Not-yet-summer resort: I
In the beginning, she knew nothing.
Then, she knew feeling.
Looking up at the cerulean sky, the shadowed doctor looking down at her…
One thing plagued her mind.
What was the gaping void in her chest?
She had no name for it, no way to describe it other than emptiness. A missing puzzle piece.
The man she travelled with couldn't name it, nor did he care to.
For many days, it stayed within her and festered until she nearly tore out her heart.
It was only many days later, walking in a pleasant town at the seaside, that she realised.
She watched a young girl play with a man and a woman—her parents.
As soon as her eyes met that sight, she knew.
The feeling… its name was envy.
The envy of a child who wished for a mother.
When she had come all the way down here, she would have expected something a little bit different than what she was actually presented with, but that was alright with her. Then again, perhaps calling it alright was not truly what she meant as much as it was manageable.
"To the left." She stopped, then waved her hand towards the figure, the armoured head turned towards her and stared at her rather dumbly, making not even a single sound as they tilted their head to the side but otherwise did nothing else. Holding back a sigh of exasperation, she lowered her hands to her side and raised a brow. "Move it one-point-three metres to the left and then lower it down."
This time they complied without question or confusion, turning their focus back onto what they had been carrying and moving it precisely the distance she ordered before lowering it down onto the ground and stepping backwards, bringing their body to face her and remaining still, awaiting further commands.
Stepping backwards, her brows furrowed and her eyes squinted. Bringing up the pencil in her hand and holding it up to measure the balance of the object in question, closing one eye and turning the pencil on its side. A low hum rippled from her throat before nodding her head once and lowering the pencil back down. Smiling to herself as she turned and continued on her way, only briefly stopping to wave away the armoured figure. "Go and help the northern wall with repairs."
"By your command." Their voice was toneless and hollow, with curt and smooth motions they shifted from her and marched away with loud echoing steps, matched by the well over two dozen other figures mirroring the action and moving to and fro across the entire courtyard, either in transit or moving to areas where they could be of use.
It was nice that she could finally get some decent help but she was finding something of a problem that she had to be incredibly specific with her orders so there was no room for interpretation. She asked them to move something to the right and they would do so, unfortunately they would more often than not move it only a single centimetre before staring at her like a lost puppy.
Bringing her shoulders up and down, a faint breath came from between her lips as she moved back along towards the main spire. Stepping around one of the stray boxes as she did so without even breaking stride, only pausing to wave to one of the other figures stood up ahead of them, the Saber - as that was what his class was - turned away from Archer and waved back to her, helmet resting in the crook of his arm as he stepped away from the Archer and towards her.
"You seem hard at work, I trust you aren't running yourself too ragged with this."
"And hello to you as well." She replied rather dryly to the Saber, prompting a smile from him as she continued on. "And the chances of that happening are rather slim, I'm trying to get everything finished up before the main event starts…can't risk trying too hard, otherwise you can bet that she would probably send someone down to strap me to a chair for a couple of hours."
Saber chuckled and then shook their head. "You jest, but I am rather concerned that they would genuinely do that. They co-opted the use of the communication method to order me to take a nap, though I'm certain that everyone would have heard that and Archer's situation speaks for itself."
"It's a bother." Archer commented in a sharp manner, arms folded over their chest and their head turned to the side, a rather irritated scowl on their face before it faded away, replaced by a look of exasperation. "I understand the merit but there would be time enough for all of that after everything has been completed and all is well…But I suppose I might make time enough for a cause such as this one for however long it remains, but only to an extent…I am not having a repeat of earlier."
She suppressed a smile at the image of it once again, she would need to have it to the other Saber that they certainly knew how to get under the skin of Archer, if only because it had been a rather comical sight of them pointing some small red dot at the ground and leading them away with a perfectly blank expression.
It had been hours later that she learned Archer had been sent towards a grooming parlour.
It explained why Archer had come back looking as though she was ready to tear out someone's throat and also why their hair and face suddenly looked a great deal more resplendent than normal. Though Saber had almost learned the hard way what happened when you complimented someone when they didn't want to be complimented, it was partly why she was surprised to see them together.
"Anyway, I'm off to the office to let the boss know that everything should be ready…barring any sort of interruptions?" She pointedly looked between the two of them with a somewhat hesitant feel, it was always right when you were about to complete something that everything would go wrong, she didn't see this as being any different.
Saber shook his head from side to side, giving her a reassuring smile. "I have been walking up and down these walls all morning, there has been neither horn nor tail of our rude guests…not for lack of trying in the last few days, but beyond that there is little else we need concern ourselves with, but I shall keep up due diligence. It would not do for me to be caught out because I was too relaxed…ironic as that might be."
Archer let out a scoff, shooting s pointed look towards Saber as they did so. "That much should be obvious. Regardless, I've been contracted for this, so I shall at least do the job I was asked for…and there hasn't been any sign of them. I would say they are preparing for something," they paused, a thoughtful look flashed across their face as they did so. "But after the last wave was repelled, I would just as easily argue they are trying to rebuild their forces once more, even a Noble Phantasm has limits and I would say it is only a matter of time until they reach theirs."
Wouldn't that be some welcome news.
"I won't keep you two then." She nodded to the pair of them. "I'll see you both later and if you should see Lancer-"
"I should hope not." The sour look on Archer returned with an intensity to it, turning to the side and scowling off into the distance.
The one-sided hatred of Archer and Lancer was something she was curious of but never found the chance to ask, neither of the Sabers seemed to know and of that only one of them actually cared, the other just shrugged their shoulders and said it was for them to deal with.
"Right…" She slowly nodded her head up and down, then turned towards the Saber who actually looked as though they were willing to entertain her request. "Tell Lancer, if you find them before I do, that I still want that grappling hook crossbow back and I don't care how much they like it. It's mine."
