042 - We'll meet again

Mashu Kyrielight

[La Pucelle AlterThe Burning Dragon Witch]

Mashu watches with bated breath as rainbow light gives birth to a dragon of fiery grudges, magnificent and fearsome in equal measure. The creature spreads its wings and roars with a voice full of pain and loss and other hurtful things Mashu can't quite put a name to before pouncing directly at the Mountain of Flesh and setting the whole thing ablaze

Much to her awe, there's no struggle following that initial move, no mighty contest of two great powers as one tries to grow and the other tries to consume. The mighty entity they were fearing would exponentially grow until it overtook the entire Singularity and maybe even spilled into other timelines can only writhe and screech in pain as it gets consumed by the black fire.

… She firmly ignores the mad ravings of the grotesque face. There's no need to add bizarre nightmares on top of everything else.

She's always known the Dragon Witch was powerful, but this goes beyond the pale. Is this… what it means to give it your all, until nothing is left behind? To find something more important than yourself, something worth giving up one's life for? Is this the true power of sacrifice?

It's a very sad, but very beautiful thing to watch.

"Mashu?" Haku-senpai calls her name in a soft tone.

"Yes, Senpai?" She answers in the same voice, eyes never leaving the all-consuming black flames.

"If I ever have to stop you from doing something like that, you'll be grounded forever." Senpai states firmly, making Mashu blink and finally turn away from the flames to look at her. "Her too, if I can pull it off, for putting such ideas into my cute and earnest kouhai's impressionable mind."

Senpai was staring into the fire too, but turns her head alongside Mashu's to hold her gaze, arms crossed under her breasts and a small frown on her face. Ah, Mashu wasn't really… It's not like she ever could… She just thought it was beautiful, that's all.

But to have Sempai of all people calling her out on that… Is this what they call hypocrisy?

"Sorry, did you say something?" There's something in Haku-senpai's smile that makes Mashu think speaking out loud right now wouldn't be the brightest idea ever. "Don't think you're too old for me to bend over my knee and give a good spanking, young lady!"

Choosing the better part of valor, Mashu decides to turn her eyes back towards the fire without saying anything. (That threat sounded way too enticing, for reasons she really doesn't want to look too deeply into.)

"But man, she really did it, huh? I won't lie and say this was totally unexpected, but still…" From the corner of her eye, Mashu watches Senpai shaking her head as she speaks. "Way to go, girl. You sure showed us all what you're made of."

Haku-senpai's voice carries a melancholic tone, but it also contains a hint of… satisfaction? Mashu still isn't very good at reading emotions, but she's fairly sure she got that right, Senpai isn't trying at all to be subtle about her feelings. How can someone be sad and happy about the same thing?

"She was an enemy, but… Maybe things didn't need to be that way?" Mashu tilts her head, carefully examining her own thoughts on the matter. She's still unsure of how she feels about the woman who tried to burn the world down, only to have a change of heart right at the end and die to protect it instead. But, if both Jeanne-san and Haku-senpai are fond of the Dragon Witch… she couldn't be all bad, could it? "I think we could've learned to understand each other, if we had more time. It's a shame she's gone."

"Oh, I doubt this will be the last we hear about Jalter." Haku-senpai quips easily, eyes back on the cursed flames that are slowly shrinking as they run out of alien flesh to consume. "Not after she pulled off something like this."

"Jalter…?" Mashu trails off uncertainly, what sort of name is…? No, that's not important right now! "What do you mean, Senpai? I thought Heroic Spirits can't remember previous summons?"

"There are some exceptions, but that's indeed the rule of thumb." Senpai nods approvingly, reaching out with a hand to pat her head. Mashu can't help but preen a bit under the attention. "But that's not my point. Truth is, she wasn't a real Heroic Spirit, was she?"

"Um… I don't think that's a very nice thing to say, Senpai." Mashu frowns, feeling strangely indignant about Senpai's nonchalant tone but not quite enough to risk the headpats stopping just to voice her protest. "She acted like a true hero."

"That she did and that's not what I meant." Much to her relief, Senpai immediately agrees. Of course it was just a misunderstanding! (That means the pats can continue!) "What happens when a true hero passes away?"

