So, this was a bit late, sorry about that. I had a surprisingly large amount of writer's block on this, as I can't really write dialogue between characters that well. I've been told by a friend who I had read this over that my pacing with speech is kind of bad, so I'm trying to remedy that. But still, writer's block struck me for a bit on this, and I only really got work on it down of the evening of the 28th, so I kind of rushed through it.
There is a lot of exposition from both sides in this chapter. It establishes some things about the current world – Singularity F – as well as stuff about Helmuth's home world, and Chaldea, what with their magic voodoo bull crap. And by exposition, I mean a lot of written and spoken word from all parties. We get to meet the survivors closer, as well as see some friction between the Chaldeans and Yytuskians on opposing moral values throughout, and see that something is watch the group closely – whether that is good or bad is to be seen, however.
I should mention that, come November, I will be partaking in NaNoWriMo, to get started on my first novel. So, there won't be any updates for MiST in that timeframe. Sorry.
This chapter was a bit shorter than usual, about 3,368 in total. Please remember to read, review, and follow! I want someone to ask questions…
=+=+=+=+=Page Break=+=+=+=+=
"What did you expect?" – Talking
'A war like no other?' – Thought
"Der Teufel selbst?" – Very bad Google Translate, or emphasis on speech
'Or just a bad dream?' – Written word
~ Maybe it was nothing at all. ~ – Radio Chatter
=+=+=+=+=Page Break=+=+=+=+=
Helmuth scratched his head as he sat beside Hertzog. The two had – for the past half hour or so – been trying to get Hertzog's communications system to operate without interference on the roof of the department store that they had cleared out two hours before. So far, the two had absolutely no luck, as static kept interfering with any chance of contacting the Hive, and while they weren't exactly worried per say, there were several new developments on this mission that they needed to relay to the command chain.
Survivors.
Specifically, twenty-one survivors in total had been on the second floor when Fujimaru and Kyrelight had brought them upstairs. There were four families – the Hirokazus, Genjos, Nissho, and Akihito respectively – with children, high schoolers, that had been huddled together when Helmuth and Elma had first seen them. The rest were first responders, surprisingly, having been called to an issue just down the street when they said the fire rolled across the town.
Another piece to a very strange puzzle that was. According to the Akihito family, who had been on the street outside moments before the catastrophe had occurred, a strange feeling had grown in the air, like electricity, and the smell of ozone had grown considerably until the fires flashed down from the mountainside to the west. The five first responders added onto that, as the fire rolled down the street, they explained it acted both as a pyroclastic flow of a volcanic eruption – which they first thought it was – and napalm. The people it barely touched, singed, or slightly burnt, it clung to. It clung to them and grew along their flesh until it consumed them. A terrifying thought for sure.
As to how the twenty-one survivors had managed to live where everyone else had not, Officer Mitsunari – the officer who had originally met them with his weapon drawn – explained that they had retreated to the basement of the store, where they had locked themselves in the steel vault of the bank next door. The vault door had held, and when all was said an done they retreated here. There Officer Mitsunari had run into Fujimaru and Kyrelight outside, battling ghouls, and had helped them ward off the undead.
And now, with the arrival Helmuth, Hertzog, and Animusphere, the group's number had rose from twenty-one to twenty-six. And that was the problem Hertzog and Helmuth were trying to fix.
Having spoken about the issue, both Helmuth and Elma agreed that trying to move the group of survivors across the city was a very dangerous option they had no choice but to take. Until they could get in contact with the Hive and use the relay system to teleport the survivors to safety, they'd have to hoof it on foot – dangerous, with whatever corpse still walked the street. And if they bunched up, whoever had rain that explosive fire upon them when they had first arrived would deal serious damage to the group. A no-win situation.
Still, as they worked on the communication pack, there was still a little bit of hope.
Off to their side, Animusphere, Kyrelight, and Fujimaru had managed to get in contact with their own base of operations. Sadly however, the base had apparently experienced some sort of terrorist attack, and were down 90% of their staffing capabilities from what the two Yytuskians heard. As it were, Animusphere was currently chewing out the interim Director, one Doctor Romani Archiman. It seemed that Fujimaru wasn't supposed to be here in this mess, rather, he was the forty-eight candidate to be chosen to venture here. The others were, indisposed from what Helmuth managed to gleam. Indisposed as in there was a good chance they were either outright dead, or cryogenically frozen by Doctor Archiman's orders to keep the remainder alive. Not a very bright outlook honestly.
Still, to lose 90% of the entire workforce at Chaldea was mindboggling. The attack would've either had to target a location in Chaldea where a large majority of the personnel were to be with one bomb, or there had to be several dozen strategically placed ones and most people were just caught in the blasts by accident.