Saber raised a brow and nodded his head, looking rather bemused. She saw that the words caught the attention of Archer as well, them raising a brow and staring in confusion before shaking their head from side to side and walking away from the conversation without asking.
Well, whatever their problem was, at least they kept away from one another.
With a final farewell to the Saber and Archer duo, she turned her focus once more unto the direction of the spire and continued her advance, moving through the large doors and into the elevator, bringing her foot up and then slamming it down on the large button in the centre of the space. An echoing grinding sound filled her ears as she shunted upwards, the lift starting to pull as she ascended higher and higher through the tower.
Her eyes turned out to glance through the passing windows, only getting glimpses of the work but it brought a ghost of a smile to her lips. She wasn't about to jump up and down with joy or let out a whooping cheer, but she was certainly proud of the work she and the others had put into it at this point in time. Placing her hands on her hips, she briefly paused and then narrowed her eyes and leaned forwards as she watched something in the distance.
It took a moment for her to realise what it was, then her eyes closed and her head slumped forwards. A faint groan escaped her as she realised that it was nothing more than Lancer playing around once again. She never should have made that grappling crossbow in the first place, she never even got a chance to use it before Lancer all but pilfered it off her desk and ran off as fast as he could.
Something of a childish pest, perhaps she could enlist the other Saber to convince him if the first didn't pan out.
No, no time to think of all that now.
The elevator started to slow it's ascent, she turned her eyes towards the door as it started to pull to the side, the refurbished and polished steel swung open for her and all but beckoned for her to exist, stepping out and onto the polished stone floor, carrying herself forwards and in the direction of the singular corridor before her, it was the only place where the lift would bring her, the summit of the entire fortress.
Stepping outside and onto a narrow walkway, she continued onwards towards the doors as she caught sight of a figure standing just off to the side, they turned towards her almost instantly and stared with that oddly intense look of theirs, it lasted for only a second before they dismissed her entirely and turned their head away.
Well, no reason for her not to be polite.
"Morning, Saber."
They did not respond to her words for a second, then turned their head towards the sky and stared at it for a good half second before replying in an utterly toneless voice.
"...It is. Yes."
Pharros caught herself short, then stared at the Servant with a flat expression. One that they showed no intention of even acknowledging, clearly having met the standard requirement for social interactions, or perhaps they just didn't like speaking with her in particular, she didn't know which it was.
"You spoken with Lancer today?"
Their unblinking gaze returned to her, giving her an expression somewhere between puzzlement and irritation, as though she was asking something incredibly stupid.
"I speak with him every day. Why?"
She sniffed, placing her hands on her hips. "Just wanting to know if you could pass along a message for me-"
"Are you unable to speak with him yourself?"
Pharros was cut short but the blunt remark, she held herself back from slapping a palm over her face and groaning into it. Instead she offered a polite smile and continued on, trying her best to avoid losing her focus over the words. "No, they just keep running away from me and I don't have the spare time to chase them down, you spend more time with them than me so I was just wondering if you would be willing to speak with them on my behalf."
Saber remained silent for several agonising moments, during that period her gaze seemed to harden and her lip twitched for a brief instant before they gave a slow blink and broke contact with her, shifting their focus back out and returning to gazing over the fortress with an almost apathetic feeling about them. "It's no business of mine to intervene between you and Lancer. He will respond better if you talk with him yourself, rather than just through me."
Pharros probably would have said more, in fact she knew she would have said more, but Saber made the choice for her as they jerked their head towards the door they were stood next to. "She's still awake. Speak with her before she goes to sleep again."
As though to drive the point home, they stepped away from the battlement and pushed the door open with a loud groan of wood before they stepped back and turned away from it. Clearly finished with the conversation, if the attempt at moving her on was anything to be interpreted. Pharros figured the only way she could have made it more obvious she didn't want to speak further was if she just told her.
Well…she hadn't been expecting much anyway, so she wasn't surprised in the least.
With an undaunted shrug of the shoulders, she pulled herself forwards and moved past the Saber with a quiet farewell to them which when unreciprocated beyond a mere grunt.
Stepping through the now open door, she entered the office and almost fell over as she stumbled over the pillows scattered across the floor, catching herself just before she could truly slip and then pausing, turning her head down towards the ground and giving the floor an annoyed look before she brought her head up and towards the desk at the other end of the room.
Naturally, the person who was supposed to be seated at that desk wasn't there, instead she looked to the bubble like chair which was suspended from the ceiling by a large chain, swinging back and forth while noise blared through the room, sounds of small animals and chirping mixed with many other noises. Pharros spared a glance towards the direction of the large TV fixed to the wall, showing some manner of complex full of animals and people.
Of all the things to get with the Holy Grail, it was this?
Well…it was rather impressive.
"Ahem." Clearing her throat, she stepped over the remaining pillows and teddy bears which littered the floor, then paused as she saw a couple of stray plastic cups mixed between the soft collection, litter upon the ground from someone too lazy to pick it all up, positioned in more or less the same location, likely from them just tossing the cups over their shoulder when they were finished with them.
The game paused, the chair started to turn at an almost painfully slow rate.
"Heeeeey…" The slow and lethargic greeting was accompanied by barely a raised hand, the droopy smile was interrupted by a loud yawn as the figure leaned back into their chair and slumped, the movement rocking it back and forth in short swings as a result. "Pharros, is everything ready?"
"Almost." She responded, finding some clear ground and standing within it, giving another sweeping glance at the room and curling her lips ever so slightly. She was used to camping out in the wilderness so she wasn't bothered by filth, but there was a difference between trash left behind by nature and trash left behind because you just couldn't be bothered to clear it up.