"They get recorded within… no way!" It takes a moment for the real meaning behind the question to sink in. But she can't help a shocked gasp once it does. If she understood Senpai's implication correctly this time, that's something incredible." You can't possibly mean…?"

"Jalter was not a proper Heroic Spirit, she had no more history than her life and actions here and was never alive before this. Therefore, she had no previous record within the Throne of Heroes." Senpai takes both hands to her hips and puffs her chest smugly. Unfortunately, that means there's no longer a hand patting Mashu's head. "Now, though? This stunt of hers definitely counts as a heroic death, so I'm fairly sure that has already changed."

"But this is just a Singularity." She points out with a frown. "Once we restore Proper Human History…"

"The Throne is Timeless." Sella-san suddenly joins in the conversation, making Mashu startle in surprise. She hadn't even realized the rest of their group was already here! Senpai's headpats are really distracting! "It doesn't matter if it happened in the past or the future or an alternate timeline. Every heroic life born within a timeline spun from the Root is recorded within the Throne of Heroes."

"That's… incredible." She mutters quietly, feeling a bit dazed by the revelation. Doesn't that mean there are infinite heroes recorded in the Throne? Not just that, but infinite versions of every hero? Mashu isn't equipped to even begin trying to process something like that. "But how come we can only summon Servants from our past, then?"

"That's a limitation of the ritual we're using, not of the Throne itself." Haku answers confidently. "And I bet the incident we're dealing with is exceptional enough to further muddy the waters."

That's… that's a relief. Mashu's thoughts about the Dragon Witch -Jalter?- may still be a confused mess, but they owe her for sacrificing herself to stop a dangerous threat, at the very least. If— No, when they meet again, she'll do her best to get to know the other woman and form a proper opinion of her in better circumstances.

As she clenches her fists and nods to herself, she nearly misses Senpai turning her attention towards the rest of the group. They are… in a frankly sorry state after their latest trials, battered and bruised and splattered with weirdly-colored gore whose origin Mashu probably doesn't want to know about.

They lost Martha-san first, theirs was but a fleeting encounter, forced as they were to stand on different sides of the conflict. Her help and support was invaluable all the same and the strength of character of a saintess who would struggle against her own madness to stand for what she believes in certainly made an impression on Mashu.

Georgios-san and Siegfried-san were next. One of them had barely joined them while the other was a man of few words, so Mashu didn't have the chance to get to know either of them as well as she would've liked, but they were still precious comrades-in-arms fighting for the sake of Humanity. To lose them in that sudden trap that also took away…

…

…

Even if it's unkind or selfish of her, losing Jeanne-san hurt much worse than any other. They got to know each other longer than any other and they had the time to learn they had very compatible personalities. They shared many fears and worries while also having similar attitudes and life outlooks. And yet, where Mashu stood behind to watch the world in wonder with the attitude of an eternal Kouhai, Jeanne-san wasn't afraid of taking the first step and leading others by example.

(If Mashu had ever had a real big sister, she would've liked her to be just like Jeanne-san.)

The Dragon Witch only joined them right at the very end, a last minute change of heart due to having her entire existence turned upside down by some world-shattering revelations. Mashu can even begin to guess how distressing an experience like that would be.

… She's only now realizing that Bonaparte-san failed to rejoin them alongside the rest. Come to think of it, there were some rather intense rainbows involved during Jalter's Noble Phantasm, so he probably ended up giving his all too. It's somewhat bizarre to think that such an exuberant existence can quietly fade away like that, a man that's grander than life disappearing without a whisper as if that's just the natural way of things.

That's how they find themselves now. As the cursed fire dies down and the smoke starts clearing, only six of them are still standing, all of them in a sorry state. Except for Marie-san, who looks just as fresh and elegant as ever, but that's a queen for you, Mashu supposes. The bubbly woman is the only one who seems to still have the energy to smile openly in spite of everything that's been going on.

Sella-san's usual stern expression on her face has become a rather deep frown as she glares at nothing, willing herself to stand upright out of sheer determination. As a ranged fighter, she's ended up better off than… some of the others, with only a few cuts and bruises. Her clothes are still a mess though, drenched in her own sweat and stained all over with wet dust and smoke. Her usually pale complexion has gained a deathly pallor too, a clear sign of overusing her magic circuits.

