004 - The Apocrypha Protocols

Mashu Kyrielight.

Unfortunately, their efforts looking for survivors didn't amount to much in the end. The burnt city seemed devoid of anything but undead monsters, which was disheartening in the extreme. What had happened here to cause such an awful situation? On the other hand, they had managed to find a small Leyline Nexus. Nothing big, but enough to boost the signal of their communicators to reach Chaldea.

The only problem with that is…

"... And that's how everything turned out in our end." Senpai ends her report. "How are things on your end?"

"To think you were actually a competent magecraft user… Seems like negligence and bigotry have turned into an unexpected boon this one time.." Doctor Roman sighs from the other side of the line. "The fact you were considered incompetent might've saved your life, because there's no way this was an accident."

"Are you saying someone is trying to actively sabotage Chaldea?" Haku-senpai asks incredulously. "As in, the same organization that's trying to keep Human History from never having happened?"

"Indeed, simultaneous explosions wrecking the entirety of Chaldea and taking down both vital systems and personnel cannot be considered anything but a targeted attack." The doctor continues with a dismayed sigh, letting his chin rest on the table in front of him and covering his face with a hand. "Every officer who was where they were supposed to be got caught in the explosions and the only reason the base remains even slightly functional is because our Head of Technology Development is a literal mad genius who built backups for our backups without telling anyone."

"Well, damn. Did we get infiltrated by some crazy cult or something?" Haku-chan whistles in wonderment. "What's our next step, then?"

"I don't know!" Doctor Roman collapses on his seat, the façade of confidence he'd been keeping so far finally folding under the pressure. "I'm trying to put out as many fires as I can, but there's more fires popping up where I'm not looking! There's sirens and blinking red lights everywhere and I don't know what half of them even mean! I don't have the training for this, I'm not qualified for this! Help me, Magi Mari!"

… And that's the problem, really. A world where Doctor Romani Archaman ends up in charge of Chaldea due to everyone else being dead is truly a nightmare scenario.

Now, it would be easy to misunderstand that statement and assume Mashu dislikes Doctor Roman. Nothing further from the truth. Beyond the fact that Mashu doesn't really dislike anyone (except maybe Gut-san), the doctor in particular is one of her favorite people. He's warm, soft and kind and has a sort of fluffy presence that makes it hard to feel sad or angry around him. (He also has a strawberry lollipop waiting for her at the end of every examination.)

Unfortunately and as much as Mashu personally likes the good doctor… He's the last person she would put in charge of anything. The doctor is reliable when it comes to his role as a physician, but when it comes to anything else, especially dealing with people… Well, it might be unkind to call him a limp-wristed, wishy-washy wet noodle, but that's unfortunately the truth of the matter.

Doctor Roman is bad with people. He's even worse at directing people. If he was a Servant, he'd have a negative-value Charisma skill.

"Geez, get a grip, man!" Senpai chastises the doctor. "If a problem is too big and daunting, cut it into smaller problems that are individually easier to solve."

"Right… right!" The doctor takes a deep breath and visibly settles down, too much of a pushover to continue his panic attack when he's been told not to. "Magi Mari also said that before, I think."

Ah… Once again, Mashu really likes the doctor, but this is this and that is that.

"So… we don't need the answer to life, the universe and everything." Haku-senpai continues in an appeasing voice. "Just some idea on what to do next."

"Forty-two." Dr. Roman answers without thinking, before he perks up from his table with a thoughtful hum. "Obviously, you need to identify the cause of the Singularity and solve it. The main goal of Chaldea remains the same as ever. But when it comes to your next step… Oh, I know! You can bolster your numbers! Mashu!"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Your shield is actually the basis of the FATE summoning system." The doctor explains, more for Senpai's benefit than anything else. "With it, you should be capable of summoning more Servants to your side!"

"Er…" Haku-senpai interrupts the doctor's enthusiastic explanation, looking uncharacteristically sheepish all of a sudden. "There might be one teeny weeny little bit of a problem with that, Doctor."

