(A week after 'Industrial Revolution')
(Training Grounds)
"I hope that, just because I lived in an era of matchlock-type arquebuses, you aren't thinking I'll be overawed because your gun fires a big bullet," Nobunaga grumbled to no one in particular while examining one of the referenced rounds. "That said, even I can tell that the issue you're having is these bullets won't actually engage with your rifling."
"Huh, oh that's totally correct," Blackbeard eyed the crystalline projectile. "That explains why the metal bullets performed better than the prototype ones. Guess that means we'd need to somehow cut each bullet to fit or add a driving band."
"That detail needs to be passed to the Tohsaka section that forms the bullets," Mary concluded absent-mindedly while eyeing the trio of Chloe, Kojirou and Okita taking turns for sparring. "Can you handle that, Teach?
"Unfortunately for your lunch plans, no. We're scheduled to get some of those fancy Forbidden Pages from some Victorian library Free Quests or something like that," the older pirate replied seriously. "Though I guess that request means: da Vinci won't be dropping in after today's tests. What's she up to?"
"The Masters seemed to have a new project that's more serious," Anne shrugged. "Well you were wondering what this whole thing was about, guess the answer is 'not too much' after all."
"So uh, are there any of those fancy modern 'select fire' guns around? I heard they were all the rage nowadays," Nobunaga asked eagerly. "I saw some of the homunculi carrying around those 'Kalashnikov' guns for training."
"Those aren't what you think they are," Mary corrected her. "Given that their training emphasizes aimed shots, I believe most of those magazines only have a few rounds in them anyway."
"Hmm? No, you're right that they only have a few of the special gem rounds loaded, but there's an additional two mundane ones for each of those. Like an old aircraft weapon loading style," Blackbeard chipped in. "That's part of the reason they don't go for bursts or auto; those aren't conducive to tracking which bullet you have ready to go."
"It's an old doctrine from the Founding era, but current," a homunculus helpfully volunteered. It seemed that he had been sent to collect the report in lieu of the absent inventor Rider. "We didn't continue development from the then-stopgap fifteen round magazine or for that matter fill up on the Tohsaka bullets."
"And why not?" the development-minded Nobunaga asked immediately.
"Who would we be shooting?" was the answer by means of rhetorical question. "The era of the Grand Aria Systems essentially relegated them to ceremonial, ritual if you rather, or last-ditch status."
"But you're developing a new, much more powerful firearm," the Archer retorted.
He only nodded; the implications did not have to be stated.
(Tohsaka Division)
"Was that really the problem?" one of the gem-workers grumbled. "Wait a moment, I should have one of the smaller rounds somewhere..." She looked around and pulled open several small drawers experimentally before finally pulling out of one what looked like a much smaller version of the bullet Nobunaga had examined back in the Training Grounds.
The craftswoman looked carefully near the base of the projectile. "Well damn, of course a gun Archer would have noticed that immediately. Do we even have plans for these bullets? Wait, nevermind, da Vinci's spec for the new bullets was independent of the previous ones' anyway."
"So, can you cut grooves to match the rifles?" the messenger asked her while quickly taking notes to report their progress to da Vinci.
"No. Fortunately these are just prototypes; we'd need to make new projectiles that are a bit larger than these and then cut the grooves into -those-. You know what, I'll go down to the Workship with you and check how she specced out the barrel and write new prints for the bullets..." she had by this point mostly visualized the necessary adjustments. "By the way, did the Emiya side have any updates on recycling the other Craft Essences?
"Nothing like that was listed in the report."
"Ok, let's go. da Vinci will probably be glad if we can solve this problem as easily as I think."
l
(London Free Quest 'Hyde Park')
"I wonder if any of these might be songbooks?" Elizabeth and Blackbeard cheerfully flipped through what was left of a number of 'defeated' spellbooks.
"Heh, I wonder about that. I don't think this is the era of Reyvateils, but knock yourself out." Gudako eyed her group's last member, who had just dropped a searched book onto the ground. Unfortunately, though they were indeed originally spellbooks, nothing could be gleaned from them before or after their defeat. Initially there had been hopes of gaining some useful information, given that the London-based Singularity had only an empty Clock Tower warehouse for them.
"Everything ok, Chloe?"
"Yeah," the Archer replied without her usual bouncing energy. "I was just wondering why these books delete their own records when you defeat them."
"I don't think they are 'mundane' spellbooks, odd as that sentence is to say," her Master replied. "They're just another type of summoned spirit-thing, like how the skeleton enemies aren't actually collections of bones somehow left lying about."
