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There was a small courtyard garden between the school and the chapel, complete with a fountain in the middle. Hakuno's fingers ghosted the stems of flowers and traced the ripples of the water. Had she seen scenery like this before the .PH.? How long had it been? Questions with no answers; Hakuno's mind a stubborn blank outside of those nightmares soaked in red. She shook her head at herself. The secrets of her past would not be found in the greenery here. Best to keep moving forwards.
The wooden doors of the chapel were heavy against her palms, but they swung open easily enough. They even shut themselves behind her, the click of it soft but somehow it carried through the space. Her feet carried her past the pews, into the otherwise silent church. There was something about this place, something that made it feel completely separate from the rest of .PH. The Moon Cell had many mysteries, and Hakuno had neither the time nor the patience to dig into all of them.
Two women sat at the front of the church, as different from one another as night from day. The younger of the two was a redhead, the length of her hair extending down the back of the chair. As if to emphasize she was no Holy Sister, her posture was slouched forward against her knee. The other had blue hair cropped short, a pair of glasses sitting on her nose. Her posture was straight as a pin, but the cigarette in her mouth gave away that she did not feel like playing pretend priest either.
"Welcome to the Chapel. I am Aoko Aozaki. You're here for an Alteration of the Soul?" The redhead greeted Hakuno's approach first.
"I am Touko Aozaki. Hmm. Your face is new. I thought I had learned all the Masters. Regardless, the more test subjects the better. Then you are here to perform the Alteration of the Soul?" the blue haired one echoed the question.
"What is an Alteration of the Soul?" Hakuno decided it was best to not address the oddities of these two and focus on something she could learn.
"You don't know? And you came here anyways? Amateur," Aoko gave an eyeroll at Hakuno's apparent gall.
"Simply put, we further link your soul to your Servant's by hacking into both souls at the same time. This can have varying results, depending on the wishes of the Master. As the Master grows stronger, the changes can be more extreme. Some come here and completely change their Servant from appearance to personality." Hakuno gaped in horror, her gasp interrupting the explanation. That sounded like nothing but a violation of the highest order, Lancer seeming just as disturbed at the possibility. Touko continued speaking as if nothing had happened. "We can also use the Master's growing strength and improve the abilities and skills of the Servant. We can even unlock previously dormant aspects of the Servant should the Master be powerful enough or if the… 'bond' between the two is strong enough to compensate."
I'm willing. At this, Lancer's figure manifested beside her, his spear not in hand. We have to get back at least some of my strength if nothing else.
Lancer…
I trust ya enough to believe you're not going to change me into something I'm not, Master. And even she had wanted to, Hakuno knew she was nowhere near a strong enough Magus to be able to warp Lancer's soul with her own. Just even thinking about considering doing such a thing to this man that had so far had only helped her made Hakuno's stomach turn in revolt.
"We'd like to work on his abilities. Get back what he's lost." Even agreed upon, necessary, and no plans for nefarious purposes, doing this felt like Hakuno was attempting to deal with a wounded wild animal.
"Then I will begin," Aoko stood. And directed the pair into a central circle.
"And I will observe to ensure she doesn't fuck it up" Touka's smile was not reassuring.
A ring of magecraft surrounded the Master and Servant, gleaming as the spell crackled along their skin, before everything went white.
Hakuno found herself in a void of nothingness. She felt lighter than normal, not registering any of the usual sensations or even gravity from her body. The only thing she could see was a virtual computer panel. E rank stats across the board. No skills. The ghost of a hand touched the panel, brushing over the bottom one that denoted itself as Luck. This was her fault, wasn't it?
No lass. I've always had shit luck. Don't go feeling guilty for somethin' you're trying to fix. The ghostly hand moved away from Luck and instead tapped on the stats reading Endurance, Agility, and Strength. I vote that we start with these three.
Lancer? Where?She looked left and right.
Lass, warn me before you do that! Kinda dizzying when you're not expecting it.The point of view slowly turned back to the stat screen.
Are we… sharing a body? Hakuno felt what amounted to her shoulders shrug in answer.
Not sure either of us has much of a body like this. The only real sense I have is sight right now, and I'm not even sure how well that's working with only this screen thing as a point of reference. My guess is that this is just what it feels like to have souls forcibly merged. They're quite literally molding your circuits and mine to be more compatible so that we can get stronger based on your strength as a Master. Impressive magic. And I don't trust it as far as we could throw it. The view looked down to the one spectral hand they had. And I do mean throwing with whatever the fuck I should call this. Let's be quick. Who knows how long this stuff can last. Or what sort of things they can do to us if we let this keep going.
Hakuno quickly set to work, following his advice, letting her magic flow. Lancer's Agility increased quickly, leveling up to D. She was able to help Endurance and Strength, though she was feeling herself wearing thin. Hakuno's efforts were further rewarded with a notice from the 'System'.
SKILL REACTIVATED: RED BOUGH WHEEL - TEMPORARY BUFF. STEAL MANA/MAGIC FROM ENEMY ON BREAKING THROUGH GUARD.
