Fate series and characters belong to Nasu and TypeMoon


Burning City

Within the blazing fires, an illusion figure kneeled with one knee before Mash. The white-haired man with one hazel orb, whom hair bangs covered his left, wore a purple-silver mantle. Mash peered at the figure weakly.

He reached his hand out to her and told, "You don't wish to die, do you? You have your Masters you wished to protect, no?"

Mash turned her head both her sides. Both Fujimaru siblings were unconscious on the ground. The immediate impact from earlier had knocked them out. She shifted to the illusion and nodded.

He nodded and said, "I'll give my abilities and Noble Phantasm to aid you, Mash. In return, I want you to eliminate the cause of the Singularity."

With no indecision, Mash nodded further and moved her quivering hand out to him…

-0-

"Kyuu… Kyuu…"

A familiar animal cried calling out to Ritsuka within the darkness.

"Fou… Fou… Fou…"

"This… Sound…" Ritsuka thought in his mind.

"Ritsuka! Wake up, Ritsuka!" An urgent yet familiar voice called out to him.

Another calm, soft, and recognizable voice said, "He won't wake up. Maybe I should use the official title… Master Ritsuka, please wake up. If you don't wake up, I will kill you."

"Master…? Who?" RItsuka wondered, but he remained in the darkness.

Soon, the urgent voice changed into an annoyed tone and growled, "Ritsuka, wake up. If you don't, I will wipe out all of your research data on human biography, the historical figures and those videos on your tablet when we get out of here!"

"Oh no, you don't! Leave my tablet out of this, Ritsuko!" Ritsuka shouted and his view turned aside from the darkness.

Seated upright with his eyes wide opened, Ritsuka greeted by his annoyed sister Mash, and Fou leaping onto his face before moving to his shoulders. Though they were all right, Ritsuka noticed a peculiar change from Mash.

Though Ritsuko wore the same outfit from earlier, Mash's outfit changed.

Instead of her glasses and Chaldea's uniform, she was wearing a black-purple armor with notably showing her abdomen.

Also, there was a shield she was carrying in her right hand. Mash exhaled a sigh and said, "Thank goodness you're awake now, Ritsuka-senpai! I'm so glad you're safe."

"Yeah," Ritsuka let out a grunt before scowling at Ritsuko, "Supposedly, my hard work data is being threatened in this so I had no choice but to leave my dreamland."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes and frowned, "It's not that hard to do it. Your password is 'Dead man tell no lies' in alphanumeric. Really? You need to consider better passwords, brother."

Ritsuka rolled his eyes back at her. But, he recalled and shifted to Mash, "By the way, did you just say, 'I will kill you?'"

"That came out wrong," Mash shook her head, then amended, "What I meant to say was, 'you're going to be killed.'"

"Huh?" Ritsuka tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

"Um, I was confused because everything happened so quickly," Mash shook her head again. She made a glimpse of her surroundings as the siblings followed. "As much as I want to gather our thoughts, please look around you."

While accompanying her eyes, Ritsuka noticed and understood this wasn't the Command Room anymore.

Gray sky-high broken buildings, wreckage and debris from destroyed shop-houses and residences, blazing flames that paired the gray-reddish glowing sky.

Before Ritsuka could ask, an ear-piercing shriek caught their awareness, "Gi– GAAAAAAA!"

"What on earth?!" Ritsuka stood up, alarmed by the red-cloak figure with gleaming blue eyes heading to them.

Ritsuko stepped back, and returned, "Obviously not our allies who want us alive!"

Mash stepped forward with a calm expression and determined, "Linguistic communication impossible.

"Identifying life-form as hostile."

She changed her gaze to the siblings and asked, "Masters, your orders, please. You and I will overcome this together!"

"Orders, you say?" Ritsuka questioned, turning back to the figure approaching them. One of its bony hand appeared a wooden spear and charged forward.

Ritsuko gasped with fear, "I-It's coming!"

"Tch," Ritsuka grunted. He took a swift scan of the field and realized more of the identical cloak figure emerged and approaching them. With a gulp, Ritsuka decided, "I know nothing about orders. But, let's get rid of them!"

