Guest: Um... Shirou and Archer working together... hard but not impossible, but Gilgamesh associates with "mongrels" who do not crawl on the ground in front of the "infinite splendor of the True King"... it will snow on Venus before it happens! And you're right... the castaways of the Fateverse will come to a place that looks like hell... with demons and demonic lords; True Magic; Phantasmal Species; vampires hordes; but also Gods (True Gods!) and powerful high tech. It is a far more terrifying ordeal than a Grail War...
Soleilis: You have to be ambitious in life!
Note: English is not my native language. The military or technical vocabularies as well as the slang of the navy and the air force represent for me a real challenge. Be nice to gently correct me... I'm a little tired of being insulted for mistakes that are hard to avoid.
The Castaways of the Rift
A grey, ghostly light filtered through a shoji window, lighting a traditional Japanese room. The only pieces of furniture were a small library full of books and school books, and the futon (the traditional Japanese mattress) which was spread out among the tatamis.
On the windowsill, a small alarm clock produced a regular tick-tock. The hour hand was on the 1...
There was a movement under the thick quilt covering the futon. Sitting in his bed, a teenager with short auburn hair and golden-brown colored eyes looked around him with a still sleepy look.
It took him a few seconds to identify his bedroom.
His last memory was...
A desert of sand where the dunes extended to infinity. Everywhere swords, like so many crosses reminding all the people that Emiya Shirou should save to achieve his ideal... or to be more exact the ideal that he had borrowed from Kiritsugu. The sky was veiled by the smoke fed by a gigantic fire.
Unlimited Blade Works!
The only Magecraft that was allowed to Emiya Shirou.
He remembered the fight...
The clash of swords.
The golden light openings through which Gilgamesh took out the weapons stored inside his Noble Phantasm Gate of Babylon. The King of Heroes had access to a gigantic arsenal including divine weapons and Shirou just learned the true use of Projection, and he lacks proper training so even the most basic projections cause him pain and the majority of the swords witch he has generated shatter upon impact due to their low quality.
He should have lost.
He should be dead.
Gilgamesh should be laughing over his corpse.
But he survived thanks to Rin.
Because Rin had formed a contract with him, Shirou had been able to draw from the immense reservoir of Od of his friend, one of the most powerful contemporary Magus, perhaps even the greatest genius of his generation, to form his Reality Marble. This grants him the ability to finally make use of Projection in battle, allowing him to quickly trace the weapons from the Gate of Babylon while fighting Gilgamesh. Upon actually utilizing Unlimited Blade Works, Shirou used the fact that although Gilgamesh wields countless weapons, he has not mastered them all, and his greatly increased reproduction speed and constantly ready weapons while in his Reality Marble to completely overwhelm and defeat Gilgamesh.
Shirou frowned.
Yet in the end, his Reality Marble had collapsed.
On his shoulder, the Magic Circuits given by Rin had ceased to shine, as the energy sent by his friend was exhausted.
His last memory was Gilgamesh preparing to kill him on the forecourt of Ryuudou Temple...
No, actually, Shirou's last memory was the appearance of a wall of blue light separating him from Gilgamesh.
An unforeseen event had occurred and the result was that he had been spared.
Shirou had a smile lacking in cheerfulness.
He had not won the fight against Archer, Archer's doubts had defeated him.
And without this mysterious phenomenon, the King of Heroes would have killed him.
He still had a long way to go before he could defeat a Heroic Spirit.
Shirou got up, took a few steps, and untied the buttons of his pajama jacket. His arms and chest were covered with gauze strips. He could not help smiling, feeling a whiff of tenderness... Rin.
With her difficult personality, her arrogance, her stinginess, Tohsaka was often a pain in the ass. But when he returned wounded, the young Magus expressed her tenderness (which was her true nature) taking care of him. As Shirou felt no pain - at least apart from the itching of his irritated skin- he disposed of the gauze strips. The band-aids were stained with blood, but when he went into the bathroom to soap himself, he found no sign of injury.
Since he had summoned Saber, his wounds were miraculously healed.
Rin had speculated that his invocation - involuntary, hey! - of this Servant had been so failed that his connection with Saber worked backward. Instead of sharing his magical energy with his Servant to allow her to exist it was she who made him benefit from her supernatural healing abilities. Of course, Rin being Rin, she had given him this explanation by mocking him and without trying to contain his laughter...
After Caster usurped the role of Shirou as a Master, this miraculous healing stopped. This seemed to prove that this phenomenon was caused by his link with Saber.
But after Caster's death, Rin had become Saber's new Master but, during the fight against Archer, his wounds began to heal miraculously again. It is true that his former Servant had witnessed his fight... Maybe his supernatural healing ability had nothing to do with him being the master of his Saber but... her closeness?
