[Happy Company - Megaman Starforce]
"Unbelievable!" Olga roared in absolute indignation. "Not only you left me defenseless but also forgot about me! ME!"
The recipient of her wrath? Ritsuka Fujimaru in all her fleshy, normie, human vanilla form (the Megamerge was no longer necessary and Zero was more busy with better things to do than having his audio receptors be overcharged with the typical office boss's tantrum lecture). Soooo, she had to take refuge behind her only willing defense available: her ever loyal cute Kohai: Mash Kyrielight, who had her shield out in an attempt to defend her Senpai from furious tsunderes (Note: it doesn't work too well against verbal assaults).
"C-calm down, Director." The redhead shakily tried to verbally defend by herself while sweating buckets. "We were quite busy dealing with superpowered ghosts trying to kill us all, you know?"
"I know it perfectly, I was there! What I'd like to know is how the bloody hell did you only worry about the tankiest person around after the fight instead of the much more squishier VIP you were supposed to protect that would have been easily killed by guys like him!" She slapped her hand in the air, in the direction of the blue Caster, who reacted with a salute followed with a wink and a lady killer smile. "I was lucky he was busy watching the fight and trying to flirt with me at the same time…" She shyly averted her gaze with a blush.
"Uh." Something that didn't go unnoticed by Ritsuka while her teenager brain searched for solutions to avoid getting chewed (or kicked) again. "Good catch?" … Which resulted in her only thinking of offering a goofy smile and a thumbs up of her own.
Again, smooth, Ritsuka.
"It's not like that!" Ritsuka and Mash eeped when Olga latched onto the shields front with an even redder face and what seemed like smoke emerging from her head. "He's just a lecherous perv! Yeah, that. A pervert! The worst of the worst!"
"Oi! That was uncalled for!" The blue Caster reacted to the offense.
"Shut up, idiot!" … Which met a blunt counterattack from the virgin tsundere, ladies and gentlemen! Effectiveness, questionable…
"M-Mash." Ritsuka whispered to her Kohai. "Can't you do something to calm her down or at least, try to not kill me?"
"I-I don't know, Senpai." Mash insecurely whispered back. "I mean, you forgot about her, so it's kind of your fault." Mash stopped when something else came to her head. "On the other hand, she's in much better mental health compared to before…"
"Well, who knew a fight for our lives could have helped us so much in that way?" Ritsuka tried to find optimism in that situation. "Maybe we should do that more often."
A strong grip suddenly assaulted Mash's shoulder, the same shoulder that had Ritsuka's hand on it. Slowly turning on it, they saw Olga's overstretched hand trying to crush Ritsuka's hand (and failing to do the same to Mash's shoulder, logical, given Mash had A Rank Endurance and wasn't Olga's objective).
"I have not forgotten what happened before, Fujimaru." Olga's face was downcast, covering her eyes in sinister shadows. "Much less, forgiven." She lifted her head towards Ritsuka showing once more eyes full of disproportionate fury. "And I don't intend to continue ending up potentially dying to make up for stupid excuses!"
Both teenage girls shouted in comical terror.
[Random Yakety Sax Music]
What followed was something out of an episode of Tom and Jerry or Scooby-Doo where Olga relentlessly began to chase a panicking Ritsuka… by going in circles around a distressed eggplant ("Awawawawawawa…!") who no longer had no idea what to do anymore.
Meanwhile, in another sillier timeline (no, not the Servantverse)…
"Huh?" A certain superdeformed Beast was reading a p*rn l*sbian h*rem omnibus manga when she felt a disturbance in the Gacha Counter Force.
"Somehow I feel the need to chase around a certain someone while smooching my eggplant. Again." She flippantly commented while having that ever present creepy smile with soul-sucking eyes and took a sip from her absurdly expensive 86 Saint Quartz, letting out a contented sigh as if she just didn't dry up someone's account like a money-drinking Dead Apostle. Or maybe she did and just didn't give a shit.
As expected from Humanity's Greatest Enemy born from Absolute Saltiness.
"Senpai! Did you just use the Director's Black Card, again?" Walking eggplant body pillow sighted!
"Ah! You saved me the trouble of searching for you!" The Abominable Red Head abomination pounced onto her closet M victim like a cat in f*cking heat, much to the chibi Shielder's cries of terror (read: arousal).
