Sorry for taking so long to put this up. This is June's chapter but it was difficult, for both me and my beta-readers. Life just got in the way for us. In the interest of not giving away spoilers, I'll just refer you to the Author's note at the bottom of the page.
Checklist Item 8: Diagnose the Problem
Singularity F, Fuyuki, 2004
Ritsuka stared at the building in front of him, Mash and the director.
This was not a park. In fact, according to the proud sign over the rubble that came from some of the destroyed pillars of the entryway, this was the Fuyuki Civic Center. Or at least it had been before Fuyuki went to ruin.
"This is enough!" Olga Marie Animusphere threw up her arms. "This is definitely not a park! It doesn't have any noticeable signs of destruction and it most certainly does not have any remarkable curses on the property! Why did we even ask the technician for directions if they aren't accurate!"
Olga stood for a second panting from the sudden ventilation of her frustration. Then she took a deep breath, pasted a calm expression over her face, and started pacing, occasionally waving her arms around at the various features of the current Fuyuki City. "Well, if the help is incompetent, then I will just do it myself. Let's see. Everything's burnt down far as the eye can see… There aren't any traces of residents either. What happened here?"
Olga grimaces as if at a bad memory. "What could even turn Chaldea gray in the first place? If we can't see the future, that means humanity will vanish…"
Olga started pacing, talking to herself all the while.
"Looks like she is talking to herself again," Roman suddenly chimed in, his image projecting from Ritsuka's communicator. "This could take a while. Hey Ritsuka, this area looks like it is safe. Why don't you and Mash take this opportunity to rest a bit?"
The screen flicked off almost immediately, probably due to power issues. Maybe if they could find another leyline terminal and tap into it, then they could talk longer. But Ritsuka didn't have a clue as to where he could find another. It wasn't like they could be found right next door or something so convenient.
"I agree with the doctor, Senpai." Mash spoke up, walking over to a concrete ledge where she dropped to a sitting position. Mash winced as her shield crashed into the concrete, creating a loud clang that she squeaked out an apology for when Olga shot a dirty look at her.
The director glared at her for a few more moments before turning around and continuing her musing. "Could that mean the Counter Force doesn't work in a Singularity? Then this place is like a Bolt… The fatal choice of destruction scattered throughout human history… When your choices become mistakes, this is what happens."
Mash looked ashamed at the disturbance, even as the director started reflecting on what was going on or what could have caused this, Ritsuka inferred from what portions he could understand of the director's words. He didn't understand what the director was saying. What was a Counter Force? And Ritsuka didn't think that Olga's bolt was the same as the weaver's bolt that he was familiar with.
As for Mash, Ritsuka felt a tug of pity for the poor girl. She didn't need to contemplate how she had just upset her boss, especially with how less than a day ago, she had been dying under a massive block. Casting his mind about to create a conversation topic to distract her, he decided to ask something that he had been worrying about.
"Are you tired?" he asked. Mash had been fighting for hours at this point. He knew from his karate lessons as a kid that people can't spar constantly for long periods of time. But Mash had been fighting and when she hadn't been fighting, she had been on guard for the next attack. It must be exhausting.
"Tired?" Mash tilted her head in confusion and curiosity at the question. "Are you asking if I have been having any problems since I became a Servant?"
Ritsuka nodded. Mash's cheeks turned a light red at the concern.
"I'm fine, well for the most part," She dropped her head and voice as if ashamed and admitting some embarrassing secret. "It's scary to fight."
Ritsuka nodded. It was scary to watch her fight. The hordes and packs of skeletons were intimidating and Mash was the only thing between the skeletons and him joining the skeleton horde. And she looked more like a fragile girl than a warrior.
But he was now her Master. He wished he knew what that meant. All he could figure out was that he was something like a mix of a cheerleader, magic provider, and an analyst for her.
But if he was her cheerleader, then he supposed that he ought to cheer her up.
"Hey," he said, causing Mash to peek up from beneath her hair that had fallen forward and covered her eyes. "Don't worry about it. It might be terrifying for both me and you but you are doing an amazing job as a Servant. Honestly, I should be the one worried. I have been the one doing a poor job of being your Master."
He paused. Maybe he could distract her on something other than her perceived shortcomings, maybe that would cheer her up.
"No, that's not true!" Mash protested. She clasped her hands together above her lap, twisting around to face him. "You are doing a great job. I think you might've been the best Master this summer."
Ritsuka winced, before forcing a smile. "Thanks Mash,"
He kept his thoughts to himself. But that isn't exactly a stellar recommendation. I mean, surely there have been other Masters before, right?
Realizing that this could help keep the conversation going and help get Mash more comfortable and relaxed, he asked, "So what about the Masters in the past? What kind of things did they do?"
Mash hesitated, "Well, Chaldea does keep some Master Candidates on hand in case of an emergency but for the most part, they have never all been deployed before."