"Understood, Master!" Mash shouted. She charged forward with her shield armed in her grip. The cloak figured thrust its spear forward, solely to have it parried by Mash's upward swing of her shield.

With the opportunity, Mash gave a rapid and heavy swung of her shield against the cloaked figure. From the blow, it changed into black dust faded into the air. The confident swing and the flexibility of movement against the cloaked figure awed the siblings.

Behind Mash, another cloaked figure lifted its sword to strike at her. She whirled around and drew her shield out against the impending blow. The jolt of striking the broad and powerful shield made the figure staggered backward.

Mash took this moment and assaulted with her shield. She slammed the figure with her shield, sending it flying against the ground. With a loud echo of hitting the ground, it too changed into black dust and faded.

Meanwhile, the Fujimaru siblings watched in shock all the moment of Mash's action. A surprise to both even she was heavily injured earlier. But, she was now fighting like nothing had transpired. Suddenly, another ear-piercing shriek caught their attention.

Ritsuko was the first to turn her head and eyes widened with fright. "Ritsuka!"

Whirled around, a skeletal figure rushing towards them and stroked its weapon at Ritsuka. In time, Ritsuka dodged but fell backward on the ground by the surprise assault. Ritsuko approached Ritsuka and asked, "Are you fine?!"

"Yeah, a lucky miss right there," Ritsuka replied, fixating on the skeletal trying to tear its sword out of from the ground. It had noticed them while Mash preoccupied with its comrades, both being opened for an assault on them.

With a gulp swallowed, Ritsuka showed a tense yet confident smirk after peeking at Mash, "Hey Ritsuko, do you remember the meme you showed me on the zombie apocalypse?"

"Yeah, why?" Ritsuko showed a curious yet suspicious expression to her brother. Soon enough, she understood and made a deadpan expression to him, "How did you recall that for this situation? Those things aren't even a zombie, you know?!"

Ritsuka examined his surroundings on the ground and recited, "'The first thing on your right is your weapon for a zombie apocalypse.' Not an apocalypse, but I'm sure we don't wish to die here. You can boast to them after the holidays of how we literally went through an apocalypse situation ourselves."

At a broken metal pipe on his right, he picked it up. Ritsuka turned to his sister with a reassured smile, "Besides, you don't prefer to sit around and do nothing while Mash is struggling too, right? Let's help her take a few of those down, Ritsuko."

"I thought I'd be the one who daydreams of fantasy than the logical reality," Ritsuko rolled her eyes amused. She studied at the skeletal figure and inquired, "What's your plan, Ritsuka?"

"Find and picked some rocks with you, while I'll attack that thing," Ritsuka hold the pipe in a posture of a kendo ready posture. He glimpsed at his sister and continued, "When it's about to strike, aim at the sword or anything! I'll smash that skull off when it's off guard."

"But–!"

"Hurry!" Ritsuka shouted as he charged forward, ignoring the frustrated groans she did as she moved.

The skeletal figure met the incoming Ritsuka and thwarted his attack. Before Ritsuka could make another, the figure swung its blade. He intercepted it with his own swing, but the sharp blade formed a cut against the pipe.

Deduced he had that limited amount of time before his weapon broke, Ritsuka swung another strike. But, it was thwarted again. The raven-haired wondered to himself, "For a skeleton, it fights better than a normal human."

At the next strike from the figure, Ritsuka blocked it. But, the power shift from the swing slashed the metal pipe into two. Before he could realize, it charged forward to him.

In a second later, multiple of rocks hit against the skull made it wobbled backward. And instantly, Ritsuko's voice yelled, "Now, Ritsuka!"

Shifted to one hand, Ritsuka growled as he swung, "Aaarrrggh!"

WHACK!

The skull from the figure broke off from the force of Ritsuka's broken pipe. Ritsuka watched it faded away from becoming black dust. Just as he was about to loosen, Ritsuko's voice exclaimed, "Behind you!"

Whirled around, a skeletal figure charged forward its spear to Ritsuka. Just as it was to thrust forward–

THUNK!

A black edge of the shield slashed at the figure from the rear, Mash's steady glare at the figure of its surprise strike on her Master.