Still, she wasn't the one who was living here so that wasn't her problem.
"We're finishing up the last of the attractions and getting all the damage repaired from the last raid." Cutting out all the main details - she knew they weren't interested in those - she explained the situation to her boss. "I'd say that if all goes well, it will be done within the next hour."
The eyes of her employer narrowed, something suspicious flowed through them as they started to lean forwards, setting their game controller to the side and letting out a low hum. "An hour…you're not overworking, are you?"
Pharros gave a polite smile. "Not at all. We've been going at a rather steady pace and no one has put in more work than they are comfortable with."
Or that her employer was comfortable with, left unsaid that she could have had this entire project done days ago if they didn't keep insisting upon everyone taking mandatory breaks every couple of hours. Much as she might have joked internally about Archer's treatment, she knew full well that something similar would have befallen her if she didn't submit to the six hour compulsory break times.
Suffice to say, she was more impressed that they were actually going to get this completed today, between the slow rate of production and the repeated attacks on the outer walls…well, it earned its place as one of the least productive worksites she had ever been on in her life.
And she had worked with rats.
Rats didn't even have opposable thumbs and they were still better at building.
"So we'll be able to open up for the first arriving guests soon…that's good." They turned their chair back around to face their TV, picking up their game controller and pressing the unpause button as the noises returned once again. "Yeah…okay…you can finish up and then take a break…"
Pharros stared blankly at the employer for a couple of seconds, then turned around and started to walk back towards the doors, kicking aside the bears and pillows that blocked her path. At this rate she was going to need a break from taking breaks. It was all fun and games until it was literally all fun and games.
Well, it wasn't like it wouldn't have its highlights.
She looked forward to when everything was up and running at least.
One of these days he was going to be woken up to a pleasant surprise, like breakfast in bed or something.
…Okay, perhaps that would have been a little much and it wasn't as though his every single morning was full of some manner of trouble or hijinks, more often than not it was actually rather calm. Fact of the matter was, this was just one of those mornings where he could already tell that something was going to end up amiss.
For one thing, when he opened his eyes he didn't find Gwyndolin staring down at him from the foot of his bed or even at the side of it. Nor did looking under his bed reveal any sign of Kiyohime, even when he got out of bed and swung the wardrobe open he was greeted by nothing more than the sight of his clothes hanging up, clearly untouched and with no sign that anyone had been hiding in between them.
His eyes narrowed and he stepped back from the open wardrobe door, bringing his fingers up to pinch his chin and hum quietly to himself.
Was it telling that the absence of intruders in his room was something he was using as evidence that there was something afoot in Chaldea? Maybe, but he didn't want to put much more thought into it than that.
Neither Kiyohime or Gwyndolin were present and that was all the evidence he needed for there being a problem. Those two weren't the sort to just leave his room alone and avoid showing up.
Getting dressed as quickly as he could, he departed his room and moved into the hallway.
Already there was something else amiss.
It was much too quiet.
He glanced at his watch, it was already past eight in the morning with not a single soul to be seen walking around in the hallways. Even now he would have expected to see either Sif or maybe even Havel patrolling the corridors. If neither of them, then Mash would have certainly been on her way to his room to try and wake him up.
His left hand moved to his neck, scratching back and forth as he looked up and down either end of the hallway. The glance revealed no sign of anything else, flipping his wrist over and moving along to the communicator, he pressed down against the button and set out a little call to the command room.
It chimed for a few moments, then the face of Romani flashed up in front of him, he could faintly make out Da Vinci moving in the background and a couple of words but otherwise his focus remained on the doctor. "Something the matter?"
Romani gave a brief pause before he continued on. "Yeah? How did you-? Nevermind. You'd be right on that account. Not sure how it happened but sometime during the night, Servants started to vanish from Chaldea without warning." their head turned from the communicator and towards the screen at their right. "We've been trying to track down where they went but they didn't use the Chaldea summoning or the one that Da Vinci whipped up…it's like they were just lifted right out of the base!"
Yeah, that sounded rather bad.
That being said, "I still feel as though I'm contracted to them though…well, I think I do, I'd have felt it if I wasn't contracted to them anymore, right?"
Romani nodded his head up and down. "Yeah, that's partially why this is so peculiar. The contracts are all still active, it's just that we're trying to figure out where they all went…honestly, we don't know whether this is an attack by Solomon or some other sort of mischief and the fact we can't rule out the latter of the two-" cutting himself off, he placed his hands against his face and leaned back into his chair.
"Mattina protagonista!" The rather exuberant greeting came from Da Vinci who stepped out of the background and into frame, pulling Romani's chair back just enough that she could fit into the screen as well. "I'd say you're just in time for the morning excitement, though I'm leaning towards the idea that we can exclude Solomon as the cause here…if only because we're all still alive."
He opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Huh. Yeah. Good point."
"Anyway, in case you're wondering where Mash is, I sent her down to get the Director up here first and then she should be making her way up to you…if my timing is right," She cracked a smile that was all but telling. They both knew that her timing was going to be right and she was just playing it up for dramatic effect. "Then she should be coming to you any…second…"
"Ah, Senpai!"
"Now." She finished with an all too proud smile, puffing out her chest and jutting her chin upwards. Both he and Romani gave her matching looks of a single raised eyebrow, then he turned his focus towards Mash and nodded his head towards her. "Now that Mash has found you, the both of you can come up to the command room and we should have somewhere for you to go by the time you get up here. They didn't exactly make it very subtle."
Well, at least they would have somewhere to go.
Quite frankly, he wasn't sure if this was going to be another Elizabeth style thing as with Halloween but he supposed he wouldn't know until he got up there. Just because it wasn't Solomon didn't mean it wasn't benign.
"Good, you made it."