COMBAT MANEUVER RETURNED. SPEAR CRAFT: FANGS OF THE EARTH - HIGH SPEED MULTI-HIT ATTACK.
With that the connection faded and Hakuno found herself back in her proper place, the sensations of her own body a welcome relief. A shiver ran along her magic circuits as Lancer opened his eyes again next to her.
BOND MONITORING SYSTEM UNLOCKED.
Best to figure out what that meant later. Hakuno forced herself to stand on wobbly legs.
"Feel free to return at any time" the Aozaki 'sisters' dismissed the still processing duo out the door. Lancer had to shake himself off, a bit before vanishing. He reminded Hakuno of a wet dog with the motion.
The light of the garden outside made Hakuno squint. Almost missing an old man in a green coat who seemed to be enjoying the quiet. His gaze was steel as it found her. Neither hostile nor friendly, he took note of her expression.
"Tea will help. It will get easier with time." His advice was delivered in the tone of someone used to having others obey orders, most likely having had some position of authority. Yet, it was not unkind. Like a superior officer offering knowledge to a cadet. Then the older male turned his gaze away, not appearing to truly care if she listened.
Hakuno focused on getting back inside the school, wanting to take a chance to process everything. She had just gotten past the Nurse's Office when her terminal beeped at her again. The secondary cipher key had been generated and the second level of the Arena unlocked.
No rest for the wicked, eh Master?
Seems her Servant wanted to shake off the weirdness of the Chapel with battle. Hakuno admitted that they had yet to go into the Arena today. Maybe heading inside would help her too?
… was her Servant turning her into a battle junkie by proxy? Surely not. They just needed to keep training. Yes. That was it.
The second Arena was not too different from the first one at first glance. Blue hallways extended out into the surrounding cyber space. However, the first Arena had been surrounded by darkness. Now, there was actual scenery. Cracked stone paths zigzagged in random spots, decorated by the remnants of decorations with dead trees popping up here and there. Only the occasional cherry blossom petals floating around indicated what these had once been. In the center of all this there was a temple, withered with age. With the watery bubbles and atmospheric effects of currents, the place resembled temple grounds that had sunken to the bottom of some unknown lake. The cyberspace pathways allowed the exploring pair to get close to the temple, but not inside.
"Look Master. A hidden path." Lancer stepped through a wall, and Hakuno followed after. This secret room ended with them on the main stairs of the temple, a flight or two away from the main torii gate. Lancer leaned his spear over his shoulder as he gazed at the entrance so near yet so far away. "Here's a look at our first coliseum. In a few days, we'll be fighting Saber for real up there." Those red eyes of his went over to her, an unreadable expression on his face. Hakuno's best guess was that he was assessing her reaction to this information. Hakuno was not sure what to think of it really. Panic would not change the future, so her face remained in its natural neutral expression. This seemed good enough for Lancer, as he nodded and went to poke at the item folders in this room. Getting back to work.
Only for work to immediately pause again after he retrieved the second treasure. "Oi, boss lady. You'll want to see this." Hakuno stepped over. Lancer handed her the book he'd found in the chest. It was less a true book than the fragmented remnants of a journal of some sort. Hakuno had to first cobble together then run a translation program on the text, the swirling script in a language she did not speak. The first result she got was the journal's owner's name. Rama. Curious. Hakuno wondered who he was even if the name felt powerful and sounded a hair familiar.
Hakuno's translation program struggled its way even through the little text there that remained in this ancient looking record. It seemed to be a personal journal, bits of Rama's thoughts and problems revealing themselves. Most of it, while interesting, was not pertinent. Hakuno began to wonder why this was down here. Then she came to another fragmented section and her eyes widened at the initial result. 'Demon King of the Sixth Heaven'. Hakuno's little program was practically smoking as it did its best. She got two names: Papiyas and Mara. Both seemed to refer to the Demon King himself. After that, Hakuno's makeshift translation program crashed.
"It's not Saber's name, but now we can search for more information with this." Hakuno stored the journal away. Her inventory beeped in recognition. There was a second beep as her terminal showed a new notification. MATRIX LEVEL 3 UNLOCKED. New key words had been applied. The names of Saber's father. Hakuno was on the right track.
"Let's go then Master. We've still got a trigger code to find." Lancer looked eager to truly be able to face Saber. Hakuno hoped that his renewed abilities would help the real fight not be as one sided as that first encounter had been.
Off the duo went, the spark of hope reinvigorating them. Lancer's encounters against the programs now seemed… happier. Almost joyful even. Hakuno had no issue in training herself how to properly handle his skills. She considered this training to know when to call on the skills, how much mana they took from him, and how best to support their use with her own reserves. It was a much-needed confidence boost.
The secondary cipher key awaited them in its container. Hakuno registered it onto her terminal. TRIGGER OBTAINED - TRIGGER CODE BETA. No weird error messages this time. Perhaps the first had truly been nothing of consequence. Just the briefest spritz in the system. Hakuno dismissed her musings. "Let's get out of here, Lancer."
"Aye lass, I'm right behind you."