"Oh, so the Forbidden Pages are the few actually true pages that the larger book was summoned around, you think?"
"Suppose so." They fell silent for a while as Blackbeard started looking around for any other potentially fruitful signatures, using his Archer senses as well as a helpful da Vinci energy scanner.
"... I don't know why it feels so upsetting to feel relieved about that Mooncell Archer," Chaldea's first Archer admitted more to herself than Gudako. "It's a good thing regardless of his connection to us, right?"
"I'd say it's because you don't know him, but there's a part of you that really, really knows him," Gudako suggested. "There's nothing surprising about feeling some level of dissonance from it."
"You're right, I suppose."
Gudako didn't say anything for a moment, turning to find the other two Servants. "If you haven't found any more mobs, that's a wrap. Let's get back to Chaldea."
"Got it !" Elizabeth answered in high spirits.
I hope she bought it, Gudako thought to herself as they gathered up the day's relatively meagre findings to return. Actually, maybe we should just not have her in the Room when summoning. Why didn't we try that?
l
(Chaldea Control Room)
"Ah, I hope they won't have run out of those mashed potatoes," da Vinci hoped while overseeing the usual preparations for summonings. Artoria had expressed mixed feelings about the dish, odd because she probably wasn't around the right timeframe for it to have been a thing in the Princess Knight's diet, but anyway...
"Isn't Christmas coming up soon? How did they go about that in your time?" one of the homunculi controllers asked out of boredom while watching several readings switch to the usual post-cutoff error warnings. All was as to be expected. "I'm told that in the modern age it has become quite secular, even commercialized."
"Depends on context," the Rider commented rather than answering. "If I'd been summoned in Japan like the Fuyuki Holy Grail War brochure suggested... it's definitely different than in Germany outside. But in the first place-"
"We have a problem," came one of the reports from a standby team guarding the Grail System's Vault. "Something really bad just came through here. Like screaming black liquid fire bad."
"...oh crap." da Vinci quickly turned to the homunculus standing next to her. "Gudao and all the Servants to the Summoning Room." She then threw her voice over to the other side where one of the alarm switches was. "Hit the alarm. If that's who I've been briefed on, the wards won't contain her long."
(An unfamiliar basement area)
*splash* *flip* *flap*
An unsuspecting girl was abruptly dropped into what resembled a small indoor pool, that is if a massive colony of Crest Worms had all decided to take up residence there. Alarmed, excited or just hungry, the Phantasmal Beasts greedily swarmed upon the pool's new element.
"Hyup !" *splosh* *bop* *whap*
Zooming up as fast as she had fallen in, the figure began swatting about herself, causing a small rain of Worms to fall away back into the pool, though taking care to not harm them. With a backflip she landed on the floor next to the pool sans beasts.
"Eh?" *sploosh*
And promptly slipped because not only was she quite drenched in the pool's other contents, but the floor sloped downwards, away from the pool, to a noticeable extent.
"Ugh, how annoying," Sasaku muttered while switching gears to simply levitate herself upward to a standing posture. A moment later all the dark liquid soaking her clothes leapt off to form a neat puddle that promptly drained away into the surrounding darkness. Another moment after that, and she realized the need to fix her clothes which in the span of a second or two had a number of small holes added to it by the aggressively inquisitive Crest Worms.
"What gives? Don't set your pets on me, Sakur-"
*ka-Ching*
The Ruler voiced her complaint to the only other person who was present, but abruptly cut off as the taller girl, with only a raised hand, promptly impaled her on a jet black spike that gleamed darkly in the night surrounding them.
"Master?!" An alarmed Ruby popped up near its contractor's fallen hand, quickly extending a handle for easy reach. Moments later, a flare of magical energy burned upwards, severing the magecraft-based penetrator with raw magical energy.
"I didn't know you could do that," Sasaku commented to her wand, quickly shifting to a two-handed guard stance.
"Tsk." *snap*
*crack*
*crack* *crack* *crack* *crack* *crack* *crack* *crack*
The dark Sakura frowned, surveying the scene in front of her. Pierced several dozen times over, the smaller Servant looked like a life-sized voodoo doll, but the magus could sense that something was not right.
"Oh, for fucks sake," Emiya Shirou cursed, appearing behind Sakura with an arm around her waist as she was about to step forward. "I take half a second to follow you through in the real world and you're already trying to gank my ex-Servant?"
"Ah, so you're here. Ahem."
A wave of force pulsed out from said ex-Servant, shattering the nearly one hundred fine needle-like solid darkness entities as the trio's surroundings were ripped apart, apparently leaving them standing outside in the real world. The only sign that their previous encounter was not physical in nature was Sasaku's entirely undamaged uniform.