"Good morning to you as well." He responded with, chuckling lowly under his breath and doing his best to ignore the glower that the Director sent him over the comment, it was barely even an ounce of any actual irritation, he was convinced she was just doing it on a reflex.
A sharp breath escaped her nose. "Yes, morning." she grunted back, then turned her focus away from him and towards Da Vinci. "Now then, you can run us through the briefing and explain what happened? I do not understand how you managed to lose so many Servants in such a short span of time." her arms were tightly folded over, hands gripped tight against her upper arms.
Ritsuka could see where she was coming from. "Actually, yeah. When Artemis raided the supply rooms we found out pretty quickly, no offence but you're speaking as though we lost a majority of our Servants and no one noticed…" he paused for a moment, then gestured to himself. "I didn't even notice and I'm the one contracted to them in the first place."
Da Vinci nodded her head up and down, leaning back and sitting on the desk next to the monitor, then pointing to him. "The fact you're still contracted to them is proof enough that this isn't an entirely hostile action. Think about it-" she raised her hands before the Director got a chance to counter the statement. "-they just reach into Chaldea and abduct well over sixty percent of the Servants contracted to us at the time, some of whom are actual Gods, and then shepherd them to wherever it was they wanted them…I'm fairly certain someone who could do something like that would be capable of breaking the contracts with Fujimaru rather easily."
She made a good point there, not that the Director didn't have further complaints.
"That is a thin silver lining at best and being an apologist at worst." She declared with a wave of the hand and a scowl on their face, pointing down to the ground. "This one act has managed to cripple our capabilities until we recover the missing Servants. A singularity could emerge at any moment and we would be forced to counter it with limited resources. This is practically sabotage!"
Another nod of the head, Da Vinci's expression hardened. "I didn't say that it wasn't only that there is probably a chance that whoever did this isn't going to try and kill us when we follow them down. Romani is currently tracking down the location via the still active contracts and given the quantity of Servants taken," she turned her head and stared at the doctor hard at work on the computer "it won't be long until we have a location. Something I would wager is a Singularity but that goes without saying, you wouldn't be able to place so many Servants anywhere else."
He shot a glance to the Director, watching as her expression cycled through several rather burning emotions before it settled on a troubled frown, her hands landing themselves on her hips as she turned her attention away from the Caster and onto the back of the head of the doctor. He paused and shuddered for only a second, likely sensing the intense glare being aimed at the screen he was working on.
"So what Servants do we currently have left in Chaldea?" He quizzed Da Vinci, she turned on him with a faint smile.
"Enough to form a fairly solid away team for when the Singularity is located. We've had a couple of volunteers who are already waiting near the summoning chamber for you, but other than that I've got a little list of them here." Reaching around behind herself, she took hold of something and then moved it towards him, an electronic tablet with a list of names was deposited into his hands.
He assumed the ones with the red crosses through their names were the ones who had been stolen away. Not quite bothering to stop is raising brows as he looked through them, then jerked up when he caught sight of a specific name. "Wait, they were able to snatch up Havel? Doesn't he have that-"
"Anti-Magic miracle of his, yes." Da Vinci confirmed, with the conversation drawing the focus of the Director who now looked more concerned than she had been before. "Right into the same category as the Servants with high magic Resistance, it didn't seem to do them much good as well. Which means that this is likely the work of a Holy Grail as a magical container of that magnitude would blast right the way past whatever resistance it met. That's the only way I can explain how they managed to grab Jeanne d'Arc as well."
"They managed to get Jeanne-san?" Mash's surprise spoke volumes "But she has some of the best Magic Resistance in all of Chaldea!"
"Same with Astolfo." Da Vinci added on grimly, raising her right hand and bringing up a single finger. "Either they knew a way to circumvent magic resistance, the implications of that being exceedingly concerning or," she raised another finger, her expression softened a little. "They just decided they would brute force their way through it without enough magical energy."
"The latter is the more appealing option to consider." The comment from the Director earned a nod of the head from him. If only because the idea of someone that smart doing something like this was a little concerning to him. He wasn't entirely certain why that was, but it just made him a little more comforted to think that it could be explained away rather neatly by someone using a Holy Grail.
"We got something."
The voice of Kerry cut through the room, he turned in the direction of the brunette as she wheeled her chair around to face them, pointing an arm towards her screen before flipping back around and bringing herself forwards.
He lowered the pad to his side and moved across the room, the terminal soon becoming the centre of attention, at least until the screen was put up on the draw down projector in front of the window, then their focus turned to that. Ritsuka raised his brows as he stepped forwards, watching the map cycle around before landing on a particular location.
"Howland island?" He'd never heard of it before in his life, judging by the size of it on the world map, being smaller than a grain of sand to the point where they had to zoom in even further so that he could even see it, he didn't think he would have been the only one in the room to be surprised it existed.
"It's the closest landmass," Kerry explained, shrugging her shoulders up and down "it's at least a hundred miles north of it as well. Placing it firmly within the Northern Pacific Ocean but there are no recorded major land masses nearby, the closest is Baker island but that's more of the same. A tiny little dot of land…Not sure how it would even count as a Singularity."
"The only logical answer is that there is something there which is able to affect human history from a point of nothing." The Director announced as she stepped forwards, placing her hands on her hips. "In a similar manner of ability as Ash was capable of demonstrating during that little christmas escapade…he is still in Chaldea, isn't he?"
He answered the question, nodding his head up and down. "Yeah, Ash is still here. Registered on the little tablet as one of the volunteers to go down as well. Same with Boudica, Gareth and Medusa…Though we're a little short staffed and none of them have the ability to whip out boats, Ash can't swim either so he's going to be in for a rough time."