With the last skeleton shattered into black dust and remains of red-colored bones, Mash set down her shield and sighed, "Phew. I had my worries, but we made it somehow. Are you okay, Senpais? Both of you were fighting earlier… Does your stomach hurt, or does it feel heavy?"

"I'm fine, Mash… Thanks for the saving there," Ritsuka nodded with the astonished expression from the unforeseen assault.

Ritsuko shook her head and approached Mash to ask, "Mash-chan, you're that powerful?!"

Mash's cheeks had a faint pink-colored blush before she shook her head apologetically, "No, in combat training I always had to stay after class. I couldn't even do a pull-up. The reason I was able to fight like that just now–!"

"It's fine, Mash-chan." Ritsuko shook her head and offered a reassuring smile, "Even you're weren't great in class… The experience in class and outside are different after all!"

At her beam, Mash nodded and showed a modest grin to her. Ritsuko grinned back before frowning as she said, "But still…"

"What was that?" Ritsuka followed up, approached and picked up the red bones to inspect them.

"I… Don't know, Ritsuka-senpai," Mash hesitated. She glimpsed at the bones before coming back to Ritsuka. "Something that doesn't exist in our era, let alone this era. That was the cause of the Singularity or something like it."

"The cause of the Singularity?" Ritsuka turned to her.

Mash gave a nod and assumed, "I guess calling it that isn't too far off, or maybe it is."

BEEP! BEEP!

The trio focused their attention on Ritsuka's wristwatch.

With the shared confused expression, Ritsuka raised his wristwatch up and a holographic image flashed above the wristwatch.

From the holographic, a familiar messy ponytail-haired figure appeared sitting before them.

He called out to them, "Right! I finally got through! Hello? This is Chaldea Command Room? Do you read me?"

"Doctor Roman!" Ritsuka answered with surprise laced in his tone.

"Ritsuka-kun, Mash, Ritsuko-chan! So, the three of you did get caught up in that Rayshift." Romani exhaled a sigh.

"Yes. My companions are Ritsuka-senpai and Ritsuko-senpai." Mash nodded and answered.

She went on, "Mind and body both intact.

"Rayshift compatibility, Master compatibility both satisfactory.

"Please register Ritsuka-senpai and Ritsuko-senpai as an official researcher."

"W-Wait, what?!" Ritsuka turned to her.

Ritsuko shouted, "E-Eh?!"

"Not only Ritsuko-chan but Ritsuka-kun got dragged into the Rayshift, huh?" Romani sighed with brows furrowed, made a slight grin to the siblings. "I'm impressed both of you didn't 'lose your existence.' I'm really glad."

"Also, Mash… Of course, I'm glad you're safe, too," Romani shifted to Mash. He did a swift check from head to toe and asked, "But what's up with that outfit? It's shameless! I didn't raise you to dress like that!"

Ritsuko gasped, "Huh?! Raised?!"

Mash had a slight red blush of embarrassment, as she told, "I transformed into this. I couldn't protect Senpais wearing my Chaldea's uniform."

Romani showed a puzzled expression to her, "What do you mean by transformed Mash? Did you hit your head? Or was it that–!"

"Dr. Roman. Please be quiet." Mash retorted back with a sharp voice, silencing the doctor.

The Fujimaru siblings sweatdropped at their banter, as Ritsuko wondered, "U-Um, Ritsuka… Who?"

"The infirmary doctor of Chaldea, Ritsuko. You can also put it more of surrogate parent-and-offspring in terms of their relationship with that outburst now. From agreeing with your conclusions, a doctor like him can't be married in the first place," Ritsuka replied with a tired sigh.

With the sound of throat cleared, Mash requested to Romani, "Please check my condition. I think you'll understand the situation better."

"Your physical condition?" As Romani wondered, his fingers typed across the keyboard. A rectangular-shaped hologram appeared before him, and his eyes widened in panic. As he studied further, his jaw dropped, "Wh-Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!"

"Doctor Roman?" Ritsuka wondered.

Romani turned back to them, especially to Mash and exclaimed, "Physical strength, Magical Circuits, everything's improved!

"You're not so much a human, but–!"

"Yes, I'm a Servant." Mash interrupted again to wind up the information. She nodded and disclosed to the three, "I don't remember how it happened, but it seems I have survived by fusing with a Servant."