Thus, another day at Chaldea passed with Gudako, riding Mash as a horse, chasing after poor Olga, with somehow more eagerness than previous times.
Huh, it must be Golden Ticket day today.
Returning to a comparatively more serious and less insane universe…
"Bwahahahaha!" The blue Caster nearly spilled out his etheric lungs from the absurdity of the flesh and blood Chaldeans shenanigans. "You guys are hilarious! Hahaha!"
Zero groaned out in exasperation (as well as many others observing the situation did) and turned towards their unexpected guest.
"While I am glad you have not attacked us." Yet. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"And what do you want from us?" Parvati asked with a somewhat accusing tone. Something about that guy sounded too fishy.
"What magecraft did you just use to escape our magic detection?" And Helena must be the only enthusiast present in that group of watchful weirdos…
"One question at a time, please." The blue Caster coolly answered. "Geez, I thought I wasn't supposed to be that popular that far away in the East. Must've been mistaken." He turned towards Parvati, eyebrow raised. "Speaking of, do we know each other, lass?"
"Huh…" Parvati blinked, at a momentary loss of words at being addressed as crass and casual as 'lass' so casually. "I… don't think so?" Aside from that nagging that her feminine/divine intuition was giving off, she doesn't have anything else to go on…
"Huh? Thought so." The blue Caster sighed. "What a pity, I'd have loved to be acquainted with such a beauty like yours. Perhaps we can get to know each other better right now." He moved in order to wrap a hand around Parvati's shoulder with a suggestive note.
"I'm married, you know~?" She more than happily informed him with an overtly sweet smile on her face and her hands suspiciously tightening with intent around a sparkly trident (which raised in voltage), pertaining to a certain destroyer deity of worlds, that was coincidentally near Caster's offending hand that was about to have a feel on her.
… Huh. Guess that's what her intuition was telling her. Good to know it wasn't wrong.
"I was joking! I was joking! Ahahaha!" The flirt quickly backpedalled at least 10 meters away from the scary goddess, face paler by a few shades. "Damn, those goddesses are scarier than I remembered." He muttered.
"Did you say something?"
"Nothing at all!"
"We're absolutely going off the rails here!" Roman, manifesting in a hologram emitted from Zero's gem (Ritsuka's bracelet was unavailable because of… reasons), was the one who had to call them out (out of all people). "At this rate, we will never have any progress in the investigation!"
"Oh?" The blue Caster's interest was raised. "Is this some sort of long-range communication magecraft mixed with electronic technology? I've never thought modern magi would be capable of such a feat!"
"Better than that!" Helena added in. "They found a way to travel through time!"
"Time travel?" Blue Caster's eyes widened. "Now THAT is impressive." He whistled though he turned serious. "I guess that's related to this fucked up Holy Grail War. Especially with the new Servants that weren't originally in the roster." He looked towards Parvati, Helena and Mash.
"What?" Olga stopped her attempts to strangle Ritsuka and quickly turned towards the blue Caster, desperate for answers to all that insanity. "Do you know about what happened in this Singularity?!"
"I dunno about any Singularity but what I can tell ya is that, somehow, the War went to Hell, literally: the city went up in flames; all the human population disappeared and all the other Servants aside from me and Saber got killed by the latter."
"Wait, what?!" Ritsuka said, incredulous. "But we fought two of them!"
"Blame that creepy black mud that appeared and is at the command of Saber. It allows her to corrupt her slain victims and return them to life as her minions. Though I also suspect that it is related to her own changes, too." Blue Caster explained while shuddering.
"Wait. Corruption?" Zero sharply reacted to the implications. "You mean you can get brainwashed against your will?"
"I don't think the great majority of modern magi could be capable of doing it, due to Heroic Spirits being a high ranking Mystery beyond their capabilities, but something on their level or beyond probably could." Da Vinci explained with trepidation in her voice. "But to do that by violating their very beings to that extent, the only things that could probably do that in this era, aside from Command Seals, which lose much of their effectiveness outside of simple, specific orders and are finite in quantity, or Dead Apostle Ancestors…" She shuddered. "... which we're absolutely grateful that they're not present there, would be a Noble Phantasm or…"
"The Greater Grail." Blue Caster snapped his fingers.
"Huh? Greater Grail? What's that? I have never heard of it. And why are you all watching me like an idiot!?" Roman looked confused at some of his coworkers giving him the "Are you serious" look or facepalming at him, especially Da Vinci and Olga.