It wasn't long before he got a solution for that. "I can whip up a little floaty for you. You'd still have the one from the time we sent you to the Atlantic to use and fortunately for all of us, I have been able to develop a little motor to give you some momentum with it." the brunette turned around and cracked a smile. "Ash's box makes transport less of an issue."
He could believe it.
"What else do we know about this?"
"Hmmm." Romani's hum drew his eye, the doctor leaning towards his screen and frowning for a moment, then pushing away from it. "Meuniere, can you double check those magical energy readings for me? Because those aren't looking right."
"On it." A response, then followed by a surprised grumble and the hesitant voice of the man in question. "Alright, yeah. This doesn't look right to me either. The gauge is flickering up and down, the output is exceedingly high but it doesn't look stable, or maybe it does? It's strange, it routinely spikes but then it settles back down just to spike again."
Ritsuka blinked, then moved towards the desk of the man in question and loomed over the back of him, staring at the screen and watching the readings for himself. His eyes narrowed as he watched the bars jump up before falling back down again, then doing so again before they fell once more. The time between them seemed to be consistent, the jumps would happen after what felt like a short period of time - perhaps two or three seconds - and then there would be a short respite before they did so again.
It was really, really weird.
"The other Holy Grails didn't do that, did they?"
"They did not." A fast and serious response from Da Vinci cemented that this was not a normal situation. "And I can see what the problem is, this is more like a pattern but…hmmm. It is entirely possible that there have been some modifications made to this particular Holy Grail, but we won't know for certain until we get down there and have a look."
A pause from the woman, he turned to see her lean away and then gave a half smile. "And by we, I mean you. Best get going mister protagonista, I'll make sure that the little inflatable is sent down for you."
A light cough, the Director came into focus as she folded her arms over her chest once more. "Given the nature of this Singularity and the possibility of exceedingly difficult conditions when combined with our limited capabilities, I shall be accompanying you on this Rayshift. Especially as my own Servants have seemingly been abducted as well, only Stahl and Berserker remain behind. I have sent commands for them to rendezvous in the Rayshift chamber for us."
"Glad to have you coming with us, Director." Mash gave a rather enthusiastic welcome, stepping forwards and smiling at the woman before she turned on him with the same grin. "Aren't we, Senpai?"
"Let's hope that we don't end up in the air this time, eh?" A wry grin came upon his lips as he nodded his head towards the door, already moving towards it as he did so. "I don't think Ash had done swimming lessons and I don't think that Stahl floats…but other than that, welcome aboard once again, Director."
Olga stared at him incredulously before she started to follow him out of the room. "Why is the first thing you say to me after I inform you that I am joining you a warning of death as a result of either user error or a technical glitch? Do you think either of those situations are amusing?"
He blinked, then tilted his head. "Not in the least, but if you can't make light of them then they're just going to freak you out." jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Mash, he continued on. "Why do you think I believe she's managed to earn herself Skydiving Rank: A as a skill?"
A smile and he moved through the door before she could respond, leaving her standing there, Mash wasn't so stationary and followed him out of the room. "Do you really feel that way, Senpai?"
He shrugged. "Way I see it, either we'll get a smooth landing or we won't. So long as everything works out well, we can always joke about it later. Besides, I like to think that all the falling is behind us. Roman said he worked out all of the bugs and glitches and we've got Da Vinci saying the same thing."
Romani was one thing, but having Da Vinci make a guarantee was a very different matter entirely.
…He really hoped he hadn't just jinxed it.
"Why do you think we weren't taken?"
The sudden question from Gareth had prompted an all around silence from the assembled Servants thus far, Ash kept a short distance from them but not so far as he could not hear the question. His lips pulled down in thought for a moment before he answered. "I could explain away my own presence being left behind, given that I could just as easily summon myself back into Chaldea, but I cannot explain the rest of you."
Boudica hummed, placing her hands on her hips. "That could be it, but it could just as easily be a couple of other reasons. Perhaps they were just taking Servants at random or maybe there is some sort of method to the selection?" a shrug of the shoulders. "We probably won't know until we get down there and have a look…though I'm rather worried to face something that could just yank so many Servants out of Chaldea without so much as a shout of alarm."
Berserker gave out a low grunt as they nodded his head up and down. "It was strange, one moment I had been seeing the small Goddess with wings float past me and then suddenly she was gone. There was nothing else to it, she was there one moment and gone the next." moving a clawed digit up and towards their chin, they scratched at the underside as a look of confusion came upon them. "Maybe they did not take me because of…actually, no. There are some other sisters in Chaldea like me and they were taken, so that cannot be it."
Ash narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, the wording from Berserker was rather odd but otherwise nothing of note. Clearly it was just further proof that the selection was random as opposed to anything else. Still, the fact that Sulyvahn had also been taken was concerning. Either it was random, in which case that was fine or it was selective and they purposefully wanted them for some odd reason. He was not sure which was worse.
"It seems random." Medusa gave a low comment. "If it was an attack, then they could have just aimed at Master and taken them. If they could steal Servants, then a human would have been easy enough…which means they wanted the Servants for something and did not care which they took." She looked around the room. "That would explain why we are the only ones who remain so far."
Gareth frowned. "That definitely sounds bad either way, but at least they left enough of us to form this pretty strong team, right?" the frown vanished, replaced with a smile as she pumped the lance into the air a single time. "We can head down there and rescue everyone from the clutches of whoever stole them away, can't we?"
Ash kept silent, they had little other choice in the matter. Either they did or they didn't. Still, there was something about this that troubled him and it was not just the fact they had left him behind, it was that there was a scent around this that just brought him out in hives. A similar feeling to his mother but otherwise different, lesser to an extent but no less invasive.
"Hey?"
A low whisper broke his thoughts, he turned his head towards the voice and found Boudica standing next to him, having moved closer when he wasn't paying attention.