"To investigate and resolve Singularity F, a Servant was provided in advance at Chaldea.

"Right before I died, he offered me the contract.

"In exchange for giving me the abilities of a Heroic Spirit and Noble Phantasm, he wanted me to eliminate the cause of this Singularity."

"A Heroic Spirit and a human, fused," Romani mused his mind for a minute.

He recalled and understood, "A Demi-Servant? That's Chaldea's sixth experiment."

Ritsuko's orange orbs stared at Mash.

She wondered despite barely grasp all of what Romani concluded with understanding, "Is that why Mash-chan is so powerful…?"

"Yeah. So it finally succeeded, huh?" Romani nodded to her query, then shifted back to Mash, "Does this Heroic Spirit still have his consciousness?"

Mash shook her head with a frown, "No, he gave me his combat abilities then vanished. He never revealed his True Name even at the end. So I don't know whose Heroic Spirit I am… Nor what kind of Noble Phantasm I'm holding. At this point there's too much I don't know."

"Hey, look on the bright side. Not every Servant who gets summoned is cooperative. Now that you're a Servant, this is in our favor. After all, you're completely trustworthy," Romani showed an assured beam to the Demi-Servant.

He again focused on the siblings and explained, "Ritsuka-kun, Ritsuko-chan, it looks like you two are the only ones who Rayshifted there safely. Also, I am sorry. Forcing you into this with no explanation.

"I'm sure both of you are full of questions but try not to worry. You've already got a powerful weapon. Humanity's most powerful weapon — Mash."

As Mash noticed the siblings gazed at her with surprise yet puzzled expression, she shifted to Romani with a deadpan expression. "I don't know about 'most powerful.' I'm the one who gets blamed later."

"Now, now, as long as those two understands that's what a Servant is, it'll be fine," Romani waved his hand to encourage her. He shifted back to the siblings to return to his explanation, "But you two, while Servants can be reliable allies, they also have a weakness.

"They disappear without their magical energy source. Their Master. I'm still analyzing the data, but it's still indicating that Mash has become both your Servant."

Romani pointed at the back of both Ritsuka's and Ritsuko's right hand. They examined to see an unusual blood-red marking that was never there earlier until they Rayshifted here.

On closer inspection, the two observed that their marking slightly varied from the other despite similar image.

Typing on his keyboard, Romani viewed the result from the projected hologram before nodding to confirm his words, "Meaning that you're Mash's Master. She's the first Heroic Spirit you've both shared and entered a contract with. Though… It's an extraordinary case itself to have two Masters and a Servant…"

"We… We're Mash's Masters?" Ritsuko repeated, checking out the back of her right hand again before shifting back to Romani. As the doctor nodded, it merely made Ritsuko more puzzled.

Ritsuka examined the back of his right hand, later shifting back to Romani with his hand raised. "Hold on, Doctor Roman. You're still confusing me with what you said earlier… What's these Servants and Master? And, Heroic spirits? Is this associate to whatever that's going on here?"

From the endless questions, Romani showed a tense smile, "Right, I don't blame you for being confused, Ritsuka-kun. I never reached the explanation what Masters and Servants are to you, anyway. Now's a good time, I'll explain it to you in detail. The current mission has two new goals…"

Bzzt! Bzzt!

Mash noticed the holographic image of Romani distorted with buzz. "Doctor, you're breaking up. 10 seconds until the connection is lost."

"Wait, now?!" Ritsuka shouted.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

"Huh, so Sheba's output is unstable because we switched to the backup generators? Oh well, I'll brief you later," Romani sighed. He typed on his keyboard and reflected a map with a blinking dot. "Three of you, I'm getting a strong leyline reading about 2 km from where you are.

"Try to get there somehow. That way, it will stabilize our connection. Listen, don't do anything reckless, will you? I'll try to bring the power back up as soon as–!"

BZZT!

"Doctor Roman!" Ritsuka called out.

The image of Romani vanished, leaving behind a noise output which showed 'No Signal.'

"The connection… It got cut off," Ritsuko muttered.

Mash simply breathed a sigh, "Well, that's the Doctor for you. You can't rely on him in situations like this."