She laid one hand on her shield. "You have to realize that most of humanity isn't actually in such danger. Most threats that can actually threaten all of humanity are usually taken care of subtly."
Mash realized something and frantically waved her two hands around, "Oh sure, a city can die out or a nation or continent can suffer grievous casualties, but most threats that actually can destroy even one percent of humanity are destroyed by the Counter Force before it even gets going. We're just here to allow the Counter Force some more options in dealing with the threat without destroying everything."
Ritsuka stared in bemusement at the stammering girl who called him Senpai despite knowing far more than he did.
"Uhh, what's this Counter Force thing?" he asked about the one term he had no clue about what it means.
"Oh," Mash faintly said, a hint of embarrassment on her cheeks. She took a breath before she continued. "I forgot that you are a civilian, Master. The Counter Force is the safety device formed by the collective unconsciousness of mankind and the planet to avert the demise of mankind and to extend the life of the planet. One aspect of the Counter Force is used by Alaya, the collective subconscious of mankind, to prevent the extinction of humanity. The other aspect of the Counter Force which is to extend the life of the planet operates according to the will of the planet which is termed Gaia."
Mash hesitated "I think that the creation of Chaldea was indirectly done by the Counter Force. Chaldea has made astonishing progress over the last 80 years and it really isn't the nature of magi to act for the benefit of mankind. Magi are primarily interested in reaching the root of all knowledge, Akasha, so why would so many of them be interested in working for the preservation of mankind?"
She shrugged. "At any rate, the Counter Force is a force that always acts to remove threats from jeopardizing either of its two primary objectives. Usually by influencing people such as Jeanne D'Arc. Or sometimes it uses a Counter Guardian," she caught his confusion and added "one of its own special Heroic Spirits, to destroy the threat at all costs."
Mash winced and added in quieter voice "And the cost usually includes the slaughter and destruction of the surrounding people and area."
"Like this?" Ritsuka asked, referring to the fires and destruction that lay all over Fuyuki.
Mash looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding slowly. "Maybe like this, but this is a Singularity. This actually didn't happen in history which is why we are here. The Counter Force wouldn't operate in this as it actually shouldn't exist yet it does. It is an anomaly."
"Huh," Ritsuka contemplated that as he stared out at all the ruined buildings, the destroyed roads and pavement, the fires cackling as they consumed everything in sight. This could have been how Fuyuki was destroyed and yet it wasn't.
He knew one thing for sure. This wasn't part of what his college education for a job at various embassies had been preparing him to deal with before he got hounded to join Chaldea.
History being wrong yet it was as clear to see as the buildings around him. A city on fire and in ruins but not a single human soul save three visitors from the future. And an army of skeletons possessing the streets despite being dead.
And here he was, plain old Ritsuka Fujimaru, trying to find out why it happened and how to eliminate the source of the changes before any skeleton could get past Mash and kill him.
His head hurt, just like that one time that his math teacher had tried to teach the class the concept of infinity. No one had been able to understand it but the teacher had still rambled about it for a week.
"So the Counter Force are two objects that try to enforce survival of earth and mankind?" Ritsuka asked, trying to confirm if he understood what he had just learned.
"Not quite, but you're getting there, Master," Mash said encouragingly. "I'll get you some reference books when we return to Chaldea. We have quite a large database in addition to SHEBA. And you really need to know the relevant concepts like this, otherwise you'll be like a lost little kitty. Welp-not that I am any different. It's been about two years since I started here, and I still don't get it. I kind of sneaked in. Almost like an alligator."
Ritsuka snorted at the image of Mash as an alligator. The two were completely different. Mash was a cute, sweet girl who acted sometimes like she was in the JSDF and alligators were carnivorous predators with scales and too many teeth. The image just did not compute.
"It's true," Mash protested, blushing as he started to laugh. "I don't really know all that much. I'm still learning and-"
"No, sorry. I'm not laughing at that." He finished chuckling and took a breath. "I'm laughing at the idea of you being an alligator. You don't look anything like one."
Come to think of it, it wasn't that funny of an image. Maybe the stress had just been getting to him.
Mash cocked her head, quizzingly as a befuddled expression appeared on her face.
Ritsuka felt like he had to explain. "You don't have enough teeth and your jaw is much too short. Also, alligators are like an ambush predator. And I have difficulty in seeing you just sitting and waiting for some animal to wander by so you can clamp onto them."
"Fou!" Fou apparently agreed as he jumped onto Mash's face before sliding around to her shoulder. He pantomimed taking a bite out of Mash's ear. "Fou, fou."
"See, even Fou agrees that you wouldn't make a good alligator. You're more likely to be eaten by an alligator than be one." Ritsuka good humoredly pointed out.
Mash pouted as she protested. "I can be a good alligator!"
Ritsuka laughed at her pout. Mash protested again. "I could be an alligator. I like to take warm baths and when I do, I pull Fou in when he's standing on the rim of the tub."