"Everything alright, you looked as though you were thinking about something pretty hard?" She cracked a small smile, but he could see the concern in her eyes, the worry which washed over him without sticking.
"Merely considering something, is all." He remarked with a toneless voice, bringing his eyes away from the Rider and frowning lightly. "Merely that whatever took the Servants in Chaldea might not be entirely hostile, but I would not rely on them being passive either. But I will defer this all to Ritsuka when he arrives."
The stare he felt from Boudica intensified, he glanced at her and found the crimson haired woman giving him a definitively pointed look, incredulity now apparent. "I know for a fact you would not be thinking about something as simple as that quite so hard, now then…what is worrying you?"
"...Something about this situation does not appeal to me on a personal level." He replied with a grimace, shuffling ever so slightly as his body felt wrong for a moment. It was all out of place, like bugs crawling over his skin. Or under it. "A lingering feeling from where the Servants were taken, like so many hooks in me…it reminds me of…something unpleasant but they are not the same, there are enough differences that I know they are not the same. I could never mistake it for anything else…but they are similar enough."
Boudica was frowning rather heavily now, he wasn't certain how to deal with the look she was sending his way. He settled for just turning his body side on to her and closing his eyes. All he needed to do was just wait, there was every chance he was just thinking of nothing once again. An odd time that it would be more appealing for this to be nothing more than a stray emotion surfacing once more. A mere trick of the mind.
Fortunately, the door to the summoning chamber opened up, Ritsuka's voice echoing through a moment later. "Alright guys, we've got a mysterious singularity in the pacific ocean with strange grail readings. Let's get in there, find our missing pals and then get out before…well…let's just get this over and done with and hope that everything goes according to plan and no one gets hurt."
"Sure thing, Master." He could tell that even as Boudica spoke, she had not taken her eyes away from him. He turned a little bit further to avoid her, though it didn't stop the itching of her stare on his skin. As though she was trying to see right through him.
It wasn't as though he disliked her concern.
He just…couldn't accept it.
…Because it wasn't concern from her.
"Oh yeah, the Director will be joining us as well, but you probably guessed that with Berserker and Stahl here." Ritsuka added on, sounding as though it was almost an afterthought but it was fairly apparent, as he pointed out.
"Hmph." A dry grunt from the woman, likely annoyed at the almost haphazard way she was introduced to them.
He slowly turned to the direction she was in and opened his eyes, the two of them made eye contact with one another. Looking into her eyes now felt wrong, like he was doing something disgusting. Rolling his jaw, he turned away from her after a short moment with a sharp movement, closing his eyes once more and keeping himself still.
"Okay everyone, about to boot up the Rayshift now. We'll keep in contact with you where we can and monitor the situation from here."
He nodded his head once, then took in a deep breath before unfolding his arms and opening his eyes, moving his hand towards his Bottomless box and drawing out Galvatyne as he did so, placing the tip against the ground with a gentle tinging sound and laying his palm flat on the pommel of the blade.
The Rayshift was without incident.
But that was not the real problem, that was instead the fact they had materialised on a pier.
Ash turned left and right, sure enough he found nothing but a wide expanse of blue waters which stretched on for what looked like eternity, fading into the distant horizon without a single object to break it up.
Save for one, he supposed.
That being the rather large fortress which stood before them, standing upon a foundation of old stone, it remained virtually untouched by the ocean around it, all but pristine in appearance with towers jutting out from the side of the high walls, thick battlements layered along the side and even as he squinted he could see dozens of armoured figures moving across them.
"...Okay, this isn't what I was expecting." The rather lame comment from Ritsuka was coupled with him bringing up the communicator. "Uh, Roman? We've got eyes on the problem, there's a big castle in front of us…and I mean big. It looks absolutely massive and I can see it crawling with people…they look like guards, can anyone see better than-"
"Guards." Berserker commented rather suddenly, Ash glanced at them as they took in a deep huff from their air, then narrowed their eyes. "Dressed in steel. Old steel but they are different. They smell of nothing but steel…like Stahl."
"Does that mean they are golems?" Mash asked with a tilt of the head.
"Whatever they might be, the scale of this creation can only be the work of the Holy Grail." Olga stated rather simply, moving past the others and right to the front of the group, staring over the fortress for a moment before she clicked her tongue. "A Noble Phantasm, perhaps? Or it is another creation of the Holy Grail. Either way, this did not exist during the era of two hundred AD and it certainly doesn't exist within the modern day either…barring the Wandering sea, but that is an entirely different matter."
The communicator crackled, then the voice of Romani filtered through. "We read you loud and clear, it's all picking up now and yeah…looks like Berserker is right, we're detecting well over a hundred different signals here with different classifications to them. They are either golems or they're summons, but there's an awful lot of them." a brief moment of silence and then the doctor continued on. "We're also picking up the missing Servants, they appear to be scattered around all inside the castle at different points but…uhm…huh. Looks like the readings don't want to be completed."
Ash frowned, that didn't sound right to him.
"What?" Olga whipped her head around, annoyance leaking through her voice. "For goodness-" she cut herself short with a sigh. "Let Da Vinci have a look at it."
"Alright, yeah, probably a good idea." The doctor chuckled and started to retreat. Ash stepped closer and looked over Ritsuka's shoulder and into the hologram as the doctor was replaced by the Caster Servant. The woman pulled herself towards the desk and started to type away before she similarly paused and fell back in the chair, blinking twice as she did so.
"Looks like Romani is right." She announced as though she was similarly surprised. "It starts the scan but then it just slows down and grinds to a halt before stopping…Heh, there isn't any sort of interference I can detect either, it's practically as though the equipment has decided it's too much effort to scan the entire complex and then gives up." shrugging her shoulders, she sent a look towards them. "I'll keep working on it, but for now you'll have to make do with what we can send you."