From Doctor Archiman's report, the place was running on backup generator power until they could get the main reactor up, and they had about a hundred people left – cooks, engineers, researchers, and janitors – to get the place repaired. Although, if Helmuth and Hertzog were able to get to Chaldea with their allies, there was a good possibility that reinforcements could be called in from GKI to assist in repair and other such things. Now though, they just had to worry about surviving.
That and getting this damned communications device working without any outside interference.
"Director, we'll lose the connection in twenty seconds," Kyrelight announced suddenly, causing Helmuth to lift his head up in their direction.
~ Alright then, listen, ~ Archiman explained, his form flickering in static from Fujimaru's communicator. ~ There's a leyline intersection to the northeast from your location. Head there as fast as you can and set up so we can connect you again! Best of luck Director, Mash, Ritsuka! ~
A quick second later, Archiman's form completely flickered out, and Animusphere cursed.
"So much for that, Director," Fujimaru quipped.
Animusphere whirled her head to him, glaring him into silence.
When he was sufficiently cowed, she turned to Helmuth and Hertzog.
"I assume you understood all of that?" She said, crossing her arms with a huff.
Hertzog grunted, closing up her communication pack. She took a moment, slinging the heavy device onto her back once more, before picking up her G4 rifle.
"Ja, for the most part," she began, turning her nose up at the Director, "Didn't understand anything about those leylines, but whatever. We're to follow you, yeah?"
"Hold on a second," Helmuth interrupted, "What about the survivors downstairs? They're coming with us, right?"
The shake of Animusphere's head told him all he needed to know.
"Chaldea's orders are to find the cause of this singularity and fix it," she explained, "A few civilians would just get in the way."
"A few? Listen lady, I don't know what to tell you since you can't count, but twenty-one people are 'a few'!"
Hertzog placed a hand on Helmuth's shoulder as he stood, "Helmuth – "
Helmuth cut her off, shaking her hand off his shoulder before continuing. "Twenty-one survivors. That's twenty-one souls you're willing to leave here to die, either by starvation or by one of those things prowling the streets! Do you have the guts to handle that, Director? If you do, then by all means use that pistol I gave you and do it yourself, it'll be a hell of a lot quicker for them!"
"How dare you!?" Animusphere yelled, "How dare you insinuate something like that! Don't you know what I have to do here? We have to end this singularity or it could cause untold damage! I have to worry about my employees here and back at Chaldea! I don't have the time to worry about a group of survivors! I have to worry about Chaldea, and what would happen if we fail here!"
Helmuth's lip upturned slightly. Whether it was the alcohol he had consumed a few hours before, or just something else like his morals, he wasn't going to let this go.
"Quite frankly Director, I don't care if you are trying to save the entire human race! That takes time, which we do not have. What we do have, is a group of people that need help now, instead of later. If you truly worried about your employees, and whatever this singularity is, then you can worry about the families downstairs."
His response caused her to falter, sputtering in anger and red in the face, before Fujimaru surprisingly cut into the argument.
"I'll have to agree with von Trotha-san, Director," the young man explained, "I know it may seem idealistic, but we have to try and save as many people as we can. That's what Chaldea stands for, right? The preservation of humanity?"
"Und the preservation of humanity means all of humanity, wouldn't it, Director?" Hertzog added questioningly.
Animusphere seemed to wilt under the logic from her subordinate and Hertzog.
"Fine, fine!" She announced, throwing her hands up in the air, "The civilians can come with us. But make no mistake von Trotha, they are your problem, you hear me? They're your responsibility to protect."
Smiling at having won, Helmuth merely nodded. "I wouldn't have it any other way Frau Animusphere. By all means."
Hertzog huffed, glancing upwards. "Gutt, now that that's out of the way… We're wasting daylight, what little we have with these clouds. Let's get a move on."
"I couldn't agree more," Fujimaru plainly stated. |Let's go then."
=+=+=+=+=Page Break=+=+=+=+=
It took the collective group ten minutes to gather everyone up and make their way to the first floor. The plan was easy enough, Kyrelight would take point alongside Hertzog, with Helmuth and Fujimaru behind them. They were then followed by Animusphere flanked by two police officers, and then the four families behind them in the middle of more police officers, firefighters wielding axes, and the paramedics bringing up the rear. With the officers equipped merely with pistols, and the paramedics and firemen with axes and bats, they group wasn't exactly equipped with large caliber firepower, but the shambling corpses outside could be easily dealt with via bludgeoning.
Therefore, when the group of twenty-six stealthily made their way out onto the street, they were met with silence. The hordes that had previously roamed the streets in decent numbers had vanished. Either they had shambled off elsewhere, or were now in hiding, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. With a ten-kilometer route to take, some of the unarmed members of the group were worried, but Officer Mistunari – who had surprisingly taken up the leader position of the civilians – calmed them. Now, they just had to get to the leyline area that was their destination.