It seemed absurd.
Back in his room, changed into his usual clothing, consisting of a blue and white long sleeve baseball jersey T-shirt and blue slim straight jeans, he approached the fusuma (sliding door for separation) which separated his room from that of his former Servant. He knocked:
"Hey, Saber, are you awake?"
No voice answered him.
He pulled the sliding door to discover Saber's Futon carefully folded into a corner of the room.
Of course, he expected it... the Grail War was over... Saber had disappeared... yet... yet... he felt a sudden emptiness in his belly and his sight blurred...
"Shirou?"
He turned, his heart beating with haste.
She was standing at his bedroom door, holding a bowl full of water and a towel.
Her pure gold hair was gathered in a braid coiled at the back of the head. Two strands left free and a fringe framed her oval porcelain-like face, but a recalcitrant ahoge escaped.
As usual, she wore the clothes Rin had given her, a white blouse with a blue ribbon at the collar, a blue skirt cut just above the knees, and black tights.
She stared at him with her eyes so stunning that the most beautiful emeralds seemed to be counterfeit in comparison.
He looks at her, bug-eyed
He rushed, stepped against his Futon... found himself on all fours, and continued without getting up!
"Saber!"
The Servant knelt gracefully, placed the bowl and the towel next to her, and smiled:
"Yes? What is it, Shirou?"
"I'm not dreaming, is that you, Saber?"
"Yes, it is I. And you are Shirou, faithful to yourself."
"So it's really you?"
Before the panic of her former Master, the expression of the Servant became slightly astonished:
"Yes, as I said, it's me."
Then she jolted slightly as if an idea had crossed her mind. She touched her lips with a thoughtful finger and leaned towards Shirou with a somewhat anxious expression, caressing his face with a soft hand:
"Is there something wrong with your eyes?"
But Shirou's astonished expression was softened, giving way to serene joy:
"Ohayo (good morning) Saber. I'm glad I could see you again."
"Ohayo, Shirou. I'm also glad to be able to see you like this again."
But the touching reunion scene had a witness. Dressed in her famous red turtleneck, a black skirt, and long black stockings, Rin Tohsaka stood in the hallway with her hands on her hips:
"Well, Shirou, you can't stand on your legs anymore?"
The resident redhead turned to the twin-tailed Magus:
"Ha? Tohsaka?"
Rin's eyes folded as a Machiavellian smile appeared on her lips, suggesting that a future punishment was being prepared:
"I see, you flatter Saber but I owe only ' Ah? Tohsaka? '"
Shirou seemed a little panicked:
"Were you still here, Tohsaka?"
She leaned over him, her hands still on the hips, before answering in a falsely exasperated tone:
"I've been here since the beginning. Who do you think cleaned your wounds, cured them, and bandaged them?"
The mention of her friend's care and dedication changed Shirou's mood:
"I'm sorry, I've caused you a lot of trouble again."
But Rin replied with a big smile:
"I'm good. After all, you were the key to our victory that night. I'll let slide this time. It was a tough fight, but we found a way to get everyone back."
However, Rin's enthusiast was replaced by worry:
"However, I wouldn't call it a complete and indisputable victory."
"Gilgamesh?" asked Shirou.
The Red Devil agrees:
"Yes, he ran away... without killing you, fortunately! But that's not the worst part. Since you can walk, come on."
Rin led him into the hallway, replacing the traditional shoji, French doors allowing him to see the inner courtyard delimited by the exterior wall festooned with glazed tiles. Only, the place was filled with thick white mists... and the wall was barely visible.
"Do you see the sun?"
Shirou slipped one of the glass doors and went out.
The air was... lukewarm... as for the mist, it was impalpable. He looked up and saw nothing. Usually, you could feel the sunlight filtering out behind the mist, but even though he turned his head the sun didn't appear anywhere.
"We are in limbo!"
Shirou turned around when he heard that voice.
A tall man with white and spiked hair swept backward, silver eyes, and tanned skin color, held arms folded, leaning on the French door frame. He wears black body armor with white accents, made from a high tech Kevlar-like material behind his signature Red Plain Mystic Code which were actually two separate sleeves connected by a metal plate at the back which covered his arms and was cut off showing his upper torso and midriff, and had a separate red open skirt which ended above his shins with the top fashioned and tied with an agemaki knot, covered by a silver metal plate.
"Archer, what are you doing here?"
The Servant of the Bow had this ironic smile that always infuriating Shirou:
"Why, shouldn't I be here? Isn't it marked 'Emiya Shirou' at the front door? My name is Emiya Shirou... although I am not particularly proud of this."
Shirou gnashed his teeth.