Like one, Zero and Ritsuka automatically turned to Mash. The adorable Kohai, taking the hint, cleared her throat. "The Greater Grail is the core of the Holy Grail War ritual. It not only serves as a wish granting device but it also manages the selection of Masters and the summoning of Servants. Those latter functions are what the FATE system is based on."
"Huh, so that's where that Summoning computer came from…" Ritsuka nodded in understanding… before realizing what she heard. "Wait, wish granting device?!"
"And why would Servants be involved in a war?" Zero asked before realizing it. "Wait, it's for the wish, isn't it? But how and why? Weren't Servants supposed to be fighting for the World's sake?"
"Heroic Spirits are those who are summoned by the Counter Force to defend the World as well as the Human Order." Helena further explained to the novice mage and the Biometal. "Servants… not so much. The Holy Grail War is a ritual where the souls of multiple Heroic Spirits are used to open a hole to the Root, aside from its appeal as a wish granter which is also used to bait the would-be Servants. The fighting also serves as a convenient method to select the one who will have the opportunity to have the wish. Though because true Heroic Spirit summoning is pretty much impossible, they came up with the Servant system, which while less potent, still allows for the energy necessary for the ritual's intent by using seven souls provided by it to open the path, though six are enough to bring enough energy for a wish and manifest the Lesser Grail, which needs to be manipulated by a spiritual being like a Servant anyways in order to interact with the Greater one."
"Wait, it was using all of us as fuel?!" The blue Caster had an expression of pure disbelief. "Jeez. No wonder the Grail didn't tell us all that. At least, my wish didn't require it."
"Um, what was your wish?" Mash asked, curious.
"To fight strong people, of course!"
"Huh, I see?" She was confused by the boisterous answer of the Caster. While there would indeed be strong opponents in a Grail War, she just didn't see the need to use the War as a means to intentionally enter in a fight, especially with a prize as coveted as the Grail's wish or even a pathway to the Root, the ultimate goal for most magi.
"Don't think too much about it, Mash." Romani sighed. "He's just a battle junkie, trying to understand how their adrenaline-fueled brains work would give you a headache."
"Says the coward who wouldn't dare to come here." Blue Caster deadpans.
"Hey! I cannot help it if I appreciate my life too much to waste it in a life or death battle between superpowered legends!" Romani complained. "That and I am too busy here… not to say that I don't even have either Magic Circuits nor Rayshift compatibility. So I'd be an immediate deadweight anyway, in both senses of the word..."
"How the hell did you come up with that information?! That's not something even most people in the Association would know! Not to say it isn't even installed in FATE's database!" Olga interrogated the smaller Caster while the others were having their own separate conversation. "And even if it did, it shouldn't be available for Servants connected to it!"
"I have studied the ritual when I heard of it during my time." Helena dismissively replied to the Animusphere. "While I was interested in the Servant summoning system and the Grail's internal workings, I wasn't impressed at the rather brute force method designed to reach the Root, I mean, seriously, Akasha, the origin of everything in the universe, should be reached through mental and spiritual enlightenment, or even a research breakthrough, not by punching hard enough to make a hole in the walls of reality!"
Some of the few surviving magi in the command room couldn't help but laugh or even cough awkwardly at that reprimand.
"She helped save your life. She helped save your life." Olga repeated as a sort of mantra while breathing heavily in an attempt to calm down, an attempt that doesn't seem to help much given her tightly gripped hands turned white while she resisted the temptation to murder her family's ancient sitcom archenemy.
An improvement for her, I daresay.
"I think my life made more sense when I just discovered that I unknowingly had been carrying for years a sapient transformation trinket from a future filled with mad scientists and killer robots." Ritsuka deadpanned, her already low impression of magi society going down the drain even faster. Seriously, they can summon all those legendary and mythological beings and the only use they have for them is to try to reach God or something by burning them?
"Apparently, mad scientists with too much power than they should have have already existed since the times of swords and sorcery." Zero also snarked, indifferent too, at the blatant violation of literal living legends, as if mad scientists kidnapping and modifying his original body and using it to cause literal armageddon wasn't crazy enough in his book. And his former boss became a nigh-immortal sapient computer virus with a penchant for worldwide terrorism, for crying out loud!
"Oh, that reminds me." Blue Caster turned to the cybernetic duo, completely (and wisely) ignoring the poor Shielder and Lancer attempting to calm down the not-so healthy rising antagonism (read: cat fight) between the Lord of the Animusphere Family and the Founder of the Theosophical Society. "How did you do that?"
