented the action on screen as Tamamo was bolting from the room, running smack first into a pile of feathers, and completely out of view until the professor swapped screens to the next spycam in the hallway.
Both Hektor and Jing were laughing now as the fragment of Amaterasu ran face first into an effective gauntlet of hidden traps, tricks and surprises, and even one of her alter egos, Cat to be specific, who was in a similarly poor state of affairs. "That man terrifies me," Edmond admitted bluntly.
"Indeed, a motivated Merlin is a dangerous foe," James noted as Da Vinci just shook her head.
"Well at least he's doing what I asked," Da Vinci noted, before starting to pull out a bag from her pants pocket and putting it on the counter. "Payment, I want this footage."
"Well, pleasure doing business," James said with a chuckle, taking the small bag and putting it under the counter as they continued watching. She liked to analyze things, and watching this marvel of a Rube-Goldberg machine made of magic and simple prank tools would be fun to go over later.
"Do you want me to set up a meeting with her?" Edmond asked as they watched the insanity continue. Apparently Merlin had managed to conscript Nero and Tomoe into this mess, and she could see half the Knights of the Round similarly still building more of the machine as the pranks and chaos was going down the hallways.
"Thanks Edmond, just ask her to keep her schedule open," Da Vinci noted, Edmond nodding before vanishing to set up a meeting with the head nurse of Chaldea. Nightingale would be perfect for this.
Downing the rest of her drink, she looked to james. "One more for the road, just give me the bottle," she pointed at a french brandy, and James spun around, grabbing the bottle and passing it to her.
Standing up and walking to the door, she popped to cork out and caught it with her free hand as she began drinking straight from the bottle. She preferred her Demi-Servant bodies, but there was one bonus her current spiritual body had.
She could get drunk without having to worry about organ failure.
"We'll practice more tomorrow Ma-chan," Osakabehime offered as she left the room, Ritsuka just waving to her from as the neet left, back in her normal guise. After several moments of silence after the door was shut, Ritsuka took a long, deep breath, before snapping her fingers, reclothing herself with a mystic code, one of her various kimonos.
She didn't get up from the bed, just… laying there thinking.
"So what, that makes five?" Ritsuka raised her head, ears flicking as she saw Da Vinci standing in the doorway, holding a bottle of alcohol.
"Keep that away please?" Ritsuka asked as Da Vinci chuckled, before walking over to the bed and sitting on it before taking a hard swig from the bottle. "...What bottle are you on?"
"That doesn't really matter, I haven't passed out yet, nor do I plan to. I know my limits, Rits," she rubbed Ritsuka's head, Ritsuka shivering as Da Vinci scratched one of her ears. "At the same time, I have to ask if you know yours."
"They'll join us someday… I hope," Ritsuka offered softly as Da Vinci took a deep breath.
"Perhaps you should have waited?" Da Vinci asked before Ritsuka glared at her. "Just playing the voice of some sanity here, ironic I know."
"But… they have to…" Ritsuka muttered as Da Vinci started raising her fingers.
"Altria, Ushi, Mandricardo, and now Osakabehime. That's four people you've shared a bed with, and only one of these is an actual Looper," Da Vinci pointed out, before smirking. "And only one of them you've actually shared a bed with as a man."
"Da Vinci, shove it," Ritsuka said bluntly, but there was no venom.
"I mean, I suppose we could count Clytie, but that's Baseline and she only just sleeps in the same bed, not-" Ritsuka bopped the genius on the back of her head with the wave of a tail, Da Vinci nearly toppling forward as Ritsuka shifted the limb back from a dragon's tail to her 'natural' fox tail.
"I'm not that bad," Ritsuka pointed out.
"No, you aren't, but I do feel the need to point out those are the four you've allowed in bed. Not all the other potential paramores," Da Vinci said as she straightened herself. "In fact, it would be easier to list the people you don't somehow have some romantic feelings from… or for."
"The kids, Artoria, Clytie, Nemo, Holmes, James, Tomoe, Siegfried, Sigurd, Kiara, Douman, Tamamo, any of her really, Gil, Enkidu, Ishtar, Edmond-" Da Vinci cut off her list.
"Ok, maybe not. But most people still don't have well over a hundred potential suitors."
"Hey you're the one with the shipping chart for yourself,"
"A lady can dream, Rits," Da Vinci mused. "A lady can dream." She looked inside the bottle, turning it over revealing a complete lack of alcohol inside. "Well I'm out."
"Did you figure out where Holmes' getting his stash this Loop?" Ritsuka asked, flipping herself over and kicking her legs into the air.
"Turns out he had a workshop hidden inside his room… hidden inside another workshop. We haven't figured out his supplier, but he was making all sorts of crap himself," Da Vinci mused, having a few leads to pursue while Holmes was still in medical getting detoxed by Nightingale.
"Joy. I swear, every Loop it just keeps getting weirder with his habits," Ritsuka mused, that wasn't entirely correct, but it felt like it.
"So? How did practice with your latest relationship go?" Da Vinci asked as Ritsuka buried her face in the bed.
"...Progress…" she admitted. "I can manage simple stuff and… some advanced things with shapeshifting now."
"Not going to elaborate?" Da Vinci hummed.
"Nope," Ritsuka raised her head again. "So what happened to the Tama squad?"
"Oh, I've dealt with them for a while, let Merlin have his way," Da Vinci said with a chuckle. The man did his work well, especially when motivated.
"That's just cruel," Ritsuka said, stretching, Da Vinci watching as her form shifted from a mostly human one to that of a three tailed fox, her kimono mystic code vanishing as she curled up on the bed, Da Vinci running her hand along Ritsuka's fur.
"I got video~" Da Vinci sang, scratching under Ritsuka's chin, her tails waving behind her slowly. The genius wondering if Ritsuka would be more comfortable if she were to adopt a different form for the time being.
"...Later," Ritsuka growled, Da Vinci more amused than surprised she was still capable of coherent speech.
Da Vinci beamed as she sat there with Ritsuka, the kitsune shifting forms multiple times during their conversation as practice whileDa Vinci mused. Ritsuka was among her closest friends, but despite the charts, she only had eyes for a few men at the moment. One who she may never truly meet again, and a little captain who was proving to be quite brilliant himself.
"By the way, you wouldn't happen to have spare Kilironomia from Hephaestus?" Da Vinci asked, Ritsuka looking up at the genius with mild concern.
"I've got a few barrels worth, why?"
"Oh, I plan on doing some upgrades to the Storm Border this time, I'm going to begin work on a new long-term project," Da Vinci admitted and Ritsuka just rolled her eyes.
"Let me guess," the currently catgirl (the shapeshift she had settled on for the moment), "You want me to hold this nightmare of a machine in the hanger because your Pocket won't be able to hold it."
"Oh yeah,"
"We'll see if I even have the room Da Vinci."
10.1: Olga Marie Animusphere, the girl with an unknown fate and future. What will it bring?
10.2: Human or not Human? Well if you've got it, why not use it?
AN: Bit of a shorter one, but I'm keeping that promise. We deal with quality over quantity here (usually). Take care everyone!