Leysritt is leaning heavily on her halberd, eyes barely opened as she looks about to doze off and fall over. Her maid uniform is soaked in strange fluids and torn to shreds. Her top is just gone, leaving one of her generous breasts fully in the open while the other is barely covered by the tattered remains of her bra. Her skirt is also a mess that exposes a side of her hips in its totality and her panties are hanging from one of her knees with the waistband clearly snapped, maybe by whatever tore her skirt too. She could probably cover herself to preserve most of her modesty, but she doesn't seem to have the energy to care about in the slightest, cutting a rather obscene sight out of sheer negligence.

If the exhausted maid looks indecent due to her own carelessness, Elizabeth-san has the opposite problem. She's doing her best to preserve her modesty, but there's… how to put it? It doesn't seem like much of her clothes survived the encounter at all. And with that she means there's still some torn shreds of her tights stubbornly clinging to her legs. And, ah… that's it.

Honestly, it feels like Senpai and herself ended up better off than anyone else in spite of charging straight into the heart of the enemy stronghold. In what can only be called an ironic twist of fate, she barely has some small splashes of tentacle gore mucking up her armor that will presumably fade away the moment she dematerializes it. Senpai herself is pretty much in the same state, though she doesn't have the advantage of materializing clothes, so her current uniform will probably end up in the labs as Vinci-san to study.

(Maybe she'll even pressure Senpai to strip right there and then as soon as they return, in front of everyone? Vinci-san does things like that sometimes.)

… Oh, Senpai just took off her jacket and put it around Elizabeth-san's shoulders( while Mashu was daydreaming about weird things). That's nice of her. (Even if now Mashu wishes her own clothes had been torn to shreds instead.)

"And thus, the monstrous creature from Beyond was pushed back through the valiant sacrifice of our beautiful ashen rose. The forces of good won and the day was saved!" Marie-san speaks up cheerfully, once again displaying a level of energy nobody else seems capable of matching at the moment. "Truly, an ending worthy of an epic tale! We won't forget those who were lost along the way, but mourning can be left for a later date. This is the time to rejoice!"

"I hate to rain on your parade, Rider." Olga's holographic image interjets. "But this is just the first of seven singularities. We can't sleep in our laurels just yet, our work has only started."

"Indeed? Oh, how thoughtless of me." Marie-san apologizes easily. "Still, make sure to celebrate when you have the chance, okay? Breaks are important too!"

"I… suppose that's true enough." Olga reluctantly acknowledges a faint red dusting appearing on her cheeks as she twirls her braid with a finger. "It would speak poorly of my skills as a leader if my subordinates succumb to exhaustion and burnout after performing so excellently during this crisis."

"We are done recalibrating the instruments, Lady Director!" Vinci-san chirps in. "The Exploration Team can be recalled at your command!"

"I suppose this is the end, then. This timeline won't last long now that we've recovered the Grail." Olga announces before turning towards the Einzbern maids with a difficult expression in her face. "About the two of you… I assume you are aware of the nature of the Singularities?"

Ah, in spite of their incredible prowess, the homunculi aren't Heroic Spirits like everyone else. With no means to take advantage of the Rayshift technology the Exploration Team is using, they'll fade away with the Singularity, as if they had never existed in the first place.

"You don't need to worry about us, Chaldeans." Sella answers cooly. "Demon Lord Re'em will provide."

"Nn." Leysritt-san agrees distractedly, still looking like she's about to fall asleep on her feet. "He's cool like that."

"And we were just here to deal with this crisis in the first place." Marie-san joins in cheerfully, drawing a panicked squawk out of Elizabeth-san when she wraps an arm around the naked girl and pulls her against her side. "We'll just return from whence we came, riding into the sunset after our job is done. Right, Eli-chan?"

"Anything is fine if I can get my clothes back! This is not PG! This is not PG at all! Eli-chan isn't that kind of idol!" The panicked dragon girl blurts out, her already reddened cheeks turning a deep crimson as everyone's attention falls upon her. That is, until she looks in Senpai's direction and her eyes suddenly widen, seemingly reaching some sort of realization. "Ah! P-san, we never got to enjoy Chaldea's budget for R&R!"

"And that's our cue to leave!" Haku-senpai cries out cheerfully, very pointedly not looking anywhere near Elizabeth-san. "Beam us up, Da Vinci!"

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