"Fou, foou, fooou-FOU!" Fou agreed, walking along Mash's shoulder like he was innocently taking a walk on the rim of a tub before suddenly snapping forward at a surprisingly fast speed when he said the final 'fou'.
"That would be alligator-like behavior," Ritsuka chuckled at Fou's pantomime. Then a thought occurred to him. "Actually, Mash could you put straighten your arms and put them in front of you?"
Mash gave him a confused look but obeyed. Fou jumped from her shoulder to Ritsuka's before turning to watch the show.
"Now, lock your arms and rotate your hand, no, not that one, there. Now spread your fingers apart- don't bend your elbows."
Mash followed his instructions, still not understanding.
"Raise your right arm above the other- and there."
Mash looked blankly at the configuration of her arms. One arm was above another, hand pointed downwards, fingers spread like fangs. Her left hand had its fingers spread and pointed upwards. Both arms joints were stiffly locked in place.
"Um, Senpai? What is this for?" Mash ventured to ask the question on her mind.
"Have you ever played charades before?" Ritsuka asked.
Mash shook her head in denial.
"Well, charades is a game where the player pretend to be an animal or another object. The main rule is that they can't speak while others try to guess what they are acting out. Right now, you are doing a good impression of an alligator." Ritsuka explained.
Mash looked contemplatively at her arms impressions of the jaw of an alligator. Trying it out, Mash brought her arms together, lacing her spread fingers together.
Her eyes widened as she smiled. "If my fingers are the teeth, then I just took a bite!" she exclaimed with delight. She brought her arms apart and back together again a few more times.
"See, while you can do a good impression of an alligator, you just aren't a malicious person," Ritsuka acknowledged. "You are a good person, not a carnivore."
"Besides," he added. "Alligators are one of my least favorite animals and I like you."
Ritsuka realized what he just said and quickly added "As a person! You are a good person and a good friend."
Mash went quiet for a bit. Ritsuka wondered if he had offended or embarrassed her somehow.
"Thanks, Senpai," Mash looked up and smiled a big smile. "I am glad that you are my friend."
"Thanks," Ritsuka said, smiling. He felt relieved that he had only embarrassed her a little. "But you're no alligator. Your smile doesn't have nearly enough teeth and lacks malice or the desire to bite me."
"Well, I still think I am more akin to an alligator but what about you Senpai? What animal would you be most like?"
"What animal, hmm?" Ritsuka brought a fist beneath his chin as he pondered the question. "Well, I can't think of any but you did compare me to a cat, so I guess you could call me a cat. I can also pull off an impression too."
He brought one hand up like a paw even as Fou jumped down to the ledge between them. He gave off his best impression of a cat. "Meow?"
Mash cracked a smile. "Maybe you're not a cat, Senpai."
"Fou?" Fou sat down, looking up at the two cutely.
"What about Fou? What animal do you think he is like, Senpai?" Mash asked curiously.
"Hmm." Ritsuka eyed the cute fluffy squirrel. He had never seen a squirrel before but Fou seemed to be like one. But as he recalled the photos he had seen before, he wondered if Fou was more like a fluffy dog than his initial impression of a squirrel.
"Fou is Fou," Ritsuka decided. "But if he wanted to play charades like us, then he could do a good job of being either a dog or a squirrel."
"Fou!" Fou apparently liked the description as he started to prance around a little.
"Charades, huh," Mash mused as she digested the new information. "So what animal do you think the director would be?"
"The director huh?" Ritsuka looked at the director, still walking around and ranting/talking to herself over the current situation. "Hard to say. She seems to be a noble so maybe a noble but angry creature would fit her. Maybe a lion?"
Mash shook her head. "No, she almost fits but I don't think a lion would fit her. She is definitely a cat person though."
Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. She would hiss if you approach her but still demands your attention. She's proud but not quite willing to ignore people she dislikes like a cat would."
"What about-" Mash began before Olga noticed what they were doing and came over.
"And what are you two doing?" She asked icily, if angrily. Ritsuka suddenly wondered if a polar bear would fit her, despite her physique not corresponding one bit to that of a bear's. She did have the white hair though.
"Uh, we're just resting," Ritsuka started to excuse himself. This would probably be futile but he couldn't say nothing.
"Resting!" Ritsuka winced as Olga's voice raised to a screech. "We're in the middle of investigating a Singularity! You should be looking for clues or searching for something out of place! We don't have time to sit down and be lazy!"
Ritsuka guessed that he had given the wrong response. And now as the guy who had continuously offended her ever since the first few minutes of them meeting, he would probably bear the brunt of her wrath.
He fervently prayed that it would not be the case. But he would need a miracle from God, Buddha, and the kami to not have the director scream and rage at him.
"And you two-!" She started on her list of grievances on him and Mash.
Then the miracle arrived.
A blue screen popped out simultaneously from his and the director's communicators.
Roman, his eyes widened wide, exclaimed before the director could turn her attention to him. "You guys have to get out of there right now! We've detected a large, concentrated amount of magical energy rapidly closing in on you-!"
