Fate series and characters belong to Nasu and TypeMoon
Into the Spirit Meridian
Estimated hours of walking in the burning city, the group had been walking down the wrecked street to their destination.
While walking, Ritsuka examined the rear of his right hand again. The words from the cloaked figure cited, "In the subsequent hours, you and your sister will enter a contract to turn into a Master"
"We turned into a Master now. But, to turn out like this…" Ritsuka thought, eyes narrowed with unease at all had transpired.
Mash recognized the familiar location from the map indicated, signaled to the siblings, "Senpais. We will soon reach the point the Doctor had specified."
"Really?" Ritsuko heaved a fatigued sigh and whined, "That's great! I thought we will never get there at all!"
Ritsuka gave a sympathetic grin to his sister, shifted to Mash. "Is that so? But, it's tough to tell from what we've observed so far."
"There are flames as far as the eye can see," Mash nodded. "It's nothing like the Fuyuki in our data. According to our data, it's an average regional city"
Ritsuko nodded as she probed further. "True, but it looks like a war had happened here…"
"Yes, there's no record of such a disaster occurring in 2004," Mash agreed. She moved on with her answer. "The Mana density in the atmosphere is also abnormal. In fact, it's a lot like ancient Earth…"
"Kyaaaaaaaaaa!"
The loud shrieking of a woman's cry broke their discussion. Ritsuka turned to where the voice came from. "What was that?!"
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Ritsuko hesitated.
"It was a woman's scream for sure. Let's hurry over, Senpais!" Mash noticed, and they rushed towards the cry's origin.
-0-
Inside further Fuyuki city, Olga Marie ran in a panic with a group of skeletal figures chasing after her.
She panted heavily from the continuous running, a glance at the back forced her noticed they were still persistent.
Faced back to the front, she shouted in frustration, "Wh-Who are these guys, anyway?"
Soon, her limbs gave away and Olga Marie tripped. She sat upright and set her index finger in a gun position. Her index fingertip formed a glowing golden magic circle and shot a golden energy orb at one of the skeletal figures.
The minute it hit, the figure turned into black dust. Its 'chief' realized that one of its comrades had died, swung its blade to the front as a command to assault.
Olga Marie gasped when they dashed towards her and fired a repeated shot at them with her magic. Despite each figure changed to black dust, they never wavered in moving towards their target.
"Why do these things keep happening to me?" Olga Marie wondered angrily while shooting.
Within the range of their target, the skeletal figures had a cautious step with their weapons. Before she could fire another shot, Olga Marie heard a cackle above her and tip her head to the source.
Above her, a skeletal figure rose above the lamppost and leaped to strike at her. The Director gasped and shot a charge. But, it whirled to the side with its blade raised up high.
She shifted away and crouched down, "I can't take it anymore! Come save me, Lev! You were always there for me right?"
THUNK!
The sound of an impact against a metal reached her ears.
Not knowing when her eyes closed, Olga Marie took bravery to reopen them, embraced at the sight of the violet-haired girl intercepting the strike.
With a sharp breath, she shoved back the figure with her shield and made a powerful swing to incapacitated it. Once gone, she lunged forward towards her the group of skeletal figures as her next target.
Watched the violet-haired girl taking down each target, Olga Marie uttered with bewilderment in her tone, "Mash?"
Smashed the skeletal figure on her right, another figure was to strike her from the rear.
Mash at once revolved around and struck another few more figure before swinging her shield at the attacker.
Before she could charge at the target ahead, a crowd of skeleton figure was about to pounce on her. But, Mash raised her shield and twirled it rapidly, deflecting and killing the incoming figures.
Mash's stoic face remained, taking down every enemy with her shield. Later, Ritsuka and Ritsuko who caught up with her stood to draw a deep breath. Ritsuka turned to the seated figure and shouted, "Are you all right?!"
"Director Olga Marie?" Ritsuko gasped, gaining a startling expression from her brother too.
"Y-You two!" Olga Marie turned her head behind to notice their presence.
Up in the air, Mash positioned her shield downwards and crashed against the figure as she fell to the ground. From the powerful impact and dust, a large hole left with nobody but black dust of the enemy.
Leaped up from the crater, Mash put her shield down and approached to Olga Marie. "The battle is over. Are you hurt, Director?"
"What's going on?" The Director with shock lasted from the assault earlier.
"Director? About my situation," Mash placed her shield aside to reveal. "I know it's hard to believe, but the truth is–!"
"A Demi-Servant, right? It's pretty obvious that you fused with a Servant," Olga Marie stopped. She stood up with eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What I want to know is why it's successful now all of a sudden!"
To her back, she scowled at the siblings, or in specific at Ritsuka. "Enough of that. You two! The one from B-Team. And, the civilian who showed up late for my speech. Not only her but you as well! How did you two become a Master?
"Only first-class Mages can enter contracts with Servants! There's no way you could ever become a Master!" Her fingers out pointing accusingly at Ritsuka and shouted, "What did you do to her to have her do your bidding?!"
"What the hell?! You are way off base!" Ritsuka countered with a glare at her.