As the tension rose between the two versions of Emiya Shirou, Saber spoke:
"He saved Rin that night. Angra Mainyu had phagocytized her and... Rin was going to die. But Archer managed to open a way for her out. Otherwise, I would never have been able to use my sword... she would have died, we would all have died."
Shirou suddenly felt a little stupid.
"I meant... why are you still here? Gilgamesh killed you!"
"Yes, almost... I stupidly stepped in like a kid pretending to be a superhero while the king of Uruk was about to kill a stupid redhead. You have to believe that your lack of common sense is contagious."
Rin's amused smile turned into a grimace when he heard these words... Archer always bullseyes with his arrows like with his words. After all, she - a reasonable Magus heiress of the honorable Tohsaka's lineage- risked her life to save Shinji... a guy she despised and who even tried to rape her. Shirou's ideal must have really been contagious.
Archer's remark had been said in a particularly sarcastic tone, throwing gas on an open flame.
Shirou clenched his fists and took inspiration for a sharp replicate.
Rin thrust herself between the two men, hands raised:
"When you're done playing cockfighters to determine who the dominant male is, can we focus on what's really important? Where are we? This morning after taking Shinji to the hospital, I went around Fuyuki. The city is in the middle of nothingness..."
"Sorry?"
Shirou looked at her with incomprehension and the young Magus shrugged:
"Don't look at me like that! There is some sort of barrier at the city limits, it even encompasses the Einzbern's Forest and the oil terminal (1). My feminine intuition tells me that there is nothing beyond this barrier... nothing... nothingness. We are no longer in Japan. We are nowhere anymore!"
Archer raised an eyebrow:
"I've told you before, but you're too young and unattractive to speak of 'feminine intuition', Rin."
Shirou clenched his teeth, expecting a deluge of bad humor from his irascible friend, but the latter was content to smile. Archer's sardonic mood doesn't tick her. She herself had a similar behavior and knew that this was the way Archer expressed his concern or warned the people he cared about.
"And you have a better explanation, I suppose?"
Archer spread his arms with a mocking grim:
"I just told you, we're into limbo!"
Rin stopped. A hand passed over her stomach, rubbing her chin with the other, she seemed perplexed:
"You mean... literally?"
Archer nodded:
"Alaya has used me for centuries as a member of her Counter Force. I intervened in many different cases because the Will of Humanity forbids many things. One of those prohibitions is time travel. Some ships or aircraft that entered the Bermuda Triangle have disappeared and have never been seen again. They were actually thrown into limbo. You can feel like you're in limbo for a few minutes while hours, days, or even years have gone by in the real world. Conversely, an individual who has been in limbo for what appeared to be days may come out a few minutes later. I eliminated those who came out hundreds of years later because they were no longer in their place and could provoke a temporal paradox."
There was a moment of silence and then Shirou turned to Tohsaka:
"Rin, what are you talking about? What is limbo?"
The young Magus thought briefly before answering:
"It's some sort of white world where water appears as milky and time behaves strangely. The entrances of this strange universe are found where several leylines intersect. During certain stellar configurations: equinoxes, solstices, alignments of planets, or even simply during the full moon, passages open towards the limbs. We can then travel to other times, but also to other worlds. Thus, in 1207, as Radulphi Coggeshall's Chronicon Anglicarum recounts (2), two green children were discovered at Norfolk. They came from another world and they found themselves on ours after having crossed some kind of hole... what is called a Rift, a tear between two realities!"
"Why was Archer talking about the Bermuda Triangle?"
Rin shrugged her shoulders:
"The Bermuda triangle is where Atlantis was... its disappearance caused the end of the Age of the Gods. The story quoted by Plato says that the island was submerged... but that is not the truth. The Atlanteans were Magi or more exactly Magicians mastering True Magic and they had learned to control the Rifts thanks to what they called 'Pyramid Magic'. The pyramids created by the Atlanteans made it possible to control the leylines and stabilize the Rifts to travel to other worlds and other eras... except that the Atlanteans overestimated their own powers. Like many others before them, their arrogance lost them... they opened a Rift that escaped their control... Atlantis has disappeared, swallowed up by this Rift between realities. The surviving Atlanteans managed to close the passage before this Rift devoured the whole Earth, but they used too much Mana... exhausting the world's reserves! "
"You mean the Bermuda Triangle is the Rift that swallowed up Atlantis?"
Rin replied with a mocking smile:
"Some believe it, but I wasn't there then, so I couldn't check it out. In any case, the Bermuda Triangle is the best known of these phenomena but not the only one... there are other anomalies of this kind on Earth... One of them is a few hundred miles from Fuyuki."
Again Shirou seemed to reflect:
"You mean the 'Devil's Sea' (3)?"