A humanoid shape, made out of what looked like shiny yet black shadow, clouded in a dark purplish smoke that incessantly rose from its body, dropped down in front of them, disrupting the hologram, but not Roman's voice.
It was ominous, especially as he couldn't see anything past the dark smoke that continuously leaked from its body like a smoking furnace. All he could make out from its landing while the smoke dispersed from around the figure until enough of it covered her form again was that it had a female body seemingly composed out of pure solidified black sludge, with long legs, wide hips, and a large chest. It didn't look pretty though. The air of malice was enough to freeze Ritsuka in his tracks as he felt like an animal who suddenly had a cannibalistic predator lock onto him.
Ritsuka supposed that maybe a devil would work too in providing miracles. It certainly required fewer divine beings. But with the tongue-curling taste of scales, vomited mud, and overly sweet honey while eyeing the ominous mist creeping out from the shadowy being that he had never seen the like of before, he wondered if he would have preferred to have director Animusphere raging at him.
Chaldea, Antarctica, 2017
Shirou stood in the Central Powerplant, where the bomb had exploded, taking out Chaldea's engineers and technicians and frowned.
This was a scene of the crime. Someone had planted a bomb in this room and primed it to go off when everyone would have been here.
There might still be some clues here as to their identity.
Shirou stood at the fuse box that he had been walking towards a few days ago, mentally recalling the situation. The explosion had happened behind him. He had been walking towards the fusebox when it had gone off. Therefore, the bomb was somewhere in the other half of the room.
But the room had been repaired by magecraft, probably by Caster. It was necessary as they needed to get the Central Powerplant up and running again but in repairing it, they had completely erased all traces of the bomb, such as the outward fall of debris from the explosion.
However, magecraft had its limits. In this case, the repairs had mostly been limited to removing the debris and smoothing back the holes in the concrete. It would have taken more time and effort to repair all the machines broken in the explosion. And they only had one Caster Servant and a lot of things to fix so only the raw grunt work of removing the debris had been done. The same debris which might have been a clue as to the identity of the saboteur.
Shirou's frown deepened. Had the removal of the debris been intentional? Was Caster the saboteur? He didn't think so. If Leonard had been trying to destroy Chaldea, she would have used magecraft to do so, not bombs.
Unless her Master had used a Command Seal to prevent her from doing so and Caster used a bomb as a loophole.
Or was Caster's Master the one that attacked and was using Caster to distract everyone from his own actions?
Shirou sighed. He was not a detective. He had wanted to be a lawyer before realizing that he could be a wandering hero during the Fifth Holy Grail War. But lawyers did not directly investigate crime scenes. Instead they argued in courts of law, defending justice.
But Shirou had an advantage over any detective. You see, he had some evidence in him that was not here anymore.
Shirou closed his eyes. It had taken him a less than a year after the Grail War to realize that he had a Reality Marble. Rin's questioning about his ability to copy Noble Phantasms had let him know that his impressive ability to recall information about weapons and Noble Phantasms was not natural.
A bit more study from that, not to mention a lot of help from Rin Tohsaka, and Shirou had realized that he had an armory of weapons inside his soul. And in there, he could use projection, tracing, and structural analysis without difficulty.
And a lot more things counted as weapons than you would think.
Such as a rain of metal shrapnel from a geothermal condenser that had sheared through his body. Or the piece of metal that had cut through Flowerchild's head. They counted because they had had sharp edges and they were used to harm. They had shed blood as much as any weapon would have, even if it had not been the purpose of their creation. But when they had been shattered free from the condenser, the intent behind it had been to harm. All of which made them just enough like swords that they had been added to Shirou's Reality Marble the second he saw them.
Shirou closed his eyes to better focus on the contents of Unlimited Blade Works. This would be a detailed analysis of those pieces.
He had done this before several times. Even he, an aspiring hero of justice had to make sure that he was going after the murderer and not a victim.
And murder weapons were surprisingly honest.
The shrapnel was young. Had only been their own separate entities for a very short period of time. And they had spent most of that time, sitting around in people's bodies.
Therefore, they had much stronger impressions of the initial burst of violence that had created them than the usual weapons that he analyzed.
Things like where they had landed.
Their trajectory as they had flown through the air.
Where in the geothermal condenser they had come from.
When they had exploded.
And from which direction that the exploding force that the bomb released had come from.
Like there!
Shirou's eyes snapped open as the shards of metal all agreed. Even the pieces that had collided mid-air with each other still indicated the same location of the bomb.
The bomb had not been in the condenser. It had been behind it.
Shirou strode over to the condenser, eager to uncover the next clue. As he slid over the railing separating the condenser from the rest of the room, Shirou was already setting his eyes on where he thinks the bomb had been.
It was nothing special, just another slab of concrete. But the concrete had hidden the bomb from anyone who could have noticed it.