Ritsuko stepped in front of her brother and responded, "That's right. Nothing of that even happened!"
Mash nodded and at once pointed out, "There's a misunderstanding, Director.
"I'm the one who actually forced the contract."
"What did you say?" Olga Marie moved to Mash, her rage now replaced with a mystified look.
The Demi-Servant nodded, "I'll explain how it happened. That way we can understand each other's situation better."
-0-
A moment thereafter, Mash concluded her story, "And that's how it happened. We were dragged into a Rayshift and teleported here to Fuyuki. No other Master candidates shifted with us. You're the only human we've run into, Director."
With a heavy breath, Mash continued with a beam, "But this gives me hope. If you're here, that means there must be other candidates who got teleported here…"
The look on Olga Marie's face showed a frown as she faced away. "There aren't, actually. That much I'm certain of."
"What?" Ritsuko gasped with surprise.
Olga Marie gave a nod as she went on, "I hate to admit, but I know why we were shifted to Fuyuki."
"So, you understand why we survived?" Mash prodded.
A second of suspension, Olga Marie turned to the three and spelled out, "All of us share a common denominator. Neither me, nor you, nor those two 'were actually inside the Coffins.' Though Rayshifting flesh and blood aren't likely to succeed, it's not impossible.
"Meanwhile, the Coffins have breakers. When the success rate below 95%, the power's cut off. So they never actually Rayshifted. We're the only ones here."
"I see. That's why you're the Director." Mash nodded with knowing.
As Ritsuko nodded, she realized and queried, "Huh? You weren't planning to shift, Director?"
"Is that a problem? What commander heads to the front lines? Didn't I say you were my tools?" Olga Marie retorted, receiving an irritated glare from Ritsuko
"Hmm," Ritsuka nodded with a remark, "But tools are particularly effective when their commander is reliable. And, you are only reliable when you're calm, I see."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Olga Marie's orange orbs glared at Ritsuka. "Are you saying I'm not usually calm?"
"More frequently of a stuck-up bitch that jumps conclusion faster than your thinking…" Ritsuka muttered.
"Huh?"
Ritsuka quickly cleared his throat and faced elsewhere. "No, it's nothing, Director."
After glaring at them both for another few more seconds, Olga Marie turned away. "Hmmph, whatever."
Though unknown to her, Ritsuko was quietly chuckling at her brother's snide remarks.
Olga Marie turned back to the siblings with a reluctant sigh. "I understand the situation now."
"Fujimaru, since it's an emergency I'll approve both of you and Kyrielight's contract.
"From here on out, you'll follow my commands. First, let's set up a base camp."
"Yes, ma'am" The siblings nodded to accept her words.
Olga Marie nodded and went on, "Listen, this is the time to search for a Leyline Terminal. A place where magical energy converges. There we'll be able to contact Chaldea. So in this town's case…"
As Mash noticed Olga Marie moving her head left and right, she cleared her throat to catch her attention. "This is the point, Director. The Ley point is at your feet."
"Whoa! Oh r-right, I knew that, I knew that, of course!" Olga Marie's cheek tainted red with embarrassment from the oversight. She spun to Mash and instructed, "Mash, place your shield on the ground. I will set up a summoning circle, with your Noble Phantasm as the catalyst."
"So, she says," Mash turned to the siblings and asked, "Are you all right with that, Senpai?"
From Ritsuko's nod, Ritsuka nodded as well and granted, "Sure, let's do it."
"Understood. Now let us begin." With her shield placed on the ground, Olga Marie moved one step backward with her right hand raised. Muttered an enchantment, a white-bluish magical circle formed beneath the shield.
A brilliant light flare from the ground and transformed its surroundings. The burning city converted into a chamber with shining blue-colored circuits with a glowing orb floating in the heart. The Fujimaru siblings stared in admiration and curiosity by the transformation.
Mash, too, showed a surprise look and muttered, "This is… The same as the experiment summoning experiment chamber at Chaldea."
The next second, a holographic portrait of Romani appeared from the orb calling out to them. "CQ, CQ. Hello, hello? Okay, the connection's back! Good job, you secured the connection. Now we can communicate again and even send rations…"
"Huh?! Why are you running the show, Romani?" Olga Marie approached the holographic image and glared at him. "What about Lev? Where's Lev? Put Lev on!"
"Waaaahhhhhhhhh!" Romani nearly fell out from his seat at the Director's glare. He swallowed his saliva down and exclaimed with shock in his tone. "D-Director, you're alive? And you're unharmed? What the…"
"What's that supposed to mean? Where's Lev? What's the head medic doing in charge?" Olga Marie demanded, both hands resting on her hips.
Romani dropped his head with a distressed sigh, "Don't ask me why. I'm fully aware that I'm not cut out for this job. But, there's nobody else, Olga Marie."
He lifted his head at her with a somber expression. "The surviving full-time staff of Chaldea is less than twenty people, including me. The reason I'm in charge of operations is that there's no one ranked higher than me who survived.
"Dr. Lev was supervising from the Command Room. There's no way he could survive that blast."
