"Mash?" The strained voice of humanity's last master called out.
"I'm afraid not, Master." replied a teasing voice.
The red-haired master didn't need to open her eyes to know who it was. Despite said servant sharing the same voice with two others, there was only one whose tone of voice was as cheeky and whose character was as shameless as the one currently atop her.
Ishtar, one of the Mesopotamian goddesses contracted with Chaldea, and a servant who seemed to have a habit of using Ritsuka as a landing pad.
As Ritsuka opened her eyes she was greeted by the sight of two scarlet-colored eyes smugly staring into her own. She could see that Ishtar was sitting atop her, wearing her usual decorative armor whose appearance was far more reminiscent of a bikini than the kind of armor that would befit a war goddess.
The goddess gave her master a wink before standing up and offering her hands towards her master.
"What happened?" Asked Ritsuka as Ishtar pulled her up.
"You tell me, Master. I was in my room when all of the sudden I found you under me. Not that I'm complaining."
Ritsuka ignored Ishtar's teasing as she took a closer look at the place they had suddenly found themselves in. It was night, possibly early morning if the lack of both people and light from buildings was anything to go by, but the moon and the odd lamppost here and there still provided enough visibility for Ritsuka to make out her surroundings. Surroundings that seemed to belong to a perfectly ordinary Japanese city.
Yes. The buildings were standing, not laying as a pile of rubble. The cold air chilled her, and when her breath escaped her mouth, she could see a cloud of condensation following along it. It was clear she would need to keep herself warm, instead of relying on the heat radiating from the immolation of civilization to do the job for her. The sky above was dark and clear, not red and devoid of any sign of the celestial bodies that usually inhabited it.
When she looked around, what she saw was not a picture of hell on earth, but that of a tranquil night in an ordinary japanese city. What she saw was definitely not the burning inferno that had been Singularity F.
Singularity F. Her first singularity. And where her journey as humanity's last master began. She couldn't say the place brought back good memories, far from it. But when she learned that they would be rayshifting there again she had definitely felt an odd sense of nostalgia.
"Foreigner!"
The loud exclamation from a familiar voice brought Ritsuka out of her thoughts, and turning to its source, she found the sight of a blond haired, blue cap wearing servant pointing an accusing finger at a clearly annoyed violet haired servant.
The accused servant, BB, swatted away the finger in front of her as she asked in an irritated voice
"Could you get off of me?"
The accusing servant, Mysterious Heroine X, didn't seem the least offended from BB's actions as she returned a nod and said,
"Very well. I don't feel any foreigner vibes coming from you right now so I'll let you go for now."
As she stood up, MHX noticed the two pairs of eyes focused on her and BB, and her expression morphed to one of joy as she immediately recognized the owners of those stares.
"Master! Ishtarin!" MHX called out with an enthusiastic wave.
"X!" Waved back Ritsuka, trying to return some of her servant's enthusiasm.
"Ish-tar. Just Ishtar. Don't confuse me with that kid." Corrected the twin-tailed goddess.
MHX quickly made her way over the two while BB followed behind casually after dusting herself off.
"A shame it's not just the two of us, but I'm glad to be summoned alongside you instead of having to drag you with me for once, Senpai~"
"...haha, glad you're here too, BB."
"So, where are we?" Asked MHX as she looked around the silent city.
"I…don't know." responded Ritsuka. "I was supposed to rayshift to Singularity F with Mash, Emiya, and Cú Chulainn. But as you can see…"
"I'd say you got an upgrade in personnel, Master." Ishtar said with a playful expression on her face. "At least, I'm a much better Archer than that cook."
"And I'm a much better kouhai, wouldn't you say, senpai." Added BB with a wink.
With the two saying their piece, Ritsuka's eyes turned to MHX, who suddenly finding herself the odd woman out, decided to also play up her value to her master.
"Uhh…sabers are stronger than lancers…and since I'm the strongest saber there is, I'm definitely much better than that blue guy, Master." MHX added with a sagely nod.
"Well, I'm glad you all are so confident...but that doesn't really answer what happened to the other three or where we are."
"I think we can answer the latter quite easily, senpai," said BB.
"Really?" replied Ritsuka.
"Yes. Why don't we just ask the local?" Said BB, pointing her finger at someone behind Ritsuka and Ishtar.
When the rest of the group followed the path of BB's finger with their gazes, they came face to face with a familiar face.
"T-Tohsaka?" The red headed, golden eyed man replied with an utterly stupefied expression, a blush forming on his cheeks, "What are you…"
"Emiyan."
Shirou Emiya stopped wiping the empty table and looked up to face the only other person left at the bar, a brunette wearing a loose black dress shirt along with equally black pants and apron. She was Otoko Hotaruzuka, better known as 'Neko', the daughter of his boss.
"Do you need any help?" Shirou asked.
"No, what I need you to do is go home, Emiyan."
"Hmm?"
"Just because my dad doesn't know how to manage his employees doesn't mean you need to stay here so late, Emiyan. Kids should be in school, not working until past midnight in a bar. Go home."
"But—"
"No buts. I'll handle the rest. You get your but home."