It was a region between the island of Kyushu and the Bonin Islands famous for its treacherous waves, earthquake, and alteration of the electromagnetic field that would make compasses useless... without counting other phenomena sometimes qualified as supernatural... Above all, a very high number of ships disappearances gave this part of the Philippine Sea a very bad reputation.
"Yes" approved Rin, "it is also called 'Dragon's Triangle' it is one of the twelve areas of disappearance which are known as 'triangles of death. These zones are regularly spaced six in each hemisphere, perfectly aligned with their counterparts in the other hemisphere. When we know that the leylines form a regular network, we will not be surprised that the twelve seas of the Devil are areas where a significant number of Dragon Roads intersect. So we can assume that there could be... let's say, super Rifts that would explain the many disappearances of planes and boats in these regions."
Shirou scratched his head. All this was beyond him. But it reassured him a little that Rin knew what she was talking about.
"Well, I'm going to go make some food."
Archer had a mocking sniffer:
'It may be difficult... there is no more electricity or gas. The wires and pipes that fed Fuyuki were cut like the roads. Don't you understand?"
Archer Traced a compass.
The magnetized needle was turning in all directions... completely confused.
"We're lost into the non-being, Shirou."
The clocks continued their comforting tick-tock. But the hours they indicated no longer made any sense.
The light never varied in Fuyuki. There were neither days nor nights.
Three "days" passed in limbo.
We could have feared that panic would drive the population to hysteria. But, on the contrary, Shirou's neighbors came several times to knock on his door to check that everything was fine. The streets remained empty, except for the police patrols and the Yakuza of the Fujimura group, who guarded the shops and warehouses. People stayed shut in their homes. Schools and offices and businesses remained closed.
The town hall had organized rationing of food, also distributing gas stoves so that residents could cook.
Since there was nothing else to do, they debated what they knew about limbo, what it was, how legends and religions talked about this dimensional no man's land. But most of what they learned came from Archer and what he himself learned from Alaya.
Sitting in her usual place at the dining room table, Rin drank a sip of tea and rested her cup before raising a finger:
"So, if I sum up. You can compare limbo to a hallway, you come in through an open door and you come out through another door... you wander until you find a door that's not closed. And this way out can be another timeline before or after the one you come from or... a whole different world."
Leaning against the wall with his arms folded, Archer nodded, without opening his eyes:
"At least that's what Alaya thought, but like Gaia, her power does not extend to this 'between worlds. Besides, it's a chance for me. After Caster ended my contract with you, I no longer received the energy to keep myself in the world and these two entities eroded my existence. After helping you escape from Angra Mainyu, I didn't have much time left!"
Rin glared at him furiously, remembering his betrayal, her abduction, and that Archer even dared to abandon her to Shinji, tied to a chair.
"A chance? I have forgotten nothing. You have a huge debt and I can guarantee you that you will pay to the last yen!"
Although Archer was a Servant accustomed to facing the most terrifying monster, he opened his eyes in a jolt, shivering... Throughout his life he had not been so long and so violently insulted as after they had entered limbo. And Rin had a surprisingly extensive and explicit vocabulary...
He swallows.
Had he exchanged Alaya's eternal servitude for worse slavery?
Even Shirou felt a little pity for his 'sworn enemy', he knew how brutal and insensitive Tohsaka could be, the perfect little Magus ready to exploit all the weaknesses of the people around her to secure her dominant position.
But Saber, calmly seated in seiza, drank a sip of tea with a soft smile:
"Rin says that... but she cried for ten minutes without interruption after discovering that Archer was still alive."
Tosaka looked away:
"Cry? After Archer? This traitor? This second-rate, rebellious, rude Servant? Never! I had... I had dust in my eye!"
But Rin was blushing.
Saber and Shirou exchanged an amused look. Wasn't she the sweetest of all Tsundere?
"So you can stay with us because limbo is energy-rich and without Gaia and Alaya interference you can draw Mana in the surrounding. Right?"
Archer agreed with Shirou's remark.
"The rules of Alaya and Gaia do not exist in limbo... but once out, what awaits me depends on where we arrive. But Saber has a new contract with Rin, so she'll be fine."
Surprised, the young redhead looked at the blonde girl and the Magus in red:
"A new contract? That's why you're still here, Saber. But the Grail War is over, you had no reason to stay."
Shirou's words made Rin smile... an oblique and evil smile:
"You hear that, Saber? Shirou doesn't want you... Hurry up and leave!"
With her hand, she made a gesture, like swatting an insect!
"No, that's not what I meant," denied a frantic redhead
But Saber was used to the unfortunate slip of the tongue of her former Master and the sarcastic behavior of Rin... their friend could not help but titillate Shirou... it was her greatest delight.
"I meant, why did you stay, we no longer have any wish to offer you."
Hearing Shirou reformulates his questioning, Saber relives the end of the fight against Angra Mainyu.