Nervously, the group moved forward.
Not a sound echoed from the group – other than the sounds of their footsteps over broken asphalt and glass on the street. They made their way out onto a six-lane street, before turning to the right.
It was another five minutes before Hertzog finally struck up a conversation with the young woman carrying the massive shield next to her.
"So, Frau Kyrelight," Elma began, scanning the rooftops with her rifle, "How's a girl like you able to carry something like that? Your shield, I mean. Must be heavy as shit."
"Ano," Kyrelight began with a blush, "Sorry Hertzog-san, but you can call me Mash. Kyrelight's too formal."
"Sorry, you can call me Elma then, Mash."
"Thank you, Elma-san," Mash replied, smiling slightly. "In response to your question, the answer is that I'm a demi-servant."
"A demi-servant? A sort-of-servant?"
"Yes. I'm half-human, half-servant."
Elma laughed, "You're going to have to explain the servant part to me Mash," she stated. "I'm not from this dimension, so I have no clue what that could mean."
"Sorry Elma-san. A servant is a mythical hero, summoned from the Throne of Heroes during a Holy Grail War," Mash explained, "Usually they're summoned as their legend, like King Arthur, or Robin Hood, with the full extent of their abilities to use. However, they're usually summoned from the Throne in an astral form, not with their flesh and blood bodies. In a Grail War, they're summoned by Masters, who supply prana and mana to keep their form tethered to the plant, as Gaia tries to slowly erase them from existence. In the Grail War, they fight each other until one is left standing, and they use the grail to get a wish alongside their master. But sometimes they can possess people under the right circumstances, bestowing their power and merging their soul with that person. And that's what happened to me, a servant bestowed they're powers on me when I was dying in Chaldea."
"You gave me a lot more questions then answers Mash," Elma answered after a brief pause, before patting the young woman's shoulder. "But I think we'll be able to get the full picture once we're out of this mess. But I think I understand what you meant. You're basically a super-powered human at the moment, powered by magic?"
Mash nodded.
"Well, ok then. Not the strangest thing I've seen honestly," Elma said. "Remind me when we get to Chaldea to tell you about my first mission. That'll blow your mind."
"I'll be certain to do that, Elma-san." Mash responded with a smile, before the two returned their attention back to scanning the rooftops and the streets in front of them.
Slowly, as they made their way up into the hills, small discussions grew between the group from the families, the now-acting guards, the Chaldeans, and the Yytuskians, about anything that could be talked about. Animusphere and Fujimaru struck up a conversation with Hertzog about GKI, asking about the organization and how it worked, while Helmuth slipped back to tread alongside Officer Mitsunari.
The two didn't chat about work, or anything in the such, rather, their attention was brought together by their respective firearms.
As Mitsunari explained, the nation of Japan – the country Helmuth and Hertzog were in – had very strict gun laws. So strict in fact, that most ordinary citizens didn't own a firearm. Rather, most of the weapons were either owned by the police forces or the yakuza, the mafia. It made sense, after all. The police were the police, and the yakuza would obviously get their weapons through illicit means. Still, Mitsunari explained that the weapons the police force had were mostly semi-automatic pistols and shotguns, and while he hadn't seen any yakuza arrested in Fuyuki before – they had been tightly controlled by the city's yakuza head, a Fujimaru ironically – he knew that yakuza busted in neighboring cities usually had handguns, sawn-off shotguns, and very rarely machine pistols.
When Helmuth asked about the Japanese military, he gathered a bit of shock from Mitsunari's answer.
"What the hell do you mean? You guys don't have an army? An airforce?"
"No," Mitsunari stated plainly, "We have a Self-Defense Force."
"A Self-Defense Force?"
"Mhm."
"And how the hell did that come about then?" Helmuth asked, flabbergasted. For a country to not have a military was mindboggling. Militaries were a big deal back home. Hell, Yytuskia had a year of compulsory military service at eighteen!
"Well," Mitsunari began, scratching his neck, "It happened a while back. You see, Japan originally had a military. In fact, we were an empire at that. But then, we got involved in the Second World War, and lost to the United States."
"Damn, a Second World War?" Helmuth whistled, "Back home we only had one, the Great War. But that only lasted about thirteen years. How'd you guys get beat?"
"Well, our war lasted about nine years, and we lost to the only use of atomic weapons on the planet," Mitsunari explained with a grimace. "I've been to Hiroshima, and I can easily say that I'm happy that the US only dropped two of those damn things on us. Hell, when this all started, I thought the North Koreans dropped a nuke on us. Fuyuki looks a lot like it took one."