He glanced up towards the fortress once more, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the large tower near the centre of the citadel. He could sense something there, something that almost seemed to be looking right back at him…
A nudge drew him away, glancing to the side and seeing Boudica giving him another odd stare before jerking her head forwards. "Come on, we're going to head for the front gate and see if we can't speak with the ones there."
"Yes, of course." He hadn't even realised how much time had passed, shouldering Galvatyne, he started the advance across the pier, his steps giving out dull thuds as he moved. Occasionally turning his eyes towards the tower, there was still something about it that was drawing his focus in a way that he could not quite explain.
Coming to a stop at the end of the pier, he stared down at the stone steps which led all the way up to the large gate right in front of them, the size of it was tall enough that it would have been easily three times the size of Stahl and nearly double the width, certainly large and even then it did not reach even a third of the total height of the walls. He would have called it unnecessary if he did not see the deep black gouges in the side of the stone walls, claw marks and dark burns all the way up the side.
"This area has seen combat recently." He brought his left hand up, pointing towards the evidence of the attacks. "We are not the only ones to come here, the damage appears consistent with wyverns."
"That makes sense, doesn't it?" Gareth replied to him as she jogged past him, only pausing to glance up at the damage as well. "Aren't wyverns usually dropping in on these types of Singularities? At least that's what everyone says about them at least…Though I'm a little surprised they would even attack the walls rather than just go over them…it almost looks like something was trying to climb up it."
Something large and on fire.
"...Let us hope that it is wyverns, the alternative is not something I would wish to believe."
"Why?"
He sent her a silent look, then shook his head before he started the ascent up the stairs and towards the gatehouse itself. A brief pause as he looked over his shoulder to see Ritsuka and the others moving up the stairs behind him, their eyes turning onto the damage as well before they continued upwards.
He stopped near the summit, then took a step backwards and frowned.
A presence was approaching them, he narrowed his eyes and looked through the bars in the gate as the shadowed figure approached them, making a gesture with their hand, the gate shuddered and started to pull upwards in the next moment, rising higher and higher as it slipped into the pocket in the wall and soon went out of sight, the screeching of steel fell away as it disappeared.
Though Ash kept his gaze firmly centred on the figure, but there was something about them that was familiar to him.
The moment they stepped into the light, he allowed himself to relax ever so slightly.
With a plain white tunic over the top of chainmail armour and a bright sun emboldened onto the front of their shirt, the Servant moved out with a smile on his face, waving his hand towards them as though he was greeting old friends.
"Welcome, welcome! I'm glad that you all were finally able to arrive."
"...Solaire." He greeted the man evenly, not quite loosening his posture as he gazed the man up and down. They were not armed, their sword still in its scabbard and their shield not in their hand. They did not even have their helmet on, instead it was nestled in the crook of their right arm, the smile remained on their face as they looked past him and towards the others, not even so much as blinking at the number of Servants who were now stood before him.
"Solaire-san?" Mash was the next to voice her surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Solaire chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Much the same as I have always done, squire Kyrielight. I was summoned to this place and now serve to offer my assistance as well as I can manage. Still, I'm glad to see you in good health, and that is a choice of words which extends to all of you as well."
Solaire looked over them all, an easy smile ever present. His face fell into a frown as he caught Medusa's eyes, tilting his head and rubbing his chin. The other Servant maintained an unimpressed demeanour, though her limbs coiled like a snake ready to pounce. After a moment Solaire shook his head, adjusting his hold on his helmet.
It was to be expected, Ash decided. Solaire hadn't met Medusa when they had least encountered each other, so she was, for all intents and purposes, a newcomer.
Ash kept silent, gazing up the wall and narrowing his eyes as he stared at the tall figures in dark coloured armour looming over the walls and looking down at them. Their armour was rather bulky and yet rounded over, fully covering pointed helms remained locked onto them with large weapons gripped in their hands, claymores or maces.
"I mean, I'm glad to see you as well," Ritsuka's voice pulled him from his studying of the defences. "but what are you doing here in the first place? I mean, I get the whole you were summoned thing but this place is…nevermind that right now, if you were summoned, then do you know who is in charge?"
Solaire gave a rather odd look. "Yes? I'm sorry, I believe as though there is something of a miscommunication going on here. You do know where you are, yes?"
"A castle in the middle of the pacific ocean." An ironically dry comment from Boudica. "But I don't think that's quite what you meant, and we're here in search of a rather large number of missing Servants…I'd ask if you knew about that but considering you greeted my Master so casually, I'd assume you did not."
The Servant recoiled in surprise, looking as though he had just been struck. "Now I am all but certain there has been some manner of misunderstanding, aren't you here because-did you not get the invitation to come here? I was assured that it was sent to Chaldea, you should have received it…I thought that was why so many Servants appeared here?" he raised his free arm, then pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
Silence.
Ash turned his gaze and looked around to the others, seeing if they had any idea what the man was speaking of. Sure enough, they all looked just as bewildered by the words as he currently felt, they all brought their focus back onto a now rather pensive looking Solaire, still with a thumb pointed over his shoulder. "I…I see…this is turning into quite the awkward encounter and suddenly your unease makes a good deal of sense to me."
A frown fell upon the face of the Servant. "I give you my word that I am as in the dark as you all currently are, but rest assured, I will see to it that we are all made aware of what has transpired here…" lowering his arm, he thinned his lips and shrugged his shoulders. "It just so happens that I was asked to lead you towards the main office the moment you arrived, there you would speak with my summoner and she would explain everything to you."
"And your summoner would be?" The single question from Olga was certainly the most pertinent one that had been asked.