It had been a surprising betrayal for a wall to commit.
Shirou laid his hands on it and muttered his favorite aria. "Trace on."
It wasn't a weapon. It was just part of the concrete. He had no elemental affinity for it.
But Structural Analysis was the mystery that he had had used the most throughout his life. It was the first mystery that he had learned, the first that he had gotten to reliably work, even before his magic circuits had opened.
Shirou mentally ruffled through the history of the concrete, ignoring the structure his mystery was trying to press in on his mind. He wanted to make out the impressions of the history. Who had last touched it, who had last modified it, and who had been the one to plant a bomb behind it?
Finding out all that was much harder than if it had been a sword.
But one of the first things he found was that there were three people who had last interacted with the concrete since it had solidified.
The bomb had been placed here half-a-year ago. As the bomb wasn't a part of the wall, Shirou couldn't read the history of the bomb, only that of the wall. And in particular, it was noting the absence of the wall, not the wall itself as the bomb wasn't part of the wall. And for the bomb, a bomb shaped hole had been opened in the concrete by a mystical mean? Yeah, it was by mystical means not by tools. Anyways, the hole had been formed half a year ago and something had been done to the concrete as well. The bomb itself had only been placed about a week prior to the explosion and the mystical process had faded after that point.
But who was it?
The most recent person of the three suspects had put the concrete back together, using magecraft to repair the hole in the concrete made by the bomb. It also had been less than a day ago. Probably not the bomber.
The second person hadn't done anything. Just put the bomb in and left. Everything done in less than five seconds. Too short for the concrete to pick up any impressions. But this had happened about a week ago. Definitely the bomber but no clues were left as to their identity. No magecraft nor anything unique about the person. But the impression of the hand as it moved through the concrete was somehow familiar.
Perhaps they had held one of the swords in his Reality Marble? But he couldn't think of any match between people in Chaldea and a wielder of any sword in his Reality Marble.
The third person however, was the most interesting one. That one had mystically interfered somehow with the concrete and set it up so that the second person could plant the bomb so quickly. This person had done the magical heavy lifting. But something was off about it…
Shirou frowned as he tried to make out more about the third person. And what was off about it?
It was hard to make out. The invocation of the magecraft had been over six months ago and most of the information about it was overwhelmed by the repairer's magecraft.
Wait, there was something about that. Something about the first magecraft and the second one.
Shirou tired to compare the impressions he was receiving of the two different magecrafts. The more recent one was cast by a non-human with strong human origins. If Shirou had to guess, it might have been something that was once human. Like a Heroic Spirit. Hmm, wonder who that could be with a Caster in the facility.
The second one wasn't cast by a human. Nor did it have human origins. In fact, nothing about it was human.
Shirou stilled as he realized something.
The second one wasn't magecraft. It was a more primal method of affecting the world. Something that wasn't related to magecraft at all but instead operated by different principles altogether. The end result looked the same, but the process wasn't.
And if Shirou had to guess at the process and what could have used it, he would venture that it was demonic.
Shirou frowned. He had never encountered a demon before. The Church was better than him at finding then destroying a demon than Shirou was. Well, they were much better at the finding part with their widespread information network, that was for certain.
But if Shirou remembered what Illya had taught him before she died, a demon was an entity alien to mankind yet formed by them. A being that tries to understand and remove a human's pain, yet they fundamentally fail simply due to the dissimilarity between the demon and humans.
So if Shirou was understanding this right, a demon six months ago had infiltrated Chaldea and set up spots to have bombs put in later.
Then sometime last week, some person had quickly and subtly put in bombs into those spots. No magecraft had been used in this stage, just use of the previously prepared magecraft. Except wouldn't it would be better to call it demoncraft instead?
Then the bomb had gone off. Shirou couldn't tell if it had been on a timer or received a signal of some sort. The wall had no recollection of that, just the memory of being damaged by the explosion. A shaped explosion, with all the force blasting into the generator room where the engineers had been.
After that, Leonard Da Vinci had come through and repaired the wall, taking care to take the bomb with her after she was done.
Well, from that timeline, one thing was obvious. This wasn't an opportunity of attack or something done on a whim. This was planned. Planned from some time ago, at least a week, probably over six months.
And that there was probably at least two people involved, the demon and someone else. Although he couldn't be sure about that. The demon might have been the second person as well. Normal things like common sense or logic might not apply to a being that was a creation of humanity yet had its own way of thinking or morality.
Shirou let his hand drop from the concrete. There wasn't anything more he could discover from analyzing it. The demon and the bomber both didn't leave enough impression on the concrete for him to discover their identity.
But now he knew at least what to look for.
Singularity F, Fuyuki, 2004
Mash lunged forward from her sitting position, shield raised to block the creepy figure made of black shadows.
It was just in time as a pair of whips, or at least they looked like whips since the clouds surrounding the whip prevented him from seeing what the whips looked like, followed the enemy Servant down from the sky and hit Mash's shield, staggering the girl. But the cloud covered whips were deflected away from both him and Olga Marie Animusphere, colliding with a pillar and shattering it with a loud clang.