"Ach, I know that. I've seen a blast sight as close as I could get," Helmuth admitted, shaking his head, "A city back home had its nuclear powerplant go critical and blow up, Mannerheim. Damn place had like, forty-thousand people living there when it did."
"Nuclear energy is a powerful thing. But, as I was saying, after Japan lost to the United States, the new government that was put in charge was a democratic one where our Emperor, Hirohito, sat as a mere ceremonial figure at the top. The new government was then strong-armed by the Americans into accepting Article Nine into the constitution, and this is where our lack of military stems from. In the article, it basically states that Japan could never have a standing army, however tensions between the US and the communist Soviet Union allowed revisions where Japan could have a standing 'Self-Defense Force' that could be used to only defend the country."
"That's both smart, and a load of horseshit," Helmuth bluntly stated. "The use of an SDF like that is the smart part, but I bet Japan's the only one in the world to have to hold that article. Damn, you have my condolences. If that was tried back home, on anyone, they'd be up in arms faster than you could say 'War's on again'! Especially if it was tried during the Great War, so many people would've – "
"Contact!"
Helmuth and Mitsunari's heads snapped up, their attention immediately turning towards the front of the marching column. There, Hertzog had her rifle raised at a cloaked figure at the next intersection over, while Kyrelight held her shield in a defense position next to her.
"Diamond formation!" Helmuth called out, raising the Eberkönig while Mitsunari raised his service pistol. "Schnell! Protect the civilians!"
Mitsunari quickly gathered the civilians and first responders, while Helmuth moved forward to stand next to both Herztog and Kyrelight, Animusphere and Fujimaru behind the three of them.
"Ein untoter?" Helmuth inquired, to which Hertzog merely shook her head.
"Nein, Mash here says it's like her, a servant."
"A what? Nevermind," Helmuth stated, squinting his eyes at the figure off in the smoky fog. "You think it's hostile?"
"Good chance there is."
"Alright, let's find another way around it. A back alley maybe? How close are we to our destination?"
"Click and a half."
"Uh, couldn't we just try and ask?" Fujimaru asked quietly.
Helmuth turned his head, looking at Fujimaru. "Would you have us all dead? There's a decent chance that whoever, or whatever, that is will be hostile. It'd be much easier for us to navigate around it instead of getting into a conflict and endangering the civilians."
Gunshots behind them rang out before Fujimaru could answer however, and the quintet were greeted to a small horde of corpses behind them, getting gunned and bludgeoned down by the first responders.
In a brutal efficiency, the fifteen-or-so men and woman shattered the wave of undead, police officers scoring headshots with their service pistols, while firefighters cleaved the shambling bodies with axes, and knives. Hell, even one of the paramedics got in on the fight with a broken broomstick, impaling an undead with it.
"Well, damn. You don't see that often. That's some damn good efficiency and teamwork right there."
Helmuth froze. Behind them!
Before he could even begin to move, Kyrelight had already shifted her entire body and that damned shield of hers around, slamming it into the ground right behind Helmuth. Cursing loudly, he brought the Eberkönig around, bringing its barrels to bear at the figure who had merely jumped a few feet back.
The figure, now no longer obscured by the smoky air, was a tall man in a blue robe. Red eyes peered out from beneath a hood with white fur trim, and various runestone hung off parts of his clothing. A sharp-toothed grin smirked at them, while he dusted off some imaginary – or real – dirt off his shoulder.
"Although you know, if I was an enemy, you'd already be dead." He stated, now resting a wooden staff on his shoulder. "But damn if you all aren't the oddest group I've seen before."
"Then who the hell are you?" Animusphere inquired, keeping herself behind the protectiveness of Kyrelight's shield.
"Kinda rude to ask for a name without giving one yourself," the man said bluntly. "Still, who am I to talk about manners anyways?"
He bowed at the waist with a flourish, before righting himself and pulling back his hood.
Still grinning, he introduced himself. "Servant Caster, pleased to make all of your acquaintances."
=+=+=+=+=Page Break=+=+=+=+=
A decent distance away, on the rooftops, a figure watched the meeting below. This would make the Grail War just that tad bit interesting, now wouldn't it?
=+=+=+=+Page Break=+=+=+=+=
Well shit, Cu Chulainn already? What's going on?
Well, it's a fanfic for one. I get creative liberties in terms of plot movement. Second, just because they ran into the Blue Hound doesn't mean that they won't get into trouble sooner than later. Luck is steadily running out, slowly.
Anyways, just to inform you in case you skipped the AN at the top, I'll be having this on hiatus during November for NaNoWriMo, as I'll be starting work on my novel. I'll possible have a small chapter out during the month in case I run into writer's block, but other than that don't expect much next month.
Have a good time all! Try not to get too sick on sweets this All Hallows Eve, 2018! Ciao!