"..." Solaire looked fairly troubled for a moment, then closed his eyes as he dropped his shoulders. "...Divine Park Manager H."
"...Is this some sort of joke?"
"...I am contractually obliged to reply with no." Solaire responded with the utmost sincerity, a sigh escaped him as he stepped backwards, then brought arm arm up. "And I am to welcome all of you to the Not-yet-summer resort: Where bliss is inevitable."
Olga made a noise that was somewhere caught between annoyance and exasperation, Ash spared her a short glance and noted that she was now covering her face and groaning into it, muttering something along the lines of being 'another one of these singularities' and clearly it was the type she didn't in high regard.
Ritsuka cleared his throat and stepped forwards. "Alright then, perhaps it would be best if we just went ahead and met with this boss of yours so we can get this straightened out, because right now I'm a little bit dubious and it's really only you that's keeping me calm here, Solaire. We've had most of our guys kidnapped without warning."
A rapid nod of the head. "Yes, your frustration is understandable and I promise you will have answers." he turned around and started to walk forwards. "Come, let us be on our way."
Ash kept silent, then followed after Solaire, moving through the gate and into the dark tunnel.
He felt a change the moment he stepped into it, though he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be feeling but it was peculiar all the same. Each of his steps suddenly felt as though they weren't quite carrying him as far as though they were supposed to, his body felt odd, as though it was getting lower and lower towards the ground and the weight on his shoulder where his sword was resting was getting heavier and heavier.
The frown on his face only got deeper as a result, he was almost tempted to turn back and call out his worries to the others but he elected to persevere through it. A quick glance and he felt his eyebrows start to rise, Solaire was starting to look as though he had gotten taller as they moved.
His eyes turned down, his legs didn't look as though they had changed in the least and he wasn't crouching down. Clearly there was something amiss here.
Snapping his head back up, he brought up his free hand the moment they left the tunnel and moved into the light, the burning light of the sun cast itself down onto his face causing him to blink out spots, shaking his head from side to side and then focusing his attention on the noise all around him, instantly his eyes started to wide and his jaw all but dropped down.
It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
Great skeletons of metal reached up into the skies with carts moving to and fro along them, people sitting within them with their arms raised and letting out cries of what sounded like pure joy and excitement.
In other places he could see great swings carrying people who were letting out similar cries of joy, lining the streets were stalls, but not like any that he would have seen in a market place, no. These were entirely different; he could see the Servants of Chaldea moving between them with wide smiles on their faces as they spoke with those behind the counters, throwing things like little darts or rubber balls at cups or other such targets.
A second later and a variety of smells whipped against his nose, so many sensations that he almost dropped his sword out of shock, but he kept his focus on it all the same.
"Welcome once again, to the Not-yet-summer reso-..." Solaire began only to cut himself short, making a rather strangled noise as he did so.
A frown came over his face as he turned to see what had got the knight to stop speaking, only to blink as he found that they were staring right towards him with eyes wide like a full moon, their mouth hanging open, the helmet slipped from their fingers and clattered to the ground, rolling away without anyone to stop it. His frown remained as they watched the helmet move, then leaned backwards and tilted their head. "Is something the matter, Sir Solaire? You seem a little troubled."
Had his voice always sounded so light?
They did not respond, save for just stare at him in silence.
This was turning into a rather troublesome situation, perhaps it was better to see if Master Ritsuka knew what to do. With a short turn, he pointed his free arm towards Sir Solaire and started to speak. "Master Ritsuka, I think there is something the matter wit-hey, when did all of you get so tall? How come I'm not tall as well?"
A pout came upon their lips, though he hoped it didn't quite look like a pout, it was supposed to be a frown. Why hadn't he grown tall to match the rest of them? That didn't make a lot of sense to him. Even Sir Gareth looked as though she had gotten taller, she practically was the same height as him now…actually, was she a little bit taller than him? How did that happen? This was getting a bit silly.
And Berserker, they were tall enough already, how come they were giant now?
He blinked, then frowned more deeply.
Why was he getting fixated on their heights like that?
"Ash?" Master Ritsuka spoke towards him, he blinked and then tilted his head.
"Ash? What are you talking about, Master Ritsuka?" He pointed to himself, then raised an eyebrow. "I'm Gawyn."
Really, what a strange thing to say.
He looked around at all of the faces, some of them were a little bit strange but they all looked completely and utterly shocked. He was starting to feel as though they had noticed he wasn't the same height as them, well it was admittedly a fairly big surprise. Just as he was shocked they had grown, maybe they were shocked that he hadn't…or maybe he had been shrunk?
"I think I might have been shrunk, Master Ritsuka." There was only one way to check, his left hand moved towards Galvatyne and gripped the handle tight, hefting it off his shoulder and onto the ground, his eyes bulged as he stared at the newfound size of the weapon, almost as though it was one of the larger greatswords in his collection. "...Master Ritsuka, I think I have been shrunk!"
"A-ash? H-how old are you?"
He frowned. "I told you, my name is Gawyn…and I'm obviously twelve years old, Master Ritsuka. Aren't you supposed to know this?"
He didn't know why Master Ritsuka looked even more dumbfounded at his answer than before, or why Mistress Animusphere was looking so odd either, she had her fist planted on her lips and was giving him an unblinking stare, the focus of all of them suddenly turned towards the direction of Sir Solaire, who Gawyn noticed was now looking a little bit flustered.
Gawyn was getting a little puzzled now.
Maybe…had something more happened beyond shrinking?
No…wait…maybe?
His head felt fuzzy.
No…it was definitely just the shrinking, that was the problem.
AN: Yep, original event once again.
Not-Yet-Summer.
I would also like to thank KnightOfTheEnd for co-writing this event with me.
They have been a huge help with the conception of it and I thoroughly recommend their work.