Having used all her remaining strength to deliver an insurmountable attack, Saber was dissipating. Looking at her hand, she saw it become translucent while golden Mana particles were driven by the wind, gradually emptying her of any substance.
It was the end of the road.
And she felt a mixture of joy, regret, and... jealousy.
She was happy, happy to have saved Shirou and Rin... the people she loved... the people to whom she had given her heart.
As her life came to an end, she was forced to face the truth... she had fallen in love with Shirou... AND Rin, the two lovers.
She was happy for them. Glad that Shirou doesn't end up alone, that he can have someone to support him... that he doesn't know Archer's lonely path.
But... but Saber would have wanted to stay with them! And she was jealous of Rin.
For the first time since the day she had unsheathed Caliburn from the Stone of the Choice, she had a selfish desire.
And when Rin ran to her, shouting the words of the pact that would turn her into a familiar, she accepted and extended her hand in response.
Little did it matter to her that she - Arthur Pendragon King of Britain, became a mere familiar if she stayed with them.
As she was still reflecting on the answer to give, Rin flexes her muscle in a posture of exaggerated arrogance:
"Anyway, I wasn't going to let Saber go. She's the most powerful Servant and she's mine!"
She turned to Archer:
"And you are mine too! I will make you repay your betrayal!"
Then Rin stares at Shirou with a big smile:
"And from now on, you too are mine!"
"Me?"
"Yes... I gave you something very precious."
Tohsaka wasn't just talking about a fragment of her Magic Circuits...and Shirou blushed
"So you're not going to shame me by staying a second-rate Magus... no, from now on call me sishou (professor)."
Tohsaka Rin stretched out one hand on the other side of the table to seize the hand of Saber and with the other, she drew Shirou against her. The Magus smile was dazzling. The sun would have looked pale in comparison.
The Red Devil was like that.
Once she had put someone inside her heart, she would never let him leave.
Rin was greedy.
It applied not only to gold, precious stones... but especially to the people she loved.
On the second "day", Rin, Saber, and Shirou went to the hospital to visit Shinji. They found him bedridden in a room. Sakura was sitting in a chair beside him and helping him eat. The hospital had a generator that was still working. The kitchens and especially the operating rooms could still be used. It was reassuring.
They stayed for a while chatting with the blue-haired teenager and found him changed. Gilgamesh's betrayal and his recent suffering seemed to have made him lose all arrogance. After an hour, Sakura asked them politely (but firmly) to let his brother rest. The teenager walked them down the hall. There, she explained to them that Shinji had suffered severe nerve damage.
He would never walk again and his trembling hands barely allowed him to hold a pen.
As they returned to the Emiya Residence, Rin broke the silence:
"I may have spent too much time with this False Priest... but I can't help but think of one of his favorite Bible quotes: You will be punished where you have sinned."
She was referring to Shinji's impotence, which his sister had suggested in veiled words.
Shirou and Saber nodded earnestly.
Matou Shinji would never again attempt to rape a bound girl and would never associate with a child murderer like Gilgamesh.
Perhaps there was justice, but in this case, it was unrelenting.
On the fourth day, the blue sky reappeared over Fuyuki.
Inner sea, between the island of Honshu and Kyushu, Japan, 110 P.A. Rifts Earth
The Taiyo (Great Hawk) was a Taiyo-class Multi-Role Amphibious Assault Ships. For political reasons, this class of ships was listed as "tank landing ships" or LSTs. However, the vessels were much more capable than their designation suggested. They possessed a full-length flight deck, docking well for two LCACs, two elevators, and side doors for vehicle loading and unloading. It was a real floating city with a displacement of 29,700 tons and boarding more than 2,400 people.
One of the crewmen walked through one of the passageways. At times, he responded to the greetings of the sailors he passed. His onboard uniform was that of the pilots. His badges designated him as an Ittō-kūi (a first-class air lieutenant, the equivalent of a captain in the USAF).
In a dark mood, the young Japanese kept his eyes down and jaws tight. The fleet was on red alert. The terrorist attacks in the Republic of Japan simultaneously with the announcements of insurrection in the Takamatsu Shogunate could not be a coincidence. It was a coordinated attack.
And now Taiyo's radar detected a fleet south of Kyushu Island. The Eagle drones, sent there, had discovered strange-looking ships... similar to whales diving! Only one D-bees race built such ships... they were Horune's Dream Ships! The psionics who had sought to probe their strange vessels had undergone a major shock. Most of them had gone mad... The others had spoken of nothingness filled with red and blue lights swirling around a Horune in meditation. These ships were not machined... they were shaped by the spirit of a powerful mage in trance, hence their name "Dream Ship"!