"Yeah, good to see you again," she completed her handshake with a surprised speechless Sakura, before extending a hand to Shirou. "Our historian record-keeper, Anaz, will definitely be looking to book an interview, or several, with you."
"Is something up?" Gudako asked from her usual position at the back of the Room. Sensing what his Master couldn't, Kojirou quickly interposed himself between her and Sakura. Though he was taller and could recognize the latter, a honed warrior's instinct screamed caution.
"You abruptly dropped your transformation," Gudako continued in some confusion as the protest of the Room's support systems and, more alarmingly, a Chaldea klaxon from outside the Vault reached her ears. "Hey, what's going on?"
One of the operators poked their head around the dividing wall. From their angle, all the room's occupants were clearly visible. Sasaku turned towards him and wordlessly winked.
"The system is just throwing up errors about their class," he offered in explanation. "You know how it freaks out when anything at all is astray."
"Oh, I see." Gudako had by this point caught on to the situation and followed suit. "So you two are like Anne and Mary... I think we will have to cancel the rest of the scheduled summonings to reset the system. Let me take a look at those readings then we'll reconnect to Control."
Taking the cue, Kojirou joined the two Servants at the summoning circle. "I see you got out of London just fine."
"That we did," Shirou replied with a slight smile. "Not that I did anything, mind you. Just like getting into London."
As the large door out opened, Gudao and a group of Servants at the ready were met by Gudako waiting for them at the entrance. "We good here? he asked carefully.
"No problem, everything's fine."
"Good to see you too Gudao," Shirou greeted Chaldea's second Master. "Hey... is our room still there?"
"Yes. Because your kids are there now."
(Iri and Matthew's Room)
"Hmm, Doru sent a priority message?" Iri wondered as it popped up on the screen seeking her attention. "What's this?"
Matthew looked up from the book that had been occupying him. "Sounds important," he prompted her to read it, while already having a small hint about what it might be.
"Yeah, let's see..."
DELETE THIS AFTER YOU READ IT.
From Gudako.
We summoned your parents. Don't make trouble for your mother. She had a hard life.
By the time Iri had reached the end of the message-warning, Matthew had taken up position by her side and scanned it to his satisfaction. "I see..." he mused to himself. "We better prepare ourselves."
"By the way, I see that everything in Chaldea is under control?" Shirou commented to Gudako in an apparently affable manner as the group made their way over to where most of the humans in the Organization lived.
"Thanks," she nodded, her matching red hair shaking slightly in the motion. "How's things been on your end?"
"Yeah, well it's complicated... but all things considered I can't say it's turned out badly, you know?"
Gudako angled her sight line briefly towards Sakura, whose very form-flattering black ribbon dress matched her husband's suit in color but not tone. "I believe your culture treats the idea of attachments leading to rebirth and prolonging suffering as what it sounds like but life is what the living make of it, yes?"
"Eh, that's a fair statement I suppose. Not that we're alive though."
"Well, you're an active agent with your own will - that's got to count for something," the homunculus suggested.
...
As the door of their destination opened, Sakura quickly latched onto and seemed transfixed by the sight of Matthew's obvious Matou heritage. Of course the boy didn't miss this, even if he was tactful enough to not call it out.
"We're back," Shirou said as though the scale of what had transpired to make that otherwise mundane return possible was not painfully obvious from their energy signatures.
The two children quickly scrambled to their feet and ran over to Shirou who had stepped inside; Sakura initially made to follow him but for some reason stopped halfway through the doorway, blocking everyone else. Though in this case the rest of the group had no real intention of entering, so it didn't matter.
"You guessed wrong, Dad." Iri said with a grin, reminding the man of his pessimistic, if ex-ante realistic expectations when they last spoke via a Chaldea-Singularity communication link.
Shirou playfully ruffled her hair. "Thank goodness for that. Your namesake grandmother, actually."
As his father dropped that rather understated revelation, Matthew sidled past his sister into arm's reach of Sakura, looking up at her with a combination of caution and curiosity that wouldn't normally be expected in a mother-son reunion.
"... how have you been?" Sakura said softly as their matching purple-hued eyes met. Hers were slightly more reddish in coloration than his, but the correlation was obvious.
"You look tired," he replied innocently. Those that heard him, which was everyone, didn't quite follow his peculiar statement.
"It's been quite the journey."
l
Notes:
I guess these various stories also carry the content of "Interludes" (and presumably "Rank-Ups", but they don't have story in the quests) rather than those being their own specific chapters. Though in some cases it's like a group-Interlude.