"Don't worry about the prana costs, the generators here in Chaldea should take care of that!" The doctor tries to wave the worry away, but Mashu doesn't miss the way Senpai winces at these words. "They're a bit battered and bruised, so they can't handle too many summons, but–"

"No, not that." She explains. "I cannot summon Servants. Like, at all."

"What? But…" Dr. Romani pauses for a moment, frantically typing something on a keyboard before intently reading something outside of their field of view, only to turn back towards them with an incredulous expression on his face. "But your Servant compatibility is off the charts!"

"And I'm extremely good with Servants, thank you very much." Haku-senpai hums, placing a hand over her heart in an affronted manner. "Negotiating with them, supporting them, working alongside them, charming the panties off them… I just can't summon them."

Mashu feels herself deflate at Senpai's explanation. That's one rather unfortunate condition, but at least leaves plenty room for working with other Servants, if and when they are encountered. It also means Mashu will be invaluable as the only currently available Servant, which makes her feel a bit warm inside and… Wait, one of the things Senpai said was not like the others, right?

She's raising her head to question it when a flash of light on the corner of her eyes draws her attention towards the city. There's an entire city block under some sort of bombardment-style attack where red, blue and green-colored orbs of light rain from the sky in a very showy display.

The display lasts for less than a minute before disappearing just as suddenly as it started but, while it lasted, Mashu could only watch in awe. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. Even after it ends, nobody seems keen on acting or speaking up, their gazes still lost in the distance.

"What…" She asks breathlessly after a while, finally breaking the silence. "What's that?"

"Oh, that was just Rin and Archer of Red." An unknown voice answers from right behind them. "Probably ran into some trash to clean up."

Swift as her newly-awakened Demi Servant reflexes would allow her, Mashu turns around, jumping between her Senpai and the unexpected new threat that snuck up on them while they were distracted. Her trusty shield raises protectively as her eyes narrow, searching for the potential enemy to find…

… A smiling white-haired girl and a taciturn cat-eared woman.

"Greetings, my name is Illyasviel von Einzbern." The girl introduces herself with a graceful curtsy. "And this is Berserker of Red."

"Now…" The girl looks up from her curtsy, her smile turning dangerous as blood red eyes carrying a wisdom beyond her years bore into Mashu's own. "May I ask what's a Demi Servant doing in this clusterfuck of a Grail War?"

Olga Marie Animusphere

Clearing things out was blissfully simple, due to how unrealistically forthcoming Tohsaka was about local supernatural business. Then again, Olga is willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, since this is a very literal apocalyptic scenario and the woman in red is supposed to be in charge of Fuyuki.

Apparently, in whatever timeline generated this singularity, the Fuyuki Grail Wars had been going on for centuries and the Animusphere never participated in what would've been the Fifth one by local recount.

In this War, some sort of catastrophe both corrupted and empowered Saber to the point where she single-handedly defeated every other contender on her own. That should've marked the end of the War, causing the Grail to manifest after the ritual was fulfilled, but that wasn't the case. No, instead of killing the other Servants as she was supposed to, Saber corrupted them instead, turning them into existences similar and subordinate to herself.

"That was her mistake." Tohsaka explains. "Well, besides not killing us off when she had the chance."

"Us?"

"The Founding Families who designed the Ritual in the first place." The local magus clarifies with a smug smile. "The ones who know about the safeties and countermeasures hard-wired into the Grail War to ensure it fulfills its intended purpose."

"So you had an ace in your sleeve in case some upstart Servant turned on the organizers?" Olga hums approvingly, seeing where this was going. As expected from the wisdom of ancient magi, really. "That's sensible."

"Oh, no. That's… that's actually allowed, it's having all the factions teaming up that our ancestors objected to." Tohsaka coughs uncomfortably. "The Apocrypha Protocols allow for the election of a second set of seven Masters to summon a second set of seven Servants."

… Come to think of it, ancient magi are known for their unpredictable quirkiness and oftentimes counterproductive approaches to their own studies.

"So new Masters were chosen, new Servants were summoned and the ritual continued." Olga sums up, hoping to move past… that. "How come you didn't get chosen the first time around?"

"Oh?" Tohsaka arches an eyebrow, suddenly looking like the cat who ate the canary. "Who says we didn't?"