The Ittō-kūi stepped over the raised edge of a watertight door and entered the briefing room. A succession of chairs with integrated writing boards was oriented towards a podium, behind the desk, there were boards where the rotations between the various squadrons were noted as well as the mission schedule.
A shredded man was sitting in the front row. Dressed in a pilot's suit, his hair very black, he was absorbed in the contemplation of a photograph, an occupation so demanding that he does not notice the entrance of his superior.
"Got a mail, Miki?
The Santō-kūsō, (3rd Class Air Non-commissioned Officer, equivalent to a USAF's sergeant) Hasegawa Miki jolted. His slanted eyes creased and he had a meager smile:
"Yes, I...my mom sent a photo of my daughter this morning. You want to see her, Yukio?"
The Ittō-kūi Yamakawa Yukio did not refuse. A lovely seven-year-old girl appeared in the photography. She was undoing her birthday gifts. Behind her, her grandparents, a Japanese couple, aged about 50.
"Well, Konatsu is growing fast. Soon she'll be as big as you."
"I hope not. It's … it's painful to be there and … she's in Hiroshima. She's growing up, yes, but I don't see her pushing. I just spent two deployments on this ship and not two weeks with her. Hell, Konatsu has already lost her mother to an Onis raid. It's like she's already lost me… At this age, you need your father!"
"I know…"
"No, Yukio, you don't know. You don't have a kid."
"You're right, I don't know."
Ittō-kūi (captain) Yamakawa sat next to his friend. At the same time that he returned the photo, he passed the clipboard which he held under his arm.
"Our orders?" questioned Miki.
His superior grumbled. The santō-kūsō (sergeant) turned the pages. Over his shoulder, Yukio commented:
"Our orders are just to show ourselves to the Horunes so they know we've spotted them. They're looters and slavers. They attack the weak. Scavengers, not hunters. Our presence may deter them from intervening."
Hasegawa Miki continued to turn the pages:
"What are they doing there? There's nothing in Kyushu, anyway, except Fukuoka."
The island had been devastated when the Rifts opened... and it was too close to the Devil's Sea. The Lord of the Deep and his minions (disgusting mutants, horrible fusion of humanoids and marine animals) regularly ravaged the coasts. Only southwest of the coast was a stable community established at Fukuoka. It must be said that there were mines in the area that provided good quality coal. The communities sold the coal for the steel mills of Kure (Japanese Republic) and bought weapons to protect themselves with the money.
Captain Yamakawa shook his head:
"I doubt they'll attack a community as fortified as Fukuoka."
"They may know something we don't," insisted Sergeant Hasegawa.
"Something? What for example?"
"I don't know... but if the latest attacks are well-coordinated, maybe the next assault will take place in Kyushu and they will participate!"
Yamakawa Yukio looked at his friend with an ironic smile:
"Kaishō (Admiral) Takushimi probably thought of this and sent us there to make sure. And it's not up to you to have big ideas about the strategy of the staff. The staff is just asking you to follow orders."
His subordinate ignored the remark to immerse himself in the reading of the last page of the mission order. A plane diagram was drawn there.
"Reconnaissance configuration? I admit that I would gladly exchange the sensor module for a second plasma cruise missile, there is nothing better than that to calm a dream ship!"
"We're not here to fight" replied Captain Yamakawa. "Besides, we wouldn't have time for combat. Weather reports indicate an approaching tropical storm. It'll only be on us in three hours, just long enough to say hello to the Horune and come back."
"Any potential opponents?"
"Just two patrols, Wing Boards, circling the Horune fleet. The usual little merry-go-round. Nothing to worry about."
The Wing Boards were microlight types with jet engines. The pilot was lying down. They were especially effective for strafing attacks, in air combat, they could not compete with real fighters.
The FV-45J Super Hawk Multi-Role VTOL Fighter was the main fighter/ bomber of the Japanese fleet air-arm. It was a license-modified version of the Sea-Hawk fighter used by late 21th century US naval aviation. But this improved version of the fighter has a superior gun pack, an enlarged ordnance bay, and a heavier external missile payload.
One of the most major changes in the Japanese Super Hawk over the Sea Hawk was in the wing design. The Super Hawk used a delta-wing style wing similar to the old experimented F-16XL. The enlarged wings give the fighter greater lift for a greater payload.
Two of these fighters/bombers were on the Taiyo flight deck. Their aft engine was powering up while the rudder and wing controls were checked.
The two birds of prey looked a lot like the fighters of the early 21st century, but their main gun was a multi-barrel high-powered laser and the shell metal painted in a light brown and green camouflage was an M.D.C. (Mega Damage Cluster) alloy 100 times stronger than steel.