"How did we do what? "How did we do what?"
"Okay, that was a little freaky." Blue Caster backpedaled at the uncanny sudden synchronization that both Biometal and Biomatch showed there. "Okay, I'll rephrase it: How did you harm those Servants?" THAT got a reaction from the other people at the scene and even a double take from the people at the command room at.
"With, huh… plasma?" Ritsuka could only shrug. "I mean, it may not be as fancy as literal divine lightning or whatever spells there are out there but something able to effortlessly melt near anything like a hot knife through butter seriously packs a good punch." She paused, reflecting on all the defensive measures, like armor advancements and energy shields, that would be developed centuries in the future. "Most of the time."
"Yeah, I won't deny having my insides cooked like a microwave would not be funny for myself or anyone else for that matter. But the point of the question is…" Blue Caster got closer to Ritsuka and Zero, eyeing them with the same look one would at an interesting science specimen which made the duo move back a bit in reflex. "... how did an obviously technological weapon affect a spiritual being without any kind of magical assistance."
That made Ritsuka and Zero eye each other in confusion (nothing new, considering they've been doing that each time they learn anything magecraft-related).
"We have a few theories about that." Da Vinci reappeared in the hologram with a thoughtful expression. "In the first place though, how old was Zero again?"
"Aside from the time I've spent in the laboratory they originally discovered me in, I'd say about four centuries more or less."
"More like three centuries, given your copied body which also made up most of your Biometal self but yeah, he sure lived that long." Ritsuka corrected. "Would all his deaths and hibernation count, too?"
"Wait, deaths? As in plural?"
"... While I'd like to learn more about him right now, this isn't the time." Da Vinci made a mental note to talk about that subject more at a later date, ignoring Romani's surprised remark. "And what about his accomplishments and fame? Aside from stopping a mad scientist and his orbital superweapon and helping in stopping his full resurrection-slash-awakening as an eldritch Biometal that could potentially doom the world."
The Servants (who weren't there when it came to the Biometal's explanation) blinked in surprise and turned to Zero in a new light.
"How the hell didn't I hear from this guy in the Throne of Heroes?" Blue Caster said in pure disbelief.
Ritsuka, in a thoughtful expression, started to count fingers, even if she hesitated a bit around the end in doubt. "Well, he had to fight off his first boss-turned-terrorist-turned-virus as well as clean up the resulting society upheaving messes. Like, eight times at least? Or were they ten? And then there's the literal apocalyptic clusterfuck of the Elf Wars and the time he spent fighting against Neo Arcadia and Weil, the culprit behind said apocalypse and the satellite death ray, a century after that."
"... Alright, we all SERIOUSLY need to know more about the future he comes from. But not now." Roman rubbed his face in frustration. "One of the easiest ways to accumulate mystical weight, or Mystery, is through age: the more history an item or place has, the more Mystery it has. And that kind of Mystery isn't that easy to get rid of given it's rooted in its own established and unique history which is strengthened by recognition like fame and belief. Though it would take centuries to accumulate even a tiny sliver of it. Which in hindsight would not be enough to realistically help defeat a Servant in modern times, much less in an incredibly advanced future… "
"So the other theory we have is that during Megamerge, Ritsuka's Mystic Code uniform is assimilated by the Biometal's systems, allowing it to interact with spiritual entities… somehow. We'd need more time for testing to prove both hypotheses." Da Vinci continued with her theory.
"And as for how the Biometal had the capacity to beat Servants despite its relatively low mystical value, it could be because the humanity from Zero's future would develop individuals and weaponry with power equal to supernatural beings despite the lack of mysticism. For example, even if you were to enchant modern weaponry, you would still have to contend with their superhuman endurance and agility, though robots, being also magnitudes superior to humans in physical abilities as well as the development of anti-personnel energy weaponry, which I guess was designed to counteract much more advanced armor technology than what we have today, would have more of a chance against Servants. Like what we've just seen."
"So not only Megamen can actually keep up with Servants but have enough Mystery or magical interactivity to leave lasting battle damage to Ghost Liners, or at least, with this one." Olga pointed towards Ritsuka, who rapidly paled when she realized the implications.
"Wait, does that mean I could have been killed for nothing if it didn't work?!"