"Well… You are clearly a Master now. So it stands to reason–" Olga starts reasoning, only to cut herself off the moment realization hits her. It's obvious in hindsight. Obvious and somewhat despicable. "You got chosen twice. This is your second chance."

"The Founding Families have priority as Master Candidates." Tohsaka confirms smugly. "If one of the Founding Families lacks a Master when new Masters are chosen, they'll get one. Any other considerations take a second seat to that."

"That's unfair." Olga points out, more to say something than out of any personal belief.

"That's a magus for you." Tohsaka shrugs. "In any case, it didn't work nearly as well as we hoped."

"What? Why?"

"Because Saber somehow exterminated humanity. Have you seen how the city looks? Her doing." Tohsaka drops the bomb like it's nothing, making Olga shudder. What sort of life has the Second Owner been experiencing in this Singularity, for something like that to evoke so little concern or care? "The Red Faction was decimated before it could really be formed, with only the three of us surviving. We managed to ambush a couple of Black Servants before they wised up, but it's been a game of keepaway ever since, trying to stay in the game while the numerically superior Black faction hunts us down like rats."

"Humpf. Looks like a loser's game to me." Olga (blusters to hide her unease) criticises. "You should gather your forces and attack while you have a chance. The longer you wait, the higher the risk of losing force and getting into a deeper disadvantage."

"You have a point, but we have reasons to be extremely wary about Saber's final goal." Tohsaka concedes. "The Grail can theoretically be used to destroy the world and with things as they are… Let's say not losing takes priority over winning, right now."

… Right, that makes sense from a local point of view. Magi aren't exactly the most altruistic individuals out there, but they're actually rather willing to lay their own lives to make progress in their family magecraft, as a general rule. And nobody benefits from the end of the world, it's the whole reason Chaldea exists in the first place, when you stop to think about it.

So it stands to reason that the Founding Families are willing to fight a losing war for as long as they can manage, simply to give outside factors a chance to intervene and prevent a catastrophe. The problem being… there's no outside factors. This Singularity only stretches as far as the city of Fuyuki itself, there's nobody else, there's nothing else.

In a sense, that's for the best, because it means the consequences cannot spill over either, but…

"I wish we had more information. This Singularity doesn't–" Olga catches her mistake immediately, but the harm is already done. "I– I mean–!"

"We're a Singularity, then?" Tohsaka asks with a bitter smile on her lips, seemingly taking the revelation with aplomb. "That'd certainly explain why 'the world' seems to be limited to Fuyuki City. We assumed it was the work of an enemy Noble Phantasm."

"I'm sorry." Olga apologizes. She doesn't know how it must feel, to know that you're not real, that you are not proper. Just a mirage of the timeline that will be gone with the first—

"Don't be." Tohsaka surprises her again, letting out a long-drawn sigh. "That's a damn relief, actually."

"H– Huh?"

"What? We are teetering at the edge of a world-ending catastrophe here, barely keeping the worst-case scenario at bay through means that simply cannot hold forever." Fuyuki's Second Owner explains with the easy acceptance of those who have seen their demise coming for long enough to come to terms with it. "If this was Proper Human History, we would have a rather big problem in our hands."

Olga promptly decides -wisely so, if you ask her- to keep to herself the fact that Proper Human History is in big trouble anyway.

"But–"

"No buts. I value my own life and there's much I would do to try and keep it, but there are limits." Tohsaka cuts firmly, before stopping in the middle of a seemingly random alleyway. "Now, let's shelve this conversation for now. There's some people I want you to meet."

"People you want me to meet?" Olga frowns confusedly. "What are you talking about?"

"Why, the rest of the Founding Families… And your fellow Chaldean survivors." The woman answers with a confident smile, opening the sliding right before them. "Welcome to our base of operations, the Emiya Household!"

It's like a whole different world lies on the other side of the door, no fire, no smoke, not even the cloying malice that seems to permeate the air anywhere else in the Singularity can be felt past the door frame. Only a stone path framed by green grass and colorful flowers, leading to a traditional Japanese house.

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