The Ittō-kūi (captain) Yamakawa Yukio piloted the leader fighter. It was installed in the first ejection seat. Behind him, the second ejector seat was occupied by the Sensor & Electronic System operator, Kūsi-chō, (Chief Air Soldier, equivalent to a corporal) Shinkechi Uesugi. Yukio was following the gestural instructions of the flight deck manager. Yellow dogs, recognizable by the color of their shirts, rushed to engage the breakaway lock system of catapult 2. Well wedged on his hoof, the fighter-bomber snored softly, the engine idling. Next door, Sergeant Hasegawa's Super Hawk moved in.
Both pilots were reciting their checklist from the monotonous voice of those who perform it for the hundredth time. Raising his eyes, Yukio peered around him. A carrier is a world apart. How would an "elephant" - a civilian who knows nothing about it - describe such a floating monster? It sounds like all devils in hell were laughing on the flight deck. Without a noise-canceling helmet, deafness was quickly assured. The visual accompaniment was at the height of the sound overflow. The utter confusion seemed to reign... People dressed in shirts of all the colors of the rainbow would run in all directions, most seemed to engage in incomprehensible acts.
However, the human anthill known as Taiyo was ruled by the most competent fleet commander. Neither his officers nor his sailors were crazy. However, they lived in a universe that escaped the limited logic of civilians.
In a gesture, the manager of the flight deck invited Yukio to release his brakes. With his left hand on the throttle, the pilot checked one last time the oil pressure of the main engine, the number of revolutions minutes, the temperature of the exhaust gases, and the behavior of the fusion engine that propelled the Super Hawk. He actuated the joystick located just under his right hand and looked at the movements of the rudder on a screen displayed in the cockpit.
The launch officer bent over, touching the bridge with his right hand. Although the Super Hawk was a VTOL fighter, capable of taking off and landing vertically, the catapulting increased the life of the thruster and allowed the craft to gain speed more quickly.
Suddenly pushed back on his ejection seat, Yukio received many G's as the brutal acceleration ripped the fighter off the flight deck. The sea was already under his hull. He slightly corrected his attitude, raised the nose of his aircraft. Sergeant Hasegawa's Super Hawk approached and leveled on his wing.
One hundred and eighty knots – increasing - one hundred feet, increasing rate of climb, all was well. No warning lights were illuminated and the hands remained in the green of the dials. He retracted his landing gear and proceeded into a wide turn to his heading. Under the hull of the aircraft, the Taiyo was advancing at a slow speed. All around, many ships formed screen. The captain recognized the silhouettes of a Haguro class Nuclear Guided Missile Cruiser and a Miura class Dock Landing Ship. At his present speed, however, he soon left them behind.
"Devil's Hand, this is Red Sword, come in!"
Captain Yamakawa Yukio, known as Devil's Hand, once seated in the cockpit of his fighter, opened the radio channel with a tiny touch in the joystick under his right hand:
"This is Devil's Hand, I copy you, Red Sword."
Red Sword, or Hasegawa Miki, at least for civil status, gave a short speech summarizing the perfect state of his hunter. Contact was made with the Taiyo control tower to confirm that all was well. According to a perfectly arranged procedure, she confirmed that everything was ok on her side and that there was no last-minute modification. The mission could begin.
The Super Hawk was a latest-generation fighter using computer-assisted navigation. Instead of entering a heading by hand, the pilots pressed a button to display the Way Point one, and the calculator made them take the right route.
With a glance on the radar screen, Yukio repressed the desire to scratch his nose. His flight Suit was a non-restrictive armor with multiple layers of polymer weave fabric reinforced in vital areas by semi-rigid M.D.C. plastic plates. But the recycled air and the hard aviator helmet always made him slightly uncomfortable. In his earpiece, Miki's voice rose again:
"Devil's Hand, this is Red Sword. Is everything okay with you?
"Red Sword, everything's okay with me."
On the radar, the two patrols of Wing Boards (2 x2 crafts) were there as planned. On the radar screen embedded in the dashboard, Yukio saw them as four orange dots, a color that designated them as potentially hostile. It must be said, that during the last fifteen years, the army of the republic had faced these looters at least a hundred times. Most of the time it was a brief skirmish, but Captain Yamakawa had shot down three of their Wing Boards and one flying power armor. He knew the Horune well. They were aggressive bullies... but like all bullies, they were also cowards who fled when potential victims retaliated.
"All right, we'll make a first pass, calmly, in a non-aggressive manner. Don't get too close... just show them that we know they're there and we're watching them."
"Ryokei (Roger)" replied Sergeant Hasegawa.
Yukio saw a screen appear on the intelligent canopy of the cockpit. It showed the Horune wing, filmed by the sensor pod. The strange ships with absurd shapes seemed made of a material similar to plastic or ceramic. The hulls were clear and streaked with long lines radiating from a large central window.