Everyone else related to the Moonlit World (including the people back at Chaldea) put on various expressions of differing awkwardness and/or nervousness at the realization.
"... In my defense, I thought you knew what you were doing." Admitted Helena sheepishly.
"... Shit. I forgot the Servants didn't know me and Ritsuka were new to magecraft."
"Sorry Senpai." Poor Mash. She looked like she was about to let the earth eat her. "The ambush was so unexpected that we didn't have more time to plan and-" She shut up when Ritsuka signaled her to stop with one hand while she rubbed her face with her other hand, ending up in a sigh of pent up frustration.
"Don't worry Mash. While I am glad we're alive, I… I would have also wanted to know before." The Master turned to Blue Caster. "You said Saber was the one who was corrupting Servants with whatever may or may not have been produced by the Grail, shouldn't we go to her, or the Grail, and try to see if we can stop whatever happened in this Singularity?"
"Well, why did you think I came to you?" Blue Caster said. "I just wanted help in finishing up this War. You want to solve this Singularity. I don't do charities." A zapping sound came from a smiling goddess' weapon. "T-though that doesn't mean I am unable to act with the goodness of my heart!" He quickly backpedalled. "Though, seriously, you need the help. I've seen your fight before, and it's clear you're complete greenhorns at this Servant and Master business." He turned towards Olga, Zero, Ritsuka and Helena. "Not only you got saved when Ms. Anger Management Issues here…" "Hey!" "... barely took notice of Assassin by pure dumb luck, not to talk about raw adrenaline and two timing being the only things that separated you both from a very grisly end at the hand of his Noble Phantasm." He unconsciously put a hand on his chest while turning towards Mash and Par. "And as for you two, aside from typical errors like stopping before an unexpected attack and not being aware of your surroundings, Shield Girl CLEARLY had no idea she could do the barrier that protected the Lady Goddess. And I doubt she knows how to use it again. Nice use of clones, by the way."
"FOU!" Fou agreed. It was cute seeing him nod along.
"With a group like this, I doubt you'd endure the likes of King Arthur for even 10 seconds." Blue Caster sighed while the team took a step back from shock.
"K-King Arthur?!" Olga's face got a whole new level of white. "You mean King Arthur is here and is our enemy?!"
"Yeah, even with the corruption, I would recognize that sword that brings Victory anywhere…" He let out a humorless chuckle. "Kinda messed up that she's now using it to bring perdition to us all."
"Excalibur…" Zero let out. "Even in my time, the legend of King Arthur is still incredibly popular, despite the huge loss in historical and cultural documents and media that happened due to all the conflicts, especially the Hard Age and the Elf Wars… Wait." Zero paused, realizing something in his human-level logic circuits about what Blue Caster said that didn't fit with their enemy's identity. "Did you just say King Arthur is a woman?"
"... Please, tell me that it was a slip of the tongue or a translator error." Romani gulped nervously at that revelation. "Because I also heard that you called King Arthur a 'she'."
Blue Caster's only response was a rather deadpan yet intense face with an eyebrow rising.
His non-verbal "What do you think?" was very clear-cut. And the reactions, obvious.
"You've gotta be kidding me!"
"Bullshit! I call bullshit!"
"How the Hell did they get something as simple as gender so wrong?!"
"But… how the Hell would that make sense?! That simple fact not only contradicts the myths but renders all versions of them with most of their context now irrevocably changed!"
The cacophony coming through the communicator did more than show the pandemonium that broke out in Chaldea after that revelation, including the image of Roman futilely trying to reestablish order while Da Vinci became completely absorbed into what could be described as a self-debate of the arthurian mythos going by her rantings.
"... For some reason, I feel like that isn't so strange." Parvati said after experiencing deja vu once more. This city was really giving her all those vibes, huh.
Ignoring the goddess' comment, Olga turned towards the hologram after recovering a bit of her composure. "Order, I say order in the room! SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!!!!!!!" She didn't waste time to shut them up with a stress-powered shrill.
Everyone shut up by sheer reflex (and probably the loud volume), which gave the Director a few seconds to recover her breath. "While I was caught off guard, as much as everyone else, for such glaring historical inaccuracy, what we should focus on is how we should deal with her. The legend of King Arthur is one of the most famous ones in the history of mankind, especially given it happened at the end of Britain's Age of Fairies. Which would not only include a huge fame bonus to her stats on an already strong Class like Saber but her Noble Phantasm is Excalibur, a Divine Construct on par with Trishula Shakti, which results in a bloody nightmare of an enemy to deal with." She rubbed her face in clear frustration, a sentiment shared by everyone on differing levels.