Ritsuka leaped to his feet, but hesitated.
He wasn't going to be any good here. Mash and the enemy were moving even faster than the skeletons had been. And watching as the pair of whips snaked back through the air to hit against the bottom of Mash's shield, knocking the stand off of the ground, once again causing the embattled girl to stumble, Ritsuka knew that the strength and speed of the fighters in front of him far exceeded whatever he could bring.
What should he do? If he tried to help Mash, he would only get in the way.
"You idiot!" A screech from one of the pillars drew Ritsuka's attention. "Get over here and hide!"
Ritsuka glanced back to Mash almost immediately. He couldn't abandon her. Should he try to help her somehow?
"If you are behind her, she can't dodge! She'll have to protect you! Get over here before you get her killed!" Olga screamed at him. How was she able to see him when she was completely behind one of the pillars?
He would ask about that later, he decided as he ran over to hide behind a different pillar. She was right, he wouldn't be able to help Mash at all.
He was too weak to help his junior.
Mash might have paid some attention to her Master and the director's conversation but she was too busy trying to survive the enemy's cloud covered chains to pay much attention to anything else.
Mash was being battered all over by her more physically stronger and more agile foe.
If Mash blocked the chain in her opponent's right hand, the left chain struck her in the leg. If she blocked the left one then the right one struck her on the shoulders.
Fortunately, Mash was strong enough to keep a grip on her shield and durable enough that she could shrug off the blows.
But they hurt!
Mash cried out in pain as yet another chain snaked past her defense and left a blow on her side. But she had seen the blow coming and had set her stance to be ready. As such, despite the blow being strong enough to destroy a pillar, it just dug her into the ground.
She tore her foot out of the concrete to take another step forward. Her skills from the Heroic Spirit were excellent and the only reason that the enemy Heroic Spirit hadn't killed her yet. but she knew that if she stopped, she would die.
And worse, if Mash got so focused on the chains that she forgot to keep track of where the enemy that was clearly not a low ranking Servant, then she might block a chain only for her enemy to appear behind her and kick her with the force of a mortar shell, before backing away again to prevent Mash from hitting her.
It was sort of embarrassing that she had all the skills of a Heroic Spirit but none of the experience. She could wield its shield like an elite soldier but since she had no experience in using it, she didn't know how to identify her opponent's pattern and style. She could block the blows but she would always fall for feints, tricks and traps. Simply because she didn't know how to tell them from a normal attack
Mash didn't know who the Heroic Spirit that tied its life to hers was, but right now she was grateful that they were so durable.
Otherwise, she might have already died at the hands and feet of her first major opponent.
Mash took two steps forward as another whip came streaking back towards her. Her enemy was an opponent who could fight at a distance but she couldn't. She had to be in close in order to deal any damage.
Unfortunately, as she closed in, the opponent didn't have that problem.
The female enemy took two steps back, moving with an alien grace even as her right chain came in at a curve with the spike at the end ready to impale her in her side if she didn't interpose her shield in time.
Mash twirled to her right to block the chain sneaking its way towards her leg while hoping that her armor would block the chain from her left.
The dark weird Servant had already tried this, sending both weapons at the end of her chains against her simultaneously. Fortunately for Mash, the one she hadn't seen had bounced off of her armored skirt when she had blocked the other spike the first time.
Mash's desperate ploy on counting on her armor worked. She deflected the right chain into another pillar, causing it to shatter and spread a spray of rocks over the battlefield while the left chain bounced off the armor behind her shoulder blade.
Mash winced even as she staggered. That had been too close to her arm for comfort. If that had impaled her arm, she didn't want to know what her opponent's weapon would do to her. Probably something bad, like cripple her ability to use her shield. Which would quickly lead to her death.
And she didn't want to die just yet. She hadn't even seen a normal sky!
But now was an opportunity. Both of the chains were flying away from her and it would take time for her opponent to gain enough control to send them back on her.
Mash took three rapid steps forward while the enemy regained control of her chains. But the enemy was more agile and taller, meaning that as Mash advanced, her enemy only opened more distance between the two of them, this time to the side, forcing Mash to turn to the side.
And Mash's opponent was a Heroic Spirit while Mash was only an inexperienced person holding the power of one.
Mash's neck snapped back as a grey blur collided into her head from the front. A trickle of blood leaked from the cut on her forehead where the kicked rock had smashed into her head but no other damage. Not even the warning signs of a concussion.
Had Mash mentioned how glad she was that her class, Shielder, was so durable? If she had been a normal human, that rock would have left a hole all the way through her head.
But even as Mash recovered her stance from unexpected attack, her opponent had not been idle.
Mash ducked as she realized that the whistle of sound from her left meant that the spike and chain was aiming straight for her head. The chain flew over her and Mash took the chance to take another step forward.