The captain was born in the 21st century, he was already seventeen years old when five Japanese cities were swallowed up by a Rift to be projected three centuries into the future. Despite the fifteen years that had passed since then, he still had the impression of living, in reality, one of the anime he was watching as a teenager: Samurais, feudal wars, castle, magic... two days earlier his patrol had even crossed a dragon!
Every time he saw a Horune's Dream Ship, he couldn't help but think that these ships did not really exist... they were armed, could destroy their two fighters, yet they were not really there! It was just dreams that had taken shape in the real world. If they were destroyed, they would leave nothing behind... except what they were carrying which would suddenly be floating on the surface of the sea.
The fantasy/futuristic mixed world where Yukio lived was full of nonsense.
In the intercom, Corporal Shinkechi Uesugi's voice brought him back to the present:
"Yukio, I'm picking up something on the SNS."
The Super Natural Sensor was not one sensor but an advanced system cross-referencing information collected by radar, bio-patterns analyzer, molecular analyzer, and many over sensors. They can locate, and identify supernatural phenomena.
"It's at 120°, almost behind us, a fabulous energy... several thousand P.P.E (4) and it's still growing."
"All right, let's see."
Passing on the radio, Captain Yamakawa asked his wingman to accompany him. Leaving the ocean, they flew over the mountainous terrain covered with forests that constituted the bulk of the island of Kyushu. As they arrived in sight of the Bungo Strait... an oval shape formed of blue light suddenly appeared... a Rift! And it was an absolutely monstrous opening... several kilometers in diameter and almost as much in height. The opening was filled with the pale fog that characterized the limbo.
By reflex, Yamagawa and Hasegawa launched their craft in a dodge maneuver. If they were sucked in by the opening, gods know where they would be thrown!
When they returned to the Rift, it had disappeared... but it had not gone without leaving something behind. Something hard to miss... the terrain had been turned upside down! A city had replaced the ruins... an intact city. A river spanned by a metallic bridge painted in red separated two districts. Towards the east, there were tall glass towers of a design characteristic of the late Showa or Heisei era (5). The waterfront was occupied by a port with unloading portals for containers. On the contrary, in the west, they were essentially small detached houses.
"There are people on the streets," Corporal Shinkechi shouted.
As they made a second pass over the city, Captain Yamagawa's Super Hawk passed by a high tower, at its summit, on the helipad, stood a tall man, with white hair. A red mantle clad around him.
Archer focused on his mental connection to Tohsaka:
[Rin, these are Japanese's Fighters, they have the red disk of the sun on the wings and the names of the pilots are typically Japanese! Now, the bad news... I have used my Structural Grasp Magecraft and... they're FV-45J Super Hawk and they came out of the factory in 2090.]
And if Archer had suspected that the next surprises would be even more difficult to accept...
(1) It is always said that Fuyuki consists of two parts: Miyama Town and Shinto. In fact, there is a third. East of Shinto following the coastal road where Iskandar and Saber clashed during the Fourth Grail War, we arrive at a second port. Unlike Shinto's Container Port, it's an oil terminal with a refinery, as well as an industrial complex with a cement plant, and a paper mill... and probably other factories. This is the most recent part of Fuyuki. In 2004, it was less than thirty years old.
As the crow flies, the second port is not far, but on the other side of the mountain where the Einzbern castle is located, south of Shinto.
(2) After Archbishop Hubert Walter's death in 1205 and the rejection of other nominees to the see of Canterbury, the monks of Christ Church elected Stephen Langton (1150–1228) as Walter's successor. King John's refusal to accept Langton's election led to the kingdom of England being placed under a papal Interdict in 1208, prohibiting the people from receiving the sacraments or being buried in consecrated ground. Few accounts have survived from that time, an exception being the Chronicon Anglicanum, written by Ralph (1226–1305), Abbot of Coggeshall Abbey in Essex. There is an abrupt change in Ralph's chronicle for the years 1206 to 1212, roughly coinciding with the Interdict; previously, Ralph had made extensive notes about the events of each year, but for this period he provided a summary instead. The autograph manuscript of the Chronicon Anglicanum reveals that the original account had been removed and a replacement inserted. It is possible that Ralph of Coggeshall purged the first version in an act of self-censorship, perhaps to avoid offending King John (quote from the British Library). It should be noted that the case of the "green children" is found precisely in the rewritten part of this manuscript... an intervention of the Church to hide the supernatural character of these events?
(3) Ma no Umi, in Japanese.
(4) Potential Psychic Energy, this is the name given by the parapsychologist Victor Lazlo to the Magic energy (note: Lazlo is a fictional character, not a real person).
(5) These two eras correspond to the reign of Emperors) Hirohito (1926-1989) and Akihito (1989-...)