"Don't worry too much about Excalibur. The Noble Phantasm version is not as powerful as the original." Blue Caster reassured them. "Though it's still quite strong on its own."
"... Define how strong. Please." Zero asked, already dreading the answer.
"Imagine a giant beam of energy cutting you down with the energy equivalent of… what is the closest equivalent in this era? Oh, yes." Blue Caster snapped his fingers in realization. "A nuke. Though you know, it surprises me that a lot of countries nowadays, especially the powerful ones, have hundreds of them at their hands. The kind of destructive power most gods of old had available now being harnessed through the power of science and without the use of Authorities or even magecraft! It certainly sours the concept of war." He sighed in deep lamentation. "Back in my day, everything was much closer and personal, a true test of martial mastery and bravery. And fun, at least for guys like me. Though at least I am relieved that the future would return in some manner to the classics, if somewhat more advanced."
"Do you remember that we will have the capability of raining down our own giant lasers of judgemental doom from the heavens, right?" Ritsuka deadpanned while pointing towards the sky.
Blue Caster just looked up in contemplation for a few seconds. "Okay, that sucks even more." He states with a blank face. "Though another advantage in our favor is that Saber, for some reason that escapes me, has been guarding the Grail ever since she made work of the other five Servants, which is located in a limestone cavern underneath Mount Enzou." He pointed his rod towards the aforementioned mountain. "It's the convergence point of this land's leylines, making it the suitable place for installing the Greater Grail. So she wouldn't risk unleashing all her power for fear of either bringing the whole place down; destroying the Grail's infrastructure; blowing up everything or all of them. She may have become mad, but not stupid."
Everyone sighed in relief. "Alright, THAT is valuable information." Olga said. "Now, what we need to do is make a plan in order to defeat Saber, clear the Singularity and, possibly, not die. Beginning with reviewing our Servants stats and skills, Fujimaru."
"Huh, wut?" Ritsuka blinked in confusion.
"Right." Olga sighed in disappointment. "Forgot she's a novice, again. Romani, please."
"Wow! This must be the first time in forever since the Director said 'please' to anyone, especially me!" She sent him an annoyed death glare. "Alright, alright! I'm doing my job… which shouldn't be this one but anyway."
The hologram depicting him was substituted by a new screen, which Ritsuka didn't delay adding her own snarky commentary.
"A literal stat sheet? Really? You're very far away from convincing me this isn't like a game."
"Oh, shut up." Olga rolled her eyes. "These are representations of the Servants' abilities, which are quantified in order to make analysis easier. Usually, a Master should be able to see their own Servants' stats, as well as of others. Though seeing how inexperienced you are in magecraft, we have no other option than to rely on FATE's data analysis for this."
"What scale is it based on?" Zero asked, curious.
"There are 5 main parameters from lowest to highest: E, D, C, B, A." Mash chose herself to explain. "On Servant Statistics, with the exception of Noble Phantasms and Skills, E roughly equals the capacity of ten humans at peak physical condition, and it increases by ten with each superior rank until reaching fifty at A."
"Of course, there are some exceptions." Da Vinci interjected. "On rare occasions, some Servants will have modifiers in their stats that would either raise or even lower them beyond what would be expected of the rank while some extremely rare occasions would require EX Rank for parameters that cannot be quantified by the system."
Ritsuka whistled. Not bad for power levels, now that she has some measure of them. However, as a gamer and an otak-, I mean, a nerd, she knows that stats aren't the end all factor (even if meta tells you otherwise. Alright, they're important, too). Nevertheless, she still examined the manual that came with the data.
Class Name; True Name; Sex; Height/Weight... You know, basic RPG info (is Alignment all that important here? And how the hell did they analyze it?). Now, let's start with Mash-
"Wait, Matthew?" Ritsuka blinked when she read the first line of Mash's sheet: Matthew Mash Kyrielight. "I thought your name was just Mash."
"Just… try pronouncing them like a Japanese, Senpai." Mash sighed in embarrassment.