Ritsuka put his wristwatch down and turned to her with a grin. "I wouldn't say he's unreliable because of an unstable power source of his side. And, he was helpful to get it running again. Also, this place we're in–!"

As he scanned around his surroundings, Ritsuka saw a glowing bright light rising into the sky and pointed with his finger. "Mash, is that an SOS? Because it seems to head towards where we are."

Mash spun to look where Ritsuka was witnessing. Her violet orb widened as she recognized and shouted, "Hide behind me now, Senpais!"

No time to question her orders, Ritsuka had sat and concealed behind Mash. Ritsuko stared at their sudden strange movements, demanded worriedly, "What?! What's going on?!"

As Ritsuko shifted to see, the bright Red light flying towards them at a frightening pace. Before she could even shriek, Ritsuka pulled her in and Mash raised the shield up to protect them.

The crimson light split into thousands of energy rays projectiles and shot at them. The gunshot-like sound hitting the shield and the ground deafened the atmosphere. Black-colored dust and smokes covered the surroundings.

With a trace of courage, Ritsuko faced up from her brother's grip and stared at Mash holding her shield against the assault. "R-Ritsuka, Mash?! Can one of you answer my questions?"

"Tch," Ritsuka grunted annoyed at the ceaseless firing. He glanced with one of his blue orbs at Mash and asked, "Is it an enemy? We are being attacked, right?!"

"Yes, Ritsuka-senpai. Please stay down with Ritsuko-senpai," Mash answered with a glimpse to Ritsuka. Before she could set her shield down, Mash raised it up again when another thousand of crimson energy beams fired repeatedly.

Ritsuka held his sister tighter while Ritsuko buried closer to her brother with Mash's shield. The temptation to snoop for a second to find out their enemy was there. Yet from the sounds hitting against the shield, it was highly risky to do so.

A while later, the smoke cleared away showed damaged ground with theirs left untouched. Mash finally pulled away once deduced of no signs of assault. She informed them with a reassuring tone, "It looks the enemy has retreated, Senpais."

As Ritsuka stood and supported his sister up on her feet, he faced Mash and confirmed, "So, it's safe for now?"

Mash nodded and faced towards the siblings in standing-at-attention posture. "Masters, your orders?"

In a second, a startling expression showed on their faces. Though, Ritsuko faced her brother with a curious yet awaiting of Ritsuka's coming answer. Back and front at the two, Ritsuka pointed to himself, "Me? Why?!"

"You acted most of the drive in holding us alive so far. So… Commander, what's your plans?!" Ritsuko showed a cheeky grin.

"Oi, oi, are you serious," Ritsuka sweatdropped at his given power. He gave a quick scan of the area, his wristwatch, before shifting back to them. "Let's head to the place where Doctor Roman told us to go. If we stay here any longer, they'll fire more than what they did."

As Ritsuko nodded, Mash exhaled a relieved sigh and smiled, "You're so dependable, Ritsuka-senpai."

Fou went to Mash and squeaked, "Kyu. Fou, Fooou!"

"That's right, you're with us as well, aren't you Fou-san? Thank you for cheering us up," Mash chuckled.

She turned to the siblings and explained at their concern, "Fou Rayshifted here with both of you, Senpais."

"Ah. But I forgot to let the Doctor know," Mash frowned as she remembered.

"Wait, he doesn't know about Fou?" Ritsuka queried.

From Mash's nod as the answer, Fou squeaked again, "Kyu. Fou, kyaao!"

Ritsuko lifted her hand and tickled Fou's chin. "He says, 'don't worry about that guy.'"

"You're right. I'll find the right time to let him know about Fou-san later." With a slight grin and nod returned, a stern expression appeared on Mash's face and declared, "First, let's head to the coordinates he mentioned. Once we get there, we should be able to set up a base camp."

"Let's get going, then." Ritsuka nodded. The three proceeded towards the area indicated by Romani, in midst of the blazing city in this Singularity.

End of Section 1


Thank you for the kudos and reading this story so far!
Here's the first section of the prologue singularity
Again there's some changes from the original game...
Let me know if the characterization is too OOC or so especially those who played JP with spoilers
And if any other improvements, please do let me know too!