From the news told, the other three gasped and showed a mixed look of horror and astonishment. Olga Marie's jaw dropped and whispered, "No way… Lev…"
The former line of news made Olga Marie shook her head. "No, forget that, wait… Please wait. Less than 20 survivors? What about the Master candidates… the Coffins?"
The doctor shook his head with a somber expression persisted. "47, all in critical condition and we're short on medical supplies. We might be able to save a few, but all of them might be–!"
"Don't be ridiculous!
"Cryopreserve them at once!"
Olga Marie yelled with a fierce voice.
She gazed at him with a resolved yet panic expression. "Think about reviving them later. Your top priority is to make sure they don't die!"
"I forgot the Coffins had those functions! I'll get on it right away!" Romani leaped off from his chair after acknowledging, presenting a vacant seat to them.
Listening in from the start with her Masters, Mash turned to the Director. "That surprises me. Cryopreservation without prior consent is a crime. Yet you made the decision right away. You put human lives ahead of your own reputation as the Director."
"Don't be stupid! As long as they're not dead, I can explain myself later — why else?" Olga Marie retorted.
The Director turned away with thumb place in her lip to nibble the nail and murmured to herself. "In the first place, 47 lives… There's no way can I carry that burden! Please don't die… I'm begging you… If only Lev were here!"
Ritsuka stared at Romani's vacant seat and reminded of the sight. The people who he went past looking for his sister was worse than its described. He felt a tug on his sleeve and peered to see Ritsuko had her head bowed with a disturbed expression
He lifted his hand and pat her shoulders with a reassuring manner. "They'll be fine, Ritsuko. Doctor Roman and the others will make sure it."
-0-
After returned with all 47 candidates in cryopreservation state, Romani had explained his findings from the explosion and reported, "This concludes my report.
"Chaldea has lost 80% of its functionality. There's only so much that the remaining staff can do.
"I'm shifting available manpower to Rayshift repairs and maintaining Chaldeas's and Sheba's current states.
"As soon as external communications are back up, we'll request for supplies and start rebuilding Chaldea."
"That's fine," Olga Marie nodded. "I would've done the same if I were there."
Her orange orbs gave a brief glance at her back, to the Fujimaru siblings. The Director heaved a heavy sigh and declared, "Romani Archaman. I don't like it, but until I return you're in charge of Chaldea. Make the Rayshift repairs your top priority.
"We'll be investigating this town. The Singularity F."
Romani's green orbs widened. "Director, you're not afraid to be at ground zero? Since when did you become so brave?"
"Seriously, you don't know when to shut up," Olga Marie groaned. "I'd like nothing better than to go back now, but it will take time till you finish the Rayshift repairs. This town only has low-level monsters, with Mash as a Demi-Servant we'll be safe.
"Accident or not, we Animuspheres prided ourselves on doing our best in the situations we're given.
"I'll be looking into Singularity F with the Fujimaru siblings and Mash Kyrielight as investigators."
With another brief glance at the three, Olga Marie shot back with a grunt. "That said, since my field staff is inexperienced, the extent of this mission will be to discover the cause of this anomaly.
"Analysis and eradication will have to wait until after Chaldeas's restored, and I can send in the second team. You okay with that?"
"Only discover it…?" Ritsuka wondered with a thoughtful expression.
Ritsuko sighed to herself, "That sounds easy to do it…"
Romani nodded and acknowledged, "Roger that. Best of luck to you, Director. We can now communicate in short bursts. Feel free to contact me in an emergency."
"Even if we sent an SOS, nobody would come to our rescue." Olga Marie muttered.
Romani tilted his head, "Director?"
"Nothing, I'm cutting off the connection. Go do your job." The Director snapped back and raised her wristwatch. She pushed the side switch and the holographic image of Romani disappeared back into the glowing orb.
When Olga Marie turned to the three, Mash asked, "Director, are you sure about this? There's also the choice of waiting here for the rescue."
"I can't afford to do that," Olga Marie gritted her teeth. "After we return to Chaldea, who knows how long it will take to select the next team? A month won't be enough to gather personnel or funds. Do you know how much the Association will harass me in the meantime?"
She turned away from Mash, rambled in a panic voice. "Worst case, they'll blame me for mismanagement, and I'll lose Chaldea to them. If that happened, I'd be toast. I can't go back empty-handed. I need something that will shut them up!"
"Director?" Ritsuka's voice called out to her.
As she spun and about to yell, Olga Marie realized they still waited for her next order. She's the one in charge and with those 'tools' that got dragged in. She's able to bring something back to wash the guilt away.
With the clearing of her throat, Olga Marie announced to the three. "Sorry, but you three are stuck with me, Mash, Fujimaru. Come on, let's explore this town. The cause of this twisted history must be here somewhere."
End of Section 2
Hey everyone! Here's the new chapter update you've been waiting for!
Thank you very much the Kudos and reading this story, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it very much
And sorry for the delay as I'm getting busy, so I'm struggling to find a way to update this story...
I'll do my best to make it a weekly upload or bi-weekly at least
Otherwise, it'll take a while for the next one at worst OTL
So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and let me know the characters are too OOC or improvement to make :)