"You mean, like Japanese-butchered English?" She raised an eyebrow. "I don't like how my people tend to ignorantly dishonour such cool language but if I have to, Mashu… Mashu." Her eyes opened in realization before grumbling at the implications. "That's… like naming someone Mario Mario." A snort escaped her, "No offense, Mash, but whoever has named you, must have been a huge Japanophile dork with a weird naming sense or something."
"Well, Mash is derived from ancient Hebrew, which means "who is drawn by force", while Matthew means "gift of God". I just found it cute how both would be pronounced 'Mashu' in Japanese."
Everyone slowly turned towards the Israeli doctor, whether in person or hologram, when he spoke so proudly, either about Mash or his own weird naming sense.
"You mean…" A bewildered technician on the other side spoke. "You crammed two boy names for one girl, because of a funny pronunciation?!"
"In my defense, my original idea was just one Mashu for the ambiguity, but apparently, it wasn't a valid choice for the registry so I put both of them in their English forms as compromise! And there exist even weirder naming conventions in both mage and ordinary societies all around the world so I'm hardly one to be criticized in that field!"
"Doctor…" Mash could only mutter with a reddening face so a guilty Ritsuka chose the wise thing and ignored pursuing the name subject, turning once again to read the Servant sheets.
Naming aside, Mash had decent Strength and Luck; incredibly high Endurance (as expected from a tank) and Magic capacity (or was it output?); though she had shitty Agility and her Noble Phantasm rank was in interrogation.
As for Skills, she had very high Magic Resistance; decent Riding (how the heck do you translate an ability you learn as a mystical superpower?); and what she thinks are defense Skills from their wording, despite lacking descriptions and such. That would help, thank you very much.
She continued with the other Servants: Parvati had very poor physical stats but her more mystical abilities really stood out, especially her EX-Rank Noble Phantasm and that B-Rank Divine Core. Being a goddess, even a degraded one, sure has benefits.
Helena, as expected for a mage archetype, is basically a glass canon, like Parvati but even weaker physically though much more magically capable despite the lack of some divine-looking Skills and also with a powerful NP of her own. Though what she is interested more is in that Item Construction Skill.
Wonder if that means enchanted items or potions…
Letting out a small smirk at the possible potential of high-level Crafting, she passed over to Blue Caster's sheet. Like with the other Caster, yet another glass canon, though geared for a somewhat speedster build, not to talk about rather bad Luck.
However… "Why can't I see the rest of his data?"
"That's why he isn't with a contract with you, therefore, not registered in the system." Da Vinci explained. "To unlock the rest of the data you must either presence his abilities, learn about them or just make a contract to save up all that effort."
"And considering you can wield multiple Servants without collapsing despite not having that much magical talent or experience, thanks to that FATE of yours, I think it's a great idea to make the contract! I am a Caster. I can generate and control my own magical energy good enough to not provoke any stress on your Magic Circuits, though like any Servant, I'm gonna need an anchor in order to fight at my best!" Blue Caster smirked. "What do you say?"
Everyone turned to Olga, who didn't take why everyone was suddenly looking at her so expectantly for a few seconds until she realized it. "W-well, we need all hands possible for the sake of the mission." She admitted with some embarrassment. "And we could use Command Seals on him in case he betrays us or does something he shouldn't do."
"Ouch." Blue Caster winced. "Understandable but ouch. So much for first impressions." He chuckled somewhat awkwardly.
Ritsuka, nevertheless, chose to take the leap of faith. "So, for a contract without summon, do we need to shake hands or sign a literal contract or something?" She extended her hand towards him.
"Nah. I just need to acknowledge your Command Seals and accept you as a Master, but this way works, too." He shook Ritsuka's hand with vigour and strength. "Whatever they say, you won't regret this, Master. Cu Chulainn at your service"
Ritsuka felt a tingling sensation inside her being, no different from her meeting with Mash as Demi-Servant or after the summons. The contract was made and the paths opened. His Servant Sheet updated in response to the new influx of information.
"Wait, Cu Chulainn in person?!" Roman shouted incredulous. "Just how many exceptional legends are present here?!"
"Huh, no wonder his magecraft was that good. Runes are really versatile." Helena commented in realization.
"I've never met a member of the Tuatha de Danann or their progeny in person but from what I've heard from them, the Son of Lugh could give the strongest warriors of my land and time a run for their money." Parvati added in remembrance.
"Huh." Ritsuka furrowed her brows. "Who?"
Nearly everyone present fell over from shock.