It wasn't a rare occasion for an employee of Copenhagen to skip out on a shift thanks to Mr. Hotaruzuka's lax policies, but no matter what you could always count on the owner and his daughter to be there meaning their posts. So when Mr. Hotaruzuka fell ill on a day where none of the other employees showed up, it led Neko to handle the entire place by herself on a Saturday. When Mr. Hotaruzuka called Shirou asking him for help, Shirou was quick to agree to show up for work.
"You do know I don't have school tomorrow?"
"Emiyan if you don't go home, I'll have you fired."
Shirou didn't believe Neko's bluff, but still yielded to her demands. He finished his current task before putting away the cleaning tools he had been using.
"Take care of yourself, Emiyan" Neko said as Shirou made his way to the door,
His coat now on, Shirou returned a farewell and headed out. It was now the first week of November, the remnants of summer's warmth all but gone by now, signaling winter's imminent arrival.
Putting his hands in his pockets, he walked through the silent streets of Fuyuki City. He wasn't a stranger to going home late, but it was rare even for him to be heading home at such hours.
Still, the tranquil silence of the hour along with the monotonous marching of his feet allowed his mind to blank for a moment, something he was grateful for.
And so he made his way home in a pleasant trance, trusting in his feet to carry him home as he shut off his senses to the world around him.
Perhaps, that's why at first he failed to notice the strange group that had appeared after he turned the corner. But late or not, the strange sense of familiarity that he could spot coming from that peculiar group jolted his consciousness back to awareness. Although even if he could find nothing familiar about them, the outfits that they wore would have by themselves attracted his attention, and not just because the clothes were too light for the season.
Out of the four-woman group, only two weren't egregiously dressed for November's chilly nights, and even still their outfits left a lot to be desired as far as keeping the cold away went. Facing away from him at the leftmost point of the group was a woman with red hair a shade lighter than his own. She was wearing a black coat, one that would have been appropriate for this cold weather if it wasn't for the very short gray skirt that offset any protection the coat would have afforded her. Following in the same vein was a blond-haired woman standing across said red-head. She was sporting a black cap and a blue colored light jacket along with an equally blue scar, but the criminally short black jean shorts did nothing to protect her legs from the heat zapping environment.
It was the other two however that had completely captivated his attention, and whose sight had his mind racing with thoughts that led to impossible scenarios. Yes, it was not their attire per se that had captivated Shirou Emiya's attention–although their scandalous nature would have forced anyone to pay them some attention–but instead the familiarity he could see in their features that threatened to overturn his daily life as he knew it.
IPerhaps he was hallucinating? His eyes playing tricks on him after a late shift at his job?
He pinched the back of his left hand with his right.
Pain. And the sight before him remained unchanged.
Should he stop? Turn around and forget about this night, shelving those intrusive thoughts to the same place that his past had gone? Considering who he believed to be upfront, there was a good chance that it would be for the best of his own safety and wellbeing that he remained ignorant to whatever was going on.
But despite such thoughts his feet kept dragging him forward; both curiosity and momentum playing an equal role in his march forward. And as the distance closed to only a few meters of separation, the familiarity of the two girls to two of his acquaintances could no longer be argued.
On the right side of the group and facing away from him was a familiar silhouette wearing what could only be called glorified underwear. She wore a black sleeve on her left hand and a black tight high on her right leg, both outlined by golden metallic lace. Aside from those, the rest of her outfit was a white bra and a black thong, both containing gold ornaments as well. It was showy, daring, revealing, a sight that was unthinkable to believe he would ever see paired along with those iconic twin-tails and black ribbons.
And facing that familiar silhouette was yet another, even more familiar one. She wore a large black coat with comically wide sleeves that was left open in the middle, allowing her white shirt to be seen and accentuating the woman's breast along with the red ribbon above them. Following in the trend of the other two who were at least wearing something, she also wore a short skirt that threatened to reveal the contents underneath them. Although unlike the previous two, her legs were at least covered with black stockings that went up to her thighs, making her the only one of the bunch whose legs had some form of protection from the elements. Although her outfit as a whole could not be said to be particularly fit for the weather.
But far more eye-catching than all of that, was a very familiar red ribbon hanging from the left side of the girl's violet hair. Another iconic pairing that he would be hard pressured to ever mistake.
Shirou Emiya's footsteps slowed as his mind tried and failed to make up a possible explanation for what his eyes were seeing.
Maybe the two styles were a lot more popular than he had previously thought? It's not like he paid much of any attention to trends and what was popular. Or maybe he wasn't as good at differentiating faces as he previously thought? It was the dead of night after all, his mind might just be trying to fit in familiar faces with what he was seeing before him.
He wasn't sure when he had gotten so close, but he was now close enough that that oh so familiar, yet strange face, noticed him. And when her violet eyes locked on with his own, he finally came to a stop.
He saw her smile, a smile that did not fit the memory he held of the girl that shared a similar face. And after raising her hand and pointing in his direction, the rest of the group followed the trail to gaze upon him as well. And at that moment, any hope that he had been mistaken about the identity of the two had left him.
After all, from this close, from this distance, there was no way he could mistake those two's features with anyone else's.
It was undoubtedly the face of his dear underclassman. The person who for all intents and purposes had become a part of his household.
And on the other hand. It was clearly the face of a girl he seldom talked to, but secretly admired from a distance. The face of their school's one and only idol. And as the other girl looked at him with an expression that was very familiar, his mind completely blanched as he blurted out the main thought occupying his head.
"T-Tohsaka? What are you…"