The other chain came flying in at a low angle, aiming to strike her in the cnemis. Mash saw it coming, kicked it away with her armored boot, and took another step forward.
But the other chain suddenly snapped its way back. Mash suddenly realized that if her enemy could redirect the chain to strike back towards her, then it would not be a problem for it to miss and then come back towards her from the other side like it was doing now.
Mash dodged backwards only to see it pass in front of her. If she had dodged forwards, then it would have wrapped around the upper part of her shield. She would then have to play tug-of-war with the enemy Servant in order to keep her shield.
Mash didn't know if she could win. The enemy was faster, more experienced and was fighting at her optimal range while Mash couldn't even close the distance. And if Mash's hunch was correct, her enemy was physically stronger too.
The main reason that Mash hadn't lost yet was because the various pillars and roof here kept the enemy from manipulating the chains to come at her from every angle.
But the pillars were disappearing one by one, shattering into sprays of rock that flew all over the battlefield.
If this kept up, Mash would find herself surrounded by destroyed pillars and the roof would fall on her and possibly her Master and the director too.
That would be her loss. She would not be able to escape the collapsing roof while dodging the chains of her opponent.
But she couldn't give up. Ritsuka was counting on her!
Mash took a pair of steps forward while keeping an eye on her opponent and an eye out for the returning dark-misted chains. The pace of the battle was such that they should have been returning -there!
The spike that she had kicked away was coming back towards her, low again, trying to impale her in the leg. Mash was tempted to step on it in order to keep it from being used again but she remembered the time when she had stepped on a ball in her quarters and it rolled away and she lost her footing and fell.
She was pretty sure that she would fall if she stepped on one chain and had to block the other chain. Every one of the Servant's blows hit really hard. And the spike was probably round, not that she could see it through the black mist surrounding it.
Instead, Mash jumped upwards, easily clearing the chain like it was another instance of jump rope at Chaldea's gym.
But her shield did not.
The bottom edge of her shield collided with the chain and the chain wrapped itself around it a few times. Mash eyed it in alarm, but as she was still in the air, she didn't see what she could do to stop it.
Then after the spike slammed into the shield, the enemy Servant yanked its arm back. Hard.
Mash cried out as the shield nearly leaped towards her enemy. Her two hands clutched hard even as the force of the pull nearly pulled her arms out of their socket.
She landed with a stumble, barely keeping to her feet, even as the Servant's one arm kept pulling Mash towards her.
Mash caught herself and set her feet almost intuitively in a position she recalled from A-Team's tug-of-war training. Back then, it had been a training exercise for cooperation. Now, it was a matter of life and death.
Mash preferred the training exercise. The winners got ice-cream, even if she usually lost the game.
Mash pulled hard on her shield, providing her own force on it against the shadow's pull.
The shield stopped its head long flight to the enemy but still crept forward. The enemy's left arm kept pulling the chain towards her.
Mash grunted at the effort she had to put into pulling on her shield. Much to her dismay, Mash discovered that her hunch had been right. The enemy was stronger than her.
And as she thought about it, where was the chain in her opponent's right hand?
Mash's mouth opened as she abruptly realized what her enemy's plan was. The Servant would pull the shield from her, using one hand to control how Mash could use the shield. The other hand would send the chain against her, possibly at a fatal or crippling spot. If Mash dodged, the enemy would pull the shield out of her hands. If she didn't then she would be injured.
Check, possibly checkmate depending on the enemy's next move.
But Mash liked chess. And in chess, if you couldn't escape or kill the attacking piece, then you had another option.
To sacrifice one of your pieces. Preferably a pawn.
And to Mash's right and forward a little, was a pillar.
Mash leaped diagonally, towards the pillar, hoping that the move would unbalance the enemy enough and that she would be able to dodge the other chain which had vanished from her sight.
The enemy threw her left arm back, pulling the chain and shield towards her. Mash hoped that she would at least make the pillar. If she missed, if Mash missed the pillar-
She would lose. She was already moving midair, trying to make it so that she would land with both feet on the round pillar, allowing her to use her stronger leg muscles to help win the tug-of-war. If Mash missed the pillar, she would lose her footing and the enemy would have her shield.
Mash both succeeded and failed. Her left leg, slightly bent to absorb the shock of impact, hit the pillar and stopped, leaving an indent on the white stone.
The right leg hit the pillar and skidded off.
Mash fell. She fell down and spun around the pillar, completely off-balance from her bad landing.
Then the battle changed. A minor opening. Only luck could have caused this to happen as despite Mash's best efforts, everything had been going according to the enemy's plan.
It wasn't much. But chains are a sensitive weapon. A slight motion is enough to change the course of the weapon.
Such as the sudden yank of trying to pull a shield, a demi-Servant and a marble pillar towards her causing the enemy to stumble.
The enemy to catch herself had no choice but to step on a flat piece of rock debris.
But the rock was not stable. As she stepped on it, the rock shifted underfoot.
Causing the dark Servant's foot, and thereby her entire body and arms, to unexpectedly shift a few centimeters.
The missing chain veered off from impacting Mash mid-air and smashed into another pillar as the enemy lost her balance and most of the force pulling on the shield.
Meanwhile, Mash hit the ground and rolled. She angled the shield's bottom towards the right.
Luckily for Mash, that was the right decision. As Mash rolled, head over heels in an impromptu summersault, the chain loosened as the shield spun with the chain, causing the chain wrapped around it to release.
At the end of her roll, Mash used her Servant inherited skills and strength to leap to her feet and charge at the enemy who had now regained her footing, even if she had lost the hold on her opponents shield.
This was it. This was the opportunity that Shielder had been waiting for, that she had been enduring being pounded all over the entryway for. Mash jumped, using all of her strength to advance
The enemy woman flicked her right chain at Mash, using the chain behind her to attack.
Mash gasped as the middle of the chain smacked into her armored back, propelling her slightly forward. But even as it did so, Mash knew that the chain was about to swing around and wrap around her front, binding both of her arms in a position even more disadvantageous than when she had her left chain wrapped around her shield.
If it succeeded, Mash, Ritsuka and Olga would die under this shadow's attacks.
Mash would not fail her Master!
Even if she didn't know how her opponent would use the chain to wrap around her or which direction it would come from. She had to take a chance!
"Yaaaaaa!" She let out a warcry even as she rapidly rotated her shield's stand up to her left.
Her gamble paid off. The chain was looping around from that side. The stand at the bottom hit the spike at the end of the chain and knocked it up, up and above Mash's head.
The enemy Servant jumped back, counting on her superior agility to evade the charging shield.
But the shadow's higher strength and the impact of the chains on Mash's back meant that Mash was coming in fast. Faster than Mash could move on her own.
Mash felt the impact as she slammed into the woman Servant. The force of the impact rattled up her arms.
But the enemy flew backwards instead of towards the ground. Mash's charge had not been sufficient to knock her down to the ground, where her superior agility would not be of use.
Fortunately for Mash, the retreat of the enemy meant that they had moved away from the entryway and towards the street. And the street was not a primitive street, but full of the public amenities of the modern era.
Which meant that when Mash smacked her enemy back, the enemy's back hit a streetlight.
The enemy stopped, her momentum denting and knocking over the pole. But the pole, even as it collapsed behind her back, still stopped the enemy cold as she dropped to the ground.
The enemy apparently didn't have a high endurance as Mash did. If her endurance had been higher, she would have ignored that blow. But she was still a Servant, even if she was a mockery of one. A quick shake of the head after a moment and the enemy gathered herself and pushed herself to her feet.
Just, she should have paid more attention to the enemy.
As the enemy Shadow of a Servant rose to her feet, she should have looked to the sky and not to her concussion. If she had, she might have seen Mash having jumped into the sky and was now coming, shield raised above Mash's head with both hands.
She did notice eventually. But that eventually was microseconds too late to dodge.
Even as the shadow leaped to the side in an attempt to dodge the falling Mash, Mash brought her shield down, using both gravity, the strength of her arms and her own fall to make the impact as strong as possible.
The enemy was fast. There was no denying that. But with a momentary stun and disorientation, the enemy only managed to get her head out of the way of the heavy shield.
The shield slammed into the two legs of the opponent. It smashed right through her pitifully low endurance and crushed both legs.
The enemy woman cried out, a monstrous sound of pain. It was the first sound she had made in the entire fight.
Mash panted, exhausted. It had been a hard fight, with her taking many blows from those tricky chains and more than a few glancing slices across her limbs. But now, her opponent was crippled, unable to use her legs to run.
"What are you doing Mash!" Olga cried from near the entrance to the building. "Finish it off before it gets back up!"
Mash instinctively obeyed. Her shield came up and came back down on the head of the monstrous foe.
It did not resist. Even as the shield fell, the woman did not fight back.
The shadow woman wavered for a second and then the shadows broke into pieces falling away from the woman and into nothingness.
Mash had won.
To be honest, this was a tough fight for me to write. Mash has no experience in fighting another Servant, she is still getting used to being a Demi-Servant and just having a Servant's knowledge/skill in fighting isn't going to give her the experience in fighting that the original Servant did have. To be fair, Medusa isn't exactly sane or at full power at the present moment and neither does she have access to her full breadth of skills and Noble Phantasms, but for a person who fought off many heroes who came to slay her in in her legend, the difference in combat experience clearly does not favor Mash.
Also, Medusa's strength and agility stats are higher than Mash's. Mash has higher endurance but Mash's luck is two ranks higher than Medusa's. Hmmm. Always wanted to know what that luck stat meant in combat. It seemed to have more of an influence on your compatibility with your Master than anything else.
As always, thanks to Eiskralle1 and shadyxlr for betaing this chapter.