"S-Senpai! You don't really recognize Cu Chulainn? The Child of Light?!" Ritsuka's head shook. "He's an Irish folk hero!"
"Sorry, never been to Ireland. And I don't know every legend from Europe or the world at large, to be honest." The Master shamelessly admitted.
"I only recognized the name from some really old metal song that I barely remember. That and I think he tied his guts to a rock." Zero was on the same boat.
"Well, that was to be expected from someone on the other side of the part of the world where I lived." Cu just shrugged. "Though I feel happy that someone remembered that part. One of my best moments, though it was my last one."
"Let me try." Da Vinci sighed. "He and his younger self, Setanta, are mid-game demons and Personas in Megaten."
"Huh." Ritsuka's brain gears began to turn. "Ohhhh. Now I remember!"
"Wait, who are you calling a demon?" Cu got mildly offended by the comparison.
"Long story, don't worry about it." Roman placated the demigod. "Though I've never expected you to be interested in SMT, too, Leo."
"What can I say, Kaneko's art is surprisingly attractive to me, especially from the early 2000s. His knack of interpreting multiple mythologies, even obscure ones, is a nice plus."
"So, aside from being a demigod and, apparently, Irish Hercules, and metal as Hell, you're pretty good at runes." She pointed to his Rune Magecraft and Primordial Runes Skills in the screen.
"Good, you say?" He smirked confidently. In a single finger motion too fast for anyone to perceive, he drew a drew on the air, Ansuz, making a little flame appear in the air. "My teacher was given the Primordial Runes from Odin Himself and she taught them to me in turn. Though I could also use them as a Lancer, if somewhat downgraded." He sighed at the loss of his precious spear. What rotten Luck. "Though from your face, you've got something planned for them, right?"
"More like you've facilitated my plan. By a lot." Ritsuka's Gamer-Move smirk grew. "While we strategize further, who's up for some good old scavenging and crafting~"
AN: … Okay, I've spent months in-between juggling ideas for this chapter; rewriting parts of it; discussing further worldbuilding with my co-author Wyran and basically procrastinating, but I've finished this one. This is basically pre-Artoria Alter exposition (Holy Grail, Servant System, Megaman-Servant interactions, etc) plus some jokes. The one about Mash's full name is a reference to a minor debate as for how her name's romanization should have been (not helped by Matthew appearing in official art until it got changed) so I chose to "Why not both?". It also counts as a jab towards Nasu and his team's chuuni naming sense towards any non-public domain original character or term of theirs that they create. That and I can count on Picasso's ridiculously long full name to have a real world alibi in case. I was surprised Mash was an actual Hebrew name and not a shortening of Matthew. Things you learn, huh.
As for the Hard Age, or Hard Wars, is a term originating from Mega Man: Fully Charged (decent show… for kids. Prefer the other Man of Action like Ben 10 or Generator Rex shows at my age, to be honest. Though I've only seen the first episode of Fully Charged, to be honest.) describing that show's background robot-human war. I'm using it here to describe Light and Wily's robot conflict (the whole Classic era, Archie comics and Megamix/Gigamix manga included) and its consequences (Rockman-san manga), which lead to a century-long hiatus in the development of sapient robots until the discovery of X.
Ignore the Learning With Manga part. It won't appear again until the All the Statesmen event. It's too silly and lewd for this story, anyways. Not to talk about potentially gaining the attention of Beast VIII. *Brrrr!*
Oh, and as for why no one heard of Zero despite him being worthy of entering the Throne? While I'm not about to immediately reveal the whole physics and metaphysics planned for this Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy fusion, let's just say it's got to do with the fact that 1) Zero is from the future so no one from the present and/or the past got any clue of his identity or feats and 2) his soul is COMPLETELY ELECTRONIC/POSSIBLY PHOTONIC. Let's just say it's related to how physics, especially electromagnetism and computing, work in the Megaman side of things, in contrast to the Nasuverse's spiritrons and their role in the supernatural as well as their use in magic quantum computing.
And credits to Gavin Dunne and Miracle of Sound for their songs, including their recreation of The Tale Of Cú Chulainn in metal! Oh, and Overly Sarcastic Productions too for explaining mythology, history, tropes and tales in a digestible and entertaining manner, thank you guys.
Next chapter will be the final boss of Fuyuki. I've got plans to make it as epic as possible for the finale of the prologue arc. And a huge wake-up call for the Chaldeans